RyanPerrella

Yeah me too, I keep going back and forth. Now I am looking for speakers again.

6mil928

That's what I was thinking. After owning these cars I think it's tough to think of not having one.

Mike B

Ryan...you SOB...I was following your stereo threads as a template for mine! I think you had the right idea...hope so, as I pretty much have the components you had.

RyanPerrella

HA HA, well at least you cant question my taste or ideas

I sold the JVC nav unit, I really have no use for nav and i dont want to sacrafice ipod control so i figure i get the head unit that was made with help from apple. I would love to have an integrated 7" screen but after seeing what keith did to his car i dont want to go that route for a car i still question wether or not i want to keep.

I love the MB Quart speakers but do think you need more then 18 RMS watts to power them so an amp was in order, but with this alpine head unit i can get 45 RMS out of it, and not have to sacrafice passenger footwell space to hide an amp. I loose 15 RMS amps but reduce the cost, reduce the need to run giant amp wiring throughout the car and wire all that stuff up, and less complex.

I also sold the sub amp i bought but still have the subwoofer but i dont want to make a box anymore so i will probably sell that as well

You want a brand new Rockford fosgate T400-4 amp for $200, let me know i need to sell mine. They go for much more on Ebay.

fraggle

I like the clarion because all my music is on miniSD cards. No iPOD for me. A bunch is actually in my phone, too (2G microSD)

Most of these things have a USB port on the front ( at least the older ones?) Do the new units have it in the back so you can do a stealth install? What about bluetooth?

RyanPerrella

allot of aftermarket head units with USB have ports in the back which you then use a standard usb cable to get the info from your storage device.

The SD card would be cool if i wasnt full invested in MAC and used windows and had MP3. Its actually quite a bargian, not sure how effective the search is on it though but SD cards can be had for $10 and thats ALL YOU NEED, well songs as well.

Po924S

Hey Ryan, I'm curious what your interior looks likes. Mind showing me some pics?

RyanPerrella

you dont want to see it currently, its a mess!

I'll take pics once i get the Alpine unit in the car. I'm also ordering some leatherique to redo the seats so will post some pics after that as well.

Po924S

Haha, ok. I'm guessing by how good your car looks from the outside, it must look good interior wise.

RyanPerrella

its getting there

Thanks

StratfordShark

Just want to clarify that if the unit reads SD cards it isn't inevitable that it only supports mp3 format.

I have a Sony unit in my S4 which reads SD cards, but it supports the AAC format I use for iTunes imports also (I'm a Mac guy too). So I can just drag albums onto the card from my iTunes folder. Currently I have a 2GB card on which I can have around 30 albums.

RyanPerrella

That would be nice but Clarion says it supports ONLY MP3's

Honestly the fact that it dosent support any other format is questionable, as well is the idea that you cant hook up an ipod to it and control it from the head unit. These are features that i think are clearly missing. The only way to use the ipod is use the RCA from the rear of the head unit and the mini Jack for the headphones which is the crap way to connect an ipod if you ask me.

Its all good though, I really like the Alpine and I found out that the place i bought it from for $250 was screwed by their supplier and the $250 price was supposed to be for the previous generation unit but they will honor the price.

I like that i wont need an amp for 45 RMS per channel, and I love this IMPRINT technology and cant wait for that module to become available. Its been brought to my attention that the 6" woofer in the rear is in a less than ideal spot for sound, so I think the imprint can recognize this and change the sound staging to make the cars acoustics much better.

RyanPerrella

Well i finally got the new iDA-X100 today and just finished installing it. First thoughts are that i LOVE IT! I think it matches the look of the 928 with its single central control **** much like the controls in the 928: big round *****!

Turns out that the included usb link allows for the fully digital communication between the latest ipods and the unit itself. This allows you to see album art on the screen, something that the typical ipod adapter does not.

The illumination in blue and red dosent come out when using the flash but i do really like the way it looks. I am very happy that this unit is mostly black and has darker tones then the typical silver units. This was one of the biggest reasons i wanted to replace my old alpine unit, because it was silver and i think looked like ****!

I checked Crutchfield and they wont be shipping them for another few weeks as this thing has literally just been released.

I will most likely be buying the add on power pack module that bumps up the RMS watts to 45 per channel over the stock 18 and will consider buying what i think could be the best add on, that being the new, as of yet unreleased IMPRINT system that would tune the accoustics to the car.

I should also have the Infinity Basslink early next week and will install that immediately, I think that should give me a really nice upgrade as I really am missing all the low frequencies currently. I may still decide to replace the aftermarket Polk speakers with Q-Line MB Quarts but thats currently out of the budget right now.

PS: If anyone has a line on a used or new central display (just above the radio) for a 90 model please let me know. These alarm or radar diodes look like crap and ive wanted to replace them since the day i bought the thing.

Stan.Shaw@Excell.Net

Thanks for the follow-up and photos Ryan, looks good to me

Marine Blue

Nice Ryan.

Did you note an improvement in sound quality as well or was this mainly for funcation?