brucedoesbms wrote:Any suggestions for the best speaker system to utilize with this device?...

I think THIS would do it.

wow! I have one quality post after all! I wonder which one of my comments Woot took as a quality post! Will Woot tell me?

sbogden wrote:Thanks for the link - just saved me two hundred bucks!!

Very helpful post!

x2

so basically all you are buying is a screen, and from reviews its not that good of a one either... No CD, no DVD, no GPS, no radio (regular, HD OR XM). Sorry but this is a major pass, any of those add on is going to be serious $$$, otherwise its just an ipod interface which really isn't that novel these days...

showcaller wrote:wow! I have one quality post after all! I wonder which one of my comments Woot took as a quality post! Will Woot tell me?

5 days ago on the ecomposter
"...We are not of this planet. It has been really wonderfull knowing you..."

arribasn wrote:so basically all you are buying is a screen, and from reviews its not that good of a one either... No CD, no DVD, no GPS, no radio (regular, HD OR XM). Sorry but this is a major pass, any of those add on is going to be serious $$$, otherwise its just an ipod interface which really isn't that novel these days...

it has an am/fm radio

cubbiemi wrote:PDF Manual...

Linkie

Uh, CubbieMI, do you have a stuffed hedgehog squeaky toy?

mtnsports wrote:
Check your local building codes and I'm sure you won't find electrical tape as an option. Oh yeah, I've done home electrical wiring also...using tape is not standard practice. Except maybe in the hood.

Thank you for showing your immaturity and lack of knowledge on the subject. If you and Jeus had READ my post, I compared the stereo wires to that of a household 220v grounded ceiling fan wiring job with the use of wiring nuts and electrical tape. I noted that those wires are carrying a much stronger current on them and yes, the use of wiring nuts and electrical tape is a standard practice for all home contractors when outfitting your home with a ceiling fan.

I did not claim to have wired a 3,200 square foot computer datacenter with two 2-ton HVAC units and redundant UPS's.

Good lord, you guys can't seem to let go of anything and just agree to disagree with me. Please just let it go, we all agree that buying a wiring harness is not only easy but clean.

Jeus wrote:5 days ago on the ecomposter
"...We are not of this planet. It has been really wonderfull knowing you..."

ROFL Thanks!

worldofjohnboy wrote:Thank you for showing your immaturity and lack of knowledge on the subject. If you and Jeus had READ my post, I compared the stereo wires to that of a household 220v grounded ceiling fan wiring job with the use of wiring nuts and electrical tape. I noted that those wires are carrying a much stronger current on them and yes, the use of wiring nuts and electrical tape is a standard practice for all home contractors when outfitting your home with a ceiling fan.

I did not claim to have wired a 3,200 square foot computer datacenter with two 2-ton HVAC units and redundant UPS's.

Good lord, you guys can't seem to let go of anything and just agree to disagree with me. Please just let it go, we all agree that buying a wiring harness is not only easy but clean.

He is right about the wire nuts with ceiling fan. I just installed one the other day and the package include the nuts. Is crimping and soldering the better route to go for car audio? Probably yes but mine has held for three years with nice wire twisting and electrical tape.

BTW, to make light of the apparent situation where everyone wants to throw stones at me... isn't going 'Ghetto' what you kids would call cool nowadays?

I think I would rather have a 'ghetto' wiring job than have a 'ghetto' stereo with the bass turned all the way up so that my license plate vibrates all the cars within a 50 foot radius.

Man... I get the feeling that you all think my six "customer" cars look like this:

worldofjohnboy wrote:BTW, to make light of the apparent situation where everyone wants to throw stones at me... isn't going 'Ghetto' what you kids would call cool nowadays?

I think I would rather have a 'ghetto' wiring job than have a 'ghetto' stereo with the bass turned all the way up so that my license plate vibrates all the cars within a 50 foot radius.

Man... I get the feeling that you all think my six "customer" cars look like this:

That is awesome. Real question though is I looked at the back of the unit and cannot find where I would connect my subwoofer. Does it have an output for that?

worldofjohnboy wrote:Again, I have done 6 stereo installs this way and all 6 of the radios have had no issues. It's not the method, just the quality that matters.

