anyone used/received an alpine iDA-X100, 200, or 300?

[fedge3]

I know people (myself included) have pre-ordered these decks, and i was wondering if anyone has received theirs yet. i ordered an X300 from crutchfield, and i am eagerly waiting for it to arrive. just hoping there's someone out there who has had a chance to play with one.

[ethanwa]

I too am wondering this. I want to hear about the differences in use between a
iDA-X100 and a iDA-X001.

[cevtv]

The X100 isn't out until March 4th.

[fedge3]

i just installed an X300 in my VW Passat and I really like it. The iPod integration is pretty slick, and it looks really good in my dash. i will try and post some pics within the next week

[Welshchris]

I just installed an IDA-X100 today - and I'm bloody impressed.

I've never used the previous model so I can't compare speed etc., but using my 80gb Classic the access to all ipod menus and sub menus is lightning fast, virtually as quick as usuing the ipod scrollwheel. When a track is selected there is no real delay before playback starts.

Sound quality is top drawer too, but again I'm not able to compare with the previous model.

This unit was obtained in the far east, and installed in the UK. Prospective Ebay buyers please note that the far-eastern model doesn't support RDS for FM radio in the UK, apart from that everything is perfect.

I'll try to post a video tomorrow of the thing in operation so that you can see the speed.

Chris

[Welshchris]

As promised here's a short video of my new IDA-X100 in operation - you can see how fast it scrolls through artists / playlists etc.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRku-VttOHw

Hope it manages to give you a flavour of how good it is.

Chris

[hamz9561]

Does anyone know if any of these models will play the video on their displays?

[ethanwa]

Anyone here using the X100 with an iPhone? Does the album art look crisp and full on the display, or are there black bars on the bottom and right side of the album art (a problem that occurs in X001)?

Thanks.

[Wavey_Davey]

Anyone here using the X100 with an iPhone? Does the album art look crisp and full on the display, or are there black bars on the bottom and right side of the album art (a problem that occurs in X001)?

Thanks.

I have the X001 and that problem only occurs when you have used a poor image in iTunes / downloaded with track information from iTunes. You can replace images in iTunes with better images of your preference using right click on the Tracks and the option called something like "Edit Information". I've done it myself. You can add in missing art, update any you are unhappy with etc. The bars can arise on top / sides if the image used is not perfectly square to fit the square screen dimensions. Fuzzy images are caused by poor resolution original images imported into iTunes.

With a little time and effort you can make the X001 display albums just fine. But with a lot of albums - it may take a while if you are fussy about the best quality.

HTH.

[cualexander]

I just got an X100 and installed it myself tonight. Wow! Normally I am hesitant about headunits that take over control from the ipod(my sony one was annoying) but not this one. It interfaces with the ipod perfectly. The scrolling is fast and easy with the big scroll wheel. My initial concern was alleviated by reading the manual. I was hoping there was an easier way to scroll through lots of artists and I discovered you can do it by alphabet, so if I want to find Pearl Jam, I press the outer ring of the knob in and hold it to the right until it scrolls to P. Very easy. There are some other fast searching options as well, such as by Percentage where it breaks down the list into Percentages you can scroll to. I like alphabet personally though. I can find any song on my ipod in a matter of seconds by Playlist, Artist, Album, Genre, Composer, Podcast, Audiobooks or Song. You can turn off the options in the menu so that it just shows the ones you want. I have most of them turned off just showing Playlist, Artist, Album. Just about the only feature this doesn't have that the iPod does is the on-the-go playlist, unless I've missed that somewhere, but thats not really a big deal to me.

The display is great, very colorful. The album art looks really nice, and when you don't have album art it just displays an Alpine Icon. You can customize the wallpaper which is a cool feature. I haven't uploaded my own custom one yet though.

The sound quality is great in my opinion. There aren't a lot of EQ options, but I personally like this because too many EQ options causes me to constantly tweak things. I don't feel the need to with this headunit though. The imprint technology sounds cool and I may upgrade to that. It sounds good using either my 5th Gen Video Ipod or my iPhone. My iphone tells me its not officially supported but it works fine anyhow, cover art and all.

I'm still waiting to find a major flaw with this headunit. I don't miss the lack of CD player at all because whenever I get a new CD, I just rip it to iTunes anyhow, and if I am somewhere with wireless I can grab tunes off the iPhone itunes store and instantly play them in my car.

