new alpine cde 143bt radio

Yesterday, I finally got to the point that I couldn't stand the stock delco cassette radio in the reatta with its poor station reception and lack of available programming. I had an Alpine cde 143 bt receiver put in the car. A few years ago I had replaced the stock front speakers with polk audio 5.25's and Jensen 4x10 back speakers. I can't express enough how pleased I am with the way over the air and cds now sound. The neatest feature is the Bluetooth compatibility,now Iam able to stream off my I pad music from Pandora or you tube. The installation turned out smooth with the kit. Frank

Nicely done. The stock system - in it's time - was respectable and better than most of the era. 25 years on, it really doesn't cut it. Heck, even CDs have been largely obsoleted to my personal disappointment; I still prefer uncompressed audio on physical media but that is another discussion.

Replacement speakers make a huge difference versus factory. Due to age however, the factory amps are now failing as well, requiring rebuild or replacement. I opted to replace the head units in both my 91's with Alpine units (CDA-7894 in tbe coupe, CDA-9833 in the 'vert) and have been happy with those.

Both are older models that play MP3 files from CDR as well as straight CD's. Neither supports Bluetooth streaming or USB/SD media but that has not been an issue thus far for me. I had both of these units from years back after upgrading systems in previous cars and decided to reuse them again as I grew my fleet. Otherwise, they were on the shelf collecting dust.

Not sure what I'll do when one or both of these need replacement. One of the nice things about these two head units is they look like they belong in the Reatta aesthetically. Most current gear is too "over the top" in terms of display and color scheme to look at home in the Reatta dash.

KDirk

Looks great! The Bluetooth function must be nice. The lack of presets on the original head unit is so lacking, and the repair of the capacitors is so expensive for an old cassette deck. That's a 90 and 91 perk, replaceable stereo. I've seen people run standalone radios in the console of the 88 and 89 models.

I was lucky enough to get the delco CD player in mine so I left the original stereo in place and hooked up so just the clock and dimmer run, and I put a jvc kameleon in where the delco unit was, it looks like a black panel when it's shut off. I've seen some creative radio replacements in the Reattas in the area.

Looks Great!!!!Good Job!!!!

Enjoy!!!