Joining the iPod craze

Posted on by Ian C.

(a little late maybe!)

In both GBMINI#2 and GBMINI#3 I’ve used a Kenwood head unit and Kenwood Keg to store music – the Keg stores 20GB of music (more than I care to load onto it) and has an excellent interface at the head unit, and reasonable software on a PC too.

However, the Keg is ancient technology now and support for it seems to be vanishing since the rest of the world moves to iPods! I’ve started using iTunes to buy music I don’t have, and to get it to the Keg I have to burn it to CD in iTunes, then encode the CD into MP3 format, and manually type in the title/artist/etc because iTunes doesn’t burn that to the CD.

There’s also podcasts, especially White Roof Radio [woofcast] which I’m rather enjoying! So recently, I succumbed and bought an iPod!
[UPDATE: there’s was a shout-out to me on WhiteRoofRadio!]

It’s so much easier to move music onto the iPod – especially bought-from-iTunes stuff and the automatically handled podcasts; now I must replace my old Keg with iPod.

So trial one, I bought a Belkin TuneBase FM; I looked at many options and this one seemed nicely designed and easy to use – and the black matches GBMINI#3 (and the black iPod I bought).

Minolta DSC
Minolta DSC
Minolta DSC

It works quite well, but there is a noticeable loss of high frequency (corrected to some degree using the iPod EQ); also, it takes quite a few seconds before it starts broadcasting when the car is started – during that delay, the radio is playing annoying static.
Finally, there is some background noise and occasional upsets to the FM transmission when driving – I’ve tried a few different frequencies and while some are better than others, none are perfect.

So, trial two: I bought a Kenwood KCA-iP500 on eBay; I’d read some time ago that Kenwoods iPod implementation isn’t great, but I never expected it to be as awful as it is – at least in comparison with the Keg!

Firstly, it doesn’t display all the music information I’m used to – it’ll show the track title but only the artist / album / whatever if I select to play by artist / album / etc. And since the random function only works for the current “playlist”, I want to choose “all music” instead of a particular artist/album!

The head unit has a “magazine random” as well as “disc random” – these two work fine on the Keg, but the “magazine random” is disabled on the iPod (if it worked, it would give me random across all artists/albums which would somewhat resolve the display problem).
Also, when in random mode, the track number goes 01/02/03/… irrespective of the actual track number (it’s a random number sequence instead); I suppose it’s not important, but I’m used to better with the Keg!

Thirdly, it’s sluggish – press SCAN to switch between playlist/album/artist/genre/etc modes and it’s at least 3s before it’s ready to play again …

So now I’m thinking I need a new head unit – Alpine are pushing their superior iPod support; but maybe all head units are poor at the iPod interface; maybe it’s the iPod that limits random, artist/title display, etc.

So, if you have a good iPod solution in your MINI, tell me about it – how quick is it, how good is random mode, how good are the track info displays? And I’m not going back to the stock radio (no pre-outs to my amplifier)!

17 thoughts on “Joining the iPod craze”

  1. ah, Ian I would have told you to stay away from the FM transmitters, they’re bunk.

    I don’t have the fancy interface installations, namely due to cost as well as limitations, i.e. the MINI (BMW) one forces you to use fixed playlists…and limited.

    So my setup consists of the AUX input, and a Belkin power adapter. This has two key purposes, first the Belkin obviously charges the iPod, and most importantly, uses the line out, NOT the headphone jack, for the audio feed into the head unit. So the audio quality is far better than the FM interface, etc.

    W/ the iPod holder (actually a Panavise mobile phone holder) I’m able to easily see my iPod while driving, and navigate the menu if necessary.

    Highly recommend something similar….see my photos here http://www.mini2.com/galleries/showgallery.php?cat=500&ppuser=11982 (and this weekend!)

    Chris

  2. Thanks Chris!
    In defence of Belkin, their interface also uses the bottom (line out) connector – but I guess the FM transmission loses some treble …

  3. Hey Ian – let me congratulate you on your iPod purchase! Also I’m glad to hear you’re listening to Whiteroof!

    I would highly recommend the Dension Ice-Link Plus. You can read me review here. It’s been a bullet proof way for me to interface (and charge) both my iPod and iPod Nano to my MCS for over a year now.

