[drude]

Originally Posted by MarcusCatterall

Anyone had the oem connector installed, experiences?

I had it fitted about a month ago at my dealer. Can't remember the exact cost but it was about £350 i think (had a scratch painted at the same time so my total was higher).

I was unimpressed at first (especially as the install disabled my bluetooth and I had to take it back to get that fixed) but I'm really warming to it now. It took me a while to suss out how to navigate through everything but it is second nature now. I found it confusing initially because of the way it handles items 'above' tracks in the hierarchy such as playlists and albums which is totally different to the Alpine kit I had in my last car.

Someone asked about playlists....you can use way more than 6. I only use it with an 8 gig nano so I don't know if it would cope with a loaded 80gig - navigating that much music in a car is a pain however you do it.

The most annoying thing is not the fault of the iPod connector, but the stereo itself - as with mp3 CDs, the currently playing track title does not update. I cannot fathom why it was designed like this - surely it would be very easy to reprogram it to always display the current track.

[simnew]

I had the BMW OEM ipod kit fitted (my car does not have NAV) and I have to say I think its briliiant. With the additional equalisation that the Ipod gives you, I can get better sound from the Ipod than from the CD. I think mine was about £325 fitted. And using the new steering wheel controls is great. I didn't have any problems with blutooth since for that I use my advanced SonyEricsson kit which offers voice dialing and a separate screen with an idrive type controller. This works really well too.

[NFS]

Originally Posted by beauforty

NFS - very good explanation on the cables. I'm going to look into the Monster one. Do you just plug the Monster cable into your armrest then and use a separate cable for the aux in? Thanks!

As with the Belkin you need a separate 3.5mm phono lead.

What's different is that the phone jack is on the dock connector instead of the power connector. This is a bit less neat than the belkin and the connector itself is more bulky as a result.

The actual cable is coiled though and I have threaded the phono lead through the coils to keep it neat.

Side by side the monster does sound clearer. But it's not a massive difference.

[booforty]

Originally Posted by needforspeed

As with the Belkin you need a separate 3.5mm phono lead.

What's different is that the phone jack is on the dock connector instead of the power connector. This is a bit less neat than the belkin and the connector itself is more bulky as a result.

The actual cable is coiled though and I have threaded the phono lead through the coils to keep it neat.

Side by side the monster does sound clearer. But it's not a massive difference.

Ok mate. Appreciate the feedback