Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums Modifications Audio Which one? Nak or Alpine CD player

Here are the ones I am looking at:

Alpine CDA-9815

Nakamichi CD 400

I am leaning toward the Alpine, just because of the RMS power (27 watts!) and the MP3 capability. I love the looks of the Nak, and it is a great player. But no MP3.

Price is about the same for both off of ebay.

I own a Nak CD-45Z, greatest cdplayer ever, have not found a car cdplayer, except for maybe the McIntosh, but thats another story, I love my nak, owned it for about a year and a half, the power really doesn't have an affect as long as you have a decent set of speakers the nak will make em sound good, sure made my stock speakers sound great, The whole thing about the Nak is the 20 bit DAC, or in the case of a CD-400 a 24 bit DAC, and the 8x oversampling, it is a really picky cd player, and can be kinda quirkey but to me it is worth it for a good sounding head unit, as for the mp3 functionality, with my ear I can hear the defects in mp3s, and as for me I wouldn't want to have those defects transfered to my stereo, Any questions on anything just pm me.

I'd choose the Nak. It looks nearly stock (the Alpine looks gawdy for my tastes). You'll likely notice no difference in output between the internal amps of these HU's.

MP3 has its pluses and minuses (I never use the mp3 capability of my Pioneer in my SVT). Looking back, I'd choose something external and solid state instead of an mp3 capable deck.

Thanks guys. Keep the opinions coming.

As for the rest of my system, I currently have an older Sony ES CD Player (NOT the Xplode crap), Sony MD changer, 6.5" Infinity Kappas in all 4 doors, JBL sub amp, and a JL Audio 8W3 sub in a sealed box mounted under my deck and firing through the hole in the rear deck.

Alpine! Nothing will take control of your system like an alpine!

Thanks everyone for the opinions.

I ordered the Nak. The final cost was $343 after shipping. Hopefully I won't be disappointed!

I had a Nak but got rid of it for an MP3 playability.

Even though it's already too late, I still wanna throw my hat into the ring (er, post) for Alpine. Just picked up the CDA-7897 and it basically brought my car stereo to life. Previously all of my speakers were hooked up to an low-end, older-model Alpine cassette deck which had basically no features. It came with my last car though, so I can't complain.



Anyway, this HU has a 5-band parametric EQ, digital time correction, bass adjustment for EACH speaker (up to six individual channels) and more. I'm still playing with the settings, even though everything sounds PERFECT.

R>

Godd luck with the Nak.....although I am an Alpine lover...the mp3 is prety cool to have though.