iPod Cruise Control.

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Author: Frakes, Dan

The $100 KCA-420i iPod Interface connection kit (www.alpine-usa.com) lets you play and control your iPod through your car stereo, which means no more fumbling for the iPod while speeding down the California freeways (or the busy--and hilly--streets of San Francisco). Unlike BMW's popular iPod kit, which limits your access to five playlists you create just for the system and limits navigation to skipping tracks forward and back, Alpine's kit lets you access all of your playlists and search for songs, albums, and artists via its onscreen display (not to mention the fact that you can use the Alpine offering in any car, not just a BMW). After evaluating the KCA-420i for a month, I came to appreciate its features, innovation, and sound quality--but at times found myself frustrated by its less-than-intuitive interface.

The KCA-420i works with all 2004 (and soon all 2005) Alpine Ai-Net head units, which range in price from $200 to $2,300. Alpine says the KCA-420i provides identical functionality across head units, and all but the video models feature the same control layout. The major difference with respect to the iPod interface is in the actual display--some units give you only a single line of text, whereas others provide three or four. (The $2,300 topof-the-line head unit features a 7-inch LCD touch screen.) Alpine installed the $450 CDA-9833 head unit in my car. (Ai-Net head units also feature, at a minimum, CD players and AM-FM tuners, with more-expensive models including additional features such as XM radio support and DVD players.)

Installing the kit is pretty simple. The unit itself is a box just over 7 by 6 by 1.5 inches in size, with two cables--one plugs into the changer control jack on the back of your Alpine head unit, while the other plugs into the iPod's dock connector. You can place the box under a car seat, behind the head unit, or even in the glove compartment-anywhere that the cable reaches. (It comes with 6-foot cables, but extensions are available.) If you don't want to install the KCA-420i yourself, Alpine estimates that installation should run between $50 and $100, depending on the vehicle and the installer.

The kit works with any iPod that has a dock connector (including the mini), but you need to make sure your iPod is running the software from iPod Update 2004-04-28 or later. Using it is easy--just plug the cable into your iPod's dock connector and switch the head unit to Changer mode. (If you think that term is confusing, you're not alone--Alpine promises that 2005 head units will have an improved interface that reads "iPod" instead.) As long as the radio is on, your iPod charges, and you can put the iPod to sleep (and then disconnect it) anytime by pressing the pause button on the head unit or turning the radio or car off.

Once I plugged in my iPod and started playing some tunes, I was glad I had volunteered my car as the review guinea pig. Like most aftermarket products, the Alpine head unit was a significant upgrade over the car's stock stereo--even using my run-of-the-mill speakers--and the sound via Alpine's interface was much cleaner than that of any cassette adapter or FM transmitter I've tried (and I've tried a lot of them). I also liked Alpine's MediaXpander technology, which uses a digital signal processor to make compressed files such as MP3s sound more like "real" (uncompressed) music (although I turned this feature off when listening to uncompressed tracks). Overall, the sound quality was among the best I've heard when listening to an iPod in my car, rivaled only by the results of other line-level input devices.

If you're hoping to see the iPod's famously intuitive interface on your car's display, you're in for a disappointment. Like any good gadget freak, I started using the system without reading the manual--the iPod is so easy to use, and I assumed the Alpine system would reflect this simplicity. Unfortunately, that's not the case, mainly because Alpine didn't create its head units with iPods in mind, but designed them for radio, CDs, and MP3 discs. The KCA-420i is basically an adapter that lets you control the iPod using the existing functionality of the head unit. This means the buttons on the Alpine head unit do not directly correspond to functions on the iPod--so take my advice: you need to read the manual.

I enjoyed myself more after spending some time with the manual, but I still needed to keep the documentation handy--I often forgot which combination of buttons did what I was looking for. Choosing a playlist requires several steps--press the F1 button, then press the QuickSearch button, then turn the rotary dial to scroll through playlists, and then press the dial to select the playlist--as does searching for a particular artist or album. Some of the terminology used on the head unit's display is also less than clear. For example, to search playlists, artists, and albums, you use File Search mode, but to search for songs, you use Folder Search mode. And when using the Mix function (similar to the iPod's Shuffle mode), you'll find that Mix Folder shuffles albums, whereas Mix Disc shuffles songs.

The biggest shock for devoted iPod users is bound to be the difference between Alpine's rotary dial and the iPod's Click Wheel. Alpine's head units feature a dial rather than a touch screen for searching tracks, artists, and albums; you click the dial once you've found what you're looking for. Whereas the iPod scrolls more quickly the faster you move your finger around the wheel, Alpine's interface has a single speed--about one item per second--making scrolling through a large number of playlists, albums, or artists slow and frustrating. Alpine told me this is a limitation of its head units, which it didn't design for a device that holds thousands of songs. The company recommends first using a playlist, artist, or album search to narrow down the selection so you don't have to scroll through as many items.

I had some other minor complaints regarding functionality. For example, after you press the skip forward or back button to change songs, it takes three or four seconds before track information appears on the display--making it difficult to scan songs. (Other search options don't have this limitation, but they don't let you listen to tracks as you scan their titles.)

The system also has a few technical glitches that Alpine says stem from the head units, not the connection kit. For example, you're limited to searching the first 511 items when using File Search to find a playlist, artist, or album. Similarly, in Folder Search mode, you can only browse the first 255 songs in a particular playlist, artist, or album. If you have an iPod with several thousand tracks (I'm up to 6,000) and you frequently search for songs, this pretty much requires that you create smaller playlists on your iPod. Granted, most people won't-I hope-try to search through thousands of songs while driving, but I certainly felt like doing such searches on more than one occasion, either while stopped or as a passenger. With any luck, the 2005 series of Alpine head units will correct some of these minor deficiencies.

Alpine has done a commendable job of creating a link between the iPod and the functionality of its existing head units, and the KCA-420i provides a glimpse of the potential for good iPod-car interfaces. Despite my criticisms, once I got used to the interface and controls I thoroughly enjoyed using the device during my test. The improved sound quality and the convenience of being able to control an iPod through the car stereo were both big improvements over FM transmitters and cassette adapters. (Auxiliary input connectors provide comparable sound quality, but require that you use the iPod's own controls.) In fact, I'm considering buying the unit myself, warts and all.

Alpine touts the KCA-420i and head unit combo as "the best in-vehicle solution for your iPod." Marketing mumbo-jumbo aside, it's hard to argue against that claim right now. No other product provides as much flexibility for browsing your iPod's music from your car stereo. At the same time, the KCA-420i also shows how far car audio interfaces have to go before they catch up to the iPod. Some might say it's not entirely fair to compare a car kit to the iPod, but Apple has spoiled us with top-notch technology, leading us to believe that a great, full-featured product can--and must--have a stellar interface.

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By Dan Frakes

Music nut DAN FRAKES (www.danfrakes.com) is the reviews editor for Playlistmag.com.