Patentman

I just had an 60W x 4 Alpine CDA 7894 installed in my 1997 993 cab and I'm not too happy. It is not even as loud as my factory radio was. Is this normal? The Porsche factory radio was a Becker CD player/tuner and I was told by the installer that there is a factory amp under the passenger seat. I did not add an aftermarket amp or speakers as I figured the 60W of the alpine would be sufficient and I could add other stuff later if the system was not good enough.

The place I bought it and had the install done is fairly reputable (Rayco in Shrewsbury MA). However, the installer guy said the factory amp was acting as a limiter of some sort and with the time allowed, he could not get it louder. Its partly my fault as I only could allow about two hours for the install (I had to have the car back for a meeting). He said that without time to remove the seat to see how the amp fed all the speakers, he would just have to wire it the way it was (i.e., so the signal passes through he factory amp). Does this seem correct? (also how powerful is the factory amp??)

So my general question is: Is there a way to install the Alpine 60W head unit in the dash without having to remove the seat and mess with the configuration of the factory amp while still being able to crank the music? If a proper install requires gettingtot he amp, does it get rmoved? bypassed? used in conjuction with the head unit amp to add more power? Any help here would be gladly appreciated.

If I bring it back to them (allowing more time for a "proper" install), should'nt they be able to rig it up so that this Alpine gets quite loud without any extra amp added? In other words, since I did not have time to have the guy remove the seat, he did not bypass the factory amp. Without spending more money, is there a simple way to bypass the factory amp myself, or is this best left to the professionals? Is just seems odd to me that I spend $500 on a radio/cd/mp3 player and it does not get that loud at all.

Also, onj a related question, I burned an mp3 disc on my computer with 80+ songs, and this player seems to skip (pause, but not repeat) a bit when playing an mp3 song. CDs I burn play fine however. Could this be the burner in my laptop not being of good quality. Also, this might be relavant - I dragged and dropped groups of songs at the same time to the balnk disc. Could this have an interleaving effect so that each song is sctualyl spread out across non-contiguous portions of the disc, thus requring the mp3 player to seek around to tfind the song chunks. I want to be able to get 100+ mp3 songs on a disc and play them - any hints here on ways to succesfulyl burn suich discs??? (for those not familiar with mp3, you can use CD -> mp3 converter software to "rip" your music off cds, into your computer, into a smaller mp3 format. You can then burn these onto a blank disc thus allowing more songs per disc. You lose a little quality, but I dont notice much difference in a cabriolet.

Any help on the Alpine install is greatly appreciated.

milrad

I just had a 60W x 4 Alpine CDA-7893 installed a couple of weeks ago. It wired right up to the factory amp witout any issues. It took about 20 minutes total.

I did not have a Becker unit previously (replaced another Alpine), so I cannot compare peak volume. Clarity with the factory speakers is very good, however. Try your unit with the Media Expander feature turned off. This feature definitely fills out the sound, but it seems to be at the expense of peak volume. I would agree, with the MX feature turned on the system will not reach ear-splitting volumes. It does get loud enough for me, but then again I have a coupe.

Please let us know if you find out the system is somehow limited by the factory amp.

Jason

bigbpainta

This is wild I just order one for install next Saturday. I have an Eclipse in now. I like the ability to angle feature as well as the display. The 60x4 was the clincher though. How much did you guys pay for the unit with the installation?

Jay H

Something to keep in mind is that Alpine's claims of 60 watts x 4 is "maximum" output. Alpine's website claims 27 watts x 4 of "continuous power output" for the 7894. Maximum outputs usually are obtained at set frequencies (usually mid range frequencies) and at higher than normal or at undesirable distortion levels.

Nothing against Alpine (I've owned quite a few over the years), but take those power ratings with a grain of salt. It's hard to package a high output power amp in the area set aside in the head unit for this purpose.

Your best bet for clean and large amounts of power/headroom is to use the preamp outs to drive a separate amplifier.

Bins

I had my Alpine fitted without going through an amp. I was very impressed. I suspect you probably have issues between the amp unit and the head unit.

With the issue obout the skipping, the only time that happened to me was when I tried to burn onto a data cd. When I tired burning onto a cd for audio, no skipping at all.

Patentman

Thanks for the replies. I paid $499 for the unit, $60 for the install. The seller (a car electronics store) said Alpine sets the vendor prices, so unless you get one on ebay or maybe some mail order house, you should pay the same at any store.

Regarding someone's comments on liking the Alpine multi-angle face feature - its useless for the most part in a 993 since the placement of the factory radio underneath the fog light, defrost and lighter knowbs makes the face, when angled up (even in the first slight angle position) very difficult to see. So while it is kind of cool to show it off in operation, it is not funcitonally useful in the 993 dash to operate the unit in any of the angled positions.