If anyone has any questions about this unit let me know and I can try to answer them.

[fobfob]

I have an X001 and these are my questions regarding the X100:

Can you view or change the song rating? (ie. number of stars)

Does it scroll the album and/or artist names if they don't fit on the screen? Is the font any smaller or are they still using a giant font that can only fit 5 letters on the screen?

When selecting next track, do you have to wait for a lame "pseudo typing" style animation to display the song title or does it just come up straight away?

Do they still have a totally useless icon on the left hand side of the screen when scrolling lists so that you can only see 6 letters of each item?

Do you still have to use the magic short, fragile IPOD<->USB cable or can you use any dock cable?

Is there any reasonable way to get out of the phone menu other than cycling power or going to a completely different mode (FM/etc)?

When cycling through modes (USB/FM/etc) do you still have to go through the Bluetooth audio screen even if you don't have a bluetooth audio device?

Are there direct buttons for radio presets or do you have to fumble with a menu to see them (if have to fumble, can you at least see them all on one screen or do you have scroll it too)?

Can you have more than 6 presets? Can you name presets instead of having to view the circa 1985 style frequency only?

Can you download more than one wallpaper at a time? Can you choose any wallpapers other than a very small selection downloadable from a clunky Alpine website?

These are but a few of the problems with the X001. They are mostly software bugs. I see that Alpine have learnt that there's no money in bug fixes. Bug fixes go into new hardware, which can then be sold to the same chumps over again. Where have I seen that before... oh yeah...

[akawoz]

I've recently installed an IDA-X100 and have an issue which I can't find mentioned in any of the forums - love the bleeding edge eh?!

I connect a 16GB iPod Touch to the Alpine IDA-X100. If I navigate to an artist that only has the one album (so it doesn't prompt you for an album name, but instead jumps straight to the song list) on the iPod the tracks listed on the headunit are sorted alphabetically, not by track number.

If the artist has more than one album, then the tracks listed under each album follow the track numbering correctly.

The tracks on the iPod itself are sorted correctly (by track number).

I plugged my girlfriends 4G iPod Nano in, that works fine on the Alpine headunit, all tracks are sorted by track number.

I'm hoping someone else with a 16GB iPod Touch and an Alpine IDA-X100 can do a quick test to see if this is a problem. In the meantime I will try to contact Alpine support and report the problem.

Cheers!

[akawoz]

Thought I should contribute, here are the answers to your questions above fobfob

I have an X001 and these are my questions regarding the X100:

Can you view or change the song rating? (ie. number of stars)
No

Does it scroll the album and/or artist names if they don't fit on the screen? Is the font any smaller or are they still using a giant font that can only fit 5 letters on the screen?
There are two types of scrolling plus option to not scroll. Not sure about font size, look at the screen shots on the web. First scrolling option is smooth scroll, second is jump-scrolling by word. It scrolls the top line first, then the second line and so on.

When selecting next track, do you have to wait for a lame "pseudo typing" style animation to display the song title or does it just come up straight away?
Still has the typing animation, but its very quick and the song does start playing straight away

Do they still have a totally useless icon on the left hand side of the screen when scrolling lists so that you can only see 6 letters of each item?
wow, you really don't like the X001 do you? Yes they still have this icon, I agree that it is a waste. Although they use this space for the new scrolling by letter or percentage display.

Do you still have to use the magic short, fragile IPOD<->USB cable or can you use any dock cable?
Can't answer this one, I used the cables it came with; which includes a USB extension cable with a thumbscrew and the 6 inch iPod USB cable. Since one of them ends in a standard USB socket you should be able to use any iPod cable, maybe I'm wrong.

Is there any reasonable way to get out of the phone menu other than cycling power or going to a completely different mode (FM/etc)?
Don't have the Bluetooth option fitted

When cycling through modes (USB/FM/etc) do you still have to go through the Bluetooth audio screen even if you don't have a bluetooth audio device?
Again no Bluetooth so haven't seen this

Are there direct buttons for radio presets or do you have to fumble with a menu to see them (if have to fumble, can you at least see them all on one screen or do you have scroll it too)?
You can see them all on one screen

Can you have more than 6 presets? Can you name presets instead of having to view the circa 1985 style frequency only?
No, still can't name the presets, there are 6x presets per band (FM1, FM2, AM)

Can you download more than one wallpaper at a time? Can you choose any wallpapers other than a very small selection downloadable from a clunky Alpine website?
Unknown

These are but a few of the problems with the X001. They are mostly software bugs. I see that Alpine have learnt that there's no money in bug fixes. Bug fixes go into new hardware, which can then be sold to the same chumps over again. Where have I seen that before... oh yeah...

