# Alpine's iDA-X001 Headunit Detailed Specs



## t3sn4f2 (Jan 3, 2007)

http://www.alpine-usa.com/US-en/company/pr/pr.php?prid=141


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## khail19 (Oct 27, 2006)

So there is no CD player I guess, just iPod and radio. Interesting, the CD is going the way of the cassette.


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## ATB (Aug 30, 2005)

That also seem to indicate that the iDA-X001 uses a different connectioin method than the "full speed" methods used by other head units...meaning no other heads will support a digital signal from an ipod. Boo.


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## Vestax (Aug 16, 2005)

khail19 said:


> So there is no CD player I guess, just iPod and radio. Interesting, the CD is going the way of the cassette.


hehe most likely.

It'll probably be like USB Format in the music section at best buy or CC.


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## t3sn4f2 (Jan 3, 2007)

Sucks that it has no preset buttons. What ever happened to this button does this, that button does that. You learn where it is, one glance, one press and you're done. I wonder what genius convinced everyone that deep menu navigation was a great idea while driving.


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## andthelam (Aug 9, 2006)

What's MSRP?


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## andthelam (Aug 9, 2006)

khail19 said:


> So there is no CD player I guess, just iPod and radio. Interesting, the CD is going the way of the cassette.


Unfortunately, this seems to be true. Its not that I love CD's and not my ipod but I feel out of convenience Im using more mp3's. I try to use wav burned from shn's, flac's but not always are those sources available for original tracks. IMHO the sound of mp3's, acc's and other lossy compression schemes are anywhere from subpar to downright horrid. Truthfully Id rather listen to fingernails on a chalkboard than listen to some of my favorite recordings mangled by mp3. Friends don't let friends mp3.


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## The Blue Blur (Sep 14, 2006)

It's so odd how Alpine has approached this. They've made essentially two equivalent top teir HUs: THe iDA and the 9887. One is the ultimate in ipod integration, the other has some level of tuning aided by an automated tuning syste. THERE IS NO OVERLAP. I wish there was some compromise between the two. What excites me is that the iDA could possibly connect to my 100gig harddrive full of my CD collection in wav format. I still don't think I'd be motivated to go in that direction without some tuning ability.

MSRP is $450US


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## erickoh (Mar 6, 2006)

Hmm, I never knew it was possible for the ipod to output in digital? Can somebody confirm this?

Otherwise, it would mean that the music goes through the ipod's DAC and line out first = crappy


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## The Blue Blur (Sep 14, 2006)

Their words, read the link...

_The iDA-X001 was built with the first fully digital iPod connection, creating the highest fidelity iPod experience in the car. The iDA-X001 has sound-tuning features such as bass and treble with center frequency and Q adjustability, and three pairs of RCAs for system expandability. When playing music from fifth-generation iPods, the iDA-X001 has a signal-to-noise ratio that rivals CD-quality._


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## erickoh (Mar 6, 2006)

ah perhaps they simply treat the ipod as a normal usb thumbdrive. ie, when we play a track on the ipod the HU transfers the entire mp3 file onto the HU and it takes over from there.

in that case, I would just use a normal thumbdrive with the HU, much cheaper and no need for the cumbersome wires/cradle for the ipod.

I hope the ida-x001 unit comes with optical out and will be able to control the H701 processor directly


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## t3sn4f2 (Jan 3, 2007)

erickoh said:


> ah perhaps they simply treat the ipod as a normal usb thumbdrive. ie, when we play a track on the ipod the HU transfers the entire mp3 file onto the HU and it takes over from there.
> 
> in that case, I would just use a normal thumbdrive with the HU, much cheaper and no need for the cumbersome wires/cradle for the ipod.
> 
> I hope the ida-x001 unit comes with optical out and will be able to control the H701 processor directly


The normal USB connection on the Alpine headunits don't accept formats other then MP3 WMA and maybe now AAC (Not iTunes store right protected ACC by the way, same as with right protected WMA's from online stores. With the ipod you can use Apple Lossless, WAV, ect. for best quality and iTunes store bought too if you'd like.


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## jisturm (Feb 4, 2006)

Still no word on pre-amp voltage either.


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## t3sn4f2 (Jan 3, 2007)

jisturm said:


> Still no word on pre-amp voltage either.


Nothing yet, but looks like its gonna be 2 volts cuz the DC to DC icon is not the units page and it is on other 4 volts headunit pages


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## t3sn4f2 (Jan 3, 2007)

I added a pic of the headunit, found it on scifi.com


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## 3.5max6spd (Jun 29, 2005)

I'm sure the unit will support a CD changer, no?


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## t3sn4f2 (Jan 3, 2007)

3.5max6spd said:


> I'm sure the unit will support a CD changer, no?


HHHHMMM........, there not one word about that. SAT, HD radio, USB MP3 players, Blue tooth, AM/FM, Original Ipod Full Speed and Ai-net BUS. No word about changers though........


