I have used the Archos almost everyday, powering it up and playing the music through the car sound system with the help on an iRock FM transmitter. At the end of each day I would take the Archos inside my house to charge it up for the next days adventures. When I first started listening to the music in this manner I was pretty pleased with the quality, it was much better then listening to the music through headphones, which is apparently illegal in Texas. But as time went by the cable on the iRock started to wear out and the action of plugging and unplugging the iRock started to wear out the line in connector on the Archos. It was definitely time to find a replacement.
My first port of call was my BMW dealership who recommended I get in line to buy the new iPod to BMW conversion kit. At first I was elated, it was everything that ever I wanted in an in-car MP3 player; it was simple, and played through the car stereo system. The only problem was that it had just been released and none of the dealers had any stock. I would have to wait 4 months. The cost was a little bit scary as well, $250 for the wiring harness and installation and up to $300 for an iPod.
Years ago I had seen a product on the Internet from RIO that was an in-dash Hard Drive based MP3 player. Unfortunately back in 1999 the demand had not been strong for this cutting edge product and it went out of production. Sony apparently has one but them I realized that I was not excited about the idea of tearing out the BMW head unit and replacing it with an aftermarket product.
I work for a group of car dealers so I decided to take my quest to those in the know, a group of mechanics at our Volkswagen store. They all agreed on one product, Phatnoise from Phatbox, which is an optional extra on any Volkswagen. It connects to the factory installed wiring in the trunk and is completely controlled through the factory installed head unit. Since it was something the dealership stocked I could get it at a killer price so I went to Phatnoise.com to see if they had some clever way to connect one up to my BMW. To my utter delight the company makes Phatboxes for all kinds of cars! No conversion kit necessary, just buy the one you need and hook it up to the existing factory installed wiring!
My search was over, I bought my new toy for a bit more money then the iPod to BMW kit was, but it has so much more to offer then the iPod kit did that I feel it was worth it. The main things I love about it:
� It uses the factory installed CD Changer wiring to get power and play the tracks.
� It is 100% controllable through the cars head unit or steering wheel.
� It has voice prompting to help you navigate through your music collection.
More on this topic with installation tips for BMW325i and several pictures are available on quampha.com in a follow up article.