I wouldn't expect a "professional" installer to understand because they are used to installing stereos for customers in under 30 minutes and charging 3/4ths of the cost of the head unit to install.

I feel sorry for the people that you've installed the cars for. Quality doesn't matter if you installed it using a horrible method.

hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm very tempting woot.

The price is GREAT for a double din large screen stereo.

mtnsports wrote:As yet another ex-professional car stereo installer on Woot tonight, I'm going to agree with the others that it's much wiser to go with crimping. Not only can tape unwrap as it ages, risking a possible short, you also stand a risk (albeit not a safety issue) of connections becoming poor over time. This can manifest itself in crackling or distorted sound as the connections deteriorate. Bet that would sound kinda ghetto...

Plus, a crimped connection simply lasts longer. Sure, your 6 installs could last a year or two, but I would bet my next paycheck that my crimped installs would last much longer than yours. Heck, it was almost 20 years ago...some of mine are probably still working today, that is if the cars are still running!

Do you actually know any "real" building electrical contractors, or are they just ghetto buddies? Using tape on those connections is a VERY bad idea also. Check your local building codes and I'm sure you won't find electrical tape as an option. Oh yeah, I've done home electrical wiring also...using tape is not standard practice. Except maybe in the hood.

Please stay away from my home AND my car...I want them to last!

What's all this madness about taping and crimping? Everyone knows the only one you have to cover up is the plus12V wire, so it doesn't touch ground. You can just twist the rest of the connections together with your fingers and stuff them into the dash.

Stop making things so darn complicated.

worldofjohnboy wrote:The wiring harness doesn't require crimping or soldering... a simple twist of the cables and some electrical tape will suffice as will cable "couplers" (sold for about $2 for a box of 20 at your local Hardware store). I've done 6 stereo installs for myself and my friends and only used the twist and tape method and all six are still playing music today.

If you own something newer then a YUGO there should be a plug and play wiring adpt for your vehicle.. no reason to cut anything

fultzjap wrote:What's all this madness about taping and crimping? Everyone knows the only one you have to cover up is the plus12V wire, so it doesn't touch ground. You can just twist the rest of the connections together with your fingers and stuff them into the dash.

Stop making things so darn complicated.

I prefer a variation. After I twist the wires I saturate them in Elmers. When the glue dries, I just wrap up the wire several times with some blue painters tape, then dip the part where it is wrapped into epoxy, the same stuff that keeps my boat from leaking. Hell, if it works with a boat, it certainly is going to keep a little moisture away inside the dash. This is a good woot. I gonna get me another beer.

worldofjohnboy wrote:Thank you for showing your immaturity and lack of knowledge on the subject. If you and Jeus had READ my post, I compared the stereo wires to that of a household 220v grounded ceiling fan wiring job with the use of wiring nuts and electrical tape. I noted that those wires are carrying a much stronger current on them and yes, the use of wiring nuts and electrical tape is a standard practice for all home contractors when outfitting your home with a ceiling fan.

I'll tone this down a bit, mostly because I laughed when I saw the photo of the hoopie ride you posted. No reason to get nasty. I won't even take your incorrect assumptions about me personally.

You cited your earlier comparison of car stereo wiring to household 220V wiring, but there's a critical difference in your comparison...the wirenuts. Your argument supporting the use of electrical tape in car stereo wiring is based on the fact that wirenuts with electrical tape is used in household wiring? Seems that maybe the household wiring example should be a hint that there needs to be more than electrical tape used to make a reliable connection.

Look, I did my first installs in high school by twisting the wiring & wrapping with electrical tape too, but I've seen way too many of those types of connections fail over time. I think from one of your earlier posts (but I could be wrong) that you believe that professional installers use crimp connectors just to save time. They're mostly to make a good permanent and insulated connection, and they're not that much faster than taping, because you still need to twist the wires together before installing the connector.

It's not that tape won't work, it's that it will fail sooner than crimping. (Or using a harness.)

I suppose I'll say something about the Alpine. Loved the brand in the past, but reviews seem to indicate that maybe they aren't what the used to be. Passing on this unit.

neat item. sadly, things like this are usually just an invitation for some ass to smash your window.

