I have owned pioneer and alpine and I literally wrote a thread up on how bad pioneer has become with there quality. Alpine is not just sticking with ipod integration they have plenty of great head units and products out there. Also it depends on which alpine head unit you buy weather or not it has built in nav or not.
Thread
DONE With Pioneer
For me when you have to worry about winning noise and how to fix it with a brand new head unit that is not right even if you installed the head unit properly.