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## khail19 (Oct 27, 2006)

If you look on the website page under accessories, it shows the CHA-S634 changer as an option.

http://www.alpine-usa.com/US-en/products/product.php?model=iDA-X001&lang=en&tab=A


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## t3sn4f2 (Jan 3, 2007)

good find khail19


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## GambitIncognito (Dec 24, 2006)

The Blue Blur said:


> Their words, read the link...
> 
> _The iDA-X001 was built with the first fully digital iPod connection, creating the highest fidelity iPod experience in the car. The iDA-X001 has sound-tuning features such as bass and treble with center frequency and Q adjustability, and three pairs of RCAs for system expandability. When playing music from fifth-generation iPods, the iDA-X001 has a signal-to-noise ratio that rivals CD-quality._


rivals CD quality??


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## 02bluesuperroo (Oct 31, 2006)

It will rival CD quality if you have 320 kbs mp3. I don't see how it's going to rival even a cassette with all the 128 kbs mp3s people load onto their MP3 players. I will take my excelon x590 with 250 gb hdd anyday over this unit. I only put in $250 out the door. Where the hell is the CD player? At least for tuning, come on.

/rant.


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## t3sn4f2 (Jan 3, 2007)

02bluesuperroo said:


> It will rival CD quality if you have 320 kbs mp3. I don't see how it's going to rival even a cassette with all the 128 kbs mp3s people load onto their MP3 players. I will take my excelon x590 with 250 gb hdd anyday over this unit. I only put in $250 out the door. Where the hell is the CD player? At least for tuning, come on.
> 
> /rant.


Ipods can play uncompressed files formats and Apple Lossless file rips off original CD which is the same as the original CD. The only differance with this is that the digital audio data will come from a harddrive instead of the CD transport off your headunit, plus this unit comes with Burr Brown D/A which are concidered to be the best and which only come on highend headunits.


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## The Blue Blur (Sep 14, 2006)

the big question is if the HU was designed well to take advantage of these components. Please not however they did not say sound quality rivals CD Audio, they state signal to noise ratio rivals CD quality. I think this is more of a shot at other ipod integration techniques than the quality of CDs or the unit. Not entirely convinced I should run out and get an ipod for this thing.


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## t3sn4f2 (Jan 3, 2007)

IMO I don't think anyone could tell the difference between this unit (with lossless files playing) and a similarly priced unit (including the price of the iPod) playing the same CD, _especially_ in a car. As long as the frequency response is flat enough which it always specs out to be on any quality headunit and the noise floor is low enough, then not taking the convenience of a music server would not be an option to me.


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## The Blue Blur (Sep 14, 2006)

It doesn't play CDs . If you are an ipod devotee then it will likely be hands down the best manner of car integration. I haven't heard of any other HU that was developped with apple in any particular way. If you don't have an ipod it's probably not worth buying one just to take advantage of this thing.


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## CosmicTypeR (Feb 16, 2007)

Can anyone confirm whether the IDA will reproduce the gapless playback of mp3's now offered by the latest generation Ipod's??

Also can anyone confirm whether the older style Ipod connection method on Alpine head units *(full speed connetion lead)* offers gapless playback when used with a gapless capable Ipod?


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## ArcL100 (Jun 17, 2005)

t3sn4f2 said:


> Sucks that it has no preset buttons. What ever happened to this button does this, that button does that. You learn where it is, one glance, one press and you're done. I wonder what genius convinced everyone that deep menu navigation was a great idea while driving.


Lol nice. I couldn't stand the **** Alpine makes you go through in the past to make tuning changes =/

-aaron


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## cvjoint (Mar 10, 2006)

khail19 said:


> So there is no CD player I guess, just iPod and radio. Interesting, the CD is going the way of the cassette.


NO cd? this thing is useless. You buy your favorite cd and have to go home upload it and all that...

How has apple brain washed people like this?


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## t3sn4f2 (Jan 3, 2007)

I can't wait till they integrate the new ipod interface into regular headunits, and maybe with one button that toggles search modes options and a multi speed up down switch for the selected search option.


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## DS-21 (Apr 16, 2005)

t3sn4f2 said:


> Sucks that it has no preset buttons. What ever happened to this button does this, that button does that. You learn where it is, one glance, one press and you're done. I wonder what genius convinced everyone that deep menu navigation was a great idea while driving.


Except for the genius part, I blame Chris Bangle.


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## NoFlyZone (Jan 27, 2007)

I'm kind of new to the MP3-burn-rip and copy scene. I do own an IPOD and have experimented with different formats. I have my entire CD library burned to my comp. HD through EAC then converted to FLAC. Then I bought the IPOD  Now I have most of my library burned using AAC 224bit rate (MP4). I want to use my IPOD in car because my CD's tend to get killed while in auto transit plus I'm tired of grabbing for CD's. Point is I'm still in search of HU for an audiophile type install. Thinking DRZ9255 but still got that IPOD thing.. I wonder if this iDA HU will play MP4 or would I have to burn AGAIN my CD collection in another format?   I wonder as well with Alpines H701 and C701 what would be SQ compared to a DRZ9255?


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