Ram44maR

Hello-

I'm installing an Alpine 9835 at the moment and have a basic install question for any Alpine guys out there.

1st, my setup is very basic. It consists of the 9835 HU [no external amps], components for the front doors and two-ways for the rear doors. I AM NOT installing ANY amps or subs at this time.

Does anyone have thoughts about which switch setting to use: 2-way or 3-way.

To clarify, the HU has a switch on the bottom of the case w/ 2 settings: 2-way and 3-way. Which one is used for the simple setup I currently have?

Thanks a bunch for any and all thoughts...

Mike D

Bill, Use the two way option. I think Aplines give you a choice, weather you're running two way or three way speakers. Of course you're using two way.

Mike

BigBlue

Is the 9835 HU the only one that has this feature or do they all have this feature?

dodgeram

2way offers on low pass set of outputs for the sub and both the front and rear channels can be highpassed .........

3way gives you one lowpass setup for the subs, the rear outputs are bandpassed for use with midbass or midrange speakers, and the front channels are highpass

you usually only get that feature on the high end unit

diesel_kid

I have that HU, didnt even realize that there was that switch. So for 2-way components in the front and rear, with an amp, and then a sub with an amp what should I run it on?

quantrill88

2 way

im pretty sure the alpine model right under the 9835, (9827 maybe??) also has that option.

AggiePhil

Guys, don't worry about this setting unless you have 3-way speakers, which means that for each "door" (if you will), you have three speakers: a tweeter, a mid-range speaker (bigger than a tweeter but smaller than a woofer), and a woofer. I'd be willing to bet that 98% of the folks here on DTR are using 2-way speaker setups with just a tweeter and woofer for each door. The 9835 has a DIP switch that comes pre-set to the 2-way mode from the factory, so you're good to go.

Ram44maR

Thanks for all the replies, everyone.

Quantrill, the 9833 is the next model down in the current line and I believe it does have the same option.

Mike, thanks as always. You've got a great way of getting to the point in a civil way.

For all, the 9835 does SEEM to come with a default setting of 2-way [mine did anyway]. I installed mine this way and it sounds pretty darn nice. Like I wrote, I have components in the front and 2-ways in the rear [no amps or subs].

Big Blue, the 9833 has this feature. I'm not sure about the rest.

Have a great one,
Bill

Mike D

Some info I found not long ago, thought I would pass it along.

www.installdr.com Good site for those replacing the factory radio.

Ram44maR

Here are my initial impressions for all the present/perspective Alpine owners out there:

I used a mounting kit to mount the 9835 in my Laramie SLT dash, and I did keep the factory 2-way setting.

After making the obligatory color/date/time tweeks, I went to work on one of the six EQ alignments you can store in memory. I was using a CD-R backup of the ultra-rare 'Stills Alone' CD because it is a great recording and becuase it is a CD-R [more on that later]. That's not to mention the great "unplugged" guitar work Hedrix's one and only protege' layed down on this album.

Anyway, the mid- and high-frequency band tweeks built into this HU brought this already fantastic recording to a new level! I even heard Stills' hand rubbing on the frets, which is something I never even picked up on my McIntosh/B&W N802 home stuff.

The confines of my RAM seem perfect for the mids and highs to resonate in...and I haven't even messed with the time domain adjustments yet. Anyway, my initial impression is that this HU fits into the Laramie SLT Quad like a glove [and I don't mean OJ's glove either] .

BTW, I wrote that I used a CD-R on purpose. I did this because one of the things that really annoyed me about the DC Infinity HU I got from the factory was its habit of taking a dump every time a CD-R was inserted. Whether it plain wouldn't start or it would skip every time you turned around, it just didn't like CD-Rs. So far, the 9835 loves CD-Rs, and that's very important to me.

I hope this helps someone down the road...and I'll follow up after I try the time domain stuff out.

