From what I hear Alpine has contracted out their manufacturing to another company I'm not sure but I think is Boss(??? not certain but don't quote me on it, it's some generic company). I don't follow stereo too much anymore, (wish I did). But just looking at the alpine headunits, their quality does look like it's gone down quite a bit. I just bought a Kenwood headunit looks pretty nice, functions great, but they could've done better with the button layout.

I'd have to go with kenwood right now. I really hope Alpine isn't contracted out.

But for speakers, only one choice, Dynaudio's