kazama wrote:Everyone, PLEASE make sure this will fit in your vehicle BEFORE you buy it! Use the Crutchfield link a few posts up.

Not all vehicles have double-DIN slots and this headunit REQUIRES it.

If you have a Civic, it's probably not going to fit. :P

Also keep in mind the deck does NOT have a deatchable face and cannot be removed without unscrewing it from your dash, so if you live in the city and theft is an issue because you park on the street or whatever, I recommend you pass.

$200 gone 'cos your deck gets jacked and ~$200 on a new window. Womp womp.

This is so true. It happened to me.

vladistov wrote:Oh, the Opinion Argument . . . it simply wears me down. People have been 'educated' (specifically in grade-school) to believe that opinions are somehow equal, so well as is their right to have one; I strongly disagree with both sentiments. I would say that the only 'right' one has to an opinion falls into the free-speech category: people have a right to not be jailed or fined for what they say and believe in a civilized manner. Anyway, this mis-education is never going to stop because as soon as we accept opinions to not be equal then many current popular notions would become discredited, and many infamous discredited notions would become plausible. It's the same reason children are not educated on fallacious arguments, it would provide a vessel for contradiction of too many agendas. Yes, they tell you facts and opinions are not the same thing and they tell you everyone is permitted to have an opinion--on the condition that their facts and opinions are the sole ones you are exposed to.

Let's see here -- this has what, exactly, to do with the car audio device offered on woot! today?...

Oh, yeah -- Everything But Woot ...

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?

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?"

Heck, even a cassette player has the ability to connect to an mp3 player with the cassette adapter. Since my truck actually has a cassette player, that's what I use. Though, since it's a '93 and doesn't have those custom panels, installing something like this would be really easy, since it has a double wide bay for such devices anyway. But, I don't see it as worth it.

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

I see a million dollar idea.

Sweet deal, big time. I just finished my Alpine system last weekend in my C5 Corvette. This two din head unit is a popular one with Corvette folks. I only use Alpine. Anything else is too complicated and inferrer quality. I went with a single din due to costs. This is a great deal....

brucedoesbms wrote:Let's see here -- this has what, exactly, to do with the car audio device offered on woot! today?...

Oh, yeah -- Everything But Woot ...

Good lord. This guy likes to hear himself type!

pi3832 wrote:Actually, for bass that's a disadvantage, as you loose all the cabin gain.

And the dude standing there looks f-ugly. And presentation is 90%.

< still wants more of the original pics >

I have to ring in on this one since I was the road manager for the NGDB for 11 of the best years of my life. Kudos to the NGDB for going the distance and Woot for noticing!

vancefsmith wrote:Can it play music generated from apps like Pandora?

yes it can

carl669 wrote:how do i know if this fits in me car?

http://signature.crutchfield.com/s_500IXAW404/Alpine-iXA-W404.html?search=Alpine+IXAW404+Double+DIN+Touchscreen&ssi=0&tp=5684

Check at Crutchfield.

worldofjohnboy wrote:I am currently 32 years old and have helped wire many household outlets, lights and fans. I beg you to find a ceiling light without electrical tape and wirenuts on them.

We are talking about a car that can move and drive over potholes and bumpy roads in hot/humid to freezing weather, not a stationery house. Tape will simply not do.

blahhhdutt wrote:I swear Woot watches what I do. I just bought a new truck that has a Double Din, and the stock radio is crap. Thanks Woot. help me spend my money,.

I know, I swear they are watching me too!

brucedoesbms wrote:I think this may outdo the previous speaker system posting:



The advantages here is that there is no enclosure to muffle the music...

Just curious here. Are the connections twisted and taped? soldered? or welded?

somewootguy wrote:

< still wants more of the original pics >

I dug a little deeper and came up with this link for the Crazy Car Audio pics from the allaboutrides.com blog...

Hope this is what you were (kinda) looking for...

