I want to switch to an Alpine CDA-9855, but I'd like to keep the stock Monsoon speakers. Will I still have the same sound quality as I do right now, or will it degrade because of the speakers? Thanks a lot for the help!

 

It will be better. The monsoon head unit is a normal head unit, and it sends pretty weak, distored speaker outputs to the amp. When you replace it with a decent aftermarket head unit (with speaker outputs) the sound improves, especially at high volumes.

 

Awesome, that's what I wanted to hear

 

do you want your steering wheel controls to work? I have the adapter for you if you do...PM me if you are interested. I am pretty sure it works with the 9855. I will make sure.

It is the Pac SWI ALP and Alpine Models that will be able to use the SWI-ALP are: CDA-D853, CDA-D855, CDA-D857, CDA-9851, CDA-9853, CDA-9855, DVA-9865 and DVA-9860

 

Actually, I already have them, but thanks for the offer. Wish I would have seen this post before I bought it :-/

 

It will be better but not by much. The Monsoon speakers and amp are weak. You might get better functionality and features with a new HU but you won't get much better sound. It won't sound worse though either.

 

Yeah I just wanted to make sure it wouldn't sound worse, but I didn't think it would since the speakers are run off an external monsoon amp. I will upgrade to a component system in the future, but I really wanted to be able to use my iPod on my 98. Thanks for the help, fellas!

 

i have that same head unit in my TA and i will make the system sound better, not by a huge amount but enough that u will notice the difference.