Alpine CDE-178BT Single-DIN CD Tuner With Bluetooth USB And TuneIt App

In a Nutshell
A single DIN CD player with full ability Bluetooth, that has a single USB port and yet also via the TuneIt app proves able to be tuned as though it came with an extra £300 processor. The audio quality through the top notch electronics is literally astonishing, with fabulous sound from CD and a remarkable detail retrieval from iPod music tracks. A very sexy unit indeed for the enthusiastic or anyone with any musical knowledge of room and car equalisation. The Facebook alerts feature through the app alone will attract many modern buyers.
Manufacturer: Alpine
Product details: CD/AM/FM/USB/Bluetooth/iPhone/iPod/Android/TuneIt/vRadio internet radio via USB/Aux in
Website: Alpine
TEL: 0845 313 1660
Typical Selling Price: £199.00
SCORES
Overall 9.2
Sound Quality 10
Appearance/Display 8
Ease Of Use/HMI 9
Features 10
Value For Money 9
A Talk Audio Best Buy


Editor Review: Alpine CDE-178BT Single DIN CD tuner headunit with Bluetooth, USB TuneIt and vRadio.
My, how the ‘˜posh’ single DIN car radio has evolved! A long time ago, a sexy deck played ‘˜metal’ Compact Cassette tapes as well as regular Ferrite ones and had sophisticated controls upon its face to play with tape bias, like Chromium Dioxide or Dolby B & C noise reduction. Then we had a mechanised-screen digital disc era and sexy displays and as the 21st Century advances, money constraints mean we have a headunit with old fashioned swivel-and-clunk-click flip-face in front of the CD slot and a solid if older tech LCD display. Now it has backlighting though and all the smarts are inside. Furthermore, the whole smartphone thing has meant that while you really can boss this head unit without said smartphone, with the Alpine TuneIt app in full flow, any Alpine TuneIt equipped head unit becomes as sophisticated as having a costly external processor from an earlier time but yet with the operational flexibility of stuff that is simply pro audio in technical cunning!
The unit is not massively in your face as far as looks go and the controls are limited in number to the sort of quantity one might expect on a regular unit. But this has evidence of some really clever stuff. First off, it has a USB on a thick cord out the back and also comes with an additional extension USB of similarly thick construction. This can take and play regular USB sticks as well as running the iPod Touch 4th Gen that I connected. I tried both.

The ‘˜audio’ button will give you access to the Bass, Mid and Treble controls but as well as that and all the other basic stuff, you can then download the free TuneIt App to your phone, select the app as active via USB or Bluetooth in the simple to use menu system on the Alpine CDE-718BT with twist and pulse style use of the main knob and you get a whole fistful of extra functionality appearing on the app on your phone or iTouch.
The bit that impressed this grizzled old audio pro was the equaliser. Nine bands, it has Q or width-of-effect in lift or cut of the frequency chosen (three, four of five as Q factor) as well as the boost and cut being set by sweeping a digit about on the smartphone’s screen. As you can adjust and sweep the frequency up or down in its adjustment as well, this makes this little EQ very powerful. Not over the top at plus or minus 7dB as against the more normal manual 12dB max boost or cut but it is still brilliant. You can use the bass-mid-treble in a simpler set of controls but touch ‘˜Advanced’ and that smartphone equaliser fires up as well as the chance once you have opened a simple account via the app store and the app, to save your EQ tuning efforts and even to share them with the Alpine TuneIt app community. You tell it your car type and model from a database and it’ll save your tuning in ‘˜saloon’ or ‘˜wagon’ or whatever. The Volvo section didn’t feature my 940 as it is too old.
There are many saved tunings for lots of cars and the idea is that you can save tunings for genres of music as well as say, ‘˜top down motoring’ or whatever you feel like calling it. But the point is the community and cumulative tunings saved and made available. This means you can buy a car and also choose a good tuning for it via TuneIt that has already been done, dealt with and discussed as well as user-reviewed. You can benefit from hours of listening and tweaking in your kind of car!

All that and Facebook alerts that by the soon-to-come app upgrade will even read your Facebook stuff to you as text-to-speech! I would so LOVE that! I tried the Facebook integration thing and had some degree of success with messages showing on the screen but I used an iTouch on WiFi, not an iPhone on data and it didn’t really want to do it that route, showing me the picture of the message sender only on the screen but not the headunit’s display.
How Well Does It Work?
The first thing is the Alpine Elephant in the room. The sound quality of this is breath taking. I heard a word I had NEVER made out on an Imelda May track I adore, on Bluetooth Audio streaming, for gosh sake’s. The detail retrieval of the CD section meant again that I heard stuff on an old chestnut test disc that I had not made out with such clarity before. I was flabbergasted.
This is of reference and sound off competition grade quality and in a rig that has made me accept that EVERY car audio deck will put some transport noise out of its RCA’s into the amp in the rig if it HAS a transport, was as silent as a grave. Music only, no buzzes nor whirrs from my jerry-rigged set up. It’s an evil test bench!