If you are not happy with the product you should sell it. It is the best iPod car head unit I have come across - which says more about the infancy of the market than anything.

[rcs1]

I've recently installed an IDA-X100 and have an issue which I can't find mentioned in any of the forums - love the bleeding edge eh?!

I connect a 16GB iPod Touch to the Alpine IDA-X100. If I navigate to an artist that only has the one album (so it doesn't prompt you for an album name, but instead jumps straight to the song list) on the iPod the tracks listed on the headunit are sorted alphabetically, not by track number.



I have last year's IDA-X001 and an iPod Touch. It exhibits the same annoying behavior you're seeing regarding artists with one album.

I had hoped with the IDA-X100 they would have corrected that, but based on your experience it appears they have not.

[akawoz]

Can anyone share their (track sorting with 1x album as above) experiences on the IDA-X001 or IDA-X100 with a 5th gen iPod Classic 80 or 160 GB? If it works correctly I might need to sell my iPod Touch.

This track order thing is driving me crazy, especially on gapless albums. Cheers.

[tmdorsey]

Can anyone share their (track sorting with 1x album as above) experiences on the IDA-X001 or IDA-X100 with a 5th gen iPod Classic 80 or 160 GB? If it works correctly I might need to sell my iPod Touch.

This track order thing is driving me crazy, especially on gapless albums. Cheers.


I just tested this on my IDA-X100 with a 5th gen iPod (60GB) model and the tracks were listed in album order.

[akawoz]

thanks tmdorsey!

[fobfob]

Thought I should contribute, here are the answers to your questions above fobfob



If you are not happy with the product you should sell it. It is the best iPod car head unit I have come across - which says more about the infancy of the market than anything.

akawoz, thanks for the info. It looks like they have made some improvements, albeit incremental.

I totally agree with your comment on the infancy of the market. However, the dilemma I face is exactly as you describe. It is the best unit out there, even though I'm not happy with it at all. If I were to sell it, it would be a backward step to poorer integration. So I'm kinda stuck in a grumpy love-hate state.
Although some of my gripes might be irrelevant to the average user, I still think that, for example, only being able to see 6 or so letters of each title when scrolling through a list, surely must be a show stopper to anyone who would actually think about it before buying. On the other hand, without competition there is little incentive for Alpine to improve it. It ticks the boxes (sorta), so in it goes.

Off topic, my 5th Gen Ipod had no issues with the X001 but my new 16G Iphone certainly does. Occasional audio glitches and strange things (it plays but no sound, or stuck on pause & have to reboot car and iphone). In this instance I'm not convinced that the Alpine is at fault, it's probably both/neither Alpine and Apple. Lack of testing with a niche product. Hopefully those issues will be resolved in time. But then if you look at Bluetooth issues, which has been out for yonks, who's to say? I will look at the single album problem.

[jayz606]

Hey guys. Long Time iAddict, first time poster. lol. Anyways, I had been considering buying the x-001 for awhile. I originally had a CDA - 9856 in my truck, nothing amazing but it did the job well and had some decent options for the price (navigation was clunky at first but I got used to it). The other day I happen to be in Visions and spotted it on for 360, I cracked and bought it seeing as I haven't even used the CD player on my 9856 since I got an ipod. Anyways, I swapped the deck out in the parking lot, the connectors are the same and I was rolling. I didn't even make it home and I knew I didn't like the deck. I wanted to but didn't. Not crossover settings, nadda, very basic, so basic in fact that my $200 9856 had more options on it. I ended up phoning Alpine where their rep says "Well the iDA x100 is available in your area and it has every single thing you asked for." Say what?????? I phoned Visions instantly, they don't have any x100's in stock, 2 weeks away. I phone Best Buy, sure enough they have 10. Returned the x100 and went straight to Best Buy, slammed the new one into the dash. POW!!!!!!!!! I'm in love! Everything I wanted, being that I have a regular cab full size truck crossovers, slopes and levels are CRUCIAL to me and this deck seems to deliver so far. Haven't had much time to mess with the fine tuning but so far ME LIKEY. lol One thing I'll give you guys a warning about is that older ipods require a different cable than what is provided in the box. I have 2 Pods, an older 4G Mini and a brand new 4 G nano. If you do want to use your old ones you'll need the Full Speed Cable. But yeah, I recommend it. The interface is improved alot over the 001 quite a bit even from what I can tell given 24 hrs with the 001 but the x100 runs just like an iPod, will do evrything the average audio addict wants and isn't gonna break your wallet.

