Alpine IDA-X100

[kev12345]

Has anyone bought the new 2008 IDA model? i have the original ida-x001 and i've always felt it had too many flaws for the price but nonetheless the best in car ipod solution at the time.

I guess i'm wondering if they fixed the original problems.

1- screen glare... from the images of the new deck it looks like the exact same screen so i'm assuming this has not been fixed.

2- Lack of preset radio station buttons (the biggest flaw in my opinion)... again, from the images of the new deck there are still no preset buttons for radio stations. you don't realize how annoying it is to not have a quick button to push to get to a station rather than having to dig through the UI while driving. (can be dangerous at times).

I'm assuming the new IDA models are compatible with the iphone 3g. can anyone confirm this?

[Bitgod]

I just got a X100 installed today, I was ready to give it a grade of A, until I may have found one pain-in-the-arse fault.

So first off, I can't really grade it on glare yet, I haven't used it much yet. And I can't compare it to the X001, but I can compare it to my old ipod controlling Pioneer unit, and this fixes just about every problem I had with it. I can now search by letters, so having more than 20 artists isn't a major pain now. And I totally love that it has a play/pause button that works, my Pioneer didn't do that, and there were many times I wish I could pause playback instead of just muting.

The lack of a CD player I didn't hold against it. In the grand scheme of things, I'd like to have one for backup, but honestly, I don't think I've played a CD in my car in 2 years, so it's nothing I have to have. Same thing with having 12 FM presets instead of 18 on other radios, more is better, but I rarely used more than 6 anyway, so again no biggie. I haven't used it enough to see if the preset setup is going to annoy me, but I could see where it's a problem. My Pioneer didn't have preset buttons, but I could flip up and down the presets with an up and down switch if I didn't want to do the "press a button then scroll" option. If they could add a feature via firmware, I'd have it so that if you push in on the ring and turn it, that that would scroll through presets.

The minor things that I did hold against it, and thus lowered the grade, were for a unit that's nearing the high-end of non-big screen head units, I find the lack of built-in EQ (sorry Alpine, I don't consider a "2-band parametric EQ" as much) and 2v outputs to be a bit cruddy. Most of the other radios in that range have more bands than that, and often more power. One of the reasons I got the Pioneer I was using was that it has 4v outputs and I think something crazy like a built-in 15 band graphic EQ. These drawbacks can be fixed if you want to spend another $149, which I did, on the H100 audio processor, it gives you a 7-band graphic /5-band Parametric EQ and 4v outputs, plus some more advanced sound settings to play with.

As far as working with a 3G phone, the answer is YES, as far as it will charge the phone and you can play music from it. The phone still sees it as an unsupported device and will ask you if you want to turn on the airplane mode. I can live with that, my main music source is a 5th gen ipod, my phone is just for backup if I forget to bring the ipod.

The one flaw I just found as I was getting to know my new radio tonight is quite a pain, I hope I'm missing something, or that maybe it could be fixed with a firmware update (not that I know of any updates ever coming from Alpine, this is my first Alpine). So my phone has say a dozen artists in it, one album each. So if I go into the menu, and choose artist, if there's only one album, it just shows me the songs and not the album. Not a big shocker, my ipod does that too. The thing is, the songs were out of order! They were listed alphabetically instead of their proper track order. I compared this against the same album on my ipod to confirm this. Now I found, if instead of searching by artists, I search in albums, then choose the album I want, THEN the songs are listed in their proper playing order. %@$!#! I'm going to check with Alpine on this.

If it wasn't for that issue, I'd have given the X100/H100 an A after all of 2 hours of playing with it so far. Instead,I'm giving it a disappointed B+. Sorry, that song order issue is a pain, I search by artists, and I'm sure I have a lot that I only have 1 album of. I actually didn't get around to trying my ipod, so I didn't see if it does the same thing with multiple albums in an artist.

