List Price: $308.00
Sale Price: $244.72
Today's Bonus: 21% Off
First, for the money... This receiver is going to be exceptionally hard to beat.
Installation: The installation was very straight forward, as long as you have the appropriate Metra/Scosche mounting kit and wiring harness specific to your vehicle year/make/model. I did notice that the wiring harness for the receiver was very chincy and the wire gauge was smaller than what I have seen in other car audio receivers. I actually broke the plug on the harness when trying to disconnect the harness from the receiver. It didn't affect the receiver itself, but I was unable to unplug the harness, so I worked around it. Not a huge deal and not something I would dock a star for.
Sound: The sound quality of this unit is great. I love the graphic EQ for tuning. Much easier than previous units where I would have to +1 or -1 on things like Bass/Mid/Trebble. It's a lot easier to adjust the frequencies visually, from one screen. The sound field adjuster made it easy to find the vehicle's sweet spot as well. Overall, the sound is better than an older Alpine I had previously.
Video: I recommend getting the MicroBypass parking-brake bypass for use with video. After paying the $20 for the bypass and following the straight forward instructions, I inserted a DVD. The sound was good, the video was decent. I didn't buy the unit for its video capabilities... I bought it for its connectivity to my iPhone..... This is where it starts getting docked.
Iphone Functionality: I have an iPhone 5 with iOS6.1. This stereo is new for 2013, but doesn't cater very well to the newest Apple technology. The Lightning adapter was an afterthought. You cannot simply connect your USB/Lightning cable to this unit. It will not work. You have to purchase the Lightning/30pin adapter. STUPID. See here for the compatibility chart:
Even after purchasing the lightning adapter, you still cannot make use of the AppRadio functionality, unless you buy the $120 Pioneer CD-IV202AV adapter and the $50 Apple Lightning to VGA Adapter. That's another $170 to use the AppRadio functionality that allows you to interface with your iPhone with the receiver.
*IF* you have an iPhone 4, you can simply plug your phone into the USB cable and you're good to go!
WTF? How can a receiver that has come out in 2013, not support the iPhone5 functionality that the iPhone 4 does right out of the box? I understand perhaps, having to buy the lightning/30pin adapter, but to have to pay $170 for the Pioneer/Apple VGA adapters is ridiculous. If this is important to you (which many will be) you're $400+ at that point and I'd be willing to bet there were better options at that price-point.
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