The software sends sounds out the speakers and analyzes the response of
your interior from all seating positions. It calculates a digital filter that
compensates. The result is nearly ideal sound from your stereo. If you
purchased a PXA-H100, this takes the guesswork out of it. Once a
calibration is run, you can adjust bass, treble, balance (L/R) and fade (F/R)
to your liking.

Notes:

1. The instructions say to reboot after installing the software. DO NOT
SKIP THIS STEP. The software freezes if you run it without rebooting first.

2. Regarding bundling with the PXA-H100: if I install an Alpine stereo in my
wife's car, I only need one copy of the software and one mic. For that
reason, I'd rather see it kept separate than have to pay extra for the PXA-
H100 and end up with two mic's and two CD's.

3. The microphone must be located at "ear" level, moved among six
positions in the vehicle. A camera tripod makes this easy to do. I borrowed
a tripod from my neighbor. If no tripod is available, the mic is small and light
enough that it could possibly be hung by a string taped to the ceiling, or
taped to the head rest.

4. The PXA-H100 needs to be installed somewhere that the USB and mic
cables can be plugged in for tuning, then unplugged. Don't locate the PXA-
H100 somewhere totally inaccessible. You won't run the calibration very
often, but when you do, you must plug cables into the PXA-H100.

Works great, a must have to go with your imprint processor. If your head
unit has a switch (NORMAL-> EXT AP) and all compatible head units may
have it, I don't know, remember to set the switch! If you don't, the sound
is poor and you get no error in software as to what you did wrong!

i have alot of experience with this product, that being said id like to set some things straight.

first of all, the threaded bottom is meant to attach to a tripod. this device will only work properly if used with a tripod that can make the mic measure at ear level, and also away from the seat.

I have personally used it on Windows 7, Windows XP, Windows vista, and in a vmware virtual machine on MAC. It has no issues with any os i have ever tried, and anyone with any level of computer knowledge should have no issue using it. The software can be quirky, but it does the job and works well.

This absolutely, without a shadow of a doubt, will improve your sound like you are sitting front row in a theater. If you are a true audiophile you owe it to yourself to purchase this calibration kit to reach new heights in your listening pleasure. This module WILL NOT make your system louder by any means, actually my decibels dropped off somewhat, but what you gain is pure symphonic luxury. This module along with the calibration kit turned my SUV with a loud stereo into a Sound Capsule with incredible realism. I cannot stress enough how good the imaging in my truck is now. When I close my eyes I cannot tell where the sound is coming from in my truck, it sounds like it is coming from the middle of my head, and that puts a huge smile on my face. Also, purchasing this calibration kit singularly makes sense as you may have several cars or friends with Alpine Imprint ready head units, but only need one Calibration Kit for all of them. Its also nice that Alpine has decided to charge for upgrades or add-ons as the average Joe might just be happy with his head unit and would never use the Imprint option if it was attached internally, it lets Alpine make head units cheaper for people who dont really care but makes them upgradeable for people who do, and lets be honest, your paying about $500 for all the bells and whistles of an Alpine 9886 or similar Imprint head unit, isnt that what you would expect to pay anyways for the industries finest?

First off, why this is not included in the PXA-H100 is just a lame attempt to get more of my money (and they succeeded but Alpine when down a notch in my mind). You have to have this software and mic in order to use the PXA-H100. Makes absolutely no sense Alpine!! Then Alpine wants you to take a tri-pod inside your vehicle for the mic. Yet another accessory needed for optimal results. My biggest complaint is having to have the microphone unplugged in order to have the headunit function. How many people will actually have access to this unit in order to plug it in and unplug it each time? I would be better engineered if there was a mic on/off button instead... or a mic extension so you can run the female end of the mic input to another location (I tried this by purchasing a 3' mic male to female extension but as soon as the extension was plugged in, the headunit went into Imprint mode and did not allow me to do anything else until it was unplugged).

The most important thing: The sound improvement is absolutely amazing. I fiddeled around with the settings on my own for a week or so. No way, i could have achieved those results on my own.