Oh, and there's one other minor nagging thing I need to ask Alpine about. There's a red light that's always on, on the face of the unit. It flickers when you're hitting buttons. Fine and dandy if it's some kind of input indicator, but why is it always on? Or better yet...Just WTH is that light indicating? I'm serious, there's no tag next to it, and I've looked all through the manual at every picture showing the faceplate, and nothing labels what that light is. Not in the reference guide either. Actually, there's even another light above the red light that's not on, at least that has "multEQ" next to it, so I'm assuming that's what the light is for. Anyway, if you're running the buttons in red mode, you won't care, because it's just one more red light and it's basically invisible. When you've got the buttons in the blue mode though....sticks out like a sore thumb. And I prefer blue.

EDIT: Ok, the grade went back to an A. It's past midnight, but I'm starting a 4 day weekend, :) so I had to go check with the ipod. The issue is apparently iphone specific, it played the songs in the correct order on my ipod. So there's 2 iphone specific quirks I've seen, that issue, and for some reason album art from an iphone looks blurry compared to the ipod, I've seen that mentioned on some forums too. I'll have to keep an eye on if any future iphone firmware updates fix that.

[Bitgod]

BTW, not to be a shill for Alpine or Best Buy, but if you're looking to see some of this in action, there's some clips on Youtube of the X100 and H100 in action, just search for them. And Best Buy sells the X100, and they do have those 10% & 12% off coupons going this weekend, so with 12% off it's almost $300. Plus I don't know if this is true for all stores, but at the one I went to today, you get 6 months no interest on $299+ on the BB card. :) Sigh, I'm a tech whore.

[Mhaddy]

For those that have the IDA-X100 deck, an iPhone 3G with firmware 2.1.2, and the high-speed iPod cable (KCE-422i), can you confirm that it will charge the iPhone? I just installed this set-up today and the iPhone will not charge, it says incompatible accessory (can't recall the exact error message right now - will dbl check tomorrow).

Thanks!

[Bitgod]

Shouldn't be using that cable, should be using the USB cable. The high-speed cable is really only for older ipods and won't give you the cover art. The USB will charge. It'll still complain about compatibility and ask if you want to put it in airplane mode, but it'll charge and play (relatively) fine.

[Mhaddy]

Shouldn't be using that cable, should be using the USB cable. The high-speed cable is really only for older ipods and won't give you the cover art. The USB will charge. It'll still complain about compatibility and ask if you want to put it in airplane mode, but it'll charge and play (relatively) fine.
Indeed, found that out today after playing with it. Thanks!

[cyberobin]

Does the head unit take total control of the iphone? Can i use any other applications or make a phone call while it's plugged in?

I just got a X100 installed today, I was ready to give it a grade of A, until I may have found one pain-in-the-arse fault.

So first off, I can't really grade it on glare yet, I haven't used it much yet. And I can't compare it to the X001, but I can compare it to my old ipod controlling Pioneer unit, and this fixes just about every problem I had with it. I can now search by letters, so having more than 20 artists isn't a major pain now. And I totally love that it has a play/pause button that works, my Pioneer didn't do that, and there were many times I wish I could pause playback instead of just muting.

The lack of a CD player I didn't hold against it. In the grand scheme of things, I'd like to have one for backup, but honestly, I don't think I've played a CD in my car in 2 years, so it's nothing I have to have. Same thing with having 12 FM presets instead of 18 on other radios, more is better, but I rarely used more than 6 anyway, so again no biggie. I haven't used it enough to see if the preset setup is going to annoy me, but I could see where it's a problem. My Pioneer didn't have preset buttons, but I could flip up and down the presets with an up and down switch if I didn't want to do the "press a button then scroll" option. If they could add a feature via firmware, I'd have it so that if you push in on the ring and turn it, that that would scroll through presets.

