For those of you who had your CD changer kiss good buy :byee55amg to the world, what have you installed? Ipod (with Dice) or some of the USB sticks adapter. I hear with the USB, you will have control of track and volume through your steering wheel controls, but not with the Dice.
And, yes I do have the DSP "thing" in my car's audio.
Let me hear what you have done :M5thumbs:
Steering wheel control work with dice too.
I am looking for a simple and inexpensive solution to connect my Ipod in place of the CD changer in the trunk.
I had a HD Dice in a previous e39 several years ago, but thought the interface was very slow. Have they improved? I also saw the OP mentioned memory sticks. How easy are these to incorporate into the system? I didn't see any replies about this method.
Any ideas?
I have been told the new system is much snappier than the one one, but I did no have the old system so I can not compare it.
More thorough review for those interested:
I went with the Dice Mediabridge and a spec.dock from BSW. I have enjoyed the setup for over 7months now and have not had too many problems (knock on wood). Once the system would not recognize my ipod and I unplugged the connector in the trunk waited a couple of minutes and then reconnected it. Other than that any other hiccup has been cured by turning the radio off and turning it back on. Initially I had some issues getting the album information to display on the radio rather than the cluster, but that was fixed by messing with the dip switches. So now I have the album info on the radio. IIRC the included dice instructions and instructions from online forums on how to change the location of the album artwork do no not apply to the mediabridge. You need to use the dip switches not the radio controls to change the display location.
I went with the media bridge because I liked that it had a usb connection to the ipod, the flexibility to plug in a usb flash drive or use an aux cable. To me the bluetooth streaming and bluetooth microphone were added bonuses. The ability to add satellite radio was of no interest to me, but at least I have the option to add it in the future. To me the big selling point was the usb ipod connection. I figured the usb connection would be more stable than the old serial port connector and have less potential for charging issues. BSW also said the usb connection makes for a much faster and responsive connection than the older style connection. Unless the pictures online are not accurate Dice silverline and Dice duo
do not have usb connections media bridge is the only Dice that has usb.
Before the mediabridge came out I was deciding between the Dice silverline pro and USA Spec ipod interface. The usa spec units seemed to be getting good reviews, but I did not like how you were limited to 5 playlists (I think the number of songs in those playlists is unlimited). I was leaning towards the dice, but was concerned about negative reviews. They seemed to be centered around connection and charging issues. Although it is hard to tell if the complaints were limited to earlier dice versions or the sliverline pros too. In any case when they came out with the media bridge and I saw it had a USB ipod connection I went for it.
As far as use goes I have only used it with my ipod nano (3rd generation). IIRC when I first set it up I tried my ipod (5th generation) and iphone (3gs) just to test them and I think they both worked fine. I may have also tried a USB drive with some music connected to it but I don't recall. I have not used the Bluetooth streaming and I have yet to hook up and route the bluetooth microphone for hands free calling.
The steering wheel controls
do work with the mediabridge. You can change songs or albums and also raise and lower the volume from the steering wheel or radio.
The system works with the ipod locked and unlocked. IIRC when the ipod is unlocked it does not display album information on the radio display. I have many times picked up my ipod (taken out of dock so its disconnected from dice) changed albums and songs then put the ipod back in the dock (reconnected) and it starts playing from the selections you just made. It does not seem to matter if the ipod is locked or unlocked you can disconnect and reconnect it either way.
Just for info this is my set up:
Media bridge (unit is under the front left console trim panel)
Trunk connection (snaked cord up to the front of the car on driver's side per bsw instructions)
Speck.dock ashtray mount for ipod (not necessary can use use the ipod to usb cord)
3rd generation ipod nano (wanted a shorter ipod to rule out interference with shifting)
I do not have DSP
I do not have Nav
My car is a 2003
fyi:
good source for longer and shorter ipod cords
CableJive: Adapters and Dock Cables for iPad, iPhone and iPod
