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"Eye-catching, beautiful design, but flawed in execution" on by ellipsian--2008
Pros: Attractive all around; iPod-like interface...
Cons: ...But interface not iPod-like enough; search function overly complicated
Summary: There's no question that I love this deck for its main purpose: my iPod plays through my car speakers flawlessly. The bottom line is that I don't have to deal with an FM tuner or any other kind of complicated, less-than-perfect connection--my music sounds wonderful.
And the deck is stunning. Brilliantly lighted, with its exquisite, large screen, it will certainly complement any vehicle. Displaying the album art is less important than I thought it would be, yet the presentation is excellent.
But I hope you're someone who doesn't mind shuffling your music, because good luck trying to drive and find the exact artist/album (or heaven forbid: song!) you want. I'm may be lucky enough to have a full 5G 80 Gig iPod, but it's a double-edged sword in conjunction with this deck, as the search function leaves much to be desired.
The main problem is that the iPod's scroll wheel is quick and easy to use; the center dial on the Alpine iDA-X001 is neither. To find specific music, you'll be taking your eyes off the road for an inordinate amount of time, not to mention keeping only one hand on the wheel as you wait for the too-slow search function. The center button should also, intuitively, serve as the 'Enter' button, which is placed on the side and is awkward to use.
I also don't appreciate that only the song's title scrolls (and CNET is right: the scrolling is waaaay too slow); why? The album title and artist name are often cut off and should scroll in the same way as the song's does.
Overall, the Alpine iDA-X001 looks great and does, very well, what it should: play your iPod. Just don't be expecting iPod-like perfection this time around...you'll have to search to find it, which will take a long, long time to find. And maybe cause a car accident while you're at it. -
"A nice shift in the the car audio paradigm...but there's a lot of work left." on by LSUConnMan
Pros: Complete headunit-ipod functionality
Cons: Controls are slow and cumbersome
Summary: I was putting off the replacement my older Alpine headunit for quite some time. When I saw the x001 was released I figured it was time to pull the trigger.
Although I was a little set off by the fact there was no cd-player it didn't bother me because I never use CDs...what I was disturbed by was the small display. After the unit was installed this would become my biggest gripe with the unit. The display only shows six lines at a time, and it shows very few characters across. It's extremely annoying searching for music. The problem's magnified by the fact that only the song title will scroll. If you have an artist that fits into several categories, it's downright frustrating, i.e. Dave Matthews, Dave Matthews Band, Dave Matthews & Tim Reynolds, etc...well then your display will show five lines of "Dave Matthe" The only way to effectively listen to music is to play an entire artist at one time, or listen to the playlists. Also while the display's nice and crisp...it's still no match for a sunny day.
The navigation functions don't make matters any better. It often takes a painful amount of time time between such things as pressing the ">>" button and waiting for the song to change. Many issues could've been alleviated if everything was done with the scroll wheel...like the ipod itself does. But for some reason Alpine found it necessary to make you use the enter button and other buttons for navigation.
Finally, past the ergonomics of the system, the unit's solid. If you have a high-end system, you may get frustrated with sound quality (especially bass/treble response) because there's definitely a noticeable difference in sound quality from using compressed MP3 files and and a CD. But as far as I know, there's not much that can be done about that. But if you're using a high quality transferred MP3 the sound is great, and the one function ipod got right on this system was a simple "audio" button which quickly and easily allows you to adjust your subs, bass, and treble....which has been extremely painful on the other Alpine's I've owned.
On a side note this is my 4th alpine unit and the first one that didn't come with a remote. While the older remotes will work, they're extremely limited in their functionality. For $400, it shouldn't be an optional accessory.
In sum, If all your music's on an Ipod, this is definitely the route to pursue. Even then, if your happy with the head unit you currently have...I'd just wait a year to get the second generation model, or the copy cat models that will work out the simple kinks and will quickly turn this from a 7/10 to a 10/10 -
"Fantastic search features! Load up your 80 gig iPod!" on by turkeystyle
Pros: Excellent search; fast USB connection speed
Cons: Connection is more prone to errors than slower Full Speed
Summary: I've been drooling over this head unit since February. I had the Alpine 9856 and found its search features extremely lacking for my 80 gig iPod. The 9856's search wheel was free spinning and only turned through one item at a time. To find an artist starting with "M" took far too many turns of that tiny little wheel, and an album or song search literally required a parking spot.
