Back in December when I got my 4G I was really pleased to find out that integration to my old Blaupunkt Miami was as simple as plugging a $3.00 3.5mm mini jack cable from the back of the Blaupunkt to the headphone jack of the Ipod. Instant car integration.

Back in 98/99 when my Blaupunkt was good stuff, an optional CD changer ran off the mini jack so I had a functional AUX port for my Ipod.

Sound quality with the Ipod was, well - it had something to be desired.

What I did like was that the Ipod controls controlled the Ipod, being able to go from listening to headphones and continuing the same song in the car with no hassle, etc.

Since the Blaupunkt, subwoofer and amp have been installed in the last two cars I owned I figured I'd just move that stuff over when I got my new car.

Wrong!!!

Even the least of the new Alpine head units had much better controls for my sub and my car speakers eliminating the need for a crossover - keeping all the bass in my sub and preserving the little door speakers. More power too. I also really liked the idea of having my Ipod integrated into the head through a better interface than the headphone jack.

Well, If I'd only known that controlling 3500+ songs would be such a pain in the rear through the Alpine head unit.

Also - how picky the KC420i is when it comes to Ipod name and playlist. It was only through searching these forums that I figured out that the playlist "not supported" error message I was getting happened because my Ipod has an astrick in it's name! Nothing in the documentation or on Alpine's site had any information.

The buttons on the Alpine head are tiny and it is slow. The instructions aren't all that good, so its hard to manage scrolling through playlists.

How many of us have astericks in our Ipod's names?

So... I'm stuck with this thing, it sounds good - but warning - don't try to drive and operate the Alpine - it's an accident waiting to happen.

Ann