I just got my 8443 installed, replacing an Alpine 9813. Man, what a
difference in SQ. Much more details I hear now with the 8443 than the
Alpine and I get much better sub bass

I listened to the 9813 late last year, and opted to pass it up while I waited
for the 9815 and Eclipse's new decks to come out. The 9815 is a huge step over
the 9813, without costing much more, and it adds Bass Engine Pro. But I
listened to the 8443 aganist the 9815 and Pioneer's Premier DEH-P940MP (which
dealers want over $700 for!) and found that the Eclipse seemed to reproduce the
best sound. If Mark is reading these posts, he'll probably remind me of Car
Sound's article which I guess claims that there shouldn't be an audible
difference between decks, but I certainly heard one. The 8443's 24 bit D/A
converter and advanced processing seems to make a lot of difference. In fact, I
prefer the way it sounds to Nakamichi's decks, and found it on level with
Pioneer's P9 competition deck. I have yet to hear Alpine's F#1 Status deck
(which I hear isn't anywhere near worth the money they want for it, unless you
plan on using it to head-up a multimedia showcase in your car) but I can't
imagine the difference is all that big.