ALPINE: FIFTY YEARS OF THE FINEST

Did you know that there used to be a trade magazine in the 12V aftermarket electronics industry? At first it was called Car Audio Retailer. As the writing was seen on the wall and car audio was less of a core business, they changed the name to Mobile Electronics News. I had a column throughout, honoured to be the last thing the reader would see, inside back cover. I got away with blue screaming murder – a real loose cannon, with irascible opinion, some bonkers silliness and even some vitriol on occasions. There was one ex-boss I pilloried so many times, that someone came up to me at one of the magazine’s awards dinners afterwards and suggested that I finally leave the poor soul alone.
It was at one of those awards dinners, when I was interrupted mid flow, with my microphone feed being cut as I was busily awarding the prizes from the stage, to be told that that that year’s Lifetime Achievement award had my name on it. And that was bloody years ago. (That award traditionally signalled the end of a career, said some people.)
With the great and the good of the trade present, from Alpine to Zapco, we had many gongs to present and these were of course structured in an attempt to spread the love. With categories in security, audio, head units and other such things. So help me, being a judge was hellish. I did the job for Max Power, Fast Car and both of the trade titles. It was a terrible responsibility. You wanted to see sage nods of agreeable acceptance around the room, rather than the rolled eyes of ‘What the eff are they doing?’
So this one year, not long after starting to write for Talk Audio as we were called, (Talk ‘˜Stuff’ is the newbie name) it was suggested, that the industry allow YOU to be the judge. Yes, a bunch of polls were created and placed on the Talk Audio forum boards. The response from the our crew was followed to the letter come awards night.
Ten-plus years is three generations in car audio, so very few will remember having been there wearing their tuxedos. But that night went down in history as the Alpine Awards. Because it would seem, that the readers of the forums, the movers and shakers, those as would bother to join in and hit a keyboard on Talk Audio (Stuff), something about that demographic, meant that to a man and a woman they all voted for Alpine.
For everything.
The embarrassment at the Alpine table rose as the evening progressed. The chagrin deepened with everybody else. As award after award after award went to Alpine and then Alpine and yes again, Alpine! It proved that we had treated the issue with literal honesty and righteousness but that didn’t really help on the night. It was bloody hilarious. Afterwards.
So I know that if you are reading this there is a severe likelihood that you are an Alpine fan amongst other things. And one of the loveliest discoveries I made when I went to meet the gentlemen in Coventry, is that Alpine is FIFTY YEARS OLD in 2017.

What does the most famous sound quality brand in all car audio do to celebrate such a thing? Why you get the band back together of course, just like in the Blues Brothers! Like Aretha Franklin’s character in the film said, ‘Don’t you blaspheme in here!’ But it was definitely a mission driven by the gods of sound quality. They designed a new line of loudspeakers, amplifiers and subwoofers to show off what Alpine can do in the 21st-Century.
Meet X Series
So who was this band that they got back together?
Back in 2000, a Mercedes AMG C55 demo car was launched, stuffed to the gunwales with Alpine F#1 STATUS equipment. A deeply specialist line of products that had taken Alpine many years to develop. There were even new engineering philosophies developed. Micro Dynamics was the term given to sorting through even the tiniest of components, measuring many of them, to find the perfect matching pairs for use in stereo, no matter the labour costs. The loudspeakers were rarefied and magnificent creatures. Tweeters that looked like a moment of frozen high speed video midbass drivers with funny little slits in them, called sipes. Everything was rarefied and completely bonkers. The latest in digital signal processing, in fact leading the era, made the motorist genuinely experience a true soundstage. A good F#1 Status installation made it sound like a pukka hi-fi indoors. The sound stage belied the speakers’ locations. Everything was spread out in front of you in perfect sonorous, rich stereo.
The launch material and glossy even gilded, brochures were unlike anything seen before or since. I still have mine, although I had to commit a terrible sin in order to file the monstrous A3 poster sized flagship brochure.
I folded it.
I just dug into my ancient and dusty files and there was the 1cm thick, small yet perfect bound version and the beautiful gatefold stylised brochure as well. It was an epic effort in all directions and Alpine assembled a team of the best engineers they could. The finest in all their respective fields.
Seventeen-plus years later, they gathered them together again to take the same from-the-ground-up approach to redesigning their loudspeakers and amplifiers and subwoofers offering in order to show the best of Alpine’s 21st century game. F#1 Status team was now X Series team.

I see this as Alpine’s 50th birthday present from them to us! Again we have a new engineering philosophy as our base concept. This time around, they include affordability yet filter down enough technology to offer class leading products. They call it ALPINE ID for Image Defined
‘Alpine ID, which stands for ‘Alpine: Image Defined,’ is Alpine’s new global philosophy with an evolutionary approach for solving what’s missing in most car audio systems these days: great spatial imaging and depth of stage. The Alpine ID philosophy centres on developing matched sound systems that work together to create a highly realistic sound stage with great dynamic range (Hi-Res Audio) and sound quality.
The matched sound system components allow the listener to experience a new level of realism and engagement while enjoying music in their vehicle. In other words, the listener can experience the music as the artist originally intended. The X-Series speakers, amplifiers, and subwoofers create the foundation of sound system components that will feature Alpine’s new sound philosophy.’
I’m certainly going to have a good try on as many of them as possible. At time of writing, the X Series subwoofers are yet to make landfall in Blighty but I am nagging for the coaxes and compos and am way too excited about Alpine 6×9 woofers with separate tweeters. I can think only of Kicker and Morel as other brands who have ever made 6×9 component systems.
SIX BY NINE components!

6.5 Compos.

The tweeters get a passive crossover of sophistication, the mids use natural rolloff.

The woofers are 900W RMS and perfectly match the amplifiers

..of which there are three models

Your nearest Alpine expert installer here: link
You have no idea how much of the high-end technology in some of the finest cars on the road have been supplied by Alpine’s OEM department. Sub-bass with better physics than anybody else. Fabulous screen technology. They can apply technological concepts, creating actual things that are used when they build the cars, so I genuinely believe Alpine will be here in 50 years time! No matter what happens, I agree with Jay Leno, that they’ll always be petrol heads, even when you can only use petrol on a track day because hydrocarbons will become illegal on the highway! And there will always be car hi-fi fanatics.
Yep! So here’s to the next 50!