This is what I have in mind for my stereo replacement, after somebody so kindly relieved me of my Kenwood.

This baby's nice. 1-DIN. DTS/Dolby Digitial decoding for playback of, get this, DVD and DVD-AUDIO. Also CD/MP3/WMA etc. 24-Bit D/A converter.
Obviously it can take a monitor input, playstation etc. And the face is detachable.
Can anyone give me an idea on how these sound. I have a funny feeling the audio section of the better Alpines might even be better than the Kenwood I had.

Without startin a war, in my opinion high end alpine gear is way ahead of kenwood for sound quality

2nd that...keenwood aint any good anymore but JVC is the best.

I think you will find Eclipse is the best, best compentary, best supporting, but probably the least best looking, they are gettin better though.... I'm a huge fan of their amps and their subs.

Just a question. I'm looking for a safer alternative than a screen in the dash next time. Can you get headrest screens installed, where the screen itself is detachable. And can you still get those "backpack" style screens where they just hang off the headrest, and then take it out when you no longer need it?

Haven't heard anything special about the 9861...but haven't heard anything bad about them either *shrugs*.

All out SQ, I still like the old fashioned Alpine CDA-7949E, Nakamichi 45z and even the Alpine CDA-7998R - one of my original plans was to run 7998 as headunit, use a screen as a slave to a DVD player that can be controlled either by AUX from the 7998 or AiNet even...unfortunately, I bit the bullet and got an IVA-D310 to do everything...and it pretty much does - my only gripe is lack of bass engine pro (that the 7998 has).

I do see where you are coming from though - it would be nice for the DVA to do everything...if you're only worried about SQ, I think you will find the 9861 to be reasonably good.