brunnhilde's bluetooth head unit firmware update - part 2

I ended up buying a third Alpine car head unit. I have been extremely with the first I bought for Brunnhilde and the third would be installed into Isolde. I seized the opportunity for an opened-box CDE-143BT which is a refresh model of the previous CDE-133BT.

Because I don't want to live without a sound system in Brunnhilde I planned to swap out the existing CDE-133BT with the newly arrive CDE-143BT. The plan would only work if the two connectors are compatible. I noted that there are difference in the interface interconnect in the previous post. I concluded that these are immaterial in how I wired in Brunnhilde. The second potential problem is if the connector dimensions are different. Owing to the substantial relationship of the two models I wager that Alpine has little reason to change the connector. It was just an educated guess on my part.

The devil is in the details. When the new-to-me CDE-143BT arrived, I carefully compared the wiring diagrams and the physical connectors between the two units. As in my original expectation the only difference in the connectors is that the refresh model (CDE-143BT) omitted the Audio Interrupt In (the pink/black wire) on the connector. Since I didn't use this signal in Brunnhilde's installation I can safely swap the head unit without bothering to replace the connector harness (which would be a bit of a hassle).
connectivity diagrams of CDE-133BT (left) and CDE-143BT (right)

Brunnhilde is the only vehicle that I installed a subwoofer and added preamp/subwoofer outputs in the newer model would be a godsend for her.

As I wrote in the previous post car audio system has evolved significantly in the last two decades. It is very difficult to find a poorly designed or made unit if you stick with the name brands. Yet the irony is the demand for aftermarket automotive audio system had virtually collapsed. You can pick up a great head unit for under $100 USD that outperforms a system two decades ago that costed $1000. By the system I mean you will need a CD changer and an amplifier to be equivalent with the head unit that cost around $100 today.

For me I have always prefer Alpine because it never join the herd in racing to the bottom. It has always take the high road with subdued styling as well as the feature set. There were a period Sony too made car audio components that were subdued but all when to hell when the firm started the Xplod series.

a Sony Xplod head unit

I mentioned in my previous post that Alpine kept the street price of the new model the same as the previous model. When I went and look for the proof of purchase I found that I was wrong. The street price of the new CDE-143BT is $149.99 while the previous CDE-133BT was $129.99. A whopping $20 collapse of ASP (average sale price) of two successive models! How does Alpine do it? Without opening the units to compare side by side here are few things that Alpine did without making the new model less desirable. Actually there are few improvements!

CDE-143BT added crease to the sheet metal for strength; the signal identification label is bigger for improved legibility; evidently the engineer managed to shave off  bit of aluminum off the heat sink

frontal view - now much different but you can see the added creased of the sheet metal and the slight reduction of aluminum off the heat sink

 the engineers had to move the interconnect quite substantially; the new model added two RCA connectors

 the sheet metal on the side is virtually identical

 on the front there is depiction of how the removable face plate is to be inserted

 the carton of the new model is slightly smaller to shave a few pennies off

the new CDE-143BT model has reduce the silver accent on the face plate - having now seen it powered on i actually find it quite pleasing while less handsome than the previous model

For commodity consumer electronics like car audio a $20 drop in street price of a $149.99 item over 2 years make the word collapsed almost inappropriate. May be I should say the prices had tanked. No amount of value engineering and lowering of manufacturing cost can recover a whopping loss of 13% drop of ASP. I reckon that Alpine may shaved $1 off with the changes I identified. They are out $19 in just 2 years.

Alpine engineers have made incremental changes to the face plate. The new display is narrower but taller so it retains the same amount of information. As a result many buttons are enlarged due to the area gained of the higher aspect display (a gain from previously wasted space below the display). You can see that the main jog dial has shifted to the right to make room for larger buttons left of it.
the old CDE-133BT is hands down prettier for more coherent appearance and judicious use of silver accent

The new face plate look quite attractive when lit.When the unit is switched off there is no doubt the older model is more charming because of the sparing use of silver accent. Also the buttons around the main square buttons of the older model forms a rectangular grid. The new model is organized in a crucifies leaving it with a not so astute appearance. It actually takes on the design cue closer than many bluetooth head units from other brands on the market.

There are two other subtle changes. The black outer plastic trim ring around the cavity the face plate has been enlarged slightly on the new model to beef up against the inevitable struggle when one need to remove it to remove the head unit from the vehicle. For some reason Alpine remove the loudness on/off setting choice and replace it with defeat on/off. I personally prefer to have the loudness option over defeat of the 3 -band equalizer.

Without changing any electrical connections and keeping the old harness, I swapped in the newly arrived CDE-143BT in Brunnhilde and everything works. The unit now re-pairs with my iDevices and even resume with the A/V app. In the balance CDE-143BT is a worthy successor to the original model. As always in the incremental evolution you gain some and you loose some.

At the mean time I sent in the CDE-133BT that gave me error code 0000 to Alpine for update. When it return it would go into Isolde to replace a three-component audio system (head unit, CD changer, and amplifier)

When I was in stores lately seeing all the offering of Bluetooth head units offered by many brands, what stand out are the substantial similarity of feature sets. More importantly are the more the less the same physical arrangement of the face plates, as well as the design of the rear panel. It make me wonder how many of the brands utilize the same design houses and manufacturers (ODMs).