[LeftoverPenguin]

Hey, anyone try this with the new sixth gen Classic? I currently have a first gen 4GB Nano that the iDA-100 manual says it supports, but I was looking into getting something bigger. Just wondered if there were any major problems with it, otherwise I'd probably get the fifth gen to go with this thing.

Really looking forward to this deck.

[JackDaniel69]

What I'm wondering is has anyone tried to upload any background images to the X100 downloaded from alpine's i-personalize website?? I've tried doing this a few times with mine, downloading the images to a thumb drive but I can't get the images to show. Songs will play off the thumb drive, no problem, so i know its reading it. Anyone else have a problem with this? Any possible solutions?? Other than this the deck works great, both with my iphone and my Ipod Classic.

[Lakeman]

I'm having the same problem with the images. I can see the file names on my X100 but can not get them to display. Everything else works great with my Classic 160.

Keith

[akawoz]

Hey everyone, well I got so sick of the weirdness with my iPod Touch and the X100 that I went out today and got an 80GB Classic.

There are quite a lot of small things that are now working, that I didn't even realise were bugs:

- track listing with single albums works fine (as expected)
- podcasts have a slightly different display on the headunit - shows the date
- FF or RW works properly, gets faster the longer you hold it
- if I am halfway through a podcast (or very very long song) and I hit PREV it now jumps to the start of the current podcast/song - not to the previous podcast/song in the album. This used to cause me a lot of hassle - since podcast listening position is remembered, there was no way to get back to the start without holding down the PREV button on the headunit for a very long time, or taking the iPod out and using its interface.
- the screen on the ipod displays the Alpine logo, as well as the current track playing, with an "OK to disconnect" message. With the iPod touch, it kinda lets you use it, but occasionally would give accessory connected message.

Anyway, I'm sure there will be more, but thats my lot so far.

[mrinstall]

What did you pay for your iDA-X100 and where did you purchase it? Thanks to all that answer.

[Evangion]

Just purchased this unit a week back off eBay. Awesome with a better search as compared to the X001.

Only gripes? Lack of IMPRINT means EQing it is pretty lame. FONT SIZE! The fonts are HUGE. Wish I could have an option of small, medium and large.

Wish there was a way to feedback to Alpine, lol.

[spacemanspiff77]

I just purchased the X100 yesterday for the wife's 4Runner. So far, I'm really liking it, but there are some things I wish they would change.

1. Option to remove the album art icon to see more of the song information

2. Smaller fonts to see more song information.

3. RDS information for FM radio.

The big improvement however, is the way that you push the center button for ENTER instead of a separate ENTER button like on the X001.

[Bitgod]

Yeah, really wish it had RDS.

[timsearle]

Hi all, I'm looking at buying one of the 2 Alpine units, either the IDAX001 or it's successor IDAX100. They seem to suit me (ipod/radio for me, usb drive for the kids), & i love the look, i'm an artwork sucker!

The guy i spoke to said that the original version (IDAX001) was actually better than it's successor. His only real reason he could give me was the fact that the jogwheel on the 001 was progressive; the more you turn it the faster the search. He said that the new model 100 had a jogwheel that would only scroll at one speed, resulting in long frustrating waits to scroll thru a large collection.

Anyone compared these 2 units? Any other improvements on the X100. I've gotta make a quick decision on these so would appreciate any help.

[mattmill]

Will the X100 put an original iPhone into airplane mode?

matt

[techrookie]

timearle,
Buy the x100.

Don't wast your time with the x001 like I did. The x100 has also the quick search-pressing in the outer ring of the jogwheel.

They improved the functionality from the x001 to the x100. I had sound problems with the x001. It sounded muffled and couldn't adjust the setting to make it better.

So I returned it for the x100.

I haven't bought the IMPRINT for the x100, so I can't tell if will improve the sound quality.

I still hate the preset buttons for the radio on both but I live with it.

[timsearle]

Thanks techrookie, i did buy the x100 last week. I'm very happy with it so far ('cept for changing radio stations, lol). I'm going on a long trip soon, so i'm looking forward to giving it a proper test run.