Fusion CA-IP500 iPod Receiver Video
Fusion CA-IP500 iPod Receiver Video Transcript
>> Antwon: Hello, my name's Antwon Goodwin [assumed spelling] this is your first look at the Fusion CAIP500 iPod Car Radio Receiver. Now, the IP500 is the latest in a wave of meg-free receivers, basically that are designed around a portable audio player but it's the first that we've seen that features an internal dock. Basically what you do is you pop the front open you stick your iPod in and you're off. Now the CAIP500 handles a variety of iPod sizes from slim Nano's to fat Nano's from Classic to Touch but no iPhone and the way that it does this is by shipping with an array of mounting adapters. It does away with the [inaudible], docks, and cables but it creates the problem of carrying a bunch of these around. Some of the iPods are more difficult to remove than others, for example the slippery sided iPod Touch. Once you've got your iPod all snugged in the unit's pretty easy to use it's got a 2 knob interface, 1 knob for volume, 1 knob for media integration. The Fusion CAIP500 can quickly navigate your songs, artists, albums, or genres by rotating the knob right here or by moving it left, right, up and down like a joystick. The knobs in the faceplate feel kind of flimsy and lack the fit and finish of some of the more established competitors. Now there are two really big complaints that I have about the interface the first is the interface on the Search has a pretty quick time-out. If you're browsing around for songs and you take a second to take your hand off the knob then it'll pop you back to the menu before you know it and that'll lead us to the second problem. Whenever it goes back to the Home screen it forgets where you were in the search and you've got to scroll all the way back down to the bottom of the list to find whatever artist's name that you were looking for. As far as sound quality goes 50 watts, about 4 channels sounds pretty good in most cars; there's a 14EQ curve for you to choose from, 3 of those that you can define yourself and then there's also SRS Audio Processing. Overall the Fusion CAIP500 is a decent solution for on the road iPod usage but we've seen more elegant and similarly priced solutions from Alpine and that one's also gonna support the iPhone. This has been your first look at the Fusion CAIP500 iPod Car Audio Receiver and I'm Antwon Goodwin. ^M00:02:16 [ Music ] ^M00:02:22
>> Beep [inaudible] ^E00:02:29
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Fusion CA-IP500 iPod receiver Review
The good: The Fusion CA-IP500 iPod receiver features an internal dock that reads from, stores, and charges an iPod. Navigation of songs, artists, and albums is quick with the two-dial interface and full-speed iPod connection.
The bad: The CA-IP500 doesn't remember its place when searching songs, forcing the user to rescroll through the taxonomy multiple times. Fit and finish is less than stellar, and some iPods are difficult to remove. Any future iPods with different physical sizes will require a new adapter sleeve from the manufacturer.
The bottom line: The Fusion CA-IP500 iPod receiver's internal iPod dock is an interesting solution for taking digital audio on the road, but we've seen more elegant and similarly priced solutions from its more established competitors.
Fusion CA-IP500 iPod receiver Specs
Manufacturer: Fusion Electronics Limited
Part number: CA-IP500
Fusion CA-IP500 iPod receiver Prices
Online stores
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$176.86 |
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$159.97 |