Sure it has a touch screen, can be hooked up to all kinds of accessories, and has 200 watts max. The real question is will it chaff?

darcotter wrote:Uhhh.. Radio tuner sold sep.?!
Something this big should have CD, radio, mp3 storage and make me toast in the morning...

Here's the specs on what's included, from Alpine USA's site - http://www.alpine-usa.com/product/view/ixa-w404/Specs

To avoid the wall-o-text found there, here's the summary of features (and any extra equipment required for features):

*AM (built in) - 6 presets

*FM (built in) - 12 presets

*iPod - iPhone 3G 8GB/16GB, iPhone (original) 4/8/16, touch 2nd gen 8/16/32, nano (video) 4th gen 8/16, classic 80/120/160, touch 1st gen 8/16/32, nano (video) 3rd gen 4/8, nano 2nd gen (aluminum) 2/4/8, iPod 5th gen (video) 30/60/80, nano 1st gen 1/2/4

*HD Radio - HD Radio ready, Alpine TUA-T500HD / TUA-T550HD Required

*Bluetooth - Ready, Alpine KCE-400BT Required

*USB - supports MP3/AAC/WMA playback. USB cable is included.

*Satellite Radio: Ready - Requires Sirius or XM adapter

*CD: Not built in, but will control an attached disk changer.

*GPS Navigation: requires Alpine NVE-M300.

Power Output: Power Output Max 50 W x 4 High Power Amplifier
-Power output can be boosted if required with Alpine KTP-445 Head Unit Power Pack

If you have any other questions, I recommend taking a read through the owner's manual (pdf): http://support.alpine-usa.com/products/documents/OM%20iXA-W404_EN.pdf.

There's also a wiring diagram showing all leads in and out of the deck towards the back of the pdf which some people might find useful.

I actually have this in my car right now, its somewhat of an awesome deck, If you get all the attachments, everything it can do that makes it awesome is extra, navigation, HD radio, satillite, back-up camera theres tons of add ons that make this expensive.

it constantly drops my ipod outta nowhere, ill be listening music from my ipod touch, then it will start emitting a loud buzzing out of nowhere and i have to unplug and re plug my ipod back into it, if you have a large hard drive you attach to it such as the 320gb one i bought just because of this radio, it only Caches the first 1000 i think, and it caches them in "banks" in no particular order or rhyme or reason, it makes no sense how it organizes hard drives just picks The Strangers (2008)and plays it not very well, it wont play video from anything but the A/v line in or ipod, you cant throw movies on a usb drive and play them it wont let you.

In all i love and hate this radio, its a whole lot of nothing and the lack of CD i both miss and dont miss. its was a bit of a hassle syncing my ipod and making playlists and everything, more painful than making specific mp3 cd's and playing them through my stock radio.

oh yeah and want to watch movies while doing anything but sitting in a parking lot with your ebrake on? well think twice, heres the sequence to activate VIDEO and even to get into SETTINGS (foot brake on, hand brake on, hand brake off, hand brake on, foot brake off) yep if you noticed you have to leave parking brake on, i had to bypass the system with two switches and put in the sequence everytime you start the car, because if you turn off the car you have to do it over again. you can buy a bypass system for this however but still its extra work.

asl9622 wrote:That is awesome. Real question though is I looked at the back of the unit and cannot find where I would connect my subwoofer. Does it have an output for that?

it has a RCA pre-amp out for the subwoofer, i run that to my 1000w amp then to sub it really is a quality unit, if you have an ipod and carry it with you all the time, its just buggy and costly with the accessories.

Jeus wrote:i suppose you are going to try and tell us that you suggest going from a 10 gauge stranded to a 22 gauge solid core wire as well? as i stated before time will tell. i live in florida and i know what happens to electrical tape in this weather. if electrical tape was good enough dont you think that auto makers would use only electrical tape rather than quick connects and special harnesses?

there actually tends to be alot of electrical type tape used under many dashes, just not used how some people use it, some people think electrical tape is a replacement for soldering or connectors, but its more of a replacement for the shielding you stripped off to make the connection. in order to have the wires not exposing and shorting on other wires.

bsmith1 wrote:It's double DIN, so it's pretty big. I've always liked Crutchfield's site when trying to find what'll fit my vehicles.
Try this: Crutchfield Outfit Me Car
Put in all the info about your car and it should tell you the dimensions of the stock stereo and give you a list of what'll fit. Compare the dimensions or look to see if it lists and double DIN sized receivers.

