| RedMDX |
| $3400!!! Are they kidding? That's at least 2X everything else that's been reported on this site..... |
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| ron@se |
| Tru, but it's an all ALPINE system.....EXPENSIVE equipment.....nice setup :) |
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| slackass |
| I thought tha price was a little steep too but, from a local dealer that probably is not ridiculous. The DVD player runs about $850 on ebay. I could not find the moniter or headphones. You figure on paying a premium at a local place so say $2,000 plus in equipment and the rest on the install. Maybe still a bit high. |
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| R Stevens |
These are prices from Crutchfield on the equipment:
Alpine 5205 DVD player - $999.99
Alpine TMX-R680A overhead monitor package (includes monitor, mounting console and 2 pairs of wireless headphones) - $999.99.
I agree with slackass that the cost of the equipment would be about $2,000 to $2,100 including a package discount, sales taxes and miscellaneous cables and parts. For a do it yourselfer you might be able to find this same equipment on the net for about $1,800 total.
The number of labor hours (16) and hourly rate appear to be high. In my install they dropped the headliner, applied Dynamat on the roof interior, installed the overhead monitor (Alpine's motorized version of the R680A) and reinstalled the headliner in less than a day. An experienced installer, IMHO, should be able to do the whole package in 8-10 hours. Bottom line is that a R.E.S. with this quality level of equipment will cost at least $2,500 installed. It looks like Honda is charging about $1,500 for the R.E.S. on the Pilot. Has anybody seen the Pilot R.E.S.? |
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| renov8r |
Having seen good installation by pros,I do think that the Alpine screen and DVD player is a bit better than the RES in the Pilot or Oddy. Not night & day, but visibly better upon close watching. That said, how many 'viewers' are going to be closely watching? Certainly no pre-teens I've met have much care as to the S/N ratio and color purity of Toy Story II...
The stuff from the factory is thisclose to the aftermarket stuff from brandX, only the cheapest screens and most out of whack players look bad at the small sizes common in the factory unit.
The pricing does make sense, though, as most quality installers would not use brandX stuff ---leave that for DIY!
The real question is what will Alpine, factory or brandX be WORTH to you? At trade-in the brandX would be worth very, very little premium, the Alpine may scare off some buyers and thus 'depriciate' the greates, the factory unit depreciate some too, but at least it would be a 'legit' upgrade and you could expect to get something extra for it. OF COURSE if use the RES to instill harmonius motoring among squabbling sibling, it is as the MasterCard ads say, PRICELESS! |
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| slackass |
| One thing I have learned is that no matter how nice the stereo or audio/video system in this case, if you are trading it in to the dealer, it amounts to nothing. Anything aftermarket and you are better off taking it out and putting it back to factory. If you have a $1,000 factory system and you upgrade to a $3,000 aftermarket, put the factory back in. I have been told by several dealers that they would prefer to have the system factory. When we traded our CRV in on the MDX, I had about a $2,000 system in it. They told me to put the factory cassette player and paper speakers back in it. That is the main reason I try to not alter anything that can not be put back to factory. Just my .02 on it. |
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| R Stevens |
from renov8tr:
"The real question is what will Alpine, factory or brandX be WORTH to you? At trade-in the brandX would be worth very, very little premium, the Alpine may scare off some buyers and thus 'depriciate' the greates, the factory unit depreciate some too, but at least it would be a 'legit' upgrade and you could expect to get something extra for it. OF COURSE if use the RES to instill harmonius motoring among squabbling sibling, it is as the MasterCard ads say, PRICELESS!"
You make some good points. During the equipment selection process I was questioning the relatively high prices of Alpine, but after making numerous comparisons of other brands and models I decided it was worth it for me in the long run.
The intangible part has already paid benefits in that my 17 year old daughter is now willing to take long weekend road trips for college football games. Last weekend we spent 4 hours watching (I only listened, of course!) Stand by Me and the trailing dicussion by the actors/director on DVD; and we discussed the movie as it applied to our respective chilhoods. That was PRICELESS! (and MasterCard collected a nice fee too!) |
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| slackass |
R Stevens....Did they finally get your system completed? Do you have any new pics?
How awesome is it to take a trip and pop in a movie? My wife and I went to Oklahoma City 2 weekends ago. It is about a 2 hour trip. We watched Christmas Vacation on the way there and Road Trip on the way home. It makes the time just fly by. I really can not wait until we go to Cali at Christmas. Takes about 24 hours or 12 movies, hehe. |
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| R Stevens |
slackass,
The sub hasn't been installed yet. They need three consecutive days to build the fiberglass box and complete the install and the only mutually agreeable scheduling time is next Monday to Wednesday.
In the interim they want me to do an extensive break in of the door speakers before they do the final tuning. Even at this point the sound is truly amazing. We are also waiting for Alpine to begin shipping their new H700 sound processor. Alpine makes excellent equipment but they are unbeliveably slow in getting their stuff to market after announcing it. |
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| judd11 |
| i posted some pix of my alpine system a while back if anyone wants to check them out again.... |
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| 2002 Acura MDX! |
| How can they mount the plastic in the same exact same shape?????? |
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| judd11 |
| they very meticulously cut the plastic to fit...i think they used the factory head unit as a template. this was the most important part of the install to me because it's in the dash and a bad job would have made me wish i had left it alone. |
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| slackass |
| I would agree with judd. They used a brownish, grayish plexi on mine and it turned out pretty good. I would like one a little better but, until the kit makers make an exact fit, it will do. Mine is just for a single din head unit. I really like judd's double din. Hides the black trim even better. |
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