BigBlue

I love my Alpine. I mainly run MP3's on it. Gotta love putting 60+ cd's on to 12 cd's. I think it's time to upgrade though. Mine doesn't have all of those nifty features (9807 model).

arcc

Ram44,

Glad to hear you like the radio. I am about to buy a 9835 and use MBQuart RCE269 components in the front and RCE 216 components in the rear. I want to wait a while before I add a sub and amplifier. Did you run a power wire from the battery or from the fuse box. I think Alpine says you need a direct wire.

Give us some more reports when you have time. Also does the built in amp drive the speakers enough or do you think you will just need an amp for a sub.

Thanks,
Randy

AggiePhil

Power for the head unit can come from the factory wiring harness power wire. Power for any external amp needs to come from the battery.

Whether or not the head unit's built-in amp is enough for you or not depends on your listening tastes. If you're using the Alpine 9835 (top of the line) with MB Quart speakers (considered very high-end) and are running them off the built-in head unit amp, you're crazy. You're not able to benefit from those high-quality stereo components if they're mispowered and/or underpowered.

Ram44maR

Hello Big Blue and Randy [and anyone else reading this],

The yellow DC power lead AND the black ground lead running out of the 9835's harness connector [the connector that mates directly to the receptacle on the rear panel of the 9835] are a lower gauge than those used for the speakers and such.

As they're both much thicker than any of the wires in the factory wiring harness, I followed Alpine's advice and made two (2) DIRECT connections: one to the positive terminal of the driver's side battery, and the other to a good [bare] grounding point just above the emergency brake pedal.

As I didn't have low-gauge copper multi-strand available at the time, I ran multiple leads of some great Waytek #18 hi-temp copper multi-strand I have here. Specifically, I ran three (3) equal lengths for each direct connection. Running this type of wire in parallel has a couple of advantages when used with corrugated split-loom conduit. One is that each of the (3) leads going to the battery is much easier to put through the firewall grommet than one huge one is, and the other is that it's simply more flexible [which is especially nice when you're trying to keep the main harness away from the antenna, power, ground and DC-DC converter leads = NO INDUCED NOISE ]

I also forgot to mention that the yellow DC power lead on the Alpine harness runs in and out of a "fuse block" that was supplied by the company. Therefore, the power lead running to the battery is inherently protected against any type of shorting.

There's only one drawback to any type of harness "blocks," or harnesses in general for that matter: they all add a great deal of mass and, consequently, present a potential for vibrating/rattling against the RAM duct work. To get around this, I wrapped the fuse block, the DC-DC converter block and the wiring harness itself in some 1/4" neoprene sheets I had. To secure them, I used various lengths of snap ties and a lot of imagination [snap ties are a wonderful thing...]

Another thing I forgot about is the method I made the battery connection with. During my fueling odyssey earlier this year, I had to change my FASS harness to accommodate an in-circuit relay. This change also required a direct connection to the battery. Well...as I was starting to get quite a little collection of leads running to the battery for one purpose or another, I decided to move out of the stone age and research a good alternative. What I came up with were these great/simple gadgets called battery taps. Forgive me if this seems obvious to anyone reading this, but I think these things are great!

For those of you like me, these things are made of brass and are shaped to be placed under your battery terminal "lug" nut. The great thing is that, once one of these things is in place, you're presented with (4) male 0.250" tabs for receiving 0.250" female crimp-on lead terminals. As my work background involves lots o' electronics, I go steps beyond and use solder for all my connections [covered with heat shrink]. Anyway, the combination of all these little things results in some pretty solid/safe electrical connections.

The end result--as far as the 9835 goes--is peace of mind and, as I already wrote, some pretty sweet sounds. Considering that I don't [as yet] have any type of external amplification or subs, the performance is pretty darn solid. Unless you're Pete Townshend going for the outdoor dB world record, the amount of sound delivered through my 6000cs/6002i combo is MUCH MORE than adequate.

I hope this helps any interested readers...please let me know if you're wondering about any other aspects of this project.

BigBlue

Very interesting. I've got the 9807 and Circuit City installed mine. So if it fries cause of the wiring, they can fix it. I'll have to keep that in mind when I upgrade though.