Picked up one yesterday from my local Alpine dealer, went home and installed it 
To give a background on the system:
Alpine CDA-9887 (replaced Eclipse CD8443, previously owned Pioneer P1R, McIntosh MX406)
Tweeters: Morel Supremos (kickpanel)
Midrange: Morel 4" Hybrid Ovations (kickpanel)
Midbass: Morel 9" Elate's (front doors)
Sub: eD e12k 12" subwoofer (corner boot in trunk)
Amp 1: Soundstream Edge 4220 (4 x 110 @ 4 ohms) - 2 channels to tweeters / midrange on passive xovers, 2 channels to midbass
Amp 2: Soundstream Edge 4220 (2 x 440 @ 4 ohms mono) - 1 x 440 to subwoofer
Looks: The face is very nice. The display is easy to read in sunlight. The metal trim parts are the exact same reflective silver as the F1 status reflective silver (I really like this)
Features:
Crossover:
In 3-way setup, the crossovers can either be tied together or independent:
2.2ch (3WAY) System / L=R
Setting items:
LOW / MID-L / MID-H / HIGH
2.2ch (3WAY) System / L/R
Setting items:
LOW-L / LOW-R / MID-L-L / MID-L-R / MID-H-L /
MID-H-R / HIGH-L / HIGH-R
LOW / MID-L 20 Hz~200 Hz
MID-H 20 Hz~20 kHz
HIGH 20 Hz~20 kHz (if you tell it to set it to user setting, basically telling the unit you aren't dumb enough to send a 50hz bass note to your tweeter)
Adjustable slopes: FLAT, 6 dB/oct, 12 dB/oct, 18 dB/oct, 24 dB/oct.
Each setting has its own volume control (0 through -15db), so speaker level matching can be done.
Parametric EQ:
20Hz, 25Hz, 31.5Hz, 40Hz, 50Hz, 63Hz, 80Hz, 100Hz, 125Hz, 160Hz, 200Hz, 250Hz, 315Hz, 400Hz, 500Hz, 630Hz, 800Hz, 1kHz, 1.25kHz, 1.6kHz, 2kHz, 2.5kHz, 3.15kHz, 4kHz, 5kHz, 6.3kHz, 8kHz, 10kHz, 12.5kHz, 16kHz, and 20kHz.
5 different adjustments can be made, at -5 to +5, with a Q of 1, 1.5, or 3.
Here is a BIG problem though... the frequencies of adjacent bands cannot be adjusted within 4 steps of each other!! (straight from the manual and confirmed). So from the above points, if you pick 63hz as one of the adjustment points, the next one you can adjust is 160hz! (4 steps up from 63hz). To me this is a HUGE drawback...
Time Correction:
0-336.6CM correction on each channel (or 0-99ms), in 1 ms increments (3.4cm increments).
Media Expander:
The level (1-3) or off, can be set differently for each source (CD, FM, AUX, etc)
Subwoofer System:
This basically bumps up the volume of the subwoofer at low volume levels so it can be heard, the amount is adjustable, and it can be turned off entirely.
Subwoofer Level:
Can be set from 0 through +15db very easily (press large button, spin the same button) at any time to change the subwoofer output in relation to the other outputs.
IC:
You can turn off the internal amplifiers if you are using all external amplifiers, so the unit will not get nearly as hot as if you just left the wires not connected.
Imprint / Audyssey: a kit is required to use this function (microphone, data cable, and software), which my local shop expects to arrive this Friday. For those who haven't read about the Audyssey sound correction algorhythms, this is something very different from past auto-eq's. This does everything... xovers, eq, time delay, etc. However, when this is turned on, you can no longer manually adjust the crossovers, MX settings, time correction, parametric (or graphic) EQ, or the user EQ). When I get to using this, I'll post a review.
The sound:
Coming from the Eclipse CD8443, I had thought I might lose a bit of "musicality". However, I was pleasantly suprised that the Alpine sounds as good as teh CD8443 (with EQ's turned off on both). The Eclipse has 2 5 band parametric EQ's (one for highs and one for mids, with no restriction on how far apart the adjustment points need to be), and with it my frequency response was +/- 2db from 20hz to 20khz. Since the Alpine has less adjustability on a manual basis (Imprint has 512 bands of EQ... can't wait to try that out!), I turned off both EQ's. I set the xover points and slopes to the same on both units.
I haven't done level matching on my amps on the Alpine yet, but there is no noticeable background noise with the engine on or off. Sounds came through clear and detailed.
FM station pull:
Better than the Eclipse by far... places the Eclipse would lose the station entirely the Alpine keeps on playing. I am VERY happy about this!
Overall:
I like the layout / look of this Alpine quite a bit. I am very happy with the clarity of sound it produces. It's ease of use is great, much simpler than the Eclipse interface (even after years of using it). I am disappointed in the lack of adjustability of the parametric EQ, but hope the Imprint technology will more than make up for that. I prefer listening to my music with a flat frequency response, which is basically exactly what this unit is designed for. If you don't like a flat response, this is not the unit for you.