Why Buy It?
Because it has real high quality smarts to offer and if you are a true Facebook addict and their number is legion (that’s including me, sadly) then when a friend in Australia or The Alamo messages you, you will know that despite the time differences, they are awake and just did. Or you can see that the Bradshawgate Caff has had someone else eat their 30,000 calorie breakfast.
vRadio gives you the on line radio selection I fancy Radio North Pole and Birdsong radiodata plan permitting, while the TuneIt App gives Alpine users a community, a shortcut to excellence in your very own car with your very own music or a chance to be a beneficent tuning guru as Alpine Europe currently are, populating the TuneIt records with tunings they have developed. Alpine’s CDE-178BT is clever, cool and competent.
Entire Enormous Specifications Lifted from this page on the Alpine site Alpine I would click and browse there but if you wantit’s below as well
Features
Tuner
Memory Presets: Preset Stations (FM:18, MW:6, LW:6)
Memory: Auto Memory
Seek Mode: Local/DX Selection
RDS
RDS Functions: TA, TP, AF, PTY, News, Radio Text
BLUETOOTH®
Built-in BLUETOOTH® Module
Hands Free Calling: HFP (Hands Free Profile) or HSP (Head Set Profile) Compatible Phones
Streaming Music: A2DP (Advanced Audio Distribution Profile) Compatible
Streaming Music Control: AVRCP (Audio/Video Remote Control Profile) Ver.1.4 Compatible
BT Plus Advanced BLUETOOTH Technology
Connection: SSP (Secure Simple Pairing) Supported
Phone Book: Phone Book Synchronization
Phone Book Search: 3 Letters Alphabet Search
Speed Dial: 6 Pre-set Memory
Multiple Phone Number Registration: 4 Phone Number Registration Possibility
Phone Book Label Display: Mobile, Home, Work, Other
Voice Dial Operation: Voice Control for iPhone Supported
Auto Answer
Call Waiting
Call History Display: Dialled Call, Received Call, Missed Call
Speech Volume Level Adjustment: Adjustable for Outgoing and Incoming Volume
Hands-Free Phone Sound Setting: 5 Type Selection
Signal Strength Indicator
Battery Level Indicator
Output Speaker Selection
Menu Language Selection: English, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, Russian
Firmware Updatable
Microphone Included
Made for iPod® / iPhone®
Compatibility for iPod/iPhone: Made for iPod touch 4th/3rd/2nd/1st Gen., iPod nano 6th/5th/4th/3rd/2nd/1st Gen., iPod classic 160GB/120GB/80GB, iPod with video, iPhone 4S, iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 3G and iPhone
Connection: KCU-442i (sold separately) Required
Available Selections: Playlist, Artist, Album, Song, Podcast, Genre, Composer, Audiobook, Genius Mix
Alphabet Search
Percentage Search
vTuner Internet Radio: vTuner for Alpine Compatible
App Direct Mode
Direct Up/Down: Playlist, Artist, Album, Genre, Composer, Episode Up/Down
M.I.X. (Shuffle) Play: Song, Album, All
Repeat
Battery Charging
TuneIt
Sound Setting Function
Sound Setting Data Upload to TuneIt Cloud Server (Data Sharing)
Facebook Notification
Compatible for iPhone and Android Smartphones: Available on Apple App Store and Google Play Store
Disc Player
Disc Type: CD Player
Disc Playback Type: CD, CD-R/RW
Music Playback: CDDA, MP3, WMA, AAC Playback
M.I.X. Random Play: Track/Folder, All
Repeat
CD Text Display
CD Text Name Search
Percentage Search
USB Media Connection
USB Connection: Rear USB Connection
(USB Cable Included)
Music Playback: MP3, WMA, AAC File Playback
USB Class: Mass Storage Class
File/Folder Name Search
Folder Up/Down
M.I.X. Random Play: Folder, All
Repeat
Sound Tuning
Bass Engine„¢ Pro:
