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Works just fine. |
August 11, 2008 |
| Reviewer:
JOEL
from Spotsylvania, va
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This product works fine for me. I feel that people don't quite know how to install it correctly, which if probably alpines fault for not giving more tips on where to mount the microphone. Works beautifully with the iphone. Occasionally there is an echo but usually remedies with volume adjustment. It will not play bluetooth audio from the iphone but I could care less. Definitely worth it if installed correctly.
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Works great for me |
August 4, 2008 |
| Reviewer:
Eric
from Vallejo, VA
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After reading the reviews, I was very skeptical about buying this unit. Since
I already had the Alpine CDA-9885, I decided to try it out. If things were as
bad as everyone said it was, I would just return it.
Well, it turns out that everything worked out just fine. The pairing process
was very simple, and callers reported no echo at all. Some said it sounded
like I was very far from the mic (like I was on speakerphone but really far
from the phone), but I fixed that my moving the mic a little closer to me and
by speaking up a little louder.
I am also using the KCE-422i for my iPod. I have no issues with the
playback. When you first select the iPod source, there is a little noise &
feedback before the music starts playing, but is not noticeable during music
playback or while muting.
The only problem I had was accessing the phonebook. When you first pair
the phone and hit the 'phone' button, it would hang on the 'updating'
screen. It would just flash "updating" for a while, then go back to the
previous source. Only after placing or receiving a call was I able to access
the phonebook. But I later found out that if you wait a couple minutes after
the first pairing of the phone, hitting the 'phone' button would give you full
access to the phonebook.
Overall, I'm pretty impressed with the product. Not so much that it does
anything well, but more so that it didn't fail me like it did everyone else.
Maybe I just got lucky & got a working unit with no problems.
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The Echo.... |
April 6, 2008 |
| Reviewer:
JVis
from Seattle, WA
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I love the CDA-9886, I love it's interface, the CD changer works great with it and the iPhone works well with no noise when hooked up through the KCE-422i running through the BT adapter, so I have been lucky that I havn't had the problem some other people are describing. I don't even have to put the iphone into airplane mode, so it still works as a regular phone and can hook up via bluetooth to the BT adapter. It all works as it should... ALMOST
But seriously, ECHO ECHO ECHO ECHO... It is REDICULOUS... I have had the same problems that everyone else has said with the terrible echo in the background. I've tried moving the mic ALL over, I've tried moving the mic and fading all but one speaker in different locations... NOTHING worked.
The only way I could eliminate the echo successfully was to put my finger over the mic... i knew it because in my MANY test calls everyone said immediately "oh wait! the echo's gone!"... but of course that doesnt work very well either because then I sound like I'm 100 yards away to the caller.
What really bugs me is the fact that the microphone is advertised as "echo-cancelling"... what a joke. I install maybe 20-30 Bluetooth car solutions a month, from Parrot, Kenwood, Pioneer... this was the first Alpine experience... needless to say, it's terrible. We even switched out the unit twice... no improvement... so either Alpine sent me 3 defective units... or the product is just defective. I mean, the fact that this problem seems to happen so frequently from what I've read, I'm offended that Alpine didnt pull the units back by now because these complaints about echoing go back to November of 07. That's over 6 months ago.
The other thing that KINDA irritates me but I havn't totally decided that it isn't fixable is the fact that the device doesnt seem to automatically pair up with the phone, even though it is the only phone in the "paired device" list...
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Not what I'd expect from Alpine |
April 4, 2008 |
| Reviewer:
Stephen
from Louisville, KY
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I bought into the Alpine brand in hopes of putting together an integrated
entertainment system (iPod control, HD Radio, Bluetooth hands-free) for my car
that would eliminate the clutter of various add-on controls and displays that
would normally be necessary when adding these features. Given Alpine's
reputation for quality, I was dismayed by the difficulty people were having with
iPod control on the new CDA-9886 receiver; however their misfortune led me to
purchase the older, but rock-solid CDA-9885. The second purchase towards my
goal was the KCE-300BT bluetooth interface which unfortunately has me
believing Alpine's good reputation may be more about the past than the
present. Although difficulties with the interface have been thoroughly
documented in these reviews and elsewhere online, I ordered the 300BT with
the false assumption that Alpine would surely have resolved the issues with an
obviously faulty product.
Although the voice quality of calls inside the car is quite good, people on the
other end of the connection suffer echo which ranges from mildly irritating to
completely unlistenable. No mic placement inside the car was able to eliminate
the problem; not even placing it in the back seats. In contrast, the similarly
priced IHF1000 which I used with my previous Blaupunkt receiver
never suffered the least bit of echo no matter the location of the mic.
For as little as I use the phone in my car, I may have been able to deal with this
issue if not for the high pitched whine induced by the interface during iPod
playback. Since the iPod plays back perfectly when the high speed interface is
plugged directly into the 9885 rather than through the 300BT, the bluetooth
interface must be at fault. Listening to my iPod is something I often do in my
car and this is a deal breaker for me.
I understood going in that the Alpine interface only supported a very limited
selection of phones for full hands-free control from the receiver. In fact, for the
vast majority of phones, basic hands free and perhaps caller ID display is all you
can expect. No dialing, phone book access, etc. Although this was not an issue
for me because of my limited phone use, the Motorola IHF1000 did provide all
these features for my phone as well as voice control.
The poor performance of the KCE-300BT would have been disappointing from
any manufacture; but from Alpine, and at a premium price, it is simply
unacceptable. Should the new TUA-T550HD HD Radio tuner prove to be a less
than stellar performer, I'll be looking to Kenwood or Pioneer for a replacement
system.
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March 27, 2008 |
| Reviewer:
Peter
from Auburn Hills, MI
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I purchsed this along with a CDA-9887 reciever. Like a few others, I have experienced the high pitch whine and hiss when playing the iPOD through the adapter. If I am listening to something on the iPOD, I hear a constant hissing, and sometimes a high pitch whine. If I make a bluetooth phone call, the noise immediately goes away, and returns when the unit switches back to the iPOD. The problem is definitely related to how it works with the iPOD. Again, if the unit is doing Bluetooth phone call, the noise is gone. It is only present when the iPOD is playing. I also hear a noise sometimes when the disk in the iPOD spins up.
Alpine support wasn't much help. Crutchfield was awesome. They sent me a new KCE-300BT and iPOD cable to try, but that didn't help. They then sent me a new CDA-9887, another KCE-300BT, and another iPOD cable. Unfortunately, the problem still persisted.
I decided to eliminate the KCE-300BT and just plug the iPOD cable directly into the reciever, which also eliminates the noise.
It's too bad. If they fixed the noise issue, it would be a great combination.
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