WHAT A RIP OFF YOU CAN GET THIS AT THE SAME PRICE ANYWHERE ON THE NET THOUGHT WOOT WAS A GOOD DEAL JUST A SCAM LIKE ALL THE REST

jeffiekins wrote:Sorry, but there are THREE things different about using tape in a home:

1. Your home (unless above a subway or in Kali-forn-ya) doesn't vibrate everything loose like a car does.
   
   
2. The inside of your home never gets over 90 degrees. The extreme heat of a car in the sun softens the tape and adhesive and after a few years causes the "stickage" to go to zero.
   
   
3. The "wire nuts" are actually doing the holding and insulating. If you do it right, you really do not need tape at all. It's just "insurance," and even some professional electricians don't use it.
   

Sorry: swing and a miss.

I won't "agree to disagree" that 2 + 2 = 5. This is not just a matter of opinion. I acknowledge your perfect right to have an opinion that is wrong, but that's not the same thing.

I also acknowledge your right to choose to create problems "down the road" for whoever owns the car in several years. But my opinion is that you should at least know the facts before making that choice.

Nothing personal, but facts are facts.

One of the great problems in this country, in general, is that most Americans seem not to be clear about the difference between facts and opinions. As Daniel Patrick Moynihan said: Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts.

bro, where the hell do you live? you cant remember a single time when ur house or anyone else you know's house was above 90? i can think of 2 times this year alone my house has broken that mark. i mean, i understand nobody really wants it that way, but never???

fubar454 wrote:WHAT A RIP OFF YOU CAN GET THIS AT THE SAME PRICE ANYWHERE ON THE NET THOUGHT WOOT WAS A GOOD DEAL JUST A SCAM LIKE ALL THE REST

I got your SCAM PRICES right here...

cdheer wrote:Don't be delusional.

They're popular amongst the party DJ set for scratching and whatnot, but in no universe are they making anything remotely resembling a "comeback" amongst general music listeners.

Since Best Buy is now stocking vinyl, what then, would you call the typical Best Buy customer?

"Nationwide, vinyl record sales in 2009 were 2.5 million, the highest sales level since Nielsen SoundScan started keeping track in 1991. That figure also is up 33 percent from 2008."

Vinyl records make a comeback in a big way

pi3832 wrote:Actually, the struggle is over. The majority of after-market in-dash receivers support USB storage devices, and at least the MP3 and WMA format. E.g., of the 148 stereos that Crutchfield says will fit my 2003 'Rolla, only 32 don't have a USB port.

OEM car stereos won't accept the new USB reality for another 5-10 years, but that's nothing new. or significant.

Oh yeah, actually some OEM'S are coming with USB built in, my forgetter works well.
(guess I forgot I hid my USB plug and now only have the iPod exclusive plug accessible).
Doh.

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?

I'm sure this has already been addressed, but I live in south Florida. Bought a Pioneer stereo, twisted and taped. 2 years in the Florida sun. Same for my twisted and taped 6x9s in the back. Everythings fine.

And nobody knows how "hood" you are cuz they can't see the wires. ;)

.

brucedoesbms wrote:Let's see here -- this has what, exactly, to do with the car audio device offered on woot! today?...

Oh, yeah -- Everything But Woot ...

Your criticism regarding the relevance of my post bears even less relevancy than my own; so, why did you not post your own criticism in the forum you have provided?

vladistov wrote:What if you had sprinkled magic-powder from ground snake-scales on each of the connections; would that mean that the success of your six installations ought be attributed to it?

I wouldn't have done that... I'm out of snake-scales.

So, you are paying $200 for a nice screen... because it's pretty empty inside. No CD player, no bluetooth, no HD radio, no XM, no nothing.... just a cheap IC (18Wx4) and a crappy digital module in a metal box. yeah... it's probably worth $50

turf12 wrote:before you buy, make sure that this head unit is compatible with your car.

http://signature.crutchfield.com/app/car/carselector.aspx?vb=Y&ss=Y&sl=Y&lp=%2fApp%2fProduct%2fItem%2fDefault.aspx%3fi%3d500IXAW404%26tp%3d27783&

that link is junk... tested it out on some cars that i know take 2 din recivers and it claimed that none of them would fit

worldofjohnboy wrote:I am currently 32 years old and have helped wire many household outlets, lights and fans. I beg you to find a ceiling light without electrical tape and wirenuts on them.

the inside of houses doesnt reach near the same temp a car in the middle of summer windows up in AZ... and doesn't go through the same bumps, vibration, stop and go, or turning that a car goes through...