Subwoofer Level Adjustment
Subwoofer Phase Select
Subwoofer System Select
4Volt Preout
Equaliser: Flat, Pops, Rock, News, Jazz, Electrical Dance, Hip Hop, Easy Listening, Country and Classical
9-band Parametric Equaliser
Digital Time Correction
Digital Crossover Setting
Application Volume Level Setting
MediaXpander
Power IC Management System
General
Power Output: 4 x 50W High Power Amplifier
Display: High Resolution LCD Display
White LED Backlighting System
Illumination Buttons: 4 Illumination Colour Selectable (Blue/Green/Red/Amber)
High Grade Audiophile Design
3 PreOuts (4V, Front + Rear + Subwoofer)
DAC: 24-bit DAC
AUX-In: Rear AUX Input (3.5mm mini jack)
Steering Wheel Remote Control Ready
OEM Sub-display Ready
Remote Control Ready
Menu Language: English, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, Russian
Clock / Calendar
Firmware Updatable
Detachable DIN Trim Plate
Detachable Face Plate
Dimmer
Power Antenna Lead
Remote Turn-On
vTuner
Start-Stop Engine unaffected
Max Power Output Ratings
Max Power Output: 4 x 50W
FM Tuner
Tuning Range: 87.5 – 108.0 MHz
Mono Usable Sensitivity: 0.7 μV
Alternate Channel Selectivity: 80 dB
Signal-to-Noise Ratio: 65 dB
Stereo Separation: 35 dB
Capture Ratio: 2 dB
MW Tuner
Tuning Range: 531 – 1,602 kHz
Usable Sensitivity (IEC Standard): 25.1 μV / 28 dB
LW Tuner
Tuning Range: 153 – 281 kHz
Usable Sensitivity (IEC Standard): 31.6 μV / 30 dB
Disc Player
Frequency Response: 5 – 20k Hz (±1 dB)
Total Harmonic Distortion (at 1kHz): 0.008 %
Dynamic Range (at 1kHz): 95 dB
Signal-to-Noise Ratio: 105 dB
Channel Separation (at 1kHz): 85 dB
Wow & Flutter (%WRMS): B.M.L.
USB
USB Requirements: USB 1.1/2.0
Max. Power Consumption: 1,000 mA
USB Class: Mass Storage Class
File System: FAT 12/16/32
MP3 Decoding: MPEG Audio Layer-3
WMA Decoding: Windows Media„¢ Audio
AAC Decoding: AAC-LC Format ‘²’².m4a’²’² File
Number of Channels: 2-Channel (Stereo)
Frequency Response: 5 – 20k Hz (±1 dB) *May differ depending on the encoding software and bit rate.
Total Harmonic Distortion (at 1kHz): 0.008 %
Dynamic Range (at 1kHz): 95 dB
Signal-to-Noise Ratio: 105 dB
Channel Separation (at 1kHz): 85 dB
BLUETOOTH®
BLUETOOTH® Version : Bluetooth v2.1 + EDR
Output Power: +4 dBm Max. (Power Class 2)
HFP: Hands Free Profile
HSP: Head Set Profile
A2DP: Advanced Audio Distribution Profile
AVRCP: Audio/Video Remote Control Profile v1.4
Sound Tuning
Subwoofer Level Adjustment: 0 to 15 dB
Subwoofer Phase Setting: 0° or 180°
Bass Level Control Range: ±9.1 dB at 100Hz
Treble Level Control Range: ±9.1 dB at 10 kHz
Time Correction: 0.0 to 336.6cm (3.4cm step)
Parametric Equaliser (Band 1): 20 – 100 Hz
Parametric Equaliser (Band 2): 63 – 315 Hz
Parametric Equaliser (Band 3): 125 – 500 Hz
Parametric Equaliser (Band 4): 250 – 1k Hz
Parametric Equaliser (Band 5): 500 – 2k Hz
Parametric Equaliser (Band 6): 1k – 4k Hz
Parametric Equaliser (Band 7): 2k – 7.2k Hz
Parametric Equaliser (Band 8): 5.8k – 12k Hz
Parametric Equaliser (Band 9): 9k – 20k Hz
Parametric Equaliser (Gain): -7 to +7 dB
Parametric Equaliser (Bandwidth): 3, 4, 5
Crossover Frequency: HPF + LPF 20, 25, 31.5, 40, 50, 63, 80, 100, 125, 160, 200 Hz
Crossover Slope: Flat, 6, 12, 18, 24 dB/oct.
Crossover Gain: -12 to 0 dB
Application Volume Level Setting: ±14 dB
General
Power Requirement: 14.4 V.DC (11-16V allowable)
Pre Output Voltage (Before Clipping): 4V / 10k ohms
Aux In: 1.4V / 10k ohms
Maximum Mounting Angle: 35°
Weight: 1.5 kg
Dimensions
Din Size: 1 DIN
Chassis Size (W x H x D) mm: 178 x 50 x 162 mm
Nose Piece Size (W x H x D) mm: 168 x 45 x 24 mm