  4. Congrats!

    Now, don’t listen to the other fellows about all the Apple mumbo jumbo. They don’t know what they are talking about!

    Oh yea, the FM transmitters don’t even work in the cabrio with the top down! Of course, you’ll have to go back to WRR #23 (I think) to find that out 😉

  5. I’ve got the Dension ice>Link: Plus and would recommend Chris’ setup. You can’t change tracks with the MFSW that way, but you retain full control of the iPod and excellent sound quality.

    There are a couple of other adapters available now that give you MFSW control *and* iPod control, such as the “neo ion” (?), the “Spec” (available from Crutchfield, among others) and Dension’s new “DICE” adapter. They all suffer from some usability problems and glitches, and are fairly expensive compared to the Belkin adapter and AUX input.

  7. Ian,

    You can take a peek at my setup at MINIs on Top.

    Like most other people are saying, at least without going for a brand new head unit, your best bet is to not try to get the head unit to do anything iPod related except accept the aux input. The brand new stuff may be better, though.

    Get a cradle that lets you see / reach the iPod and use the iPod’s interface. Use a line out to aux in to get the sound to the head unit.

    The extra twist I’ve got is that I have a non stock head unit that has an IR remote. Then, I got an IR remote for the iPod (it plugs into the top of the iPod). Add the PAC SWI-X interface that lets you translate the MFSW buttons into IR signals, and you’re starting to get somewhere… my volume and mute buttons are mapped to the head unit volume and mute functions, and the other three are mapped to the iPod’s track up / track down / play buttons.

    It works great for me.

  8. Dension. It’s what I have. I tried all the other gizmos and filed them all in the circular file!

    I don’t know much about all that tech stuff but it works well and is easy, a plus for me, to install. When I picked up the Cooper at MoP I installed it in 10 minutes. I don’t get much on the display but the song title and artist but don’t really care about that stuff… I put the ipod on shuffle and drive.

    I have one of the Mini’s…800+ songs and another for my jazz.

    Nice of Apple to let you PC folk have this.

  9. There are a couple of other adapters available now that give you MFSW control *and* iPod control…

    The Ice>Link Plus lets you do this as well.

  10. Thanks all – but the Dension ICElink etc is for MINIs with the stock stereo, which as I said I don’t have and don’t plan to go back to …

  11. I installed an Alpine and the Apline iPod interface. Works great. I can search by Song/Artist/Playlist. You can do random play on playlists and all artists. Display can show artist, album, or song title. Not very sluggish… they did a good job.

    The only thing I do not like about it is the search… goes a bit slow. You have to use the volume dial to search and when you have a 60gb iPod with 100 different artists it takes a while to get to the middle of the alphabet ;). Playlist are recommended.

    I keep the iPod in the glovebox and never have to see it unless it needs an update. That was important to me seeing my last iPod was stolen out of the MINI :(. The iPod connector is mounted under the glovebox.

    You can check it out at MoT.

  13. My wife’s iPod Nano 4gig died today… 1 year after she bought it!

    The Nano came out in September of 2005. It should still be well within it’s one year warranty if it did indeed die.

  15. Ian:

    I had a high-end Alpine in my Saab, along with their iPod and XM interfaces. The iPod integration was garbage, IMO, and I returned it to the store that did the install for me. I’ve had three Alpine’s over the past five years, and maybe I’m in the minority, but I was never happy with just how user-unfriendly the head units are. Besides, their FM is lousy. I rarely listen to CD’s – mostly XM or iPod, and occasionally FM – Public Radio.

    I have the factory HK system in my MCS. I installed a Bltzsafe XM Direct unit and the Blitzsafe iPod adapter. Catch me at MOT and I can show you what I did. Clean and very functional install.

    =Adam=
    AntiqueCarNut

  16. Ian, I am looking for a stock head with aux feature. If you don’t want a lot.

    cleave

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