Alpinei509-WRA-JL 9-Inch Multimedia Receiver Compatible with 2018-Up Jeep® Wrangler and 2020-Up Gladiator

Bought a used 2018 JL and it had an Insane Audio head unit. When stereo shop was upgrading Jeep to an MB Quart swing door Sub and overhead 4 speaker MB Quart sound bar that unit did not power up. They ordered a High10 and could not get it to fit. I ordered this off Amazon and they said install was much easier than expected. Love all the features and it looks absolutely amazing. Hooked up a Fire tv stick and it plays through the unit's hdmi. Signed up for the Tidal app which has hi res audio. Absolutely sounds amazing with all my speaker upgrades and an added amp. Everyone who sees it comments on how it looks like a factory radio. Steering wheel controls work as well. Pricey but well worth it!!

Overall i am cool with it. Still figuring out all the functions. IT SO MANY.ONE MAJOR DOWN FALL FOR ME is you can't make changes to the equalizer / audio settings on the fly (like a regular radio). You Have to stop vehicle and pull parking brake up and down twice ( kid you not) to have the settings button illuminate so you can access those and some other functions and it can't be bypassed. I get Alpine having this safety function, However, for a price tag of $2,300 i should be able to make this a optional setting....NOT THEM.

I researched this product in depth. Went to two separate sites (Alpine being one) and entered all my vehicle info to make sure it would work. Everything I read and saw indicated plug and play right out of the $2400 box. No mention of other things needed, other than an SXM tuner if you wanted satellite radio. First off, the installation of this unit is not for the faint of heart. five hours in to the install on my second day, the manual advises that I need a module if I have an OEM amp, which I do. To be clear, Alpine site makes no mention when I entered vehicle info which is limited to selecting Alpine system or not. Obviously, the upgraded Alpine system in the JLs has a factory amp...obviously. But, its better to tell your customer when they are 3/4 done with the install and now have a parked vehicle waiting for a $160 module on top of your 2K+ system. Also, know that if you have a 115 plug in your jeep, the module for that is under the steering column where the head unit for this disaster goes. They give you a bracket to mount the inverter module on top of the head unit, but you will not fit that combo in the space. you'll have to mount the head unit and then destroy yourself mounting the module on top after it's in place. Then, you will realize that the harness that goes to the module will not reach even after you've separated it from the larger wire bundle as far as you can. None of that crap is in their cute videos or the manual. I'm still trying to figure out a mod for this. I'm only typing this review because my jeep is parked for three days waiting for their precious module.I honestly have no idea if this thing will work and end up being worth it. I doubt it. Unless it cooks dinner and rubs my feet for life, totally not worth it. It's a shame. The name Alpine used to be worth something.

Coming from the stock 7” screen on my JL, this unit is a major upgrade. Install took about 3-4 hours but also because I went slow as to not mess up.Pros: it’s huge. Looks amazing. Additional buttons are a nice touch and feel OEM to the rest of my dash. CarPlay looks SO much better than before as the UConnect 7” can’t really go full screen for some reason. Touch responsiveness is perfect. Sound is great. And the install video Alpine has on YouTube makes it very easy to do this by yourself (although extra hands never hurt)Cons: it’s expensive. Outside of that I’d recommend this to anyone looking for a nice upgrade to their stock dash. As I’m hoping to keep my JL til long after it’s paid off, I think the ROI will be worth it in the long run.

They claim it retains all the function of the OEM radio, but they don't mention anything about the quality of these functions.