Learn: Home » Apple's iPod™ Hits the Road with Alpine
Doing the iPod shuffle in the middle of the road
Anyone with an iPod knows how great it is to pop it into shuffle play mode and get treated to a random mix of your favorite tunes. And the only thing better than walking down the street to your own customized mix is cruising down the road to it with the windows open. Luckily, Alpine has realized this, and has provided shuffle play functionality via the KCA-420i adapter.
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To shuffle play your iPod tunes with the KCA-420i, you use Alpine's M.I.X. function (standard on all compatible Alpine receivers), accessed by hitting the "F/SETUP" button and then preset 5. You can set the M.I.X. function to shuffle play all tracks within a playlist (appears as "M.I.X. FLDR" on the display), or all the songs in your library (appears as "M.I.X. DISC" on the display). You must turn the M.I.X. function off before using QuickSearch to find playlist, artist or album.
Bass Engine sound controls
You can use Apple's Lossless Encoder to retain all of the audio information in the songs you put on your iPod, but most Podsters try to balance sound quality with the quantity of songs they can squeeze onto their iPod. This means that most of us are transferring files to the iPod as either AAC or MP3 files — I import all my music into iTunes and transfer files to my iPod as AAC files at 128 kbps. Due to the "lossy" nature of compressed digital formats (which results in the omission of certain audio information deemed unimportant or inaudible by the algorithm unique to each CODEC), the sound-shaping capabilities of your in-dash receiver can play a big role in getting the best sound from your iPod. As is always the case, the more control you have over the sound of your music, the better, and Alpine takes this to heart.
Bass Engine is the proprietary term Alpine uses to describe their sound customization features. There are three different levels of sound shaping available (Bass Engine, Bass Engine Plus, and Bass Engine Pro), depending on your Alpine head unit. Each level allows you to adjust basic bass, treble, and subwoofer levels, but as you step up you get more sophisticated controls.
Digital time correction
Digital time correction allows you to compensate for the placement of speakers in your vehicle so that all sounds arrive at your ear at the same time. In a properly set-up home audio system, you can literally sit in the sweet spot of the room with the speakers equidistant from your listening position. In your car, however, each speaker is located at a different distance from your ears. Digital time correction allows you to delay the speakers closest to you by fractions of a millisecond, so that the sound from each speaker hits your ears simultaneously. You'll hear a wider, more spacious soundstage, a big plus when you're listening to AAC or MP3 files that have lost some of their harmonic resonance as a result of compression. Instead of feeling like you're sitting off to the left of the band (if you're driving), digital time correction can make you feel like you're in the center of the music.
MediaXpander
Alpine's MediaXpander function (MX) restores audio information lost in the recording and compression processes. On Alpine's 2004 head units, you can apply MediaXpander to six different sources (FM, CD, MP3/WMA/XM, Music DVD, Video DVD, and AUX). You can also adjust the MX in one of three "expansion modes."
MediaXpander treats each source slightly differently — FM radio, for example, can only broadcast between 50 - 15,000 Hz, so crucial information is packed into the midrange frequencies between 350 Hz and 2,000 Hz. Therefore, MediaXpander targets the midrange and enhances the clarity of vocals on FM. According to Steve Piceno, Product Marketing Specialist at Alpine, the head unit can differentiate what type of media you are playing when the changer is in use, and apply the proper MX setting. "So if you have a changer that contains a store-bought CD-DA album, and a CD that contains folders with MP3 files, the head unit will recognize what type of media it is and assign the appropriate MX compression settings — MP3 MX or CD MX," Piceno told me.
But does it work?
Yes. Despite my early misgivings, MediaXpander proved itself to be much more than just a glorified "Loudness" button. MediaXpander opened up Neil Young's reverb-drenched epic "On the Beach," for example, into a broad musical canvas etched in stark relief with Young's scraggly guitar lines. Hard-hitting tracks like The Mooney Suzuki's "It's Not Easy" benefited from the enhanced high-frequency treatment. The tambourine is nearly eclipsed behind drummer Sam Rockwell's vicious ride cymbal on my iPod's earbuds; but listening to the track in my car with the MediaXpander on, the tambourine emerged as a distinct instrument in its own right, the soundstage tightened, and the music was more focused in general.
