FUSION CA-IP500 IPOD-TUNER

The Fusion CA-IP500 iPOD receiver is perfect for getting the most from my iPOD in the car. The unit was straight forward to install and was working within a few minutes. The monochromatic display is good and shows the MP3 tag information clearly. Along with some fun animation screen savers. I originally thought the circular controls on the device would act like the scroll wheel on the iPod but it is more of a joystick action (up, down, left and right), it works just as well. The other control is the main volume which rotates as you would expect with a good volume range. The front panel that drops down to allow you to dock your iPod is quite thick and tends to stand out about an inch from the dashboard when upright, and about 2-3 inches when down. I am slightly concerned that the panel tends to detach from the head unit a little too easily but time will tell whether this is a flaw. The unit comes with an assortment of plastic caddies to allow a snug fit for each of the various iPod models, which is a simple but effective solution. In summary, interfaces well with the iPod and the docking solution is far better than using cables.

Okay so this was the first ever Car-sterio I bought for my first ever car. I did a fair bit of research before buying, looking around the market at sterios and also consulting a friend of mine who's got a lot more experience with Car sound systems.

First of all, the premise of the iPod fixture is brilliant. Instead of opening the face and inserting a CD/Tape.. you just push your iPod right on in there. Incredibly simple, very gimmicky but also very effective. I know for some people they would like CD functionality, but personally I wouldn't use it anyway. It also works out as a great place to keep your iPod in the car, as previously it was sitting in the ashtray with a cable plugged into the tape deck. It's worth noting that it comes with a number of plastic adapters so that it will fit the large majority of iPods (check their website for full list).

The functionality of actual sterio is good. It has lots of options, both for the display and sound. There are lots of EQ settings, including the ability to set your own custom EQ. Settings for control of a subwoofer and between speakers. Again, I'm not an expert, but I had my friend set up what he thought would be the best sounding settings - and there were definitley a lot of options.

The controls however are not that well designed. You have two joysticks.. the one on the left controls the volume and the one on the right controls navigation. Navigating the menus isn't as easy as it should be, because you have to be careful when pushing the joystick in (like the centre button of an iPod) that it doesn't push the joystick to the side (like clicking the next track buttons on a click wheel). It's something you get used to and isn't a massive problem, but it's much more difficult than neccesary and can at times be frustrating. The system for scrolling down menus is also quite slow if, like me, you have a lot of playlists/artists on your iPod.

The main probelm however has been the build quality of the buttons. After a few days the corner buttons were falling off (all of them!) and I had to superglue them back on. However, I was lucky enough to find them! If they fell off and you lost them (they're small) it would be a massive pain losing the funtionality of the buttons. Also, after a few weeks the right joystick broke.. so that it will not 'click' in the different directions - meaning that I cannot skip through a particular track.

Overall I'm very happy with my sterio. It looks good, it has plenty of features, works as a storage compartment/charger for my ipod, has novelty value (I believe it's the only one of its kind at time of review)and defintiely does it's job exactly how I wanted. However, be wary of the buttons.. treat it delicately and you may also have slight frustrations with the controls. It's up to you wheteher that's enough to put you off.