So some of you have read that I've been hooking up my ipod for the longest time using the PAC-AUDIO AAI-NIS (providing line-in via RCA to the Bose SAT hookup), along with Sik's car adapter/line-out for the ipod. Then I had a custom mount that held my ipod between the steering column and the radio. Worked well, and I could grab the ipod and find songs really fast.
But, since I saw Harmon Kardon's Drive & Play in Wired magazine, I said to myself then and there "ok, I'll check this out at home". When I check it out, I'm totally sold and when I look at circuit city's website and see it for just $199 (frankly, I was expecting much more) I clicked, and went out right away for a pickup!
So, what you get approx is (more thorough reviews exist out there so I'm keeping it relevant to my install and impressions):
- The display: after a full day of driving outside in the sunny winter daylight going skiing, the lcd is somehow magically legible under any light, and oh yes, this is a very good thing: EVEN WITH MY POLARIZED RAY BANS! (I can't say the same of the Bose headunit display).
- The controller: neat little knob thingie. Note its not rotary like the ipod, but it has a spring-loaded left/right rotation motion, center push button and four buttons around id.
- and a myriad of mounting options via different angled bases for the pod. I ended up using the 0 degree base (which means the controler faces straight up)
Ok, on to my install.
After considering a lot of things, I settled on:
- Brain behind the radio in the dash (brain is like the main box all cables plug into)
- Controller behind the shifter
- Screen at the far left corner of my dash (next to my V1 remote display)
- Ipod connecter in the arm rest, passing through the hole they have for "cell phone chargers"
So, after taking apart the dash I ran all the wires through the bottom-left, thus coming out under the driver side area from the right hand side. It's tight, but you can snake anything from there.
I ran the ipod cable all the way snaking tucked between the carpet and the center console mold, eventually just going up and into the armrest's bottom cubby. From there, I broke open the little square hole and snaked the cable upwards into the carpeted area. The ipod connects right there and stays nice and cozy.
The screen, I ran the cable behind the plastic base that's above your legs as you drive (you know, under the steering column, etc) and out from the left side, going around and straight up into the far-left corner, where I mounted the screen. It mounts using some 3M adhesive they give you. So far, its doing very well. It also hides the start of my Valentine One's remote display cable, so that's always good.
The controller, I ran the cable along the ipod cable, and went straight up when I reached the point parallel to where I was placing it -- behind the shifter. It fits "just right" in that it lets the cup holder cover still swing open. You may notice in the photos that it crosses the "line" between the silver and the black stuff -- when in the car, its not something you notice.
Finally, I also ran, just in case, another cable that connects to the brain's "line-in" and thats just hanging. That's in case I ever want to connect something else.
So, how does it work?
In a nutshell: it's great, it's the best you can get today, but its not perfect and it also is getting improved soon.
So, when you turn it on you get an ipod looking menu. Hacker that I am, I went straight to the settings menu. Thankfully, you can edit the main menu options so I through out the FM Settings menu, Composer, Songs and Albums. I use my own cool playlists, otherwise by Artist.
Navigation is done like an ipod and is reasonably speedy in terms of menu response time. The display even gives you a little "sync" icon when its reading something long, but it never takes too much time.
Once playing, the id3 info is displayed, but the crappiest thing is that you can see the timer, but not time remaining, nor will you see a progress bar. (note: on their website for a while they had a flash animation that showed one. I contacted them and they thanked me for pointing that out,and are supposed to remove it. the display does NOT show a progress bar, due to an ipod protocol limitation, I was told.)
When playing, you can always press the top button ("menu") and like the ipod navigate to prep your next song. I didnt try "on the go" commands by pressing the select button and holding it, but I doubt it will work.
Options: You can enable things like shuffle, repeat, etc. The display brightness choices are: 2, 4, 8, 10 seconds (iirc) and just plain ON. You can also adjust brightness level. I've chosen ON at all times but with a fairly low brightness so it doesn't bother me. The brightness can go very high!
Song list navigation: you have options to choose how much the list will "jump" by when you hold the rotary left or right: 5%, 10%... I think I made it 10% but then went back to 5%. This definitely means its no ipod, but then again I cant say the ipod wheel is perfect either, hunting back and forth... (why has NO mp3 player come out with a way for you to segment things by letter range? [A-F][G-O][P-Z] or something?!)... It's definitely a sad point to have to deal with, but to be honest, there's nothing better. Also, the rotary spring is very good and responsive, and with a mere flicker you can go down one-by-one pretty fast. I have 1000 artists (on my ipod, a fraction of) and it's tolerable. But my main source of music are my playlists. By the way, the unit, when powered on, always turns on (and resumes playing). It also turns off when you shut down.
Finally, let's talk about power and wiring.
I hard wired mine to the same lines the AAI-NIS was on, so that wasn't difficult (the colors match btw: yellow on the drive & play is yellow for the wire going to the aai-nis). Ground, I used a screw on the radio: I tried some black wire my notes said was ground for the radio and it WOULDN'T WORK. This is also a lesson for others: ground is CRUCIAL or the device won't turn on.
Now, symptom: if you turn off the car (or havent turned it on, but clearly have the key on ACC/ON) the unit WILL power off. Not in the sleep time you configured in the menu, no. Seemingly some random amount of time (usually less than one whole song). What was going on?
HK's director of marketing was kind enough to tell me: if the voltage ever goes down below 11 and something volts, the unit will set off to power itself off. Looks like my lovely SE-R must be doing so, because a song or two at most after I turn off the engine, the unit will power off. It won't come back on either. This means no tunes without the running engine for a lot of us I imagine. Now you know why I ran the other wire (the unit DOES allow the line-in input to pass through even when turned off)...
I was promised this was going to be changed in future revisions (and I was also promised a free exchange! Go H&K!) that would tolerate down to around 10v. I suppose one can always radioshack some device that could keep spikes calm...
So there you have it. Strongly recommended, its just the best out there. I feel bad for those with HU's that do "ipod" because all the ones I see SUCK at navigation and this really is the best you can get for now. I just cant believe its taken THIS long to even come out with something like this, but hey, its life.
Any questions, feel free. And now, on to the photos... btw, flash is so harsh on people, but on things too; the dust is invisible when I'm in the car, and the wires aren't noticeable really either.
All pics:
http://trinity.cs-i.brandeis.edu/~ed...AndPlayInstall
Right now it's running off the cigarette lighter adapter. How did you guys wire the power for this? Is there a power cable behind the headunit that can be tapped into or something? I'm kind of ignorant when it comes to car electric. 
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