Customer Reviews

Alpine IXAW404 eDigital Media Station

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The other review says that there is a clock problem this is not true you just have to be able to set the clock which is a little confusing the first time that you do it (You must pretend as if you are watching a movie with parking break etc...). This does mean that you cannot adjust the clock while you are moving. However, the ipod interface is fantastic especially if you save the settings to be identical to the ones on the iPod. Just take a little time setting up everything the way you want it before you take it out. From then on it is easy to work with and a great product i would recommend this to anybody who doesn't necessarily want a full touch screen, and would rather use a system like this for sound rather than for movies.

This is a great unit especially if you're using an IPOD with it. The IPOD control is flawless compared to The Pioneer this replaced and a JVC unit that I have in another vehicle(JVC IPOD control is worthless!). I also have a rear camera hooked up to it. Sound quality is excellent with my factory Infinity gear. I haven't had any problems with it to this point so I'm very satisfied with it. This replaced a Pioneer AVIC F700bt that was in my Wrangler 4door. My only gripe is the video bypass. All manufacturers should realize that most people are going to bypass the video on their units regardless of safety concerns. I purchased a PAC TR-7 to do it with this unit. Without by-passing the video you have to do the foot brake/parking brake dance to either watch video or get to the basic setup menu's. It's not like I'm going to watch video while I'm driving but I do like to tweak things while on the go. And the 4 step process that Alpine wants you to do to get to the basic menu's is why I rated this 4 stars instead of 5.

I had the first generation generation iDA-X001 in my vehicle and when the faceplate broke I decided to upgrade to the Alpine IWAW404. I loved the look and has been wanting a double-din deck. I was very happy with the iDA-X001 and thought this unit, being 4 years newer, would be even better. What I got was a week of a lot of wasted time as I watched Car Toys install three of them over a one week time period. The iXA-W404 kept freezing up for 2 to 10 minutes at a time. I finally had them install the single din i-DAX305s and so far so good, sound is great, works as advertised. When the iXA-W404 was working, I loved it, too bad they cant fix the problems is is having. I should have known there was something wrong when they knocked $200 off the price...I heard they are going to discontinue this model, and for good reason. Do not buy this!

I first started by upgrading my factory speakers... next I installed a 500w AMP which made the factory stereo sound so much better. I heard that ALPINE made the IXA series to work seamlessly with iPods and that the sound would be great.... i took the plunge and odered the IXA 404 (considered the IXA 407 & INA w900 but did not want to spend the extra $$$$. I had my new unit and once installed... all I can say is WOW AMAZING!!!! could not be hapier... have not even played with the EQ or settings and when I pluged my iPOD in... ohhhh baby!!!!
Highly recommend this unit... It makes the sounds out of my 2 Component ALPINE SC 600 speakers in front and 2 Coaxials in the back sing like never before... oh and I added a self amplified 8" Bazzoka which gives it the final component to make it sound soooooo nice. Could not be happier... just for the sound alone is worth every penny.

sound quality is ok. when using a flash drive with this deck, the latency is horrible. it has to bank everytime you turn your car on which can take like 10 minutes. sometimes it "loses" the usb drive in mid song and has to rebank. not all of the music i put on it will play. the movie files will only play from an ipod. i wish it had better graphics, like screen savers or something. the touch screen doesn't work as well as hoped. and for all the features that make this thing worth while you'll have to spend $900 more dollars for all the non included extra parts. do not waste your money on this.

Okay, let me first state that this is the third Alpine deck I have purchased and the others did not give me anywhere near as much trouble as this one did. First the good points:

- Its Alpine, so much like coveted Apple devices its intuitive, so you don't feel the need to pore over the manual before you launch out of the parking lot.

- It sounds really good. Especially when pushing Bose speakers.

- Good customer service (you'll understand in a minute).

Now for the frustrating part:

- What Alpine negelects to mention and the crux of my disappointment with this deck is that the firmware updates for this and the 400BT (Bluetooth Device) have to done using a PC... I own a Macbook Pro. Even with the PC side of my MBP (Windows XP) trying to push the updates, no dice. Pretty key point you omitted, there Alpine.

- The deck has been replaced for me by Alpine once already because it kept freezing up after about an hour when attached to my 2nd Gen iPod Touch. I had the iPod checked out by Apple just to be certain it wasn't the culprit... nope, its the deck. Even now with the second (improved) deck installed, it still happens way to frequently for what I paid for this thing when it first came out.

- The 400BT and deck combined have issues recognizing my phone for the hands free operation. I own a Motorola Droid, I phone I recognize was released AFTER the deck was made, but we refer back to complaint #1 whereas had the system been made to work with any bluetooth capable computer I'd have been able to load the most updated firmware so that it COULD recognize the newer phone.

This will be the last time I purchase an Alpine product if this is how far their quality standards have fallen.

Buy it. It's awesome. Great price. Deals don't get better than this. It shipped quickly. I am very very satisfied with this purchase.

I bought one of these units for my 2006 Mustang - it did everything that it was suppose to do. The Mustang got totaled and the sound system "disappeared" while in impound (Head Unit, Outboard Amps, Sirius Radio Receiver and even the four Infinity Speakers).

The Mustang was replaced by a 2010 Dodge Challenger. Stock sound systems sucks rocks and my Chally had the very bottom basic system. Not even compatible for Sirius Satellite and I won't even mention the speakers. Being an Alpine Loyalist, I found this HU on sale and snapped one complete system (Apine amps, speakers, subwoofer and Sirius) through Amazon.com. This time I added the Bluetooth adapter. This is where the problems began. Going though three HU's and two Alpine Bluetooth adapters, none ever worked. I even took the car to Car Toys and had them troubleshoot the system - we could never make the thing work. A call to Alpine revealed that there are compatibility issues with this HU and Bluetooth adapter. None of this is mentioned in any of the Alpine literature.

I'm very disappointed with Alpine. I mentioned that I had spent a lot of time and money with this setup and that I have been loyal to Alpine over the past 20 years. Alpine units in my two Corvettes, my Subaru and the former Mustang are just this decades-worth of Alpine car products purchased. I didn't even get a "We're sorry," after voicing my concern and disappointment, but they did offer to sell me, at full retail, successor of this unit, the INA-W900BT. I asked if they would take the IWA-W404 in return and credit me full retail. The droid dealing with me actually chuckled before giving me a firm, "No way that will happen."

So I sold the HU, Alpine Adapter and Bluetooth adapter on Craigslist and purchased a Pioneer AVH-3200BT and a compatible Sirius Receiver. Although I don't like the display as much as I liked the Alpine's, everything on the Pioneer unit works perfect and it has the benefit of being able to play CDs (I still like to grab one of my 80's music CD occasionally) that the Alpine HU lacked.

So I've now gone full circle - I bought Pioneer systems exclusively during the 80's, felt that Pioneer quality faltered and went with Alpine in the 90's. Now I'm firmly in the camp of Pioneer Electronics now - all because of the (known to Alpine but not advertised) limitations of the Alpine iwa-w404 head unit and Alpine Electronics refusal to do anything to make a loyal customer happy.

When we connect Ipod to radio no sound comes out. The Radio sound works but as soon as I connect the Ipod the screen shows song info and says song is playing but nothing happens. Ipod software has been updated (they are Ipod touch) Not sure what is wrong with it. Can anyone hel?

Very solid radio for playing music from a handheld device which is exactly what I wanted it for. I does not have the ability to place CDs. The rest of it is just ok. Overall, great unit for the price.