So last night while unable to sleep I was browsing the web at stereos. I'm a personal fan of alpine HU's and got to looking at the IVA-D310 and knew my father in law had one at the audio store. I really wanted to get something touchscreen and something with nav. and something that didn't look stupid in the dash when the car was off. So I saw a picture of one of the members install of a nav system ( I think it's the eclipse, I PM'd him about it ) and my father in law showed me the IVA-W200 unit and I was impressed. Now assuming I can get it installed and everything working fine my main question is, Am I going to have to replace the stock speakers or can I leave them for now? I want to get this unit but It's going to take a nice chunk out of my "mod" money and I'm a little concerned about the sound quality with the new unit.

Any tips or comments would truely be appreciated.

 

aftermarket companies make adapters that will let it work with the factory speakers. But you got bigger problems. That radio is a double din, fbods are 1 1/2 din.

 

Yeah, some cutting would be to be expected, but it can be done I've heard.

 

I've been wanting to go the IVA D300/310/900 route myself. My friend has worked for Alpine for almost 20 years. She told me to stay away from the 300/310 as they have had a lot of problems with them breaking. I see a lot of them on eBay too. I'll have to check with her if the IVA-W200 has the same problems, because I'd be interested in it too.

 

Bump.

 

I have the 310 myself and it is nothing short of awesome. The install was pretty involved but well worth all the work.

 

Well i HAVE the w200 and i hope not to have any issues with it since Alpine has done me so good in the past...

 

I've been sleepless at night myself researching comparable units. Mainly the alpine iva-w200, kenwood ddx6019, and the AVIC-z1.

The problem with the alpine unit is the lack of EQ functions if you decide to add a system later on, along with that, the bluetooth feature is apparently very buggy and only good for incoming calls. But the ipod controls are supposed to be one of the best. However, if you're looking to add Nav down the road, I hear very mixed reviews about the Alpine Blackbird, however IT IS portable. Which is a plus. On a side note: Alpine just debuted the new W205 hu and has a new blackbird coming out that docks inside of it, so that may be something to ponder on if you can wait til May. Just search it on google.

On to the kenwood, its apparently a great unit. Very well priced (around 700 give or take). Not sure about EQ functions. The picture is supposed to be great too. The bluetooth I hear is also very well executed on the unit. The ipod controls though seem to be a joke, they work, but it only displays one line of text. And the sound might not be amazing, but I hear it is good nonetheless. The biggest perk is the nav add-on which is made by Garmin, its one of the best at about $500 bux, totalling 1000-1200 ballpark for the whole thing, with nav! thats a good deal period!

Finally, is pioneers Avic-z1. Personally, my favorite. And still even after all my research the unit im leaning towards the most. Naturally, its also the most expensive of the lot. Clocking in around 15-1700. Perks include built in HDD based bad *** navigation system, voice recognition system, a nice EQ function with plenty of options, 10gb of HDD space to rip your music to, and awesome bluetooth controls. For instance, if youre looking for a blockbuster, it will show a big video tape on the screen, press it, and then you can press dial and call to reserve a movie or same for lots of other places. Awesome features. And you can access your ripped music library with voice commands. The ipod controls are supposed to be good too, just a little slow, which MIGHT be fixed. And pioneer unveiled the avic-z2 at CES 07 this year, and guess what? Same thing. lol Essentially, a firmware/software update to the Z1 will make it a ... thats right, a Z2.

Well, hope this helps. If you have any questions at all, shoot me a PM. I know theres A LOT of crap to know, and its a hard decision to make. lol So I'd be more than happy to help however I can.

 

i had the w200 in my trans am. it was a lot of work to make it fit and look factory. once it was all said and done it did work pretty well with the monsoon system. my factory amp went out (it was having problems before the deck install though) so I bypassed it and changed speakers and amp as well. If you don't mind doing the work to make the deck fit its a great piece to have. I bypassed the safety on it for the soul reason you can't even adjust bass and treble without it in park. Pm me if you have ANY questions on this mod, definetly something I know about.
Brandon

 

I'm sorry but your 'friend' doesn't know a thing about the IVA-D series if that's her opinion!! I know two others, one with the W200 and another with the D100.. and they absolutely LOVE it! Zero complaints and they both are total audiophiles and extremely critical of everything usually

The IVA-D310 I had in the TA was nothing short of spectacular and performed flawlessly!!.. It completely blew the Kenwood KVT-717 In-Dash DVD unit I had before it..

Just because you see alot of them on ebay doesn't mean they're bad units.. geez!

Stop criticizing products you personally haven't used..

 

I'm not saying that it isn't a great product or the quality of the sound. She works customer service for Alpine (so she's seen more than the two your friend and you own) and told me to stay away from them as they were having a lot of problems with them and a lot of them were coming back in.

I don't think the problem was with the 900 series but definitely with the 300/310 series. I was unsure about the 200 series.
I never did check back with her, because I just went with a 9851 and since then, my camaro is just sitting in my driveway.