hsyed

I was really excited to buy Alpine car stereo but I'm somewhat disappointed after spending $400 for the deck, installation, kit etc.

First off, I've read in a few different forums that people are impressed with the Parrot microphone and that the sound quality is great. It's not. It's just OK, but nothing to be excited over. Every time I'm on a call using bluetooth people ask me if I'm driving because they can hear sound in the background. Now, this is with the windows rolled up and I don't do any highway driving to/from work.

The other thing I'm disappointed with is that I've got my Blackberry Bold 9700 paired with the stereo, but whenever I start the car the stereo and the blackberry get paired, but after 1-2 minutes the connection drops. If I try to reconnect through the deck, it drops again after 2 minutes. If I re-connect through the blackberry, it doesn't drop. My blackberry and the deck are set to visible and on the blackberry, the deck is set to "trusted". Now, I realize that this may not be an Alpine issue, but it's impacting the overall satisfaction with the product. The only suggestion Alpine has about this is to connect manually.

The third thing which bothers me the most to the point I wish I could return the stereo is that it doesn't automatically display artist name and song title like older Alpine decks do. You actually have to press the 'View' button 3 times to see the artist name, then one more time to see the album name, then one more time to see the song title. Such an inconvenient and unsafe thing for a product that is fairly new (1.5yrs on the market). You would think that something basic like this would be default. I know there is nothing wrong with my ipod, because I connected it to my boyfriends 4 year old Alpine deck and it displays the text automatically. Another thing is that it doesn't display the text on store bought CDs either. I put a brand new CD in the player and it only says 'Artist name' but not the name of the artist.

I tried resetting the unit and spent 45 mins setting it up according to the manual and the issues are still there. They may be small issues, but definitively not worth the money spent. I was better off with my factory installed stereo instead.

Sorry for being so negative, I was just hoping to be happy after making such an investment

If you have any suggestions on how I can fix some of the issues I would appreciate it. Thanks!

luke99

have you tried a differnt bluetooth device ?

hsyed

Yes, I went on a road trip to the US with a friend. She had her blackberry 8700 connected while she was driving. After a stop, I had to manually reconnect her phone. So it's the deck that can't initiate and keep a connection.

CoreyC

iTrader: (1)

Maybe you should have tried out the deck on a demo board before spending $400 on it?