Epic Audio Experience Fit For The Gods

An Alpine System For £399 – With Sexy Hollywood Tie-In!
Alpine electronics have come up with a system you can buy for under £400 that absolutely delivers on the sound quality and scale and weight fronts.
Presented within a shiny new Alfa Romeo MiTO at the recent Autosound & Style show, the system certainly has Brio. I heard it and I can reveal that of the two Alpine cars Talk Audio caught up with at the recent Mobile Electronics News Autosound & Style Expo at Stoneleigh Park in Warwickshire, this was the one our contact liked the sound of best! That might seem odd as the other car is going to be a full feature soon here on Talk Audio magazine but was very different. That car was about winning a mad TV installer challenge on German TV whereas the simple quality of this ‘entry level’ (for Alpine!) system just shone.

It comprises a mad-VFM deck called CDE-112Ri that offers quad illumination to match the common dash lighting colours, a front USB and auxiliary audio input as well as coming with an iPod lead as part of the package for it can of course boss the ‘pommes. It gets made louder by a stupidly good for its size PMX-F640 four channel amplifier that can be run bridged for the rear channels to run bass. With a choice of boxes, either the SBE-1243BR box, which is a ported, windowed and internally illuminated bass enclosure and bloody gorgeous with it, or else a smaller ten or even eight inch version if that’s what’d fit best.
The point of sale tie in features a card with all the participating Alpine dealers on the reverse, with the obverse showing the system and the Warner Brothers ‘In Cinemas April 2 in 3D’ promo for the film, which having waited a minute to see, does look like a bloody hoot in the best Ray Harryhausen tradition of bloody great huge monsters and blokes with swords, sorcery and valour to defend toga clad lovelies to the very death.
Not that I’m excited or anything! But the system is bonkers. They didn’t sound deaden the car. All they added were small MDF speaker rings and some gasketing, as installation is on top of the equipment cost. But the headunit is easy and the door speakers, a set of SPG-17C2 coaxials are a single-wire fitment as well. The amp is tiny but descended from the Alpine previous cunning and so is bizarrely potent for the size. The hall was booming so we turned it up until it was not an issue inside the MiTO. At which point I guessed it was running around 120dB SPL and I am 2dB accurate to 153dB!
But it was the high end feel to the sound, with lovely tinkly highs from simple coaxes and a fat arsed bass from the box, which is beautiful to behold as well as reviewing well as you’ll see from the linky. It was coherent and well blended with no traces of sibilance from the low priced speakers.
All that and a glamorous Hollywood Movie tie-in from the company that bought you the high speed full-colour in car fax machine in 1995 – but that was in the Bond movie GoldenEye!
http://www.clashofthetitansmovie.co.uk for a trailer worth waiting for and wallpapers and stuff
And here http://www.moviecomps.com/clash/ for a free to enter draw for premier tickets for Clash Of The Titans or to win prizes that include a holiday to Greece, an Alpine multimedia station, Timex Altimeter watches and London theatre premiere tickets! Closing date 25/3/2010 for the movie premiere, otherwise 15/5/2010.
And Alpine are to be found here: http://www.alpine-electronics.co.uk