The nice Alpine deck I bought only a year and a half ago went belly up last week after a gradual decline over the summer. Frustrated but in dire need of a new car stereo with some sort of iPod connectivity, I hit Best Buy.

It seems that all the major manufacturers (Kenwood, Pioneer, Alpine) have iPod adapters for their nicer decks, but quite frankly, they all suck! They’re super slow, and they all provide a far less usable and enjoyable interface than the iPod itself. It’s great that they power the iPod, but it would be so easy to duplicate the iPod control with a knob and a couple of buttons.

Failing that, why can’t they at least supply the option of just using the iPod itself as the interface? Just give it power and take the sound. It seems so obvious to me yet they all make it so much work. Finally I’m left with wanting what I had before: a deck with stereo inputs on the back.

This was pretty hard to find when I bought the Alpine, but this time I had a lot of options. Taking a chance, I decided to go with the cheapest one they had: the Dual XDM6820.

I couldn’t be more pleased. The thing does everything very well, doesn’t look ridiculously gaudy, sports a nice UI, and sounds great (to me, but I’m no audiophile). I highly recommend it to anyone wanting to listen to their iPod in the car. Only $99, and much, much better than a tape deck adapter or FM Modulator.