GregV8
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- July 1, 2007
- Messages
- 362
- Reaction score
- 0
- City, State
- Long Island, NY
- Year, Model & Trim Level
- 2011 XLT
After way too long research I finally gave in and decided to get this new Alpine thing. After I first looked at it I thought it was crap, then I went to another store, tested it with my ipod and was blown away...
So here is my mini-review
I have a 30 gig iPod and it's pretty much full. In my previous 3 cars I always had some kind of ipod-integration (meaning music browsing from the headunit). This is very important to me.
When I bought the Explorer the stock HU sounded so good I decided to keep it and went with a PIE FRD03 interface. It does work but with such a big music library it was a PITA to find stuff on the pod...
So I set out on a quest: find the best HU for ipods. Priority #1 (and 2, 3...) was FAST scrolling through my Artists, Albums..
This Alpine stereo is one of the few ones that connect to your ipod from a plain simple USB plug. This means it reads the music database on the ipod, reads the music files BUT plays them internally.
The result is crazy fast scrolling!
Installation:
Since I'm in Europe I didn't want to get it from Crutchfield because FM has a different tuning here. So I just picked it up at a local store but got all the install gear from Crutchfield.
The Metra harness (70-5521) comes with open end meaning I had to buy an extra ISO harness and solder all the wires together. So I basically created my own ISO-to-Ford cable. I had to hard-wire the dimmer control and subwoofer controls. Yes, I wanted to keep the stock subwoofer!
I also got a PAC SWI-JACK steering wheel control kit ($69). It's another box with another lump of wires, pretty annoying. They had to be soldered too. I had to tap into one of the vehicle wires. A real pain in the a$$. Then it just plugs into the back of the radio (3.5 jack).
Guys be careful with the swi-jack module. It works but not as nice as I wanted. Response times are slow (press volume down and takes a second...) and it already "forgot" one of the buttons I programmed. Now I'd need to take out the whole assembly again just to reconfigure it.
With all this stuff hanging out of the back it was not easy to push the radio back in place.
Now for the features...
The big knob in the middle does NOT turn around. So it's not like the click-wheel. It is a spring loaded twist-knob which is force sensitive. i.e. there is a difference if I turn it a bit or I turn it all the way.
I actually prefer it this way because I would hate having to keep it spinning while driving. Now when I quickly want to get to the bottom of the list I just give it a hard twist and bang! it's there.
I also tested it with an external 250 GB hard disk. It kinda worked. After about a minute it just said USB error thank you goodbye... it's an old drive so maybe that's why..
When a plain USB mass storage device is connected it unfortunately does not give you the Artist/Album/Song browsing mode. (see my annoying number of posts in other threads)
Instead you can navigate your files and folders, just like on a computer. I'm not a big fan of this method because in many cases the songs are not in order, etc. I prefer my music organized.
Now for the bad:
While the display is gorgeous, it is simply unreadable in bright daylight. Even on full brightness.
Another annoyance: on all the product photos it seemed that the bottom of the screen displays current date and time all the time. Remember our Fords only have a clock on the stock stereo. Somehow, my Alpine never shows the time on the bottom. It only displays RDS radio related icons. Maybe it's a difference between Euro and US models, I don't know. But I'd like to see artist/song info AND clock at the same time. One would think 320x240 real estate would be enough for Alpine programmers but it seems they didn't manage to squeeze in that clock... instead, I get to see whether the tuner is getting an RDS signal or not... very useful ..very useful...hm..
Oh yeah: you can change the color to blue or red. Unfortunately no green. I set mine to red because blue doesn't go well with the X.
One more thing:
While the sound quality is great, I'm not sure about the woofer. The HU has very limited sound controls. None of that whacky Alpine sound wizardry. Just plain bass/treble/sub levels. I cannot set sub frequencies for example. The result is that it's getting too much highs (I think) because it doesn't sound as sharp and punchy as with the stock equipment.
So there ya go.... I give it 8 out of 10. It meets my major criteria. Now I can find a particular song while driving real quickly. As for the rest of the features.... you won't be disappointed nor extremely impressed either.
My old PIE ipod interface is for sale! It's the FRD03 (here: http://www.pie.net/pie_store/shopexd.asp?id=214&bc=no). Sells for $129 plus shipping. I want $80 shipped. Works with factory HU (need SAT button and 24-pin socket). Let me know otherwise it goes on ebay.