With that said I think that solder is a too much at times... get some butt end connectors and a pair of crimpers (20 connectors for 3 bucks and crimpers for 8)

vancefsmith wrote:Can it play music generated from apps like Pandora?

thesupernovagirl wrote:yes it can

This is worth some clarification based on my understanding - This is all to the best of my knowledge of the product that I have yet to receive, so take it with a substantial amount of salt, and I make no guarantees about it's accuracy or validity in written form.


Yes, it can play Pandora or other streaming apps. There is a catch.

1) It will have to be through the aux-in into the deck, and it will have to be from the headphone jack on your media player (blackberry, iphone, ipod touch, etc).

2) You'll have to be receiving/streaming it over the net, which means you'll need cellular internet or wifi nearby. Pandora will NOT let you download music to play later.

3) The deck will not control Pandora or any other iphone app. The deck will control the phone over bluetooth (i.e. allow you to make calls over the speakerphone, with the add-on module), but you can't plug your iphone or blackberry in and expect to see your apps and whatnot on the screen, not without some serious hacker wizardry anyway. (I know the Pioneer Avic series have had this done, but these don't seem to have been cracked open in quite the same way.)

When you connect your iphone or blackberry or thumbdrive over usb, it will register it as a storage device and scan it. Blackberries and thumbdrives it treats more or less the same, they both turn up as the equivalent of usb hard drives. Iphones are a bit different because of the proprietary way they store music (they scramble file names so you can't just copy it all to another person or phone), and the deck knows how to read that, which is how it knows the names/titles/albums of your music.

So yes it can play Pandora, but don't expect to be able to plug in your phone and click a button on your deck that says "Play your Pandora Music!" Then there are the inherent difficulties in streaming music over cellular lines. With an AT&T 3g connection, it will probably work well, but beware of overage charges. Streaming music for hours can/will rack up pretty significant data usage.

Again, this is what I understand it to do based on what I've seen in other decks. I may be mistaken. But we'll find out in a week or so.

dolfan0925 wrote:I'm sure this has already been addressed, but I live in south Florida. Bought a Pioneer stereo, twisted and taped. 2 years in the Florida sun. Same for my twisted and taped 6x9s in the back. Everythings fine.

And nobody knows how "hood" you are cuz they can't see the wires. ;)

word.

mattlscc wrote:iPod connect... sweet! Assume that works with iPhone 3GS!?

yes it most certainly does, works with all ipod and iphone models, charging and playing

carl669 wrote:how do i know if this fits in me car?

your car would either be able to support a single din unit which is your typical aftermarket stereo, or a double din unit, which is like the one you see here, most cars dont support double din unless you have built in nav and such, or cars that have very large factory radios. The biggest reason is because of the space it takes up behind the dash.

acdawg wrote:Is this compatible with Sansa?

It has a usb connection on it. So if your mp3 player supports usb then usually it has a file access mode when it is connected via usb. Its just like connecting a usb flash drive to it.

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

theres a lot of options from alpine that will work well, to stay on par with the quality, I would stick with either infinity or alpines stuff. Alpine makes a very simple mini-amp that will boost your rms wattage so that you can get more performance out of those entry level alpine and infinity speakers. On average you can spend a couple hundred bucks on speakers and that mini-amp is about 150 retail. so with that youll have a pretty good setup. Online however you could get the same stuff for much cheaper. the mini amp just plugs straight into the head unit. Its called the ktp-445 on alpines website under accessories. This little guy would go great with alpine or infinitys entry level stuff. Ive installed tons of this level of stuff and customers are always more satisfied with infinity and alpines sound and quality for the price.

Jeus wrote:I noticed a usb slot does it recognize a directory structure and allow you cycle through folders on the drive?

