Alpine IXA-W404 double din media player

[axeten 10+ year member]

Review of Head Unit:

I bought my IXA-W404 about a month ago now and installed it. And i'm sorry to say it's getting replaced already.

GOOD:

Price, Thats about it.

I also wanted a unit that didnt have a full touch screen since it sits up high on my dash and i cant see it very well when the sun hits it.

BAD:

- I know people say you get what you pay for, but considering this unit is on special in Australia for $699 i was expecting a lot more.

- "Banking" This for me is the worst feature i have ever seen. Alpine feel the need to bank a list of the songs on your usb drive into the head unit to apparently make song browsing quicker. I have a 16GB thumb rdive with songs on it and it takes about 5 minutes everytime i start the car to do this. Browsing for music is no quicker than a head unit that doesnt have this function so i'm not sure what the advantage is. I'd hate to see how long an 80GB hard drive full takes.

- Slow, With how far and cheap technology/parts have become, it amazes me that any head unit can still have a long delay between pushing a button and having the screen respond. There's no excuse for this other than just trying to save a few bucks in the build process.

- Setup, You cant really adjust the sound/EQ much. You have high pass filters for front and rear (nothing for sub) and can set the bass and trebble level and also pick from 4 frequencies (for bass and treble) that the unit will play slightly louder or more focussed. Thats pretty much it. You can buy the imprint adapter to auto tune which i'm sure would be a lot better.

- Setup continued, To access any display setup or time/date setup options you need to push in the foot brake, lift/drop/lift the handbrake, then release the foot brake. This is so you cant do it while driving which is fine. But putting the clock in this category.... seriously....

- The song order makes no sense either. It doesnt list them alphabetically, Just randomly list the bands regardless of how they are on your usb drive.

I dont have an ipod so cant comment on how the unit is with them. It is mainly designed for the ipod/iphone though so it might be a lot better than it is with usb drives.

Regardless, Mine is getting replaced with a single din unit that is more focussed on sound quality. The unfortunate thing is that "banking" feature is on almost all Alpine units now and i will not buy another that has it.

Sorry for this to sound a little one sided and i hope anyone else out there has better things to say about this unit.

Dont have any pics but heres a link to Alpines site:

Alpine Electronics of Australia

Click to read more...

 

[Tone415 10+ year member]

month old thread but who cares.

This unit is better if u have an ipod. Everything is faster. Only thing i hate is there is no search function. So you'd be better off making tons of playlists on ur ipod with ur favorite songs.

In order for you to get the full satisfaction of this HU you MUST buy an adapter that bypasses the park brake lock. It makes everything sooooo much better. Can watch movies while u drive [even though it's illegal here] and you can adjust any settings without having to do those retarded steps.

I agree with there not being much to adjusting the sub/treble/bass etc. But i adjust all that on my amp..

Overall i love it. Got it on sale on Woot.com a while ago for $250