Just wondering if anyone else has had a similar problem. I bought this sereo in April, and have been using it with a 4th gen black and white iPod via the full speed cable without any problems. I have both 256 kbps AAC files and 128 kbps AAC files on that iPod. I recently upgraded to a 30gig 5G video iPod, and am now using the supplied USB connection. I have all of the same music files on both iPods. When I listen to 256 kbps files on the stereo with the 5G via USB, I get constant hissing and popping (sounds like a vinyl record). If I listen to a 128 kbps file via the same set up (5G via USB) - no problem. So I tried hooking the 5G iPod up via the fullspeed cable and listened to the exact same 256 kbps file - and it sounded worse! If I hook up my 4G ipod and listen to the same 256 kbps files, it sounds great.

According to all the documentation, the stereo should easily support 256 AAC files. Alpine's website is no help at all. Anyone have any suggestions?