Hi gang.

I want to just say how pleased I am with the installation I received at Car Sounds on Rufe Snow in North Richland Hills, Texas. I almost wanted to do it myself, but I'm a wuss so I decided to get a pro to do it instead. Anyway here is a short little review of every piece of the puzzle for those interested.

What I wanted: Alpine 9855
Modifry DCI
IPOD adapter
Someone who knows what they are doing(Car Sounds)

What I got: Alpine 9855
Modifry DCI
IPOD Adapter
Someone who knows what they are doing(Car Sounds)

Alpine 9855
I did a TON of research on these forums and elsewhere on the net. And to save you guys a lot of trouble, if you want the 9855 get one that is made in April 2005 or later. February is definitately bad, im not sure about March. Something about a bad batch with the motorized faceplates. Anyway the one I got was manufactured May 2005. You can see this buy looking at the bottom of the actual Head Unit.

GlideTouch: Yes I knew about it. I knew it may take time to get used to, and I knew it had mixed reviews. I have to give it the same mixed reviews. A) Its a great concept but B)Scrolling is not so quick. And that is my biggest gripe. I'm hoping I will get better at it. But I knew about it going in.

Everything else about the head unit rocks. The look, the sound, the feel, the display( love the biolite, love the 256 color setting) and I love MediaExpander. Very very cool. I am blown away about how much difference a nice Head Unit makes. Its night and day.

Overall I'm more than willing to give the glide touch a pass. The sounds in my car are so much better. And anytime I want to smile I can now just look up as always to see the sky AND i can open the radio hatch!


Modifry DCI
This thing is awesome. If you don't have it...get it. Going back and forward tracks (or going to the next song on the IPoD)...it is so nice.

We did have some phantom issue at first though. The only thing that worked was the MUTE. First, make sure that you check the jumper settings on the back of the DCI. I used jumper settings that were displayed in the Installation pages. However, it still wasn't working after fixing that. The wiring was right, the switchers looked right. We unplugged the DCI off the harness, played with the switches a bit...and it worked!! Either the DCI wasn't seated correctly or the pins were somehow not pushed all the way on or off. During that time Modifry and I exchanged some emails, so I am very happy with the support from him.

Speed Control Volume - Pretty darn neat. Its nice that I can turn it off and on.

Ipod Interface
Again I did a lot of research on the Ipod interfaces on the market. From everything I could tell, Alpine's was the best. Pioneer or kenwood make them, but to my knowledge they are sub par. Something like 8 characters of text maximum. No thanks.

After having installed and played with the Ipod Adapter. I can say that I am very happy with it. The only drawback(and this is either a function of the Head Unit or the Ipod Interface) is the speed in scrolling for your songs. There is also this 512 song limitation in one folder(artist, album, playlist). This is a function of the Head Unit I believe. I'm willing to bet this will be fixed in the next generation. In any case I don't have 512 artists/playlists/albums yet(2000 songs total). So for me its a moot point.

But again, overall I am happy with it, cause it just sounds so good and its nice to be able to see what im playing on my head unit =).

Car Sounds inc - the installer
I did a whole lot of research on this too. Basically I looked at the Alpine list of authorized dealers. It is best to buy from authorized dealers as the Manufacturer's warranty is only good if you buy from them. I went to best buy, tweeters in Southlake(right by my work), and Car Toys near North East Mall.

Best Buy - I am not a big fan of Best Buy installs. The service isn't as good.

Car Toys - The big thing that I wanted was the Ipod in the center console underneath the elastic band, like many other S2kers have them. So I go to Car Toys and explain that to the installer and he says, Oh thats impossible unless you want to cut through steel. I just worked on one the other day. Hmm, I say, well i've seen plenty of pics to see that it can be done. And hes like well what year is yours, cause I worked on a 2006 model.... Ok. 2006 is not out yet, but hey. And when I mentioned Modifry's DCI they really upped the price considerably for programming. When really the programming is really simple (all done with those switches) with Modifry's DCI. So i scratched them off the list.

Tweeters(in Southlake) - Tweeters didn't have an installer in Southlake as he just moved to California. So no go. I was going to buy my head unit from them anyway(because Car Sounds didn't have it in stock), but when i went there to make the purchase the guy with the keys to the cage left...There were 2 salesmen there and they couldn't open the cage. They did make a tempting offer, "I can sell it to you, but I cant give it to you." No thanks...so i was forced to buy it from best buy.

Car Sounds - The guy who installed it pretty much knew exactly how I wanted it installed as soon as I said what I wanted. He immediately said we'd put the Ipod in the rear center console underneath the elastic band, everything else hidden. Its like I didn't even have to say anything. He just knew. And the price he quoted was extremely reasonable. I was very very happy with the price.

He was wary of the DCI. Apparently there are numerous less than reputable DCIs for other cars. And we did have that problem where it wasn't seeded. So he gave me a call(I was at work) and I came over around 5 and we both looked at it together. It ended up being(like I said) something we didn't push in hard enough, I guess. Its a mystery for both of us. But in the end he was mighty impressed with Modifry's DCI. As am I.

He was able to locate the Speed Sensor without any problem. This was something I was worried about cause well, it wasn't 100% clear in the DCI installation instructions where it was. It just said "passenger dash access panel", and well I wasn't 100% sure where that was ...despite seeing the picture. I did find a better picture by looking at one of Modifry's other mods.

After we put it together I noticed the IR wire hanging about half an inch too much for my liking. No problem, we just took the cover off and did it until we got it right.

The Ipod Install was just as I wanted. I must say that while we were fooling with it...Somehow "Stronger" by brittney spears came online. I received a much deserved ribbing for that one.

They do carry Alpine and I bought my adapter from them. They did not have any 9855s in stock(otherwise i would have bought from him), and I think that had something to do with the Recalls and the bad reputation they got in those Feb 2005 units. He did have 9853s in stock, but i really wanted the 9855s. And he was very upfront about the problems Alpine had in the past(which i knew about). In fact he wanted to check the head unit's manufacture date before he put it my car(which i had previously checked). No matter, I really appreciated the heads up allowing me to make an informed decision. I could tell the service was more important than the sale.

So I highly recommend Car Sounds. They know the s2k. They know Alpine(Authorized Dealer). and They now know Modifry's DCI mod and where all options plug in. And they did a great job. If anyone wants pics I would be pleased as punch to put them in.

Anyway Thanks for listening!
Dan

EDIT: Car Sounds info Copied from their website at www.carsoundsinc.com

5216 Rufe Snow Dr.
(from Loop 820 exit North, 1/2 mile)
North Richland Hills, TX 76180
(817) 849-1070

Open Monday-Saturday 10am-6pm
(817) 849-1070
Or email carsoundsinc@aol.com

Just tell em I sent ya

 

nice write up! glad you were able to get someone who knew what they were doing

 

Great write-up. I learned the hard way not to use a dealer who doesn't know the S2K or doesn't believe what you want done can be.

PS: my setup is similar, just with a 9835 (the latest at the time I got mine). The scroll speed, text size, and count limit are all Alpine head unit limits, not iPod. You are lucky as well, my limit is 255 which I do reach.

 

Thanks.

I have to put a correction.

For 9855 you are limited to 511 albums/artists/playlists. I said 512.

But what I really missed was that you are still limited to 255 songs in each folder.

Thanks!