Alpine CDA9851 vs CDA9855
 

Can someone help me with car audio mumbo jumbo? I am looking at both the Alpine CDA-9851 and 9855 for my car and besides the display, number of colors and all that bullshitm the biggest difference are the preouts. Both have front, rear and sub preouts, but the 9851 is at 2v as opposed to the 9855 at 4v. I read and the difference is more volts means more crisp sound at higher volumes.. is there really that much difference? Is it worth $100 more?

imo no. but it all depends on what size speakers the unit is hooked up to.

All I am hooking up to it, is this amp:

JBL PX300.4
PX SERIES 4 CHANNEL AMPLIFIER
$245.99


Infinity Kappa Perfect 10" Sub
Infinity Kappa Perfect 5.25 Component with 1" Tweeters

9855.
and get 2 seperate amps, one for the sub(preferably a mono block amp). and one for the speakers.

don't skimp on the head unit... you will be dissapointed.

yeah higher voltage outputs mean the amp needs to do less work and it's off the bat louder and clearer.

DEFINATELY get the 4v outputs... those used to be ONLY available on REALLY high quality headunits...

IF you're not set on alpine look into other headunits with 4v outputs that aren't as expensive but generally they're worth the money IMO.

pioneer premier, kenwood excellon, and a few panasonic decks have them (mine has 4 volt preouts, and it also has front, rear, sub, aux1, aux2,and sirrius)

Thanks .. I will only use alpine.. don't like anything else really..

Also, why do I need TWO amps now? I only have 5 speakers for god's sake.. that amp above won't do it??

mutli-channel amps are made for speakers
mono-channel amps are made for subwoofers

the sub won't sound as good with an amp that isn't designed to power it...