It will recognize usb flash drives and all mp3 players, the key here is it only supports so much power via usb, even though some ipods are hd based they only crank 4200 rpm so they dont consume as much power to run. hope this helps! One thing i havnt tried is ssd. I would imagine it would work though.

jackwilliambell wrote:You know, this really isn't that great a deal. For just a little more you can walk into a store and buy one that already has Bluetooth and GPS. Add those on to this one and it costs more than $600.

And, really, $320 is not a 'deal' on a GPS add-on.

This is not a head unit that is best utilized for gps. However it is by far the best ipod/iphone head unit available. Ive installed just about all of them and this one blows them all out of the water. Bluetooth is over rated on aftermarket applications anyways, especially for audio, bluetooth for audio streaming is substantially low quality compared to what you can get from the usb on this device. Plus if you are going to use it with an iPhone which obviously most are, you have a much better gps experience anyways. You can chose your turn by turn software, live traffic updates> BTW check the prices and difficulty on updating maps on those other headunits, and also the cost of purchasing maps in certain areas. Last but not least Alpine makes the best decks, they have for years and still do now.

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 can do some online research there are companies that make adapters to go from aftermarket brand head units directly to certain vehicle harnesses, but be warned, make sure you are getting the right one, aftermarket companies change every few years and the factory connectors are always true to pictures on these websites.

jpstrings wrote:pass. No cd/mp3, dvd, player. This deck only has the ability to play music off a mp3 player. I would like to have the option to play mp3's off a cd or dvd.

good woot item, just not for me at this time.

ipods hold up to 3000 cds and you could fit nearly 120 hours of video on some. You cant fit that comfortably in a car, nor can you as easily access it. Welcome to a new era of car stereo,

neomagick wrote:This is worth some clarification based on my understanding - This is all to the best of my knowledge of the product that I have yet to receive, so take it with a substantial amount of salt, and I make no guarantees about it's accuracy or validity in written form.


Yes, it can play Pandora or other streaming apps. There is a catch.

1) It will have to be through the aux-in into the deck, and it will have to be from the headphone jack on your media player (blackberry, iphone, ipod touch, etc).

2) You'll have to be receiving/streaming it over the net, which means you'll need cellular internet or wifi nearby. Pandora will NOT let you download music to play later.

3) The deck will not control Pandora or any other iphone app. The deck will control the phone over bluetooth (i.e. allow you to make calls over the speakerphone, with the add-on module), but you can't plug your iphone or blackberry in and expect to see your apps and whatnot on the screen, not without some serious hacker wizardry anyway. (I know the Pioneer Avic series have had this done, but these don't seem to have been cracked open in quite the same way.)

When you connect your iphone or blackberry or thumbdrive over usb, it will register it as a storage device and scan it. Blackberries and thumbdrives it treats more or less the same, they both turn up as the equivalent of usb hard drives. Iphones are a bit different because of the proprietary way they store music (they scramble file names so you can't just copy it all to another person or phone), and the deck knows how to read that, which is how it knows the names/titles/albums of your music.

So yes it can play Pandora, but don't expect to be able to plug in your phone and click a button on your deck that says "Play your Pandora Music!" Then there are the inherent difficulties in streaming music over cellular lines. With an AT&T 3g connection, it will probably work well, but beware of overage charges. Streaming music for hours can/will rack up pretty significant data usage.

Again, this is what I understand it to do based on what I've seen in other decks. I may be mistaken. But we'll find out in a week or so.

not entirely on par with the pandora statement. if you connect your phone to the usb and it starts playing music you can hit the home screen button to exit the ipod part, this will keep playing the ipod part of it until you open another app that has audio to over ride the ipod, like pandora. the difference with alpines newest decks is you can control pandora from the head unit. with this one it will work via usb but you still have to control it from the phone

is there any word on when these will ship??

Mkvdubbin wrote:is there any word on when these will ship??

Id like to know as well.

Anyone know if these are shipping via smart post, or regular Fedex??? I have already recieved all of my installation gear from Crutchfield.