Alpine iDA-X305s

By Chelsey P. – Product Specialist

iPods and MP3 Players have become essential to everyday life because they allow you to listen to all your favorite music in one spot. This may be great for most of us, but what if you don’t know the name of a song you are listening to? Have you have wished you could just listen to a variety of music in a genre that interests you? Well, the car audio business has introduced Pandora in their new 2010 car receivers. This has been a music streaming service that would allow you to create your own stations with the type of music you love listening to the most. In the beginning, this service was introduced mainly to stream music from the internet to listen to on your home or work computer. New innovations in consumer electronics these days have led to the ability of Pandora streaming through your car stereo.

At Sonic Electronix, we were on the lookout for a company to include Pandora in their new multi-media receivers. A company that has done just that is Alpine with the world’s first head unit with Pandora control. The iDA-X305s is a single-DIN stereo with a 2.2” screen for displaying song, album and artist information. The main focus of this particular receiver is that it features Pandora as its main headline. For you all of you that have used Pandora in the past know the great advantages to having in it. In order to experience all Pandora has to offer, you will need to be an iPhone user. The iPhone, with the downloaded Pandora app, will be connected via the USB input. The stereo controls work just like the Pandora command center. It even allows you to give a song you like a “thumbs up” or “thumbs down.” This unique head unit will let you pause current song selections and even tag it to purchase later on iTunes. By utilizing the iPhone’s 3G connection, you will have in-car internet radio wherever you go. This will make your vehicle different from all the rest since not everyone will be able to join in the Pandora party.