Very good FM tuner
Uncluttered controls
Amp has good dynamic range

Display illumination
Stiff buttons
Weak bass at low volume
CD player skips, although rare

I replaced the stock AM/FM/Cassette with the Alaska in October 2000, in a 1993 Pontiac Grand Am 4-door. The rear deck speakers are Pioneer TS-A6969 4-ways driven by an Alpine 3527 amp, bridged (75w x 2). The front speakers will soon be replaced.

I am very satified with the Alaska as an "entry level" receiver, although at first I was tempted to return it because the CD player skipped, about once per CD. The problem has since become rare, occurring perhaps once every dozen CDs.

First, I will explain the CD-skipping problem. My observation is that the problem is rooted in the electronics or firmware, perhaps with the anti-skip audio buffer, since the problem is unrelated to mechanical vibration. In fact, I drive 15 miles of a very rough, rural highway daily, one that others have complained makes their CD players skip. On this highway my Alaska has never skipped, even in below-zero temperatures. However, it did skip once while sitting still in a parking lot, and another time at 20 mph! The problem in not because of amplifier-induced voltage drop. Nevertheless, the problem has almost completely subsided.

Audio reproduction is good, although not necessarily up-to-par for audiophiles. I like the precise volume level which ranges from 0 to 66 in single increments. The amplifier produces clean output, without clipping, through its entire range. However, even with the "loudness" feature adjusted to its highest level, frequencies under 250Hz are very weak at low volume, and for whatever reason, adjusting the bass at these levels has almost no effect. You might be tempted to use the built-in low-pass EQ to boost, say, 63Hz but this will viciously overdrive the bass at high volumes. Keep in mind, the Alaska is under $200.

I drive in both rural and urban area around Chicago, and must remark that the FM tuner is spectacular. Selectivity from the SHARX feature is superb. I am not only comparing this to other similarly-priced units, but to a Sangean ATS909 AM/FM/Shortwave receiver as well. The receiver suffers within a couple miles of 50,000-watt FM stations, but everywhere else the tuner is excellent. Compared to a friend's receiver, I can listen to stations, quite clearly, that his Pioneer Supertuner III cannot receive at all. The "Digiceiver" tuner is not just marketing hype, it really works. Although not as spectacular, AM works fine, too.

Other pluses and minuses. The display has some dark-blue annunciators (CD, repeat, random, local/dx, etc.) that are nearly impossible to see, day or night. The "important" digits are not quite as difficult to read, and are visible in all lighting conditions. The buttons have a stiff feel and have to be pressed quite hard, but are not easily "double-hit," and are spaced well for big fingers. Some features of the radio are quite complicated; you will spend a day with the owners manual figuring out how to "program" the Alaska (as an programmer, believe me, you will need the manual). Another plus, CDs can be inserted without flipping down the removable face. The RCA outputs are weak; I fed my amp with the speaker-outputs instead.

The bottom line. If you are an audiophile fishing for a head-unit at a low price, take a pass. However, if you are dissatisfied with your stock unit and want to upgrade your system on a budget, this receiver is a great value. If you listen to FM in areas where the band is congested, you will not be disappointed.

Similar Products Used:

Stock GM receiver
*Pioneer DEH-P77DH (* in another car; compared FM tuner only)

Intelligent, ergonomic design with smart and useful features, and good radio reception.

Poor display. Buttons and volume control at times unresponsive.

After accidentally toasting my old Blaupunkt Memphis tape deck, my unhappy ears were full of silence. I started looking for a new deck only to discover that most Japanese decks look retarded and only offer big sound, no nice options. I'm sorry, but I'd rather have usability and features than be able to rattle my tire iron in my trunk. Finally I made my way back to Blau and found the Alaska.

Now, I must warn you that I bought my Alaska from a fairly shady car audio dealer in my area, so it's possible that my experience is based on a "factory refurbished" model. I got it cheap so I'm happy. I just looked at my (handwritten) receipt and it says Blaupunkt "Nevada", so I doubt that I'll get any service from them...

The Bad:
So you hear people talk about the display, and yes, it's bad. I hear the Alaska II is better. The main digits are visible in most daylight, but all other icons are basically useless. In direct sunlight even the large digits are invisible. This doesn't really bother me, I know what I'm listening to. But hey, it's easy on the eyes at night...

Other people talk about skipping cds, but my CDRs seem perfectly fine. Of course, my cds aren't scratched, so... Initially the unit was flawles, but I too have noticed it will occasionally skip unrelated to road or CD quality. I think it may be related to a voltage drop, but who knows?

Unique problems to my unit: I haven't heard other people with these problems, so it may just be my unit. I sometimes worry when I'm ejecting the faceplate that I'm gonna snap off some plastic thing in there, but I haven't yet... It just feels like too much pressure.
My display gets burning hot. Seriously. After driving for only 30 mins my display will be so hot that you can barely touch it. Hrmmm... Seems to work ok though.
My CD won't eject without encouragement from a gentle (and sometimes not so gentle) slap. It has to do with two retaining pins that hold the CD in place, they just don't seem to want to retract smoothly anymore. So you press the button and it grunts a little bit, and nothing happens. Worked fine to begin with but acted up after maybe three months.

The GOOD: First of all, it LOOKS good. It's clean, refined and mature. Less is more, I don't need/want dolphins in full color swimming to my music. The buttons make sense, and once you configure it for your listening needs, you can mostly forget the extra features. Yes, there are a lot of buttons, but when I hit a button I know exactly what it will do and I never have to take my eyes off the road. The buttons are well thought out (if a bit tiny at times, the ">>" button can be frustratingly hard to hit).

No, you can't get full functionality out of RDS yet in the US, but I like it. Support for RDS is increasing, up from 4 to 9 stations here in the last 6 months. And I like the other thoughtful features, like the power button doubling for MUTE, ignition independent ability with auto-timer, CD auto resume, stereo/mono auto switching without loss of quality, CD naming, radio presets galore, an AUTOclock feature that will automatically set the correct time from your local PBS station, the ability to "turn off" AM when you are switching between preset banks and some other stuff that I'm forgetting.

Bottom Line:
I like it, even if my deck does have its quirks. This is a deck for a music lover, not a radio lover. It doesn't look like much (which is GOOD), but set it and forget it. Enjoy the music, enjoy your driving and stop fussing with your subwoofer, nobody cares anyway.

Similar Products Used:

None

clean faceplate layout; wheel-style volume control; good radio reception

skips once in a while; display hard to read in daylight; no option to turn off RDS time

I replaced my factory-installed cassette player with Blaupunkt Alaska so I can listen to CDs. I chose Blaupunkt Alaska because it looks very clean. I can't comment much on its sound quality since I don't have any other CD players to compare it against. Radio reception is good and I like the Travel Scan feature. It does skip on CD once in a while (perhaps once every 5-10 hours of play time), with no apparent relationship to the condition of the road or the CD being played. Display is hard to read in daylight (similarly priced Blaupunkt Nevada is better). The unit gets very hot during use. While it's nice to have the clock being set by the radio signal, there's no option to turn that feature off. A station in my area broadcasts the wrong time in its RDS signal and keeps setting my clock to the wrong time. I end up having to avoid that station although I liked its music. Overall I rate this as an average receiver/CD player.

Similar Products Used:

OEM receiver/cassette player