Ditching iphone

[Bret]

I came to the realization yesterday that I’ve reached the age where I’m just cranky and everything pisses me off. I could go on and on about but instead I’ll try to keep it focused to the topic at hand.

I hate my iPhone and Apple for a number of reasons. The reason that pertains to this particular rant is the music app. They changed it so that I can’t simply hide the music that isn’t downloaded to my phone anymore. When I plug my phone into my alpine 143bt it tries to play tracks that aren’t downloaded to the phone (tracks I used to have downloaded but removed) and hangs/freezes. I know a workaround for this but I don’t want to do the workaround every time I get in my car. I complained to Apple but never got a response. What do you expect from a trillion dollar company.

So I want to ditch my phone. I thought I would buy a flash drive and try that, but upon researching it for a good 5 minutes I learned that alpines and flash drives don’t play well together. I don’t want to wait a minute or two for my radio to start working because it has to read in all the ‘what have you’ off the flash drive. I can get to the store down the street in that amount of time.

I have looked into the 80prs as an alternative but I have no idea how responsive it is switching between tracks off a flash drive. I hate the lag with my alpine/iPhone when I skip to the next track, especially because the button on my alpine is already worn out and works only half the time.

I also looked in to buying another alpine, realizing this would not solve my iPhone/flash drive issue but would solve another big problem, and that is doing a major upgrade to my system and moving to active x-over network. I thought it would accomplish this via the alpine tuneit app that isn’t compatible with my older head unit. Yesterday I downloaded the app to see what it is about and I I can say is “don’t get me started.” What a goddamn joke. No bandpass for the mids. I didn’t want to buy a dsp because of the cost and complexity but am now considering it. There is a used one on Craigslist near me that is the $1000 arc audio unit for half the price, but that is still a huge chunk of change for something that isn’t too exciting for me. I’m not an audiophile but I won’t settle for the wildly unbalanced systems I have been cobbling together for the past 30+ years. It’s about time I spend the time and do it right for once.

I’m leaning toward the 80prs with no dsp. I don’t need all the fancy features, I’m just looking for good sound quality and the capability to set up a 3 way ststem with it and I want it to play music as soon as I start my car (off a flash drive) I also don’t want to buy it and find out it’s as irritating as my current setup.

I would appreciate any feedback except for feedback telling me I need to drink less coffee. I already know that. Thanks for reading and have a good day.

Bret

[PC Principal]

Congratulations on considering ditching the iPhone. Ill never understand why anyone would pay $1000+ for a phone that is locked down by the manufacturer. I dont know why anyone would pay $1000+ for any phone. That being said, I dont have any of those issues you described with my $200 Pioneer and an Android phone(Nexus 6P). My phone syncs right up to the Pioneer, and within seconds, music is playing. I havent owned an Alpine in many years so I am not familiar with your HU. 

This is the Pioneer I have: https://www.crutchfield.com/S-8NhVEBXr1jN/p_130201EX/Pioneer-AVH-201EX.html

Not fancy by any means but it does all I need and at a reasonable price. The 80prs looks like a good option as well.

[Kyblack76]

I think we run the same model alpine,.. and with a several different 30-120 gig jump drives,  dont have any issues. It runs/finds/searches/plays as fast or even faster than when I had my 80prs. Navigating the 80prs was more difficult than the 100 dollar alpine we run now. Odd...

[White Lightning]

I have a pair of Gorilla 64g flash drives hooked up to my Kenwood with A-fukn-lot of videos on them. No problems at all. Also, I Bluetooth my IPhone on a regular basis with no problems.

Honestly, I could run (and have in the past come to think about it) my Lap Top through my Kenwood with no problems as a source unit.

I would suggest a Kenwood if I gave any suggestions ... just saying

[Bret]

Thank you all for your feedback. Kyblack76, since you said you had no problem using a flash drive with this model I borrowed one with music on it and tried it out. It worked without any trouble. I have no idea why some people said it doesn't work, I guess you cant believe everything you read on the internet. I went and bought a flash drive and am putting my music on it now.

Since I'm keeping the Alpine I decided to go ahead and invest in a DSP. It will take me a long time to learn to tune my system but there is nothing else I'd rather do anyway. The thing I don't understand about the ones I'm looking at is why are there so many inputs? I can't think of why I would run more than one input. Someone please explain.

Thanks again to you all.

Bret

[bcbrassard]

Fading and Balance thru the HU maybe?

[Bret]

Oh yeah, I forgot some people like to have rear speakers.

[deathcards]

i think its a user error thing i think alpine doesn't like wav. format which some people could have.

also 7 years going on alpine and 64gb flash drive

[Ron36]

I have an IPhone because my wife is a IT person and said these are what we’re getting. A lot of guys at work have Samsung phones and I see they are way faster then mine but I guess happy wife happy life . I’m also not a big computer person.

[Bret]

Dang. I bought a flash drive and moved my music on to it and my stereo won’t play the iTunes file format. I guess I’m stuck with my iPhone. It’s not the end of the world just annoying.