Now come on people...now we are just making straight generalizations......and that's not good. Has anyone here really a/b'ed these type X's.....I'm guessing a few of us maybe.

I have yet to hear these new Alpine Type X speakers. If you take a good look at the design, it appears that Alpine has done their homework....Why can't alpine make good speakers...because they have specialized in Heads for so long? If the answer is yes...then you believe in marketing and follow perceptions....remember people, listen with your ears not your eyes!!!

I'd say that calling the F1 status the best out there period point blank is a bit close minded as well. (The same goes for anyone who calls Brand X the best.) I'm not discounting the performance of the piece, but again there are more options out there for a CD transport/DAC/processor.

In the scheme of realworld budgets, is Alpine a respected brand...YES. They have been building heads forever. Are there other companies that can provide the same or better performance...sure there are. Can they do it for the same $$$...depends on what is important to you.

1. Looks - personally I think 90% of the market is disgusting looking
2. Features...do you really care about that bass-engine crap?
3. Delaer/MFG support - do you have to go over the net, or can you go down the street if you have a problem
4. Prestige...oohh look I have a Brand Y head unit, and these speakers.

Back to the guy calling the Alpines the "Rolex" of car audio ....let me guess...he had a big bright shiny wall of alpines to sell you didn't he? He probably would have made some money had he sold you one of those Alpines wouldn't he? What else did he carry? Probably not too many other high end brands......

The bottom line, most people can't tell the difference between two headunits if they are setup properly....I'm not saying there are not differences. But when you really break it down...work on getting your speakers setup right, get your cars sounddeadened, and set your gains/crossovers first before you worry about the differences between an Alpine and Brand Z. There are much larger gains to be made elsewhere then in this category....

Keep in mind...most of us don't compete, most of us listen to our systems with the windows down (well not at this time of the year) and the tunes blasting while going 80 down the freeway or with it raining outside....now last time I checked...that's not exactly the best arena to judge the intricies of headunit performance....now is it?

Again, that's just my $0.02 of blabbing.....