I think this thread may help relieve some of the confusion surround the Alpine Ipod interface. I have the Alpine-7894 which is a few years old now, a 2003 model I think but I wanted a good way to hook my Ipod up to it. Alpine offers the KCA-420i but it's for the newest models supposedly. All it needs to work is the Ai-net connection which the 7894 does have. I heard some rumors that it would work and I know someone selling a 420i so I bought it. I just installed it today and I'm very happy. I turned the car on to try it and listen to it real quick and everything seemed to be working fine. The only thing I'm confused about is switching playlists which you have to disconnect the Ipod to do then plug it back in. The 420i is pretty small and looks pretty clean mounted inside my glovebox. I let the Ipod sit in there next to it for now but I might run the wires out under the armrest or something at a later date.

Anyone looking for a good solution, I suggest this route.

Are you able to still use the iPod controls when it is plugged into the headunit?

Are you able to still use the iPod controls when it is plugged into the headunit?


No, the screen displays an //Alpine logo and you can not control it. You can switch songs etc. from the Headunit itself which is better in my opinion. To switch playlists though, it seems like you have to disconnect it and pick which playlist you want then plug it back in. I haven't tried it again since so there may be another way but this is the only downside I have seen so far.

hey ryan328i, what kind of wheels are those?? those are very nice. i'm looking into getting some wheels here in the next month or so. that is your car right??

Are you able to access "artist search and album search"if so then you should be able to access the"playlist search"too,then scroll it and select-if the others work I don't understand why you can't search for playlists.Maybe someone else could shed light on it.

Incidentally,I tried the KCA-420i with my Alpine MDA-7755R 4 year old MD player(expensive and full of functions)-it played the iPod but didn't want to know about controlling it!!!

I bought the new(and cheap)9847 CD tuner and am delighted with it :D

The 7894 doesn't have the search functions like the newer units so picking the artist, album, playlist, etc. all have to be done on the Ipod itself. Besides that it works perfectly.

hey ryan328i, what kind of wheels are those?? those are very nice. i'm looking into getting some wheels here in the next month or so. that is your car right??
they're m-parallel's replicas of the 5 and 7 series wheels. I have them too :)

The 7894 doesn't have the search functions like the newer units so picking the artist, album, playlist, etc. all have to be done on the Ipod itself. Besides that it works perfectly.


Dont quite understand what you mean here Ryan 328i,I thought you said it was the playlists only you couldn't get-how are they a problem if you're just accessing through your I pod anyway?

I love these M Par's on your E36 too-look amazing!

Heres my Alpina Classics-I like Pars on the 7 but on such a big car 18's look too small!

Everything needs to be accessed through the Ipod itself. The vloume control and song changing can be done on the headunit but thats it. On the newer units everything can be done from the hu itself, that's what I meant. My Ipod is currently in my glovebox so I need to disconnect it and pull it out everytime I want to change playlists, artists, etc. I can only chance songs individually from the hu.

bump, any way to use the 7894 and control the playlists/artists through the Ipod itself?

The KCA-420i emulates a CD Changer, so any Alpine AI-Net changer can control it.

To search by Playlist select CD number 1, then enter FILE mode, the Playlists on the iPod will then be reported as Files on the CD.

To search by Artist select CD number 2, Artists will then be reported as Files on the CD.

To search by Album select CD number 3, Albums will then be reported as Files on the CD.

To search by Song for the current selection switch to FOLDER mode, the songs will then be reported as folders on the CD.

Why they reversed the File/Folder thing I don't know, you'd have thought it made more sense to map song to file and folder to Playlist/Artist/Album.