long story short, I have to get a new deck, my 9965 is fried.

my question is this, in terms of SQ, will the Eclipse CD7200 mkII be superior to the Alpine DVA-9965???


original retail the 9965 is just over double the 7200. however the deck is marketed as a sq competition deck while also allowing for a full multimedia package. it plays dvds, its 5.1, built in hd tuner, etc.

they are both dead heads (no internal amplifier), but the 7200 boasts a 8volt preouts compared to the 9965's 4volt preouts. i have heard that eclipse overrates these, and although they are still great, they aren't quite what they make them out to be.

any one have experience!!!!!!!!!!?????

i am also looking into other decks similar to a drz-9255 etc. but for the moment, i am just looking for a comparison on these two decks.

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-P99, Baby Milles, PDX, ID Max-

I used to have the 7200 and SQ wise it's a very good unit but the build quality is really poor.

List of things I didn't like:
-Poor display
-Feels cheap
-Very slow with USB
-Flaky control buttons
-The TA will recalibrate itself once in a while a produce a weird delay in the sound for 1-2 seconds
-No external bluetooth mic

What I did like:
-8v preout (>4V yes, 8V )
-Motorized display
-Large volume control
-Price
-SQ
-Bluetooth

ya, thats whats hard about buying alot of decks, you can advertise great specs, and they will seem great on paper, but stuff like build quality you can't really judge unless you have used it.

did you upgrade from the 7200?

yup, but the main reason I changed it's because I needed a 3way+sub output. So now i am running the DVA-9861 with PXA-H701 and love it.

If you are considering plumping out DRZ money, have a look at the blaupunkt bremen MP78. It's probably the best unit out there right now if you don't need 4 way xovers.

i have read up on that deck, and it sounds great on paper, but i am just so skeptical on anything blaupunkt. i have heard sooo many bad things about them. (their new stuff). do you have first hand experience with this deck?

^I don't think anyone has any experience with that deck yet.
Hard to beat a deck that has 5 to 7 PEQ bands per output channel seperate for left and right, I will tell you that.

That deck has so many features. But it is also about 800+ canadian + shipping and taxes. I am not sure how much one could get that deck for from a canadian source though. Probably way more then that.

I can't say I have read anything bad about blau products accept that some are hard to navigate. But that seems to be a problem with most units... really tohugh, can't say I have seen many reviews for blau decks at all. So I don't know.

I hate that their manual is so vague. It says you can select xover slopes and doesn't specify them. Doesn't give much info either on what the xover points look like.

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"36hz is the precise frequency for hard hitting base"

The Blau line was actually my most trouble free head unit line that I carried. I will find some pricing on this model.

^Interesting...Curious about pricing.
I am sure it is in the G's hehehe

If you at all interested, I will be installing my Eclipse CD7200mkII in the next week and a half and will be doing extensive tuning and testing at that time. I can give you feed back on it and see what kind of improvements they've made over the old 7200.

Lyle