I was just casually looking for a new head unit and came across this from Clarion. There is no CD drive it works with an iPod or SD cards.

I think this is pretty modern yet I think it could look nice in the 928 dash.

I thought nav would be cool but i dont want to tear up the dash to put in a nice double din unit which i prefer to the single din with flip out screens. I really just want to hear music and i was planning on using an ipod exclusively as carrying and sorting through CD's is a pain in the ***.

What do you guys think.

This thing runs $150, so its pretty cheap as well.

 

Well I just found the Alpine alternative and they have a few different models which all basically do the same thing, but with some added features.

I like this new one which would cost another $100 over the clarion.

 

I have been thinking about replacing what is in mine, the ipod option would work for me to. I like the price tag on the first one

 

They both look really cool.

 

The Clarion dosent actually control an ipod like the alpine. It uses SD cards and supports MP#, and being that i am a Mac guy and use itunes i dont have any MP3's and i would hate ot convert them to use in this radio, though i really like the way it looks.

The alpine is a radio made for controlling an ipod, thats its first second and third job. I think i will go with that but my line on them for $250 just dried up. Now i gotta go find another, CRAP.

 

What is the model number to look for?

 

I'm not a big fan of either. I've been having a difficult time finding something that looks at home in the dash while still having full capabilities to control an ipod and offering above average sound quality. Seems the Nakamichi CD400 or CD500 are good solutions although the only way to connect an IPOD is through the rear auxiliaries which means you won't achieve the full capabilities through the deck and you can only control the music through the IPOD.

 

I believe this is it:
iDA-X001
iDA-X001 Digital Media Receiver

 

Actually the alpine is iDA-X100 (new one) x001 is first gen

 

now i am liking this clarion because of the limitations of the first one pictured to operate an ipod. I want full integration where i dont have to navigate the ipod's songs via the ipod itself and i want to see track titles and such on the display.

So i found this for a street price around $230 shipped

I also really like this because you can change the backlight display to one of "728" colors. Something you can do on the clarion above, but the dot matrix display dosent change color, I believe on this one display also changes color with the buttons.

UPDATE: I ended up seeing this in Frys and found it to be cheap feeling. The pics they took of it make it look very nice but in person it was less than impressive. So ive decided against this one

 

I own both an Alpine (for my shark) and a Clarion (for the other car) but different models. The Alpine is much better. In my Clarion at least, you have to make playlists clarion1, clarion2, clarion3, clarion4, clarion5 on iTunes and sync with your iPod. In the car, the only music you can listen to will be on those playlists. My Alpine is menu-driven, so you can essentially use your iPod through the head unit like you would if it were in your pocket.

 

The above clarion uses a USB socket to control the ipod, and says it give complete control. So i would hope it wouldnt require a playlist because i never make them. I really just shuffle then skip to the next track if i dont like whats on anyway.

 

Interesting... the first Clarion Ryan showed has cool looking "shark gill" controls on either side! If it had better ipod control, would be the perfect unit for our sharks!

 

I installed the Alpine CDA9856 about a year ago & really like it. Got it on Ebay for about $150 includiing the Ipod cable. I ran the cable to my glovebox & just stick the Ipod in there where it is controlled by the deck. I just set the deck to randomly play tunes and skip any I don't feel like listening to at the time.

Brian

90GT, Guards Red/Lt Grey Sport seats, Ott X, 73K

 

Well I went ahead and shelled out for the Alpine IDA-x100. It was $150 less then Alpine's SRP so I figured I would give it a shot.

Well after reading more about it (after i purchased it of course) Ive found some really cool things about it.

The backlighting buttons can be set to Red to more closely match the Porsche interior lights, although the blue is cool

You can customize the wallpaper in the screen to whatever you want and there are all kinds of things you can download from the alpine website for free as well.

There is a type of sound equalizer, sound processor that can help you individually setup the soundstage for the car as all cabins are different and make adjustments for speaker sizes and locations and so on. (Available mid 2008)

And They also have another add on coming out in March thats a type of amplifier thats made to fit behind the head unit to really up the wattage from the unit without having to go with an amp. This should run $120 retail but i expect to see it for less on Ebay but this is rated at 45 RMS watts as opposed to the 18 RMS that the headunit puts out on its own. This is perfect for me as i wont have to mess around with amp wiring and have to deal with space concerns with the car and can keep the interior completely stock.

There are a few other cool things you can tack onto this thing like the HD radio tuner which with this head unit allows you to tag songs from the radio into the ipod which you can then download from itunes. This is also great for me as i am a mac guy and use itunes daily.

All in all it really sounds like a very well integrated design with allot of features available that the previous model is without.

I hope the navigation through the ipod itself is fast and allot more intuitive then other head units ive seen.

Oh and this is the only head unit that allows you to use the iphone as your ipod which would be my prefered source for songs.