But first of all it is ridiciulous, that this 5.50$ microphone and the SW does not come with the sound processor in the first place. Alpine charges you really for every extra screw.

And then, after the new settings are downloaded in your headunit, you are not able to modify them anymore nor review them. You just can modify treble and bass, which is all you need, if it would be really perfect. But its not.

For example it was setting my front speakers all the way down to the lowest frequencies. The result was, that the speakers were reaching their limit really quickly (of course! for the deep stuff i have a subwoofer). So i had to manually cut the low frequencies from the front system with the built in crossover from the amp. That suxx. I want to play around with the optimal setting from the headunit, and not crawling under the seat or in the trunk. Btw, no sound difference up to 70Hz.

Furthermore, i am under the impression, that i have a phase deletion right next to my head. I would prefer to play around with the time alignment or the phase, to maybe get rid of this. But no way.

After all, i am very happy with my system though. Imprint for the win.

There were a few glitches in getting my Imprint unit setup with this package. First of all, it shouldn't be too hard for Alpine to write a Mac OS version of this measuring and curve adjustment program. Since I didn't have a machine running windows XP between myself, my family, or my friends, it was weeks before someone could call in a favor to let me borrow their laptop.

Besides that, the instructions failed to mention that after curves are ported and applied to the Imprint unit, you need to disconnect the microphone and usb cable. I had my imprint unit installed behind the dash and had planned to keep them connected if I ever wanted to update for new components, requiring me to take apart the dash AGAIN just to make this work. This little bit of information was something Crutchfield didn't know, and took even the Alpine support people some few sessions to figure out.

After it was all said and done, though, my factory system sounds immensely better. I'm a musician and producer in my spare time, and it took the system in my truck from sound like the components were sitting on the floor to being fairly close to studio monitors positioned as the would be or production work.

Way to go Alpine, just fix those little problems you let fall through the cracks, and you'll have a winner. Why isn't this included with the Imprint unit, anyway?

I liked the idea of tuning the system, but not to sure about not being able to adjust it like
my home stereo with its built in MCACC which adjust distance EQ, but allows you to
tune it to your taste or maybe set crossovers on subs or a least know where they are. I
use T1500 to 2 Alpine Rs mono amp now sounds like 1 8" sub. Software adjust the
subs as stereo left then right, but both woofers are playing so I believe this might be a
little reason the subs get set so low. Alpine said designers were not into bass, but that
is what subs are for. Alpine said to set the sub amp a 1/4 way and notice one reviewer
said he set his off, so guess it is trial and error now. It is to bad setup removes
adjustments in the deck. Now only Bass, treble and sub adjustments are there, but just
not sure the frequency off hand the bass adjust be nice to have a 40 Hz adjustment but
that is just me. The over all sound quality of the music is great with unit, and if the bass
can be fixed, it will OK. Miss EQ adjustments as well as sub.

I was also wondering why this isn't included with the imprint. I can maybe
understand having a more advanced sound processor that's sold seppratly
but to have another component sold seperatly that is pretty much needed
for the Imprint to function is kinda lame......

This review is in two parts, the software and the tuning results.

First, the software - As I mentioned in the title, this is Windows only software. I use a Mac with VMWare fusion and this did NOT work with the XPSP3 virtual machine. I received the dreaded error code -2. Of course this error message is pretty much useless. Crutchfield support wasn't much help. Just for the heck of it I installed this software on a Windows 7 laptop. I received a warning when I installed the USB drivers but tried it anyway and it worked.

In my book, Windows only software gets a maximum of 3 stars when it works perfectly on the XP Virtual Machine. I give 0 stars for this software. Useless error messages, warnings when installed on a modern Windows OS, and it didn't work on the VM.

Second, the results - Lots of info on the web regarding tuning. I turned the amp gain for the subwoofer all the way down and performed the 6 point calibration. It took about 30 minutes. The results are outstanding. After calibration I turned up the amp gain on the subwoofer. Bass is nice and tight without being overbearing. The soundstage opens right up. I could never have achieved this level of tuning manually. I'm impressed.

Overall, I recommend this product. Too bad the software made this a much more painful than necessary experience.