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(More customer reviews)I've made my way through a bunch of different car stereo head units over the years, but ever since the iPod has become the de-facto standard, I've wondered why nobody made a decent iPod-friendly one. Alpine's iDA-X100 is probably the first usable product for this purpose (its predecessor, the X001 was essentially a beta-tester version of the X100, and by many accounts, not ready for prime time). Sure, there are a slew of crummy FM transmitter adapters, and many stereos have auxiliary (Aux) inputs, but those are merely kludges.
The X100 displays the artist, track, and album of the currently-playing song. It lets you quickly scroll through all your artists, tracks, and albums, so you can find the song you want fast. All this works very well, and does so while charging your iPod in your glove compartment or wherever you want to put it. Don't have an iPod? No problem - just put your tunes on any inexpensive USB memory key and plug it in!
The X100's bright screen rivals a typical iPod screen, although is definitely a step down from my iPhone. The volume knob, which also affords navigation through your collection, is large and comfortable. In all, a solid design designed for use while driving. (This means that, unlike the iPod itself, you can use without having to look at it.)
So, why not five stars? First, the screen is too small. With the X100's large, easy-to-read font, there's only room for 6-7 characters. Listening to the White Stripes? You'll only see "White S" on the screen. Sure, 'long' text scrolls back and fourth, but that's a poor design for drivers who need to keep their eyes on the road. If I had designed this unit, I would've moved the big knob all the way to the left, and made the screen twice as wide. As it is, the left side is wasted anyway.
Second, when a song begins playing, the text rolls out on the screen very slowly, like it's being typed one letter at a time from a typewriter. It can take 10-15 seconds before everything appears, making it a stupid design for a display that must relay all its information at a glance.
Third, the 'Back' and 'Next' buttons are small and flush with the surface of the unit; you can't use the big wheel to go to the next track. These buttons should be more prominent, perhaps akin to the slick lever on Sony's excellent CDX-C90.
Fourth, the X100 can be set to have blue or red backlighting. But the red is a harsh, dark crimson that looks terrible next to the amber lighting on my dashboard. Why no soft amber/orange setting? Who knows.
Fifth, the X100 can display cover art from the current song (provided you've loaded one into iTunes), but, for some reason, it displays a very low-resolution image. This is particularly glaring when you hit the Display button to hide the text and display only the cover art; it just looks bad. I have high-res cover art in my collection that looks great on my iPhone's screen, but the X100 just doesn't use it. Perhaps a firmware upgrade will fix this?
Finally, and it may sound like nit-picking, but the X100's customizable wallpaper feature is poorly executed. You have two trendy patterns from which to choose, or you can download additional patterns from Alpine's awful website (which was last updated in 2005, by the way, and only works on Internet Explorer). Although Alpine has gone out of their way to prevent customers from creating their own wallpaper (for reasons that completely elude me), you can do as I did and download the free, third-party xndconverter.exe utility and create your own APN files. With my own photo as the wallpaper, the X100 head unit actually now looks nice in my car, despite the lack of a matching backlight color.
As for the sound quality (which is supremely important, despite the fact that I've spent most of this review talking about the interface), I'd rate it a solid 'B.' The sound is pretty good, but lacks the richness and warmth of the gold standard, the Sony CDX-C90 (even when playing the very same MP3s). Perhaps the PXA-H100 IMPRINT add-on accessory will improve the sound, but I haven't tried it yet.
To sum up, this is THE unit to get if you want to listen to your iPod/iPhone in the car, but don't expect it to be perfect. I'd give it only three stars if there were competition, but since it's the only worthy game in town, it earns four.
(Note: At the time of this writing, Alpine also makes the ida-x200 and ida-x300, but these are lesser models, both without the X100's bright color screen.)
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Alpine iDA-X100 Digital Media Receiver
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