The minor things that I did hold against it, and thus lowered the grade, were for a unit that's nearing the high-end of non-big screen head units, I find the lack of built-in EQ (sorry Alpine, I don't consider a "2-band parametric EQ" as much) and 2v outputs to be a bit cruddy. Most of the other radios in that range have more bands than that, and often more power. One of the reasons I got the Pioneer I was using was that it has 4v outputs and I think something crazy like a built-in 15 band graphic EQ. These drawbacks can be fixed if you want to spend another $149, which I did, on the H100 audio processor, it gives you a 7-band graphic /5-band Parametric EQ and 4v outputs, plus some more advanced sound settings to play with.

As far as working with a 3G phone, the answer is YES, as far as it will charge the phone and you can play music from it. The phone still sees it as an unsupported device and will ask you if you want to turn on the airplane mode. I can live with that, my main music source is a 5th gen ipod, my phone is just for backup if I forget to bring the ipod.

The one flaw I just found as I was getting to know my new radio tonight is quite a pain, I hope I'm missing something, or that maybe it could be fixed with a firmware update (not that I know of any updates ever coming from Alpine, this is my first Alpine). So my phone has say a dozen artists in it, one album each. So if I go into the menu, and choose artist, if there's only one album, it just shows me the songs and not the album. Not a big shocker, my ipod does that too. The thing is, the songs were out of order! They were listed alphabetically instead of their proper track order. I compared this against the same album on my ipod to confirm this. Now I found, if instead of searching by artists, I search in albums, then choose the album I want, THEN the songs are listed in their proper playing order. %@$!#! I'm going to check with Alpine on this.

If it wasn't for that issue, I'd have given the X100/H100 an A after all of 2 hours of playing with it so far. Instead,I'm giving it a disappointed B+. Sorry, that song order issue is a pain, I search by artists, and I'm sure I have a lot that I only have 1 album of. I actually didn't get around to trying my ipod, so I didn't see if it does the same thing with multiple albums in an artist.

Oh, and there's one other minor nagging thing I need to ask Alpine about. There's a red light that's always on, on the face of the unit. It flickers when you're hitting buttons. Fine and dandy if it's some kind of input indicator, but why is it always on? Or better yet...Just WTH is that light indicating? I'm serious, there's no tag next to it, and I've looked all through the manual at every picture showing the faceplate, and nothing labels what that light is. Not in the reference guide either. Actually, there's even another light above the red light that's not on, at least that has "multEQ" next to it, so I'm assuming that's what the light is for. Anyway, if you're running the buttons in red mode, you won't care, because it's just one more red light and it's basically invisible. When you've got the buttons in the blue mode though....sticks out like a sore thumb. And I prefer blue.

EDIT: Ok, the grade went back to an A. It's past midnight, but I'm starting a 4 day weekend, :) so I had to go check with the ipod. The issue is apparently iphone specific, it played the songs in the correct order on my ipod. So there's 2 iphone specific quirks I've seen, that issue, and for some reason album art from an iphone looks blurry compared to the ipod, I've seen that mentioned on some forums too. I'll have to keep an eye on if any future iphone firmware updates fix that.

[Mhaddy]

You can receive phone calls while plugged in, but you must unplug the phone to do anything else with it.

[Mhaddy]

You can receive phone calls while plugged in, but you must unplug the phone to do anything else with it.
Slight update -- by pressing the home button on the phone, you can use it as you normally would - it is not "locked" in accessory mode.

[elistoughton]

Shouldn't be using that cable, should be using the USB cable. The high-speed cable is really only for older ipods and won't give you the cover art. The USB will charge. It'll still complain about compatibility and ask if you want to put it in airplane mode, but it'll charge and play (relatively) fine.

Does this go for all of the proprietary ipod cables for cars. I was looking into the Alpine iDA-X300 to use with an original iphone. So, I guess you have to use your own USB cable ... even for the Pioneer's or Kenwood's. One of the reasons i liked the alpine x300 was that it included that cable whereas others don't. But, I guess thats irrelevant.

Is there any setup that doesn't say "This accessory is not made to work with iPhone" ??

