I would say that it is not a waste of money as long as you have a subwoofer at least. I have a 9833 which is very similar. The internal amp on the Head Unit is stong and the time correction, crossover settings, and parametric EQ are all very useable if you use the internal amp. The parametric EQ only has an adjustment range of +/- 6 db compared to +/- 12 or 14 db on most other Alpine head units. This is all you need and allows finer control if you have a decent full range system that doesn't need dramatic correction. It's not quite enough range to get a lot of bass out of small speakers though.