To give a background on the system:
Alpine CDA-9887 (replaced Eclipse CD8443, previously owned Pioneer P1R, McIntosh MX406)
Tweeters: Morel Supremos (kickpanel)
Midrange: Morel 4" Hybrid Ovations (kickpanel)
Midbass: Morel 9" Elate's (front doors)
Sub: eD e12k 12" subwoofer (corner boot in trunk)
Amp 1: Soundstream Edge 4220 (4 x 110 @ 4 ohms) - 2 channels to tweeters / midrange on passive xovers, 2 channels to midbass
Amp 2: Soundstream Edge 4220 (2 x 440 @ 4 ohms mono) - 1 x 440 to subwoofer
Looks: The face is very nice. The display is easy to read in sunlight. The metal trim parts are the exact same reflective silver as the F1 status reflective silver (I really like this)
Features:
Crossover:
In 3-way setup, the crossovers can either be tied together or independent:
2.2ch (3WAY) System / L=R
Setting items:
LOW / MID-L / MID-H / HIGH
2.2ch (3WAY) System / L/R
Setting items:
LOW-L / LOW-R / MID-L-L / MID-L-R / MID-H-L /
MID-H-R / HIGH-L / HIGH-R
LOW / MID-L 20 Hz~200 Hz
MID-H 20 Hz~20 kHz
HIGH 20 Hz~20 kHz (if you tell it to set it to user setting, basically telling the unit you aren't dumb enough to send a 50hz bass note to your tweeter)
Adjustable slopes: FLAT, 6 dB/oct, 12 dB/oct, 18 dB/oct, 24 dB/oct.
Each setting has its own volume control (0 through -15db), so speaker level matching can be done.
Parametric EQ:
20Hz, 25Hz, 31.5Hz, 40Hz, 50Hz, 63Hz, 80Hz, 100Hz, 125Hz, 160Hz, 200Hz, 250Hz, 315Hz, 400Hz, 500Hz, 630Hz, 800Hz, 1kHz, 1.25kHz, 1.6kHz, 2kHz, 2.5kHz, 3.15kHz, 4kHz, 5kHz, 6.3kHz, 8kHz, 10kHz, 12.5kHz, 16kHz, and 20kHz.
5 different adjustments can be made, at -5 to +5, with a Q of 1, 1.5, or 3.
Here is a BIG problem though... the frequencies of adjacent bands cannot be adjusted within 4 steps of each other!! (straight from the manual and confirmed). So from the above points, if you pick 63hz as one of the adjustment points, the next one you can adjust is 160hz! (4 steps up from 63hz). To me this is a HUGE drawback...
Time Correction:
0-336.6CM correction on each channel (or 0-99ms), in 1 ms increments (3.4cm increments).
Media Expander:
The level (1-3) or off, can be set differently for each source (CD, FM, AUX, etc)
Subwoofer System:
This basically bumps up the volume of the subwoofer at low volume levels so it can be heard, the amount is adjustable, and it can be turned off entirely.
Subwoofer Level:
Can be set from 0 through +15db very easily (press large button, spin the same button) at any time to change the subwoofer output in relation to the other outputs.
IC:
You can turn off the internal amplifiers if you are using all external amplifiers, so the unit will not get nearly as hot as if you just left the wires not connected.
Imprint / Audyssey: a kit is required to use this function (microphone, data cable, and software), which my local shop expects to arrive this Friday. For those who haven't read about the Audyssey sound correction algorhythms, this is something very different from past auto-eq's. This does everything... xovers, eq, time delay, etc. However, when this is turned on, you can no longer manually adjust the crossovers, MX settings, time correction, parametric (or graphic) EQ, or the user EQ). When I get to using this, I'll post a review.
The sound:
Coming from the Eclipse CD8443, I had thought I might lose a bit of "musicality". However, I was pleasantly suprised that the Alpine sounds as good as teh CD8443 (with EQ's turned off on both). The Eclipse has 2 5 band parametric EQ's (one for highs and one for mids, with no restriction on how far apart the adjustment points need to be), and with it my frequency response was +/- 2db from 20hz to 20khz. Since the Alpine has less adjustability on a manual basis (Imprint has 512 bands of EQ... can't wait to try that out!), I turned off both EQ's. I set the xover points and slopes to the same on both units.
I haven't done level matching on my amps on the Alpine yet, but there is no noticeable background noise with the engine on or off. Sounds came through clear and detailed.
FM station pull:
Better than the Eclipse by far... places the Eclipse would lose the station entirely the Alpine keeps on playing. I am VERY happy about this!
Overall:
I like the layout / look of this Alpine quite a bit. I am very happy with the clarity of sound it produces. It's ease of use is great, much simpler than the Eclipse interface (even after years of using it). I am disappointed in the lack of adjustability of the parametric EQ, but hope the Imprint technology will more than make up for that. I prefer listening to my music with a flat frequency response, which is basically exactly what this unit is designed for. If you don't like a flat response, this is not the unit for you.
