USA SPEC PA12-BMW - iPod in-vehicle interface adapter Reviews
The car I installed this unit into is a late 2002 (Sept 2002 MFG date) BMW 325i (E46) without DSP, no NAV, and no Satellite Radio which surely made things a little easier (but you could still use satellite through the AUX connection if you would like). This product is a great alternative to frustrating FM transmitters that never seem to work as well as you would like (constantly flipping through radio stations for a cleaner signal as I always seemed to run into static and poor sound quality issues).br /br /I bought this product about 3 weeks ago (actually from ipodcarpros.com since they are an authorized retailer of USA Spec products). It cost 9 with a free RCA to headphone cable to use with the aux input. Free shipping was available but I went ahead and paid the .99 to get it in 2-3 days instead of 7-10. There are several other approved sellers by USA Spec, but the one I chose was the cheapest. You can buy this product from many non approved retailers but you run the risk of USA spec refusing or charging you if you need troubleshooting help. The one thing that I cannot emphasize enough is the fact that this is a relatively simple install. It will take less than 30 minutes if you want to stash the ipod in the trunk, or maybe 1.5 to 2.5 hours to wire it to the front (took me about 2 hours and I would definitely consider myself an amateur). When I called Car Toys to see what they would charge to do the install, they said they would sell me the unit at 9.99 ( more than I ended up paying) and that it would cost 0 to install. I though if I could work out a bargain with them I would not mind paying the price (say ). But noooo, I showed up and they said that, "well it is 0 for the basic install, if you want us to run the wiring up to the glove box, or somewhere else near the driver it will be at least 0 maybe more". br /br /So I promptly left and ordered the product online and planned to do it myself. I watched a few videos from the makers of the Dice on You tube that gave me all the information I needed to install my new toy (installation is nearly identical except the USA Spec is a more sturdy product as it is not as sensitive to power changes as the Dice - The makers of the dice say that you should disconnect the battery and do several other steps before reconnecting battery leads or the 3 pin power cord but this is all unnecessary with the USA spec, so skip those steps and save yourself some time). Dice also tries to say that you need special tools that they sell for about if my memory serves my correctly, but I completed my install with nothing more than two screwdrivers (1 phillips and 1 flathead). I wired my unit from the CD changer connectors found in the rear left section of the trunk behind the gray carpeting the back of the rear seats and under the seat bottoms to the passenger side of the car where you can simply tuck the wiring under the plastic where the bottom of the door closes all the way to the glove compartment. Which removes easily by removing about a half dozen phillips head screws and reveals a nice cavity where you can place your USA Spec (and wire the aux cable right into glove box if you like). I chose to run my ipod wire tucked behind the middle console all the way to where my stick shift meets the cup holders where i then can have direct access to my ipod and simply rest it in the cup holder, just as I had before with my FM transmitter. Maybe some day I will get more ambitious and install some sort of docking system or something. Another option that I strongly considered was hiding the ipod under the cup holders (as I found several reviews that said that they never touch their Ipod and control the unit soley from the dash). But I have over 10,000 music tracks and so 3-4 playlists (depending on whether you turn the aux input on or off) was not enough control for me. Yes I primarily (probably 90-95% of the time) put my ipod on random through the entire music library anyway which done easily with disk 4 or 5 (one again depending on aux configuration) and pushing the random button. But I felt that one of the big advantages of the USA Spec was the ability to use disk 5 or 6 (depending again on aux) and control the music from the ipod native controls via the scroll wheel (much easier than the dice where you have to press several buttons to change artist then SLOWLY scroll through artists 1 at a time ( I have hundreds of artists if not more so that was completely impractical, the only Dice product that was tempting was the mediabridge with bluetooth but I thought it was just too expensive and I like my bluetooth earpiece just fine anyway + it maintains privacy when you have others in the car with you as opposed to blurting your conversation over the speakers). If you don't have as extensive of a music library, or don't really mind not having that extra function I would have definitely done the install under the cup holders as it would have improved theft deterrence since there would be nothing visible (though all you see in my car if I remove the I pod is a wire which can be hidden easily between the seat and the middle cup holders).br /br /The sound quality is great. USA spec doesn't have some of the same problems that some Dice owners complained of that the sound level of the iPod was much lower than that of the radio, and as of yet I have left my iPod connected to the car for the last 3 weeks and never ran into a problem that required resetting the unit (that is a common complaint of many Dice owners). Many owners of Dice units say that there are several steps to getting the unit to start playing correctly the first time it is hooked up to your stereo and get the artist and track titles to display properly, but I plugged in my unit and turned on immediately (even after proper install of the dice it requires about 30 seconds to boot before music starts to play) and had proper display function, no muss no fuss. I left it installed in my trunk for a while before I completed the wiring to the drivers area to be sure that I really like the product before completing the install. If you don't care to operate the ipod directly this is the easiest install (less than 30 minutes with cleanup). I especially like being able to use the controls on my steering wheel now, which works in all modes (including direct mode - which direct mode only seems to lack text display when controlling from the ipod). A neat feature that they don't advertise on their site but I really like about the unit is the FF/RW and SKIP 10 tracks function. When the unit is on random, holding your track forward and back buttons on the steering wheel or head unit allows you to fast forward and rewind. If random is off, and you want to jump through your playlist more quickly, holding down the track forward and backward buttons allows you to skip through your playlist in jumps of 10 tracks at at time.br /br /There are only a few minor areas that I see as having room for improvement of the USA Spec. First, I wish the track titles and artists displayed on the screen while in "direct" mode which is the mode that allows you to control music selection using your ipod. The other thing that I would like to see improved is that I would like to have more control over the order in which songs are played in the playlist which seems to default to alphabetic by song title on my unit, but this is a minor issue. If you really want to listen to an album in the order it was recoreded, you just use the direct mode on disk 5 or 6.br /br /All in all, I give this product a rave review! It has significantly improved my enjoyment of my vehicle by removing the frustrations of an FM transmitter while adding some cool functionality that I didn't have before.br /br /Way to go USA Spec you have truly made a great product! I will recommend it to all my friends!
USA SPEC PA12-BMW - iPod in-vehicle interface adapter Feature
- Displays Artist/Title information on Text compatible radios
- Charges iPod
- Auxiliary input for additional audio source
- Hybrid mode allows control of iPod from radio and iPod clickwheel
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Excellent!!!! - Tony L. Kwong - san francisco
Installed this baby in my 2004 m3,literally it only takes 3 mins to plug in to the adaptors if you just want to leave the ipod in the trunk .Pretty much you can control everything from the headunit and the streeing wheel.And one thing I really want to point out is the sound is much better than before when I only use the CD player and with no power reset like the others.So I am highly recomand this unit.
Nov 06, 2010 05:08:03
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