I finally had the chance to shoot some pictures of my Alpine/iPod system in my truck last night. Overall, I am satisfied with the Alpine system (CDA-9835) and the Alpine iPod interface adapter. Here are my pros and cons:

PROS:

• Sound Quality is excellent. IMO, the sound quality is as good as the original CD.
• Artist’s name, song title, album, and bit rate are shown on the head unit.
• User friendly which makes it extremely easy to use right out of the box.

CONS:

• Scrolling isn’t the fastest, so getting to a particular artist will take some time.
• The maximum number of songs that can be searched by the folder is 255.
• Instead of displaying “iPod” on the head unit, it displays “CD Changer.”

I was going to wait for the AUX adapter to come out in order to hook up my iPod to the factory audiophile head unit but I decided to go with the Alpine/iPod system instead for several reasons: My audiophile head unit wouldn't be able to display all the information from my iPod that the Alpine head unit could do (artist, album, etc); the CDA-9835 head unit is vastly superior in options and display compared to the stock audiophile head unit; and lastly because it seems that the AUX adapter is never going to come out even though I always hear, " It should be ready by next month..."

 

Did the alpine hook up easily to your audiophile system?(speaker/sub/amp) or did you have to do additional work? Also, can you just use the ipod controlls or are you forced to pick songs with the head unit?

 

IMO, I'm not that good in installing stuff, but installing the Alpine unit to the truck with the amp and sub was a piece of cake.

 

How much did that set you back?

 

Are you able to use your steering wheel controls and does it push your bass under the back seat?

 

Close to $500 for the head unit + the iPod adapter.