I promised an update and here it is.
Convenience of operation is a mixed bag. Control of the iPod and of DAB tuning - in both cases using the Ezi-DAB’s control knob and buttons – is pretty good, replicating much of the function of the ’Pod’s own clickwheel, but in a more tactile way that’s safer to use while driving. Crucially, the buttons allow fast forward and rewind within tracks, which was missing from the Toyota factory interface in my previous car and makes long podcasts much easier to manage. The one thing I miss is the ‘accelerator’ function of the clickwheel, which switches to jumping an initial letter at a time rather than track by track; without it, I’ve tended to stay too close to the beginning of the alphabet in my listening choices – more AC/DC than ZZ Top.
It would be useful if the power to the Ezi-DAB were more directly controlled by the master switch of the Audio-20. As it is, switching off the ignition at journey’s end puts the Ezi-DAB first into its ‘forecourt pause’ mode, which suspends playback, and then, after 15 minutes, into full shutdown. This is fine, but I’d like the same thing to happen if I turn off the main audio unit during a journey – say because I have a difficult passage of traffic to negotiate, or because I just want a bit of hush. I have no idea whether this is technically possible, either generally or specifically for my car.
The white OLED display is sharp, clear and easy to read (once you’ve found the display option that gives scrolling text rather than the static double-height default) unless, like me, you drive in polarizing sunglasses. Through these, it looks smeary with stray coloured haloes – but after ten years with a Volvo HU-803 that I can’t read at all through my sunglasses, I’m ready to live with this limitation.
Sound quality through my ‘FM direct injection’ connection is generally very good – to the point where the limiting factor is the quality of the source material, recorded or broadcast. Some installers had warned me against FM modulators on the grounds of interference, and this did cause problems in France, where local FM stations in, for example, Le Mans and Poitiers broadcast in the sub-88 MHz range that is little used in the UK. (My unit is set to inject on 87.6 MHz.) While we were away, I found the Settings menu and enabled the FM Passthrough option, which effectively switches off the FM aerial input to the Audio 20 while the Ezi-DAB is switched on. This cured the interference problem, at the cost of some convenience in the UK, where I might want to switch quickly from iPod input to FM, so now I’m home again I may switch it back.
I use the iPod mostly for BBC podcasts and downloaded radio programmes, but some of these do contain music – such as Radio 3’s Building a Library podcasts – and these are much easier to listen to than before, with a more comfortable volume balance between the spoken explanations and the musical inserts. I suspect this is nothing to do with actual levels and more about the quality of the speech making it sound less shouty than it did through my Griffin iTrip transmitter, but I no longer feel the need to turn the volume up for the music and down for the speech.
The DAB side is, naturally, governed mainly by signal strength and bit rate, and these vary hugely with location and station. If it’s any guide, it does seem to hang on to the DAB signal marginally better than the FM one at the bottom of the steep valley that contains my home town. Most of my radio listening is mainstream BBC – Radios 3 and 4 on FM – and that will probably continue, but having the option of stations like 6 Music and Planet Rock may broaden my horizons a little. What comes out of the speakers is generally much better than adequate; considering this wasn’t a feature I was even looking for, it’s a very satisfactory bonus.
Limitations? As mentioned above, power on-off convenience isn’t all it could be, and the unit takes a longer than it might to start up or to respond to a change of mode or station. Neither FM connection mode allows RDS traffic reports; the manual hints that this might be possible but doesn’t explain how.
Some devices that use FM modulation borrow the head unit’s RDS capability to display track information on the radio display. The Ezi-DAB doesn’t do this - perhaps it’s because FM modulation isn’t its only output – which is a pity, although it does display ‘EZI-DAB’ on the radio, which suggests something RDS-y is going on. If the hardware is capable, the capability could probably be retro-fitted with a firmware update.
Finally a note on installation. My installer managed to run the USB input cable into the armrest compartment, a much better place for it than the glovebox, which is on the wrong side of the car. The control unit removes the need to have direct access to the ’Pod, and here it is the work of a moment to clip it in place as I settle into the car.
Positioning of the control unit is more difficult. The dashboard of my E220 is a busy place, with two flaps that need to be left free to open. Alpine’s decision to put two control buttons on top of the controller means that the unit has to be out in the open and can’t be concealed behind a flap or fitted flush into a recess, and this is, frankly, daft. The supplied vari-angle stand is not really up to the standard of the rest of the unit and doesn’t look right sticky-padded to the left of the gear selector, so I’m on the lookout for a neater solution, ideally one that will let the controller retract into the flapped compartment ahead of the gear selector when not in use, yet still be solid enough to operate with one finger.
Overall, I’m pretty pleased with the Ezi-DAB. It gives me a good-quality iPod input, with DAB as a bonus, without taking away my CD changer. Some of the limitations – no traffic reports, no track control from the steering wheel – I knew about and was prepared to accept; the slow start-up and the awkward power integration let it down a little. The control unit and its buttons feel a little cheap and flimsy, at least compared to the Mercedes solidity of everything else I touch (except for the tacky CC temperature dials, of course) but I’ve no reason to suppose they won’t stand up to daily use. Out of ten, I’d give it 6 for design and 8 for sound quality.
