Got the Alpine Ipod adapter for Christmas
01-03-05, 01:16 PM
#1
RX-7 Bad Ass
Thread Starter
iTrader: (55)
Got the Alpine Ipod adapter for Christmas
Hey everybody -
Having had an Ipod before I got the FD, I was dying to find the best solution to get one working in the new car. I love having ALL my music at my disposal with no big CD case
.
I found out about Alpine's new Ipod setup, and decided to go that route. I got the 9825 Alpine CD head unit to start with. Been VERY impressed with it, well built, sounds great. A few things about the interface could be a little better, but it's a good unit.
For Christmas, I got a 4th gen 20gig Ipod and the Alpine Ipod adpater. If you sign up for a year of Audible.com (which is EXCELLENT - get 2 audiobooks every month for $20, we use it like crazy) you can get $100 off an Ipod. I got mine from Crutchfield - $199 for the Ipod with free shipping. Can't beat that.
Hooking up the adapter couldn't be easier - one cable goes to the CD Changer port on the back of the head unit, then goes to the small adapter box, then there's a cable from the box that goes to the Ipod. It works with only 3rd and 4th gen Ipods with the dock connector at the bottom - my old Ipod is a 2nd gen, and it's now my wife's.
The adapter box itself is quite small - about the size of a paperback book. I put it under the driver's seat of the FD and ran the cable so I can plug the cable into the Ipod and put the Ipod in the pocket on the back of the seat.
So, the verdict? Sounds GREAT to start with. The Alpine interface is a bit clunky for working with the Ipod - they don't have anywhere near the nice interface that the Ipod does. Finding a specific song in the list of all songs could take FOREVER - the volume **** doesn't accelerate as you spin it faster like on the Ipod. Playlists are supported, so you can make a number of them and toggle through them. The Ipod is also charged while it's plugged in, and turned off when you turn off the car, so that's awesome.
Anyhow, I am happy with it. It's not cheap, but it's what I want. Cheaper would be to get a head unit with aux in and just pick your songs with the Ipod itself, although I like having it hidden in the car and not having to hide it whenever I stop the car - Ipods are magnets for thieves.
BTW, the stereo was $199, the interface was $99, and the Ipod was $199 with the Audible discount. That's $500 worth right there - definitely not cheap. But, I'm glad it's the way I want it to be.
Let me know if you have any particular questions. I could stand to run through the docs for the head unit and adapter again - there's TONS of functions, many of which are not obvious at all.
Dale
Having had an Ipod before I got the FD, I was dying to find the best solution to get one working in the new car. I love having ALL my music at my disposal with no big CD case
.I found out about Alpine's new Ipod setup, and decided to go that route. I got the 9825 Alpine CD head unit to start with. Been VERY impressed with it, well built, sounds great. A few things about the interface could be a little better, but it's a good unit.
For Christmas, I got a 4th gen 20gig Ipod and the Alpine Ipod adpater. If you sign up for a year of Audible.com (which is EXCELLENT - get 2 audiobooks every month for $20, we use it like crazy) you can get $100 off an Ipod. I got mine from Crutchfield - $199 for the Ipod with free shipping. Can't beat that.
Hooking up the adapter couldn't be easier - one cable goes to the CD Changer port on the back of the head unit, then goes to the small adapter box, then there's a cable from the box that goes to the Ipod. It works with only 3rd and 4th gen Ipods with the dock connector at the bottom - my old Ipod is a 2nd gen, and it's now my wife's
.The adapter box itself is quite small - about the size of a paperback book. I put it under the driver's seat of the FD and ran the cable so I can plug the cable into the Ipod and put the Ipod in the pocket on the back of the seat.
So, the verdict? Sounds GREAT to start with. The Alpine interface is a bit clunky for working with the Ipod - they don't have anywhere near the nice interface that the Ipod does. Finding a specific song in the list of all songs could take FOREVER - the volume **** doesn't accelerate as you spin it faster like on the Ipod. Playlists are supported, so you can make a number of them and toggle through them. The Ipod is also charged while it's plugged in, and turned off when you turn off the car, so that's awesome.
