I can’t comment too much on Pandora. I don’t use it often, but it’s nice that it’s there. It takes a little longer before the music starts compared to the iPod function. Usually about 10 maybe 15 seconds tops, before music from Pandora starts playing.

Stereo presets are a bit weird to set, but it’s not overly complicated. That’s the price of having so few buttons on the face.

The screen is perfect for navigating selections. A full function LCD is so much nicer than the one or two lines of text on most of other head units. If you’re OCD like me and have album artwork for every song on your iPhone, you’ll appreciate the beautiful LCD screen even more. Some people may find the screen too bright at night, but it can be turned down I believe with a dimmer setting.

Sound quality is very good in my opinion, especially for just a head unit. I’m not using an external amp. I had an Alpine CDA-9856 head unit before this one and this one sounds noticeably better. Perhaps Alpine used the additional available space and reduced cost of omitting the CD player to put in a better internal amp? Maybe, but my cynicism makes me think otherwise.

So after all of my glorification of this head unit you may be asking, why only four stars? Lack of value in my opinion. Receivers cheaper than this give you many features that Alpine makes you pay extra for, and they aren’t cheap either. Buying just the imprint processor (stock EQ’s are fairly basic, probably on purpose so you’ll buy this addon) and bluetooth phone kit will cost almost as much as the head unit itself. Then there’s HD radio and satellite tuners to potentially buy as well. If you’re buying Alpine though, you are probably already expecting not to get much bang for your buck.

All in all, if you have an iPhone/iPod and the money, this head unit is for you. You will be hard pressed to find a head unit that gives you better control of it than this.

Surprisingly, the stock JBLs are holding up extremely well. I’ve received a lot of compliments on how great my system sounds. So Audio Quality is top notch. Features are also great with the IPOD functionality and Control. Tested the Pandora on a friend’s IPHONE and set up was quick and easy. Far better than having to pay for satellite radio.

Now the negatives. It is Bluetooth READY not Bluetooth INCLUDED. It will require a BT Adapter which will cost another $100-150 more! The head unit cost just jumped to $400! For $250, you can grab a Kenwood KDC-X994 that also has the Pandora feature and already has the BT Adapter built in. I didn’t mind at first because the Audio Quality pretty much evened out the negatives. That is until, I got the Alpine 400BT installed.

With the IDA x305 and x305S, you need to take extra steps in setting up your BT! After activating the BT Feature on the radio, I had to reset the radio, take off the faceplate, put the faceplate back on, turn the ignition off, turn the ignition on, turn it off again, then finally turn it back on just to pair the head unit with my phone! My installer and I didn’t know the magical steps until after I had to call Alpine tech support. So after finally getting my BT up and running, I make my test call and more bad news. The call quality is bad, the person I called could tell I was either on speakerphone or on a BT headset. What’s worse is, the person I called could hear themselves echo on their side!

To summarize, if all you’re looking for a is a great head unit that will give you top notch audio quality, get this head unit. If you need bluetooth, go for the Kenwood. That’s what I’ll be doing after I sell this H/U.

- The iPad and Pandora user interface is extremely slow

- The screen is small, has significant glare, and is away from the driver

- When cycling through sources they are: …, iPod, Pandora, BT Audio, …

The problem is that once BT Audio is selected you can not activate iPod and Pandora sources again – you have to disconnect the iPhone and reconnect. Quite a pain while you’re driving. This slight problem is mentioned in a documentation add-on – nowhere on any web site before you purchase the item of course.

Because of these issues I’m ending up using the BT Audio feature and using the iPhone to control the music directly. It has a larger screen then the radio, it’s user interface is faster, and it can be brought up near the driver which makes it less distracting.

Good source quality but the main selling features are unusable.

Oh – and a side point is that installation of the two modules is rather intricate (turning things on and off in particular order) – though I got through that (the professional installer had issues). The problem is that it is still flaky after installation. I regularly get “Error 01″, “Error 03″ messages – a rather annoying thing in a car radio.