[halet444]

Anyone have a good place to buy the cable for the 6FL? I was issued the wrong one when I picked up the car but now they say I have to pay for the correct one? They want about $50 for it here in Germany. (that's with the conversion minus the tax that I don't need to pay).

[Neurorad]

Lots of confusion on this board with the iPod integration, especially with those new to the e90 (new or previously owned). No single thread explains everything; you have to read A LOT of threads to figure it out. Sounds like a good topic for a *sticky* thread - 'integrating iPOD explained', detailing the terms (MOST, 6FL, DAP, cables) and differences (330 vs 335). I'd do it myself, but I'm still a little confused, after 8 months of reading! I feel sorry for all those just starting out.

Trying searching "iPod" or "MOST". Not very useful.

[Rewted]

Originally Posted by JackMac

Cracks me up. You need a $400 cable to connect a $250 iPod to a $45,000 car.

6FL (factory option) is the better choice.

My Nov '05 build gets by with a $29 Belkin cable into the Aux input.

But you're forgetting to mention that Aux input doesn't supply power to the unit, and USB works with more than just ipods. Heck, you can use a portable drive.

Do song titles even display on dash with Aux?

[tintivilus]

Originally Posted by tyrewt

But you're forgetting to mention that Aux input doesn't supply power to the unit, and USB works with more than just ipods. Heck, you can use a portable drive.

Do song titles even display on dash with Aux?

My original response to this was just too snarky for somebody I've never met before.

Please tell me that was a rhetorical question

[tintivilus]

Originally Posted by Neurorad

Lots of confusion on this board with the iPod integration, especially with those new to the e90 (new or previously owned). No single thread explains everything; you have to read A LOT of threads to figure it out. Sounds like a good topic for a *sticky* thread - 'integrating iPOD explained', detailing the terms (MOST, 6FL, DAP, cables) and differences (330 vs 335). I'd do it myself, but I'm still a little confused, after 8 months of reading! I feel sorry for all those just starting out.

Trying searching "iPod" or "MOST". Not very useful.

I'm not sure why it's so confusing, except for the fact that some dealers don't know how 6FL works.

Pre-March-2007 cars have a dealer-installable optional iPod adapter that's mutually exclusive with the CD changer (ie you can have one or the other). This adapter provides a dock-connector plug on a cable in the glove box.

March-2007 and later cars have a factory-optional "USB and iPod" adapter. Its option code is 6FL, hence the common name. 6FL provides a USB-A jack (the normal kind you have on your computer) in the center console in addition to the 1/8" stereo auxiliary audio input ("aux").

To use 6FL with a USB mass-storage device (memory stick, hard drive, some non-iPod digital audio players) just plug it into the USB port. To use 6FL with an iPod use the provided Y-Cable that has a dock-connector plug on one end and USB-A and 1/8" audio plugs on the other. The iPod will also have limited functionality when used as a USB-mass-storage device with a standard iPod-to-USB cable. From other threads, the part number for the 6FL iPod Y-Cable seems to be "61 12 0 440 796"

When using an "iPod" solution, the iPod decodes the audio and outputs analog to the car. When using a "USB" solution, the car reads encoded data from the USB device and decodes it in the car, just like when playing an mp3 CD. iPod adapters (the old, or the new Y-cable) therefore always support all formats supported by the iPod, where the USB-only connection can only play audio formats supported by the car (not as many).

Of course, you can also plug anything that outputs analog audio into the aux input and listen to it using the controls on the device.

So, basically, any dealer (or user) that tells you to use the USB cable that came with your iPod for 6FL is retarded, unless all of your music is mp3 and your iPod is FAT32 ("Windows") formatted.