help me! im stuck, battle between alpine and pioneer
 

hey guys, i've been looking at the pioneer f-90bt for a while now, but i went to this guy whose planning on doing my radio, he brought up the Alpine IVA-w505, has anybody installed this? i mean i love the f-90bt about hacking in and having windows, and all that.. especially with all teh support from www.avic411.com...

Alpine IVA0w505 has that slide in navi system.. but im just wondering.. can i play music and have the navi on at the same time? why would you have to slide it.. well if anyone can help me out that would be great. im ready to spend around $1000 for everything. so give me choices guys :D

You can get the F90BT from CarToys for $529+ Shipping if you are crafty... :)

If that helps you make up your mind at all.

I went and looked at the W505 in the store. The resolution on the screen is horrible compared to the AVIC F series. I ended up getting an F... albeit a 700 because I don't care about DVD and it saved me some bucks.

I had the IVA-W205 in my last car and I can't even describe how much of an improvement it was. I've had alot of other brands previously and all I gotta say is im all Alpine from now on. I plan on getting the 505 for my evo soon.

Oh and sorry but i didnt buy the navi for it so i cant positively tell you how that part works.

I've sold and installed both... there are good and bad to them both. Pioneer is a good all in one unit... but is slow on startup but has a real nice interface and gui. I like that it has bluetooth, nav, dvd (if you get the 900) all in one package for a very reasonable price.

The Alpine 505 on the other hand, is more expensive, better resolution (1.1 million pixels per square inch), nav is extra, bluetooth is extra. But it is a nice unit, the GUI is nice on radio and ipod.

The way the nav works on the alpine is that you can buy the nvep1 which is just a standalone nav piece that is designed to slide into the unit and stay in. Or you can buy the blackbird pmdb100 or 200 which is a portable nav with screen that can slide in and pop it out when you want portable nav on the go. The cool thing is, when you get the nav (either one) bluetooth comes with it. If you get the b100 or b200 it plays music as well through sd card. The nav can get pricey, so you'd be 1200 or more for the alpine with nav and bluetooth wherer the pionner is under a 1000 with it all.

If you use itouch or iphone - pioneer is nice but needs the apple av video interface cable to work properly or the pioneer proprietary cable. Alpine comes with the ipod cable and works out of the box.

Tough call... depends on what features you need or want and what budget. I've always been an alpine guy and have a tme-740bt 7" which is also a 1.1 million pixel screen and love it.

Hope this helps,

Nick