I don’t think crutchfield is selling this unit currently, but they do have a compatible back-up cam!

i got my 404 from crutchfield a while back for like 230, dont but that backup cam, you can use any backup camera, i guess unless you want to hookup alot of things to it and dont want to spare the A/V connection. but i believe you can select the camera input in the settings.

shindig966 wrote:Will this actually charge your iPod while it is plugged in, or does that require additional cables?

yeah it charges it, one nice feature of the thing. you can also charge usb devices i believe, i charged my phone a few times.

fultzjap wrote:What's all this madness about taping and crimping? Everyone knows the only one you have to cover up is the plus12V wire, so it doesn't touch ground. You can just twist the rest of the connections together with your fingers and stuff them into the dash.

Stop making things so darn complicated.

You're killing me here.

Look... I might just be a simple aircraft avionics technician, but even I know that if, for example, the left audio high wire twist and left audio low wire twist touch together inside the dash, you'll get no sound from the left speaker.

Simple concept, no?

Prevent shorts, practice good wiring methods. Roll on down to your local Ace, Autozone, Checkers, Walmart, etc, and pick up a wire crimping kit. They're cheap and stupidly easy to use.

By the way, in case you want to continue doing it the stupid way, these decks are designed to have a specific load placed on them by the speaker. If one of your exposed positive speaker wires touches any grounding source, it can lead to overheating of the in-deck amplifier, which can damage the circuit and the deck beyond repair.

On the website it says this item is discontinued... Makes me wonder why? Just putting that out there.

I dunno. I personally have done a lot of twist-and-tape jobs for various electronics over the years and have never had one fail on me. Other ways may last longer, sure, but who keeps the same deck in a car for more than 6 or 7 years? When it's just for my own stuff, cutting corners doesn't bother me.

arribasn wrote:so basically all you are buying is a screen, and from reviews its not that good of a one either... No CD, no DVD, no GPS, no radio (regular, HD OR XM). Sorry but this is a major pass, any of those add on is going to be serious $$$, otherwise its just an ipod interface which really isn't that novel these days...

No, no, and no. It has a radio built in (I really don't know where people are getting this "no radio" thing), and it has a built in 18w x 4 amplifier [that's the CES power rating, so it's real--standard for head units is 14 - 22w per channel]. It's got pre-amp outs for front and rear speakers, and a stereo sub-woofer out. It has independent high-pass-filter settings for the standard four speakers, and an adjustable output level for the sub. You can also connect any audio device through the standard stereo mini-plug on the back of the unit, or connect a USB flash drive with MP3, WAV or AAC files.

All of you people bitching about the lack of a CD player are just being hit in the face with the future. I mean, why are none of you complaining about the lack of a cassette deck? Or an 8-track?

CDs are a (rapidly) dying format. They are too large, too easy to damage, and don't hold enough data. How many songs can you fit onto an $8, 2 Gb USB flash drive? How many USB flash drives can you fit into something the size of 20-CD wallet?

Forget CDs: the next war is going to be over music compression formats. None of the decks I've looked at support anything other than MP3, AAC and WMA on USB drives.

Stop asking, "Where's the CD player?" Start asking, "What'd'ya mean it won't play FLAC files?"

haha it fits my 2009 honda fit, but im more then happy with the fits radio.

why add something that will make thieves more likely to break in?

also

make sure to expect the installation cost to be at least 100 bucks, possibly up to 200

wow, why anyone would bbuy this piece of crap after this review is beyond me

"I actually have this in my car right now, its somewhat of an awesome deck, If you get all the attachments, everything it can do that makes it awesome is extra, navigation, HD radio, satillite, back-up camera theres tons of add ons that make this expensive.

it constantly drops my ipod outta nowhere, ill be listening music from my ipod touch, then it will start emitting a loud buzzing out of nowhere and i have to unplug and re plug my ipod back into it, if you have a large hard drive you attach to it such as the 320gb one i bought just because of this radio, it only Caches the first 1000 i think, and it caches them in "banks" in no particular order or rhyme or reason, it makes no sense how it organizes hard drives just picks The Strangers (2008)and plays it not very well, it wont play video from anything but the A/v line in or ipod, you cant throw movies on a usb drive and play them it wont let you.