My solution: load up no more than 15 to 20 gigs. Quite a waste of an 80 gig iPod.
The iDA-X001 solved all those problems with the jog wheel. All the reviewers saying that its search functionality is too slow have no clue what they're talking about. To go from "A" to "M" (or "Z" to "N") takes no more than about six seconds on my iPod that's now fully loaded with 74 gigs of music. The digital sound coming through the USB connection is definitely improved over my previous Alpine's Full Speed connection, and the album art view is gorgeous (provided your saved art is of sufficient quality. The best art I've found is at rateyourmusic.com.)
That said, I have experienced two connection issues. Once, I could search but not play any music. A reconnect of the iPod remedied the problem immediately. More disturbing on another occasion, however, my ipod actually froze up when I started my car. It had to be completely reset (menu+center button). So far, these have proven to be isolated incidents and the unit almost always performs without issue.
I'm still extremely impressed with this product. It absolutely fixed every issue I've had with previous Alpine/iPod incarnations, and the album art view is perfect for those as anal as me about maintaining their digital music library. -
"Good iPod integration; terrible human factors on interface" on by Amar Shan
Pros: Fast and seamless iPod interaction
Cons: Poor User interface, poor radio reception
Summary: Alpine makes much of their collaboration with Apple on the production of the x001. Given this, I expected the high level of perfection in the user interface that we have come to expect of Apple. Not so!!!
The Good: the iPod integration works well. All the different ways of accessing your music are present, and the access to the iPod is fast. Setup is quite straightforward, as well.
The Bad: quite a bit, actually.
1. Display is too small, and not well laid out. Album artwork is hard to see; titles inevitably go off the end. There probably is enough screen real estate to do a much better job, but it's not well laid out.
2. Aesthetics: let's face it, when you buy an aftermarket deck, you want it to look sexy and tightly integrated in your vehicle! However, you can't: (1) adjust colour of display and backlit buttons to other than red/blue; (2) change the wallpaper to your own picture - you have to use Alpine's.
3. Layout of interface - poor. You constantly expect certain behaviours - that pushing the center button will "Enter" your selection (not so, you have to push a separate enter button); that pushing the >> and << buttons would take you to the next station while listening to the radio (not so; they are manual tuning only); that when you select Preset, it will highlight the station you're listening to, so that you can select the next or previous station easily (not so; it always gives you the first station in the list), etc.
4. Radio - reception is poor.
5. Faceplate removal is fiddly, requiring wiggling of the faceplate to disengage.
Overall, I'm not impressed at all. -
"Great Unit!" on by ajelder01
Pros: Great IPod integration; USB reads flash drives; Awesome display
Cons: Enter button not strategically located; Presets buried
Summary: Overall this unit is awesome. The iPod integration works great, not much lag on the menus. The fact that it supports any USB device is excellent. I was a little apprehensive of the fact it does not have a cd player, however after thinking about it I have probably played a total of 5 actual cd's in the past 5 years, so I am not worried about it anymore. The jog wheel works well, however the "Enter" button should be located in the center of the jog wheel and the "Search" where the "Enter" is located. The other con is the radio presets are buried in the menu which doesn't bother me too much as I have a remote which eliminates this problem. The screen is "Beautiful". A little hard to see in direct sunlight but that hasn't been a major issue. The album art is a cool feature though it is not a necessity (a wow feature to show your friends). I saw one review which stated it was hard to find music on larger iPod's. I would agree with that however I just created playlists and use the shuffle function which works fine. I can deal with those occasions in which I have to find a song I want. If you hold the jog wheel to one side it cycles through the songs pretty fast but can be cumbersome while driving.
In summary I love it so far. You will have to deal with the above cons though witch some people won't want to since the unit costs so much.
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