dissident

Ok thanks to Jarrod I now have some kind of vague idea about what I want to do to my system. I am on a strict budget, and live in Australia so equipment here is somewhere in the vicinity of double the price as in the US. I am looking at putting in a HU, components in the front, a sub, leaving stock rears in, and powering the fronts and sub with amps if neccessary (more on that later).

As suggested I am starting with buying the HU. And as it happens my friend just bought a new HU and will sell me his old one for very cheap or maybe free, so this is an obvious advantage. The unit is an Alpine CDM 7892E which is probably from 1999. Alpine seems a reliable brand, and the HU is in good condition. It provides 25W x4, dual preouts. Thats all I really know about it tonight, but I guess the preouts would probably be about 2V. So where is this rambling leading?

1. I'd like to hear opinions on that model if you have any please
2. If I plan to buy decent speakers is this HU going to compromise them or be fine?
3. Will this run the stock speakers fine until I buy new ones?
4. If I have 2 preouts, one for fronts and 1 for sub, what does the stock rears run off?
5. Will I be able to connect and run my 6stacker still?
6. Is there any chance I could run decent fronts from the power of this HU without an amp, at least at first, or am I dreaming?
7. I want to install it myself, is it hard? are there any guides?
8. Those DIN adaptors from scosche and lltek, do they still sell them? I emailed them ages ago and never got a reply from either.

Thanks in advance anyone who can help me at all, even with just one question.

Jarrod

1. That seems like a pretty decent HU and would suit you just fine.

2. This HU shouldn't compromise good speakers.

3. It will be fine with the stock speakers

4. Stock speakers will be powered off the HU's power (I don't know if you can set up your system to use the stock amp . . . I don't believe so, but not positive).

5. Nope, probably not. Although you could probably (have to contact Alpine to find out) get an Alpine and connect it up.

6. Yes, just don't crank them until you have an amp. If it is a really high quality comp set (ie more than you can afford) then I would not.

7. Nope, not hard at all, just time consuming to the newbie.

8. You have a (slightly larger than) single din chasis right (pre 2000 A4?) I can't remember. If yes, there should be an adapter readily available. When I got mine I had to order it, but it came in a couple days and I was happy. Check out your local stereo shop for availability.

I was kinda in a hurry typing this, so if you want more explanation on anything ask away. I'll check back later.

dissident

Hey Jarrod, thanks for the prompt reply!

Yes I have a 99.5 2.4QM, larger than single DIN. Will check some stores tomorrow to see if they have an adaptor.

With the stacker, will all HU's be the same or are there some on the market which would allow me to use my 6 stacker as well? I presumed (never a good idea I guess) it would work fine.

I also saw this HU which is going very cheap:
<a href="http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3011121130&category=32 93">http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&amp;item=3011121130&amp;cat egory=3293</a>

The advantages of this one over the other seem to be 4V preouts instead of 2(i think), 45W instead of 25, and two years newer. It does look pretty worn in that picture though. Do you think this one would be worth getting instead? ie will the advantages make a big difference?

Thanks,
Nick

O.W. Kenobi

The rating is always a peak rating, so RMS will be something like 12V per channel, which is a joke. Get an amp or two to run the speakers, and you'll be much happier.

dissident

I do plan to amp them, but am tight on cash. I am wondering if there is any point to running the fronts of the HU before I can afford the amp, or whether I shouldnt even bother buying the fronts until I can also afford an amp.

Jarrod

That CD player seems decent (the one on ebay), but I wouldn't pay anthing more than 75usd for a used cd player. The one your friend is selling is pretty good, so don't discount it. Alpine is usually a little conservative about everything they sell, so the stats are usually lower than in real life (think Audi's rated HP and 0-60).

About the comp/amp thing. If it were me (and this is what I did-I bought my amp first) I would get both the amp and comps and install at the same time. There is no reason to get a comp set only to blow it because you weren't be careful enough. Not saying that you would, but you could . . . and it is a lot easier to do so.

O.W. Kenobi

you'll wonder why you didn't rob a bank sooner. Trust me, "real" amplification is light years better than head unit amplification. Let your ears do the listening (you can have any reputable audio shop demo this phenomenon for you) and make up your own mind.