Alright, guys. I've been thinking about picking up a Usa spec adapter for my Ipod or the drive & play. Right now the drive & play is looking pretty good with it's display screen and controller, but I'm not sure if I want to play the ipod through the fm modulator. I assume the direct connection with the USA spec adapter has better audio. Anyone have any opinions on this or any suggestions. The kicker is the Best buy has the Drive & Play for only $43 bucks.

 

No one?????

 

Soonerfan has a HK and likes it, send him a PM.

 

I had a hard time deciding what to do about my ipod situation. I went through wanting the harman kardon and everything else, evening going so low as to simply settle on a fm transmitter.

Anyway, last week I finally decided on getting a new head unit altogether, still waiting on the dash kit (hopefully I'll get it today), going to try to install it this weekend.

Honestly that harman kardon is pretty expensive when you think about it, isn't it more than $300? For that price you could just get a new head unit.

BTW, thats cool that you're in broken arrow, looks like we might be getting some snow tomorrow and sever storms today.

 

http://www.harmankardon.com/drive-1/default_dp1.aspx

Well, this is the Drive and Play I'm talking about. And I'm pretty sure it's the one that Sonner fan has as well. They have a new version that"s out now, I believe. But this model is only $43 at Best Buy.

Yeah, I've also been kicking the idea around of buying a new deck, just haven't decided yet, especially with the Bose setup.

Oh, and I hate snow.

 

I have used the drive and play, without the adapter, just out the box, for quite some time, and I guess here's my mini review of it....

In different cars I've had different experiences (Mustang, Camry, Diamante, Accord, But no Max. BUT! I did use a FM xmitter in the A34 which didn't work out to well had to hold it at awkward angles but I didn't have the stock bose HU if that makes any diff).... For using the FM xmitter that comes with the D&P I do have some gripes and complaints using it in my hometown of Houston, TX, outside the city where I live it works great, very little distortion, but when I get inside the city (inside of BW8) there's ALLOT more radio stations and it gets pretty darn hard to listen to it, in my car I had two stations set, one for outside the city and one for inside the city. Seeing that you live in Tulsa I dont think you'll have anywhere near as much trouble as I've had with it in the big city. Matter fact the most I've enjoyed the D&P is on my couple of road trips to Manhattan, KS, that's where it really shined, I think we found a station like 107.1 or something on the high end there and just stuck with it the whole time (once we left Houston, but had to Change in Dallas, but after that we were fine). I don't know how big Tulsa is, but I didn't have a problem with interference or static driving through OKC/Norman. Overall I'd reccomend this to you, especially since you don't live in a city like Houston, Dallas, etc...

Now onto the usage part.... It works great, I have 10k+ Songs tho, playlist are my friends..... Even though the scrolling works pretty good considering you can't skip to certain letters like on the iPod

side note, i got mine new off of ebay for $20.....

 

You can direct connect with the drive and play, I did it in mine.

Great sound quality, easy to see the screen and what song you want.

Mine just recently broke though (i used mine heavily). Also, I think that the extreme cold this winter killed the boards in the logic unit (which is also the screen).

I saw them a while back at Marshalls for $20. I should have picked one up then, now I can't find any

 

Were you able to connect yours directly with the parts included or did you have to purchase something additionaly.

 

IIRC, it came with everything. If anything, I bought a couple feet of 3.5mm wire from radioshack for like $4.

In my situation, I had an aftermarket HU with an "aux in" (3.5mm jack).

So it went:

iPod -> HK DP1US -> back of HU input

 

What year is your max? The USA spec won't work on the 02-03's b/c of the in-dash cd-changer . I have the usaspec in my 01 and it works like a charm. Never had a problem with it. I guess you know which one I would recommend, if it will work in your car.

 

00 SE Maxima. So I shouldn't have a problem with either.

 

I'd go with the usaspec then. Here's a pic of where I routed the cable:



I just drilled a hole in the back of the cup holder and ran the dock connector cable through there.

It works wonderfully and you can keep your iPod in an easy to reach location and hidden at the same time.