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Playlistmag.com has a well written review of the highly anticipated Alpine iPod interface. Here's an excerpt:
When used with a compatible Alpine head unit, Alpine's new $100 KCA-420i iPod Interface connection kit lets you play and control your iPod through your car stereo. Unlike BMW's popular iPod kit — which limits access to five playlists you specifically create for the system and limits navigation to skipping tracks forward and back — Alpine's solution lets you access all of your playlists and, via its onscreen display, search for songs, albums, and artists. (And the Alpine offering can be used in any car, not just a BMW.) After evaluating the KCA-420i for a month in my Honda CR-V test vehicle, I appreciated its features, innovation, and sound quality, but at times found myself frustrated by its interface.
You can read the entire review here.
If you can stand the garish look of the required Alpine headunit (all 2004 or later Alpine Ai-NET head units should work) and poor interface, it sounds like this might be a solution to consider.
<p>So does it work with the stock HK unit?</p>
<p>I don't think so- pretty sure you need to have the alpine head unit- reason enough for me to wait for the bmw/mini adapter. Maybe less functionality, but more elegant and integrated. In my opinion.</p>
<p>Gabe,
I am confused by this review. Does this work for the Mini's head unit? It is unclear if the Alpine model(s) that were compatible match our head unit in the Mini.</p>
<p>Yeah, why is this showing up on Motoringfile if it isn't really MINI related necessarily?</p>
<p>Because it's another way to integrate an iPod that works with the MINI. It's no different than the ICE-Link which was reviewed here last spring. Ever since we reported on the ICE-Link adapter we've seen a huge interest from our readers in iPod/MINI integration.</p>
<p>…And also because we've recieved <strong>dozens</strong> of emails specifically asking for some type of review of the Alpine connector. So at the very least I wanted to link to one of the better ones.</p>
<p>Thanks Gabe: The Alpine touch screen is the best I have used with the new 420i.
I wouldn't have considered it without this review.</p>
<p>Gabe,</p>
<p>Thanks for the link.. I was one of those interested in this unit. I agree about the new head units.. “garish” is a good description. I would prefer a more subdued look myself.</p>
<p>Still, at the moment, looks like the best way to access the iPod through car audio. One thing I would like is to have my Multi-Function steering wheel in the MINI control basic tracks functions like the BMW solution. Did not see that mentioned and it looks doubtful.</p>
<p>So.. still looks like the Alpine unit has a way to go before I could consider it.</p>
<p>Or, you could just do to your MINI what Alpine did to theirs:
<a href="http://ecominet2.alpine-usa.com/html/adc/2004" rel="nofollow ugc">http://ecominet2.alpine-usa.com/html/adc/2004</a><em>mini/2004</em>mini.htm</p>
<p>Alpine MINI</a></p>
<p>I thought the 420i head unit was ugly (garish is not a strong enough term) until that link Aaron… someone needs to give Alpine a taste transplant!
I have ended up using the aux input and the iPod remote velcroed to the wiper stalk since I use the iPod for <a href="http://www.audible.com" rel="nofollow ugc">http://www.audible.com</a> books when in the car this is working ok for me as I get my music from XMDirect in the MINI… but if I did not have the sat radio I would go with the MINI/BMW unit with all its faults it is the most intergrated for now… but I bet the 06 or 07 MINI radio will have an elegant integrated solution with a nice built in iPod dock… any wagers</p>
<p>Just had to say <a href="https://www.motoringfile.com/img/headers2/39.jpg
">today's picture</a> is GREAT.</p>
<p>Sweet review… I still think I'll be going with the Apple interface though :-D</p>
<p>I bought this the day it came out. My major complaint is that it has no accelerated scrolling, so if I want to listenn to any band/playlist between F and U I have arrived at my destination by the time I spin the alpine scroll whell the thousands of time necessary. Plus, if I'm listening to, say, Elvis, and want to listen to Fugazi, it starts me over back at thhe beginning, instead of in the Es. Ugh. It's a major pain in the ass.</p>
<p>I completely agree with Patrick, I just bought this and the sound is great but scrolling is unworkable for me. It would be much better if it allowed the iPod controls to still function instead of “taking over.” I'm going to revert to my Neo Car Jukebox instead.</p>
<p>I have this link, and my ipod runs flat over time, shouldn’t it be continually charging it? bizarre!</p>
<p>I bought the Alpine iPod Interface, KCA-420i along with an Alpine head unit several months ago. I was looking forward to getting it since I have owned two different FM-transmitters and was not happy with either the quality of the audio in my car (friends have them and audio is fine for some reason) or the ease of use.
However, having had this setup for a while, I would not recommend it. First, navigating to play specific bands, playlists or songs takes forever. When you scroll, it pauses on each selection for a second no matter how hard you turn the dial. So if you have 100 artists, scrolling to the one you want may take 1-2 minutes, and you have to pay attention as you scroll because of how they are displayed.
Second, it displays the title, artists, albums, song time and time of day, but only one of those at a time, and the button to change is small and in an akward postition above the dial (maybe not a problem with other head units). I thought about buying a clock for my car now since it is akward to keep switching to time, then back to the display I usually use. This is strange since they have plenty of room on the display to show things like the this. Also, I leave the display on artist usually since I play my songs randomly and like this when a song comes up that I don’t recognize immediately. The problem with this is it takes 6 seconds to show this info. When a new song first starts playing it shows the song time for this period then switches back to what you have it set to display. If you change the volume or other settings during this period it adds to this time for some reason, so it usally takes around 8-10 seconds to show the song info I want. Also confusing to me is that as I switch between different sources, it remembers my display setting, but for CD and Tuner only shows “No Title” or “No Text”, which makes it look like there is problem as I listen to radio.
Another odd feature is that it scrolls the display no matter how long the text in it is. For example, “UB40” gets scrolled across just like “Message In A Box: The Complete Recordings (Disc 2)”. This looks strange because it starts at the left and scrolls to the left, so short text is quickly scrolled off the display leaving it blank for a bit. Again, not a big deal, but it just makes it look goofy.
Another annoying thing is that it does not remember random settings. I almost always listen to my iPod in random mode (especially given the hard navigation), so evertyime I get in car, I have to hit the random button twice to get it in “random all” mode.
Another problem for me is that it does not charge or recognize the iPod when its battery is low. I only listen to my iPod in my car, since I commute quite a bit each day. The iPod can generally handle being left in the car, except that the battery sometimes runs down over night just enough to not be recognized by the Alpine. I have to get it out of the glove box and turn it on manually for the unit to then recognize it. If the battery ran down enough to not come on manually I have to charge it at my computer, then put it back in the car. This probably is not a problem for most people that use their iPod regularly outside their car, but it seems seems that this unit is meant for my setup — The connector takes two hands, is somewhat fragile and is in my glove box. The glove box seems natural since they do not provide a way to hang it up like they show on the Alpine website and even if it is out, the iPod only displays “Alpine” and you cannot interact with it while connected, it does not look like it meant to be connected and disconnected easily every time you get in and out of your car. The one positive is that I get crystal clear audio now… now if it was just the song I wanted to hear, it would be perfect.</p>
<p>drew what alpine radio did u buy? i jus purchased one and i want to know if it was the same unit i have…keep me from buying the adapter in all..if i knew first what model u had.. thanks!</p>
I totally agree with Drew on every bit of his message.
The audio is perfect, but searching a band or a song takes forever and is clearly dangerous while driving (and lets be realistic on this one: how many times would you pull over and stop driving, just to scroll to the song you want?)
BoerFons