best ipod adapter?

[Hutto]

Simple question...What do you guys think is the best ipod adapter?

[XtremeR 325]

http://www.ipodyourbmw.com/

Was thinking about haveing the stealer install it, but for the price I can buy anonther iPod.

[Aradaiel]

I've messed with these a bunch, and here is my experiences. If you don't want to read it all, read the summary.

XtremeR 325:

With a newer bmw the stealership Ipod interface works wonders. I'd see if you can get the kit and install it yourself. From my understanding, it's plug and play with a harness or 2. I've seen it in action, and It's impressive.

As far as for other ones.. I had an Itrip for my 3rd gen, it worked but it didn't work well. I had it for my work truck, wich the tape deck was broken. The Itrip won't work with the new video ones.

If the volume was too far up then it would sound like garbage. Also how they did the programming of the frequencies sucks. It's a playlist of songs that are labled with the frequency. You play that particular freq and it programs it. When you have your Ipod on shuffle, the random freqs will come up, resetting it and screwing with it. It's a pain in the ass. Griffin says to make a playlist with everything except the freqs and use that, but it's a pain in the ass to do that.

With my 325, I had an aftermarket alpine deck with the aux input. I LOVED that.

With the m3 I have a $7 wall-mart special tape deck to ipod thing. It works very well, except i can hear the tape deck spinning the wheels on the tape. I need to take it apart and lube it or something. There were $15 dollar ones, and after getting the $7 one, I assume the more expensive ones don't do this.

In summary:

If you're going for a quick fix and have a tape deck go with the tape to ipod thing.

If you want a quick fix, don't have a new ipod and want to use it in other places with out tape decks and don't mind doing a little Itunes and menu searching then go with an Itrip.

For the ultimate, get aux inputs. It sounded the best, was the most convinent but not most cost effective. I bought the aux input cables for my car and home stereo for like $40 bucks, wich was about the cost of the Itrip and it worked so much better. That is of course not taking into account the cost and costs associated with the alpine head unit and that is assuming your home stereo has aux imputs. Now a days most decent ones do, mine has a "game input" that I use.

[Hutto]

yah i was thinkin about goin to radio shak... can you connect it to the back of the reciever w/ aux cables?

[Tvan]

Originally Posted by Hutto

yah i was thinkin about goin to radio shak... can you connect it to the back of the reciever w/ aux cables?

Depending upon whether you have an aftermarket head unit or the stock one. Most aftermarket untis have an auxilary input that can easily be wired up.

[XtremeR 325]

Originally Posted by Aradaiel

As far as for other ones.. I had an Itrip for my 3rd gen, it worked but it didn't work well. If the volume was too far up then it would sound like garbage. Also how they did the programming of the frequencies sucks.

Yeah, I returned my iTrip, it blowed. I think even AM radio sounds better.

[the540]

i had a itrip and it sucked..i bouth a iriver..and it works perfectly..

[mob6000]

Dension makes a great product. All I had to do was unplug my CD changer and run the wire up to the front and mount the docking station. Really easy but kind of pricey. I have an E36 M and ran the same way on my dad's E46 M.

http://www.densionusa.com/main.htm

[Neo]

Check out Bavauto.com They just got this in, a bit pricey, but it looks pretty sweet and might actually be worth the money. I can't tell you how many times I've taken my eyes off the road to scan through my ipod.

[XtremeR 325]

^^ Do you need harman kardon? Will it work with the standard bmw business sound system?

Edit:

iPod solution for in-vehicle use that works with any audio system

- Bav Auto
http://www.bavauto.com/shop.asp

Thanks alot, ill look into it.