Anyhow, I am happy with it. It's not cheap, but it's what I want
. Cheaper would be to get a head unit with aux in and just pick your songs with the Ipod itself, although I like having it hidden in the car and not having to hide it whenever I stop the car - Ipods are magnets for thieves.BTW, the stereo was $199, the interface was $99, and the Ipod was $199 with the Audible discount. That's $500 worth right there - definitely not cheap. But, I'm glad it's the way I want it to be.
Let me know if you have any particular questions. I could stand to run through the docs for the head unit and adapter again - there's TONS of functions, many of which are not obvious at all.
Dale
01-03-05, 03:31 PM
#2
Nice! I have the 9833 and love it. I've been using the adaptor for around 3 months and can't say anything bad about it. Yeah its slow, but just make playlist then you don't have to go thru 3000 songs.
01-03-05, 04:39 PM
#3
i'm disrespectful to dirt
cool... i got the 9815 last year and waited months for this! i have my alpine adapter all hooked up with the cable routed to the glove box. the only problem is... i don't have an ipod! i'm just still undecided between the 20g and the mini and the craziness of the holidays didn't help.
i'm glad to hear you're enjoying your setup. and thanks for the audible discount tip... i'm looking into it right now.
i'm glad to hear you're enjoying your setup. and thanks for the audible discount tip... i'm looking into it right now.
01-03-05, 04:54 PM
#4
RX-7 Bad Ass
Thread Starter
iTrader: (55)
It really depends on how much music you're gonna have on the Ipod. I had about 6-7 gigs on my old 10gig 2nd gen Ipod, so I knew I couldn't go with an Ipod mini.
Yeah, definitely look into Audible. We've had Audible for some time now - I actually just made a new Audible account and cancelled the old one to get the promo deal. My wife has a 30-45 minute drive to work, and we make a few long car trips every year, so we really get some good use out of it. If you've never made a long car trip with an audiobook, you don't know what you're missing - really makes the time go by quick.
BTW, one thing that's way cool about Audible is you more or less own the audiobook once you download it. You can put it on your Ipod, another MP3 player, burn it to CD, listen to it on your PC, etc. Cool thing is all the books we got on the old account are still valid - I can re-download them at any time, still have them/listen to them, whatever I want. That's really cool.
Think of it this way - a typical audiobook is about $30. If you bought 2 a month, that's about $720 for 24 audiobooks. With Audible, it's $240 a year for the same thing. And, you can get $100 off an Ipod for a one year subscription. That's hard to beat.
BTW, the Audible books integrate REALLY well with the Ipod - you use their software to download the files, then import the files into Itunes. They sync right over to the Ipod and work great.
Dale
Yeah, definitely look into Audible. We've had Audible for some time now - I actually just made a new Audible account and cancelled the old one to get the promo deal. My wife has a 30-45 minute drive to work, and we make a few long car trips every year, so we really get some good use out of it. If you've never made a long car trip with an audiobook, you don't know what you're missing - really makes the time go by quick.
BTW, one thing that's way cool about Audible is you more or less own the audiobook once you download it. You can put it on your Ipod, another MP3 player, burn it to CD, listen to it on your PC, etc. Cool thing is all the books we got on the old account are still valid - I can re-download them at any time, still have them/listen to them, whatever I want. That's really cool.
Think of it this way - a typical audiobook is about $30. If you bought 2 a month, that's about $720 for 24 audiobooks. With Audible, it's $240 a year for the same thing. And, you can get $100 off an Ipod for a one year subscription. That's hard to beat.
BTW, the Audible books integrate REALLY well with the Ipod - you use their software to download the files, then import the files into Itunes. They sync right over to the Ipod and work great.
Dale