With the MX feature on, it actually gets louder in mine. Thus I think there are issues with the factory amp. I still have not confirmed even the existence of the factory amp - is there one under the poassengers seat (I will have to check after work today)? Is this provided with a porsche stereo upgrade? How many watts x channels is it and does its form factor allow me to replace it with a more powerful one? I looked in my factory stereo manual - it provides the pinouts for the interface connection, but no amp wiring diagram.

Also, it is too bad that you lose the auto volume adjust based on speed feature. I liked this in the factory unit, but getting mp3 capability outweighed (for me) keeping the factory stereo i place.

Patentman

Re:
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>.
With the issue obout the skipping, the only time that happened to me was when I tried to burn onto a data cd. When I tired burning onto a cd for audio, no skipping at all.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> ...

Do you mean that there are audio cds and other cd media designed for data only? In other words, when I burn a music cd, it converts the sogns into cd music format, allowing only 15-18 songs per disc, and I dont get any skip or play problems - words fine just like a store bought cd. However, when I burn a data cd (on the same physical media, but a new blank one), I can fit 100+ mp3 files. But in both cases, I use the same physical media, but the mp3 files skip when played and it does not "see" all the files, only the first 15 or so. Are there special discs I should be using for burning my mp3 songs.

To clarify my mp3 disc problem - I can burn 120 or so mp3 files onto a data cd. The Alpine can read this DOS-based filesystem, folders and all (but I have them all in one directory, no sub-folders). When I put the disc in, it reads it and begins playing a song from the beginning. But at random points into the song, there are brief pauses as if the unit has to seek ahead to find the next piece of the song. Also, the unit only seems to detect about 15 or so mp3 songs of the 100 on the disc. As if it never detects the 90+ other songs I also burned to the disc. Note that none of the songs are non-mp3 - they are all burned the same, at the same time. I can put the disc in my laptop and browse it and see and play all songs fine.

When I use the "next track" or song advance feature on the Alpine, it only advances 10-15 seconds forward into the same song, it does not seek to the next mp3 file.

Any suggestions? Has anyone burned mp3 discs and played all songs successfully on an alpine head unit with mp3 capability.

Rick964

I can't speak to the Alpine head unit or the skipping problem, but there are not different discs for data vs. music. Blank CD-Rs are just that. Now you could have issues seeing certain songs if you use the 80 minute/700MB discs. Not all CD players will play past the 74 minute/650MB size, although most newer players perform this function just fine. I have noticed that certain brands of CD-Rs don't funtion as well in some players. I usually have better luch getting discs with the blue or green tint to play in a variety of CD players, as compared to the silver or gold ones. Are you using the same type of media for the music disc as for the MP3 disc? As for the only 10-15 song problem, did you burn all of the songs in a "single session" and then "close" the disc? If you have multiple sessions or an "open" disc then this could cause some songs to be inaccessible.

Rob 97 993c2

i just got an Alpine 7894 and have not had a problem with it. It does get loud enough (i have a coupe). If you turn off the MX-whatever the volume decreases, but the sound is less "bright" and is better. I have not had skipping problems, but have not used the mp3 feature yet.

My questions:
1) can you make the lights less bright? (even in amber mode-the buttons are very, very orange)
2) can you program the CD playback sequence?
3) do you guys think this is a high-quality unit from a audio perspective?

Bins

I reckon the only difference between the data cd and the audio cd is the quality of the disk, to allow for the movement, in order to stop skipping.

Rob, Alpine is one of the best car audio manufacturers in the market, dedicated to car audio and navigation research. Dont know the answer to your other 2 questions.

E. J. - 993 Alumni

My Eclipse runs through the stock amp and it sounds fine and is plenty loud. Not sure why your alpine couldnt be configured the same way?

E. J.

EVVRJB

I tried to upgrade stereo on my '95 993 (w/ OEM Hi Fi and spkr pkg upgrade) but the problem as I understand it is that the frequency crossovers are built into the amp not into the speakers themselves. Unless you replace all the speakers along with the amp (located under pass seat), it is difficult (if not impossible) to route the correct low, mid, hihg range sounds to their respective speakers. There are some replacement spkrs available for the lower 2 way door spkrs but none I am aware of for the small tweeter above. Not certain about rear spkrs.

Factory amp is unbelievably poor considering car and cost of hi fi pkg upgrade. Very low power output and very high signal to noise ratio - not a good combo IMHO! I am unaware of any porsche upgrades to amp. My understanding is that most stereo upgrades involve total replacement of all system components.

bigbpainta

I had my alpine installed yesterday. So far so good. It is wired through the factory amp. It is plenty loud enough. The only thing I am lacking is a little bass. I dont mean the obnoxious type. Just enough thump at higher volumes. I guess thats ehat goes with owning a 993. I would say its worth it.

Bins

Is a factory amp standard.
I dont think I had one.