Thanks patpur,

They changed to black for the new units with a chrome looking control dial. The gun metal trim is gone. Same red and blue illumination as you have.

http://www.crutchfield.com/p_500IDAX...a-x305&tp=5684

I have the JVC LHX-550 now which sort of matches the dash and can do green illumination. It is about as close as I could come to the factory colors. I even prgrammed in an animation of the Crossfire logo tha it shows at startup and shut down. It has a CD player and can read SD cards.

My issue is that the touch screen is a bit difficult to use while driving or in bright sun. Navigating a memory card is pretty tough as I have to remember the folder structure. Changing settings reqires a lot of screen touches and I have to remember where the menus are. The largest memory card supported is 2GB and the unit is quite fussy about which cards it likes. So it looks nice but is a letdown in real world use.

After playing with them in the store, the interface on the Aplines is light years ahead of my old JVC. Being able to use my iPod and thumb drives would be great.

I was thinking the black might look fine against the silver. It would echo the vents at the top of the console.

 

Those Alpine marine models are out. A few are up at eBay for around $320 and you can order from Crutchfield from about $400.

 

Toddy thanks - I see them up now. Just wonder what the trim is. I don't plan on getting rid of my unit but others might like to know. I heard the trim is white and not silver.

 

I was just about set on installing the black unit, (ida-X305). Now I'm not so sure.

Would the first person to actually install the ida-x100m please post a picture?

Thanks so much.

 

Did anyone pick up one of the units from ebay? Any chance of a picture?

Thanks!

 

Anybody have one?

 

You can check my gallery. I recall seeing all of the Alpines (non marine versions) at Tweeter's RIP this summer and they all had a dark grey trim ring.