[snosrfr]

using the usb interface cable my 3g iphone does charge and i am able to access other applications while listening to music, podcasts etc... i can also listen to streamed music/media (pandora, flycast etc). another plus is that the music does pause for incoming/outgoing calls. the only problem i've encountered so far is an intermittent issue around no volume when playing from the iphone. at certain times (can't determine any consistent single cause) when i plug the iphone in the music starts but there is no volume... the initialization appears to be the same (i.e. plug it in, get the "searching" message on the deck and the "not compatible" msg on the iphone) but when the track or podcast comes up on the deck's screen it indicates that it is playing - time lapses etc... but there is no volume <sigh>

in trying to determine a root cause i have not been able to find any single consistent factor. i've tried hooking it up w/ the vehicle off, then with it on, with the deck off then on, with the iphone on then off etc... i've had the deck installed for about a week and a half and have found this intermittency to be roughly 50% of the time which sux monkey ( | ) considering the $$$ i spent.

*i also tried using the usb cable that came w/ my 3G (which does have a different pin configuration than the original ipod/iphone cable) but it threw an error on the deck and wouldn't even acknowledge the 3Giphone nor would it charge it.

-snosrfr

[snosrfr]

a couple bits from my recent experience:

when using the usb interface cable my 3g iphone does charge and i am able to access other applications while listening to music, podcasts etc... i can also listen to streamed music/media (pandora, flycast etc). another plus is that the music does pause for incoming/outgoing calls.

the only problem i've encountered so far is an intermittent issue around no volume when playing from the iphone. at certain times (can't determine any consistent single cause) when i plug the iphone in the music starts but there is no volume... the initialization appears to be the same (i.e. plug it in, get the "searching" message on the deck and the "not compatible" msg on the iphone) but when the track or podcast comes up on the deck's screen it indicates that it is playing - time lapses etc... but there is no volume <sigh>

in trying to determine a root cause i have not been able to find any single consistent factor. i've tried hooking it up w/ the vehicle off, then with it on, with the deck off then on, with the iphone on then off etc... i've had the deck installed for about a week and a half and have found this intermittency to be roughly 50% of the time which sux monkey ( | ) considering the $$$ i spent.

*i also tried using the usb cable that came w/ my 3G (which does have a different pin configuration than the original ipod/iphone cable) but it threw an error on the deck and wouldn't even acknowledge the 3Giphone nor would it charge it.

-snosrfr

[joelcade]

a couple bits from my recent experience:

when using the usb interface cable my 3g iphone does charge and i am able to access other applications while listening to music, podcasts etc... i can also listen to streamed music/media (pandora, flycast etc). another plus is that the music does pause for incoming/outgoing calls.

the only problem i've encountered so far is an intermittent issue around no volume when playing from the iphone. at certain times (can't determine any consistent single cause) when i plug the iphone in the music starts but there is no volume... the initialization appears to be the same (i.e. plug it in, get the "searching" message on the deck and the "not compatible" msg on the iphone) but when the track or podcast comes up on the deck's screen it indicates that it is playing - time lapses etc... but there is no volume <sigh>

in trying to determine a root cause i have not been able to find any single consistent factor. i've tried hooking it up w/ the vehicle off, then with it on, with the deck off then on, with the iphone on then off etc... i've had the deck installed for about a week and a half and have found this intermittency to be roughly 50% of the time which sux monkey ( | ) considering the $$$ i spent.

*i also tried using the usb cable that came w/ my 3G (which does have a different pin configuration than the original ipod/iphone cable) but it threw an error on the deck and wouldn't even acknowledge the 3Giphone nor would it charge it.

-snosrfr
I'm having trouble connecting any of my ipods to my ida-x100 HU. All of them bring up the "USB DEVICE ERROR". I'm using what's supposed to be an OEM replacement part for the Alpine supplied usb-to-ipod cable. I tried using a usb flash drive and it played without any problems.

I tried to connect my ipod to my PC using the Alpine ipod cable and it was able to sync fine. Are you able to do the same with your Alpine usb-to-ipod cable? Should I try tracking down a replacement?