# Average Joe Review: Alpine X009 - GM version



## LaserSVT (Feb 1, 2009)

Today I will be doing a little review on the couple year old Alpine X009-GM. I know its been out for a bit but many friends and members have commented on how they know nothing about it or have never seen one so here is my take on the unit.

First off for some reason I was perfectly content with this:


Yeah the maps sucked so I used my phones and you had to fool it to work with an iPod (I still prefer a thumb drive for some reason....probably because my iPod stalls too often lol) and it didnt have much control but at least the screen graphics sucked. But still, I wanted all options and was gonna keep it as I liked the integration with the truck and phone....except inability to stream audio. 
So I am at my buddies shop and casually mention replacing it with one of those $900 decks that look stock because I wanted a complete stock appearance to it. He brings me over to a newer version GM truck with the Alpine deck and I love how easy it is to use and how well it responds. But its the newer truck so why bother showing me? He then busts out the phone and shows me the one for my truck. I say I gotta have it! He tells me the price. Short while latter I wake up and say "Did you just say $3000?" Yes. *heart murmur* But dont worry, we will hook you up cause we rock and you let us play with all your cars. Fair enough. Order it! is it here yet?

So fast forward a week and it arrives *clouds part, hear angels singing* and I am ready for the install!
I like to call this my table of sexy. 










The size difference is quite impressive.



The system integrates very well giving you all your on board data as well.





Playing with the EQ for the first time:



And after several hours of setting the time alignment and crossovers and levels and EQ I sat down to really play with the deck.











I have to say I really love this deck. Its seemless integration to the truck is amazing and every person that has seen it thinks it is stock. The button colors are perfect and the display is nice and crisp. Little hard to see in the middle of the day but great otherwise. The 9 band parametric EQ is very useful with the variable Q and the crossovers are straight forward and independent for front/rear/sub. Time alignment is quite simple with separate adjustments for all 6 channels (front/rear/sub) and easy for a novice to get the sound stage dang close with little effort.
The deck has excellent sound and no background hiss even at high levels between tracks.

I also see it has the ability to operate an outboard Alpine DSP! That would bring this deck to the next level. To be able to run fully active with a 1/3 octave EQ for each speaker would allow for a very sweet setup.

The NAV system is light years ahead of the OEM one and its on an SD card so it is updateable. It also includes life time traffic notification and re-route which I have tried and works excellent. The screen has great detail.
That detail is nice when watching movies on the unit as everything is clear with no ghosting of fast moving images.





It fully integrates with the factory steering wheel controls and lets you adjust pretty much everything, door open chime level, warning chime level or even how loud the turn signals are. lol
Hands free phone works very well too without having any complaints of noise or having people constantly saying "What?"

So far the only thing I can tell that it lost is the ability to turn the fan down when a call comes in like the factory stereo did. Not a big deal but that was a feature I do miss as its hot and the fan is usually cranked. At high speeds its pretty dang loud. lol

All in all its a great stereo I am very happy I purchased. You can find them all over for $2500 which is a lot but you get a lot of deck that integrates seamlessly with the truck. If you have a GM truck and want to upgrade but not lose any functionality and retain a stock look then this is the deck for you.


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## gu9cci (Mar 28, 2011)

Nice deck
I sold mine year ago.The integration is great and the size of the screen as well.
For me the deal breaker was for deck with 3k price tag I was expecting hi def screen and little more futuristic software.It is basically the 927hd with bigger screen and integration buttons imho...
I end up with iPad in my car because the google maps can't be beat
But if you ok with the above it is very nice deck and nobody make something like this except alpine


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