Need some opinions on some Alpine products
 

I was looking into getting the Alpine IDA-X305 head unit for my car... however, since the IS300 has a double din deck and no one else other L-Tune has a decent-looking replacement cover (and they ONLY have the JDM double din replacement cover and no single din), I am kind of stuck and will need to get a double din deck to make it look nice.

I saw some good reviews on the IDA-X305... and seems like not many people have reviewed its bigger brother, the Alpine IXA-W404... it looks similar to the X305... but is double din and it has a small touch screen. Did any of you experts try this deck before? The Alpine IVA decks are too rich for my blood right now; but any recommendation from you guys regarding solutions/double din decks would be greatly appreciated!

I also looked at getting the Alpine KTP-445 Head Unit Power Pack... it's basically a mini amp that boosts the power to 45W RMS x4 from 18W... which is not bad for the price tag (like US$130). Does anyone have any experience with this? I don't want to spend too much on an additional amp and speakers but just want to improve the sound a bit from stock.

Thanks in advance!

Doesn't your car already have an amp?

Well couple things to start. If you're not going to change your speakers and keep them stock and keep your stock amplifier, you'll need a special amp turn on adapter called the TYTO-01. That being said, it only takes rca preout inputs does not take a speaker level input, so adding the KTP-445 would be useless because it boosts the speaker level output to 45watts rms but its only designed to go straight to speaker, ideally if you wanted better sound and was looking to do the ida-x305 or the ixa-w404 you could add the imprint processor to give it high volt preout and more eq settings including Time alignment.

Keep in mind if you are keeping the stock amp and speakers, unless you are going to re-wire it and/or change all the speakers the TYTO-01 will be required and is costly, roughly $150
And then dash kit and steering wheel interface if requested.

Yes, I believe so.

Let's say I am just going to use the new head unit's amp and adding the KTP-445 to boost the speaker level output to the stock speakers, how much work is involved to bypass the stock amp? I googled around and saw this:
http://my.is/forums/f63/is300-bypass...ck-amp-341087/ Doesn't look too complicated but... I have no idea where's the IS300 amp (probably behind glove compartment?) as I just got the car, so I am not sure if the extra wattage is worth the effort of bypassing the stock amp.

Also, which one do you think would sound "better": 1) HU + KTP-445 to stock speakers or 2) HU + imprint processor to TYTO-01 to stock amp to stock speakers?

I guess for ease of installation, 2) would be the easiest?

I have sort of similar situation on my Mercedes with the factory BOSE amplifier.... The way I did it was that I used the left and right channel low-level output jack (the RCA ones), cut the end off the splice that into the factory "input" wire for the amp so that it's feeding low level output to the amp like how the factory setup was doing.

I would think an IS300 system would be similar no?

Your vehicle takes a analog signal, speaker level or other sorts.

The IS300 takes a digital signal that cannot be reproduced without this specific module.
Similiar to fibre-optic technology like the new mercedes stereos.

For ease of installation:

Head Unit + Imprint Processor + TYTO-01

If you chose the other option: Head Unit + HTP445 to stock speakers, it would require additional rewiring, plus as well crossovers, because the factory amp does all the crossovers internally for your tweeter, mid ranges and as well if you re-wire this method factory sub will not work.

Which is why I recommend HEAD UNIT + IMPRINT PROCESSOR + TYTO-01 to keep it nice and simple.