I've never had a taste for the Pionner sound. That goes the same for home and car equiptment. I've had pretty much every brand out there, except for Sony. I don't need to own one to know how shitty they are. The sound quality is unrivaled from my Alpine, weather I'm using the HU amp or the preouts for driving an external amp.

I'll admit, this years flagship CDA-9857 was a little stripped down. Not as many features as I would have liked. But all that will change when I get the CDA-9887