In all i love and hate this radio, its a whole lot of nothing and the lack of CD i both miss and dont miss. its was a bit of a hassle syncing my ipod and making playlists and everything, more painful than making specific mp3 cd's and playing them through my stock radio.

oh yeah and want to watch movies while doing anything but sitting in a parking lot with your ebrake on? well think twice, heres the sequence to activate VIDEO and even to get into SETTINGS (foot brake on, hand brake on, hand brake off, hand brake on, foot brake off) yep if you noticed you have to leave parking brake on, i had to bypass the system with two switches and put in the sequence everytime you start the car, because if you turn off the car you have to do it over again. you can buy a bypass system for this however but still its extra work. "

darcotter wrote:Uhhh.. Radio tuner sold sep.?!
Something this big should have CD, radio, mp3 storage and make me toast in the morning...

The whole point of these units is to get away from CDs. I would still expect a radio tuner, and some kind of mp3 storage. Toast would just take it over the top. Maybe the triple din unit with have a toaster...

worldofjohnboy wrote:
Good lord, you guys can't seem to let go of anything and just agree to disagree with me. Please just let it go, we all agree that buying a wiring harness is not only easy but clean.

I think the point that is lost here with everyone is that if you want to do a job right, then why cut corners? I'm old school - solder and heat-shrink tubing. It's vibration proof, corrosion proof, and no tape to soften from high heat and begin to unravel. Plus, the amount of wires involved may not have the space to accommodate all those wirenuts. If you saw behind my Tacoma's radio, you'd understand.

It's not like you're upside-down under a dash trying to get to any wiring. I had done your method back in the 70s too only because I hated the contortionist positions required to wire stereos. These days, its so much simpler, you buy an adapter harness with stripped wires for your car factory wiring and the stereo will come with a plug-in harness for their stereo with similar wires. All you do is lay them out on your table, match up the color coded wires, drop of solder and heat-shrink tubing, and you are now ready to plug-and-play. No wasted time and an install that will outlast the car.

Everyone has their own way of doing things, that's cool. But a job well done is one done well. Why not do it right the first time?

BTW - a 220V ceiling fan? That sucker must have some serious torque! ;-)

If you're looking for an in-dash double-DIN touch screen unit, I believe the Pioneer AVIC-U310BT is a much better deal. For $75 more then the Alpine in today's Woot, it has most (does not support backup camera or external DVD playback) of the same features, plus it adds Bluetooth, a CD/MP3 player, and navigation, and for another $25 you can add an iPod cable. And there are additional add-ons for HD or satellite radio.

VibeGuy wrote:Uh, CubbieMI, do you have a stuffed hedgehog squeaky toy?

squeak squeak squeak
i did but I chewed the squeakie out of it and I think i swallowed it...

pi3832 wrote:All of you people bitching about the lack of a CD player are just being hit in the face with the future. I mean, why are none of you complaining about the lack of a cassette deck? Or an 8-track?

Because it's extremely unlikely that anyone has a significant collection of 8-tracks or cassettes that hasn't been replaced by CDs. Even though CDs may be on their way out, I'd be willing to bet that the majority of Wooters (at least the over-30s) have a decent collection of CDs, many of which have not been ripped to MP3 yet. And when you're on your way out the door, it's sometimes easier to pick up a few CDs that you want to listen to, rather than having to first copy them from your computer to a USB drive (unless you happen to have ripped all of them to a large drive you have permanently installed in your car).

If you don't want to have to stop the car and engage the parking brake in order to use your iPhone with this head unit, you'll need this:

http://www.amazon.com/PAC-TR7-Universal-Trigger-Module/dp/B0002J22BO