iLounge

1

Uhh…I just looked at the demonstration…8 steps to play a song?

I’d much rather have the deck work as simply an amplifier, and have the iPod’s line out running to it and be charged.

Posted by minty on January 8, 2005 at 7:51 AM (PST)

2

It appears ALPINE has not updated their site with their 05’ units. They are suppose to be better now. Although I do have limited experience with the 04’ units are they are reasonably easy to use.  Pluse the media expander really sounded alot better imo.

Posted by R.C. on January 8, 2005 at 2:15 PM (PST)

3

I’ve heard a lot of critisism of the 04 models, because the UI was complicated, plus it would take you forever to scroll through all your songs or artists, and some would not even be listed due to a limitation of how may the head unit would list. I wonder if these issues have all been addressed in the new units.

Posted by brad the k in SF Bay Area on January 9, 2005 at 12:15 PM (PST)

4

I saw the demo on the alpine web, its interesting, BUT i think the same as minty, the first comment: It’s dangerous MORE here in Quebec province with our bumpy roads! TOO MANY operations, my wife will screem afraid if i would drive and doing 4 or 5 operations to get a song!

Posted by angelito in Québec, Canada on January 9, 2005 at 4:52 PM (PST)

5

The IVA-D310 repairs everything that seemed to ail the D300, such as accessing beyond the first 255 songs, allowing repeat play, including a remote, slightly (ever so) quicker access of the songs, iPod icon (instead of being listed under the CD-Changer input), and proper categorizing of the playlists, albums, and artists (rather than listing them under Disc 1, 2, and 3).

When looking at the D310, the rep told me that Alpine listened to its customers about what problems the D300 had and fixed it up in the next version. Then I asked if there was anything that Alpine could do for the early adopters who apparently paid to beta-test the products that they took input from, he said there was nothing for us.

I can’t help but feel like a guinea pig.

Posted by SPtheALIEN on January 10, 2005 at 7:57 AM (PST)

6

Also, Pioneer and Clarion’s version of the iPod ready multimedia head unit required more steps to get to the songs, but Clarion’s solution was faster. For instance, if you held your finger on the scroll down button long enough, it scrolled in larger chunks. However, the text was very small. The Pioneer looked and it was very intuitive, but it required more steps than the Alpine. The Alpine MMS interface is the nicest solution, I will give Alpine that, but they need to help out the customers who already bought there stuff but were sold products that weren’t quite ready for market and did not warn the customers about the issues.

Posted by SPtheALIEN on January 10, 2005 at 8:00 AM (PST)

7

I finally installed the Alpine with ipod interface, Oh! It’s a marvelous sound quality even this week play at minus 41 below 0 Celsius! In the bumpy roads it never skip, its fast to go from a song to another one, the sound is the same quality than a CD. Alpine is genious, and quality.

Posted by angelito in Québec, Canada on January 28, 2005 at 7:05 PM (PST)

8

Does the display support unicode?
The old alpine doesnt , all Trad/Simplify chinese, korean becomes funny characters…

Ipod is the only mp3/music portable player that truely support unicode…. That’s why I dun like the ipod suffle…..

Posted by uccoffee in 8Mile Plains-Brisbane-Australia on March 23, 2005 at 6:42 PM (PST)

9

Just got the Alpine installed.  Love the display and sound.  Only complaint is that if your ipod is quite full, it’s almost impossible to scroll through by artist or song, takes too long.  Really need to just use playlists or shuffle/mix.

Unless someone knows a way?  Advice appreciated.

Posted by gpavlovic on May 2, 2005 at 7:59 AM (PST)