Alpine IDA-X001:
Will take some pix outside of my garage tomorrow..
Greg
So here is my mini-review
I have a 30 gig iPod and it's pretty much full. In my previous 3 cars I always had some kind of ipod-integration (meaning music browsing from the headunit). This is very important to me.
When I bought the Explorer the stock HU sounded so good I decided to keep it and went with a PIE FRD03 interface. It does work but with such a big music library it was a PITA to find stuff on the pod...
So I set out on a quest: find the best HU for ipods. Priority #1 (and 2, 3...) was FAST scrolling through my Artists, Albums..
This Alpine stereo is one of the few ones that connect to your ipod from a plain simple USB plug. This means it reads the music database on the ipod, reads the music files BUT plays them internally.
The result is crazy fast scrolling!
Installation:
Since I'm in Europe I didn't want to get it from Crutchfield because FM has a different tuning here. So I just picked it up at a local store but got all the install gear from Crutchfield.
The Metra harness (70-5521) comes with open end meaning I had to buy an extra ISO harness and solder all the wires together. So I basically created my own ISO-to-Ford cable. I had to hard-wire the dimmer control and subwoofer controls. Yes, I wanted to keep the stock subwoofer!
I also got a PAC SWI-JACK steering wheel control kit ($69). It's another box with another lump of wires, pretty annoying. They had to be soldered too. I had to tap into one of the vehicle wires. A real pain in the a$$. Then it just plugs into the back of the radio (3.5 jack).
Guys be careful with the swi-jack module. It works but not as nice as I wanted. Response times are slow (press volume down and takes a second...) and it already "forgot" one of the buttons I programmed. Now I'd need to take out the whole assembly again just to reconfigure it.
With all this stuff hanging out of the back it was not easy to push the radio back in place.
Now for the features...
The big knob in the middle does NOT turn around. So it's not like the click-wheel. It is a spring loaded twist-knob which is force sensitive. i.e. there is a difference if I turn it a bit or I turn it all the way.
I actually prefer it this way because I would hate having to keep it spinning while driving. Now when I quickly want to get to the bottom of the list I just give it a hard twist and bang! it's there.
I also tested it with an external 250 GB hard disk. It kinda worked. After about a minute it just said USB error thank you goodbye... it's an old drive so maybe that's why..
When a plain USB mass storage device is connected it unfortunately does not give you the Artist/Album/Song browsing mode. (see my annoying number of posts in other threads)
Instead you can navigate your files and folders, just like on a computer. I'm not a big fan of this method because in many cases the songs are not in order, etc. I prefer my music organized.
Now for the bad:
While the display is gorgeous, it is simply unreadable in bright daylight. Even on full brightness.
Another annoyance: on all the product photos it seemed that the bottom of the screen displays current date and time all the time. Remember our Fords only have a clock on the stock stereo. Somehow, my Alpine never shows the time on the bottom. It only displays RDS radio related icons. Maybe it's a difference between Euro and US models, I don't know. But I'd like to see artist/song info AND clock at the same time. One would think 320x240 real estate would be enough for Alpine programmers but it seems they didn't manage to squeeze in that clock... instead, I get to see whether the tuner is getting an RDS signal or not... very useful ..very useful...hm..
Oh yeah: you can change the color to blue or red. Unfortunately no green. I set mine to red because blue doesn't go well with the X.
One more thing:
While the sound quality is great, I'm not sure about the woofer. The HU has very limited sound controls. None of that whacky Alpine sound wizardry. Just plain bass/treble/sub levels. I cannot set sub frequencies for example. The result is that it's getting too much highs (I think) because it doesn't sound as sharp and punchy as with the stock equipment.
So there ya go.... I give it 8 out of 10. It meets my major criteria. Now I can find a particular song while driving real quickly. As for the rest of the features.... you won't be disappointed nor extremely impressed either.
My old PIE ipod interface is for sale! It's the FRD03 (here: http://www.pie.net/pie_store/shopexd.asp?id=214&bc=no). Sells for $129 plus shipping. I want $80 shipped. Works with factory HU (need SAT button and 24-pin socket). Let me know otherwise it goes on ebay.
Alpine IDA-X001:
Will take some pix outside of my garage tomorrow..
Greg
