VW is blowing out their Phatbox inventory as the new models will have built in MP3 capability. You can get them from $125-150 shipped. I got mine from buyers import which is a VW dealer. I dealt with sposes@byersimports.com REMEMBER this is a VW dealership. Just ask for a 2004 passat or such model (they are all the same.) Don't get the mounting kit.

The VW box is basically the same as a 910 music keg and comes with the cradle and a 20gb dms as well as the software and voice indexing. It does NOT have rca outputs. So you need a kenwood HU.

For it to work you WILL need to
1) Get the cable $60 shipped from pacparts
2) Buy the phatbox and reflash the firmware to a music keg (choose the 910 as that will give you the voice indexing).

I just finished and it works great. I actually bought a kenwood HU since I own a couple of nice M3 players but not an IPOD so it was cheaper to integrate this system than to buy a denison AND an Ipod.

This also uses voice indexing. I have not played with it too much but it read the name of my playlists while I was forwarding through them. With a DCI I you should (I haven't got my DCI yet. Arrrgh ) be able to go through your collection without ever having to look at the HU

M

 

So I just ordered a Keg to hook to my Kenwood HU, but it has only a 10gb cartridge and supports USB1.1. The phatbox is 20gb and supports USB 2.0, right? Perhaps I should cancel my order and get this instead.

As far as you know, can the head unit "tell the difference". Particularly, does it display the artist name and song title from the ID3 tag? I know you said it reads it aloud, but I want to make sure it displays them as well.

Thanks

 

Oh, and one more question. Where did you get the firmware update? I went to Phatnoise's website and went to the download page, but didn't see firmware.

Thanks