I appreciate everybody's help. Sounds like the Alpine 9856 is the right unit for me, even if it is more than I wanted to spend.

It says that it is rated for 50 watts for 4 speakers maximum. Wouldn't that be enough for my 40 year old ears??, without buying an amp? Or could I just add the amp later if I so desired?

I am thinking that Alpine unit, plus 4 good quality speakers to replace my current 4 door speakers..........and that $30 cord to hook the alpine up to my IPOD should serve me well. No?

check them out: http://www.sonicelectronix.com/
they have some of the best deals and there headunits come with free install kits

It all depends on how loud you like it, but don't think you need an amp. Just for comparison, running the speakers off the 9856 will definitely be louder than the factory head unit. And as you said, you can always add an amp later if you want.

I would even recommend holding off on replacing your factory speakers. If you are on a budget, you should definitely see what the factory speakers sound like with the 9856 and if you are not satisfied, you can always replace the speakers. I think you will be surprised how much better the factory speakers will sound with the Alpine.

I currently have factory speakers powered through a 4channel alpine amp and they sound a lot better through my Alpine head unit than the factory unit. I would consider leaving them in, but I blew the front passenger speaker [duhhh]. I already owned the 4 channel amp but if I didn't have one already, I would have run the speakers directly from the Alpine head unit.

Hope my rambling helped!!

the alpine and cord should do you well

then you can add more as you feel the need.

like any other mod, they just seem to have lives of themselfs.

I agree with gsegelk. your factory speakers will sound pretty dang good with the Alpine or any other aftermarket head unit.

I feel the opposite. When I first installed my head unit the factory speakers sounded louder, but they also sounded very distorted. The base (4 speaker system) is very low wattage and even an aftermarket head unit will blow them in no time.

The real key to a good sounding system is not watts, watts, and more watts. More importantly you need to filter out the frequencies that your speakers can not reach/reproduce. Distortion is what ruins a speaker and you can not expect little mids and highs to reproduce the lower (bass) frequencies at all. Newer head units usually have a crossover/high-pass filter built in. You want to filter or eliminate those lower frequencies to have your smaller mids/highs sound clear. They will usually still produce enough bass to keep you more than happy, it just won't be the really low type you get with larger subwoofers and amps.

So, does anyone use the Alpine, or another good system with a standard MP3 player? I see where the Alpine will hook up to an MP3 player with a standard USB cable. However it also lists a $160 adapter to control the player. I'm not sure if the adapter is required for hookup and play, or just if you want the controls on the head unit.

jrussel is right, but as long as you don't get too out of hand with the volume the stock speakers wil be okay. Its not gonna win any stereo competitions but it will for sure sound better than stock. Without aftermarket speakers you won't get the full benefit of an aftermarket head unit.

You probably don't NEED it, but I also would recommend going with an aftermarket amp.
You will get a lot CLEANER sound from an aftermarket amp than you will from any head unit. Cleaner sound = less distortion at any level, but it is a lot more pronounced at higher volumes.

As far as speakers go, I would like to throw Polk audio, or Bose into the picture. They are a bit more money, but WOW do they sound good!

You say you don't need a lot of power, but when you listen to the difference between a head unit alone, and one powered by a clean (low distortion) amp, you will NEVER go back.

I will also say that Alpine is not the only head unit that is a good one. There are several out there. Sony, Kenwood and many others have high end products that I dare say would rival some of the Alpines. Plus, most of the time you can get free installation if you buy a deck for over 100 bucks. Thats something else to think about....[coffee]

Thanks guys for all of your input. Since im gonna be dropping some change on getting the IPOD too, I will prob just go with the Alpine 9856 for starters and see how I like it and go from there. Maybe add the amp and speakers later. I not in a stereo contest...LOL. I just want to enjoy all of 14 gigs worth of music on my Itunes in my truck. :)

I have an Alpine CDE-9845 that I bought from Crutchfield last spring. It has since been discontinued, which is a shame because it came with a built-in aux input jack, plus MP3/WMA capabilities for $159. I plug my 512MB MP3 player or satellite radio receiver in through the aux input jack, which is just a standard 1/8" male connector (the other end of this cable where it plugs into the stereo is RCA jacks, and this cable doesn't come with the stereo). I generally put the MP3 player into shuffle mode and get random songs all day long.

Mine sounds good with the factory speakers, but I just noticed one of my rear speakers stopped working, so I may be upgrading them if I can't fix it easily.

I just updgraded my speakers to the polk DB650 and DB690 and it sounds alot better but not as good as I wanted. I still have the Factory head unit though. I am not a stereo guy, but I have been told that these speakers are real power hungry and and amp is almost a must.
So can I just get an amp for now and still run the factory head unti? Then in the future I will update the head unit.

any opinions on that?

thanks guys

Good thread, as I've been thinking about upgrading my factory stereo to something nicer. Part of me wants the factory navigation radio, but the other part wants a nice alpine headunit, amp, and a couple subs....
Scott

get the alpine cda 9857 if your going for it. I have mine with sirius, an ipod in the glove box, etc.

if you're trying to save money don't get an amp to power the speakers...wait on it...but do get aftermarket speakers. and if you want to, make the front one's component speakers.

That's what i did and I love it. they are MB quart speakers.

just recently I added a JL 300/4 amp to power the front speakers and used two channels of the amp to power one 10 inch sub.

two subs sound better than one....but sometimes that just doesn't happen.

rock on!

RonP- you can definitely do that and is the exact same thing my wife has in her 4runner. She has the factory head unit running to a 4 channel amp that powers Boston Acoustic speakers.

I don't know if I would 100% recommend this because my wife's speakers have a lot of treble, even with the treble on the lowest setting. It doesn't sound horrible but it takes a little to get used to. It's like the factory unit overcompensated on the treble to account for low budget speakers. Maybe the dodge head units aren't like that though...

There is a solution for this that makes pretty much any head unit sound like a high quality aftermarket one. It's an equalizer (16 or 32 band I think) that sits in the dash behind the radio that once installed, the installer connects to it using a PDA over Bluetooth and does the fine tuning to balance everything out. From what I remember it's about $250. Installing it would have put us over budget at the time, but I think we're going to either have it installed or replace her factory unit.