Alpine IVA-D105R

Single-DIN source unit with motorised 6.5 inch QVGA PulseTouch screen. Plays DVD, DVD +/-R, +/-RW and CD discs and can read MP3, AAC and WMA digital music files, as well as play DivX compressed video.
It’ll play DVD-Audio but will down-mix it to stereo. Decoders for Dolby Digital & ProLogic II and dts are built in. You can add a digital TV tuner, the Alpine DVD navigation and a reversing camera via the A/V input, although it doesn’t have a dedicated reversing cam input like the IVA-W205R. The remote control is an optional extra. However, the PulseTouch screen is a class-leading concept. It offers you some feedback. Like the breakout force of a switch needed for proper use of calculators, you get a small ‘zzipp’ against your finger tip to verify operation of that virtual screen-icon control.

PRICE Approx £600

– 4 x 50w
– 24-Bit DAC
– Full Speed connection for iPod
– 1A/V input & 1 A/V output
– 6Ch of preouts on RCA @2V
– 6.5 inch QVGA PulseTouch screen with full graphic user interface and biofeedback (280,800 pixels)
– Bluetooth ready with optional adapter box
– Steering Wheel Remote ready but not Vehicle Display Interface ready
– Only Alpine Mobile Media Station with built in 5.1 Dolby Digital & dts processor
– Only Alpine Mobile Media Station with DivX
– Control a DVB or analogue TV tuner box from the screen
– Disc Eject Lock protocol to guard against accidental eject
– Ready for new PMD ‘DOK’ systems to add Blackbird navi to ‘desktop’
– Anti theft detachable face panel
– Signal to Noise ratio >105dB; Dynamic range 95dB

Review by Adam Rayner
For a brand perceived as the very most expensive around, this unit is tremendously affordable for what it delivers. It is a round hundred more costly than the Pioneer also tested alongside this one and a Monkey less than the Kenwood unit, yet it manages to have a sexy TOSlink connection, as well as the ability to plug in an iPod via an optional lead, like the Kenwood. The screen size is a bit smaller, but is the clever Pulse Touch system that tells your fingertip when it has ‘pressed the button’ with a ZZip! Against your digit.

The signal to noise ratio of the mechanism is an audiophillic 105dB versus the 97dB of the Pioneer and the 100db of the Kenwood. The internal power amplifier is rated the same 4 x 50w yet the output was just that bit better at the fine detail. Make no mistake, we are talking about the difference between excellent and wicked here.

Where the unit falls well behind the Pioneer and Kenwood is the Graphic User Interface or the pretty screen graphics. They are functional and stripped down so as to be simpler to use. I had no issues of makee-learnee with the Alpine, but I did play with it last and even I cannot pretend I haven’t learned anything from one unit to apply to another as a reviewer. Either way it seemed clearer and easier to operate but it has a fat slice less of the look-at-that-innit-flash? Element in the screen images. However, those in the know, know the brand and your chums will get a bit impressed by that in itself. This was the only machine of the three to have its own onboard decoding and so RCA outputs that also include a single centre channel output and a mono bass feed also feature.

The mechanical engineering is simply fabulous. Where the Kenwood will emerge, motor upwards and then go to the memory position you set in two more Dr. Robotnic moves which are cool, this smoothly grooves into position, which is even cooler. The looks of the machine itself are just gorgeous. The others have got some lovely looking things out there but while the gap has got much narrower in recent years, for me, the Alpine look is just that bit classier somehow.

The features list is impressive with the same level of connectability as the best with one extra. As well as the TV tuner and so forth, the new Alpine Blackbird navigation device will be able to be added to the desktop of the unit via a docking port product called PMD-DOK. This will give the personal navigation product a full on installed look and operational feel on the in-dash screen, with no rubber sucker on the screen for the thieves to see.
A less busy and buttony look than the Pioneer P5900 or the Kenwood KVT-829 and a less flashy Human – Machine Interface (meaning the controls) but a slightly tastier and more opulent look to the front panel, then. This is the unit to buy if you like the thought of surround sound (and there are a good few recordings in Dolby Digital and dts, let alone DVD-Audio, rest its sorry soul) as all you’ll need will be five channels of power amps and some bass welly to go with in car cinema sound. This is the unit for the grown-up who still likes to have the very best toys.

Incredible value for money for such high end sound and fully up to date with all the digital reading abilities anyone could wish for. In my case, it’d still be tunes singing with purity off CD.

Sound Quality 9.0
Appearance/Display 10.0
Ease Of Use/HMI 8.0
Features 10.0
Value For Money 9.0
Overall rating 9.2