I'm an old fart who's first auto stereo upgrades were adding an underdash cassette to an am radio in the 70's and am blown away with the recent upgrade to my Blazer. Starting my vehicle while the Alpine home screen shows "windows phone connected ",having every song I've ever heard available thru the usb stick, playing music and answering calls thru my phone wirelessly, dialing on the touchscreen, and watching music DVD's is just way too easy. No wonder Furd is selling vehicle's on these features alone. Updating my winter ride with these goodies has made the commute way more enjoyable and recommend it to anyone.

 

What Alpine deck did you install? Do you have any pics?

 

was it expensive?

 

The head unit I bought was an Alpine IVE-W535HD on sale locally for $300. Here's the info:

Alpine Electronics of America, Inc.


What I learned was that fitment requires no trimplate as I just put some skid tape around it and the easiest way would have been to scavenge the mounting tabs from the stock radio as I saw someone did after. Here's how it looks along with my USB mount and the position of the touchscreen relative to the driving position means virtually no reaching.

 

man that things fancy

 

Very nice! A steal for $300!

 

I agree, great grab for $300. I like that (aluminum?) surface mount USB port as well. Is that what comes with the unit or did you find that somewhere?

That unit has terrific EQ, Crossover and Time Alignment adjustability. Very nice unit for any setup no matter how big or small.

 

Thanks guys. I made the USB mount out of a scrap pc. of aluminum. At first I was looking for a deck that had a front USB input but in hindsight that would have been in the way sticking out of the dash and IMO it's much cleaner having it down below and almost out of sight. The stock speakers sound fantastic with this unit so changing them or adding a sub appear to be unnecessary.

 

You think it sounds good now, wait until you hear it with decent speakers. I like the way you mounted the usb port. I have been thinking of mounting one in the cd holder in the console but I may like the lower dash better.

 

Old Fart indead. I too was looking for a front mount USB as they sell thumbs just 1/8" out from the facia. Man does that look tight, dope, fat, Or hep, groovy nifty! Just think it wasnt too long ago that they put electric self starters on our Chevys.