Hey everyone, I am upgrading my head unit, and I am planning on getting alpines CDA-9857. I also have the mrv-f450 amp, which puts 50wx4 and 200w for the sub. My question is will the BBE on the 9857 hinder my sound? Should I get a unit that does not have BBE or should I just turn the BBE off? Will the cda-9852 produce cleaner sound because it lacks the BBE option? Any other alpine units that I should look at? Thanks for the input.
BBE is excellent and not something you will ever want to turn off. It syncs the treble and bass together as well as boosts them appropriately-overall, the sound is much more...vivacious with it. Lovely feature.
The problem with BBE is that at higher volumes distortion begins to be a large issue, it doesn't send as clean of sound and begins clipping sooner. This is what I have been told by couple stores and upon completing my install with my first HU which also had BBE, it would distort a lot sooner with BBE on then when i turned it off, granted that it did sound better with BBE on I could not get it to the higher volumes I wanted. My first HU distortion could have been caused by it being an old unit, cdm-9823. So my main question would be does BBE cause more distortion at higher volumes then a unit without BBE? Jexx, thanks for your post.
If you have BBE on, it's best to turn down the EQ or bass/treble settings to keep it from distorting. Like I said, it does boost the bass and treble so naturally it would tend to cause the internal amplifier in the head unit to distort faster. You can definitely get past the clipping of it and reap the benefits if you turn the bass and treble down.
Lovely feature.