You can extend the wire by cutting the electrical tape of the car's SAT cable. I had to do that to alleviate stress on the Phatbox cable.

99 Supercharged Civic Si sold
03.5 DG 6MT Coupe
AIM: Ken99Si

 

Anyone have a photo of what the back of the Bose headunit looks like with the prewire cable unplugged? I wonder if the SAT "out" connection is the same as the connector on the back of the HU. It's about the same size as the sat "in" but the pins are shifted around differently.

 

I want one but there is no way I'd pay $800 for one. I could put a computer with a touch screen monitor in my car for a little more than that. Why is Kenwood able to sell the Music Keg for $350?? The only difference seems to be the cable.

 

The cable is not really a cable, it contains the interface board that talks to the head unit. Since they don't sell them in mass quantities we have to pay for the R&D for developing the interface. I totally agree it's too expensive. My original plan was to use my iPod. I liked the idea of the Dension IceLINK interface adapter. But the Nissan version of that is "hopeless" according to them, and a friend got one for his Solara and it's very, very kludgy, not to mention you have to mount the ipod itself somewhere.

I considered the carputer, but I decided the only reason I'd even want a caputer is for MP3 playback. I don't really care for in-car video. I already have stock navigation. By the time I'd be done with a carputer solution it'd be so much more than $800 worth of time and effort trying to get something that really integrates well with the car. The only thing missing from my car audio system as far as I was concerned is Mp3 playback and the Phatbox does what I want perfectly, effortlessly. So it's more money than I wanted to spend but does everything I wished the iPod interface would have done and a lot more, keeping the stock and feel that I really want.

I've used it extensively this weekend and I'm enjoying it a lot!

-- Rob

 

<blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr>

I want one but there is no way I'd pay $800 for one.

<hr></blockquote> the price tag is def a drawback...and i debated about getting this for several months. But, when you see/use one you will know where that money went. Best i can tell, phatbox is the only option for mp3's that integrates with the stock head unit seamlessly, does not use FM modulation and allows use of stock steering wheel controls.

When i compared the $800 phatbox to the price of other options like ipod, sat radio, or double din w/ an aftermarket deck, the price seemed very reasonable.


03 6MT coupe, red/willow, premium, aero, splash guards, alum pedals, clear corners, limo tint, Phatbox 40g mp3 player

 

Hey thanks for the great posts on the Phatbox, but to really get it,could you post detailed photos or even better, schematics of the "cable" interface board with the sat input plug ? If you have the pinout diagrams, etc. it would be very helpful. Since you funded part of the R&D, maybe they shared this information with you ? Do you really like how it sounds ?

 

i have no idea on the pin out of the cable, but it is about 18" long. The end that connects to the sat prewire plug has a small box about the 2 inches by 3 inches with a female connector that the sat prewire plugs into. The other end looks similiar to a flattened out computer serial plug with 2 screws on the sides of it. Just plugs into the back of the phatbox and tightens up with the 2 screws.

The sound is very good. Better than CD. Clearer, and bass is better. Much less distortion at high volumes. Phatbox suggests 192 bit rate mp3s but even the 128 ones sound better than CDs.


03 6MT coupe, red/willow, premium, aero, splash guards, alum pedals, clear corners, limo tint, Phatbox 40g mp3 player

 

The "R&D" comment was in response to the "Why is this more expensive than a Kenwood Keg if they're the same thing with a different cable". The answer is that it's not just a cable and part of the extra money we give PhatNoise is probably paying for the development of the Nissan interface. If you want specs on the G35 SAT/CD/N-BUS interface here's a great link:

http://members.rogers.com/muran0/Main.htm

I'd post pictures, but there's nothing exciting to see. There are other threads on here with pics of it. It's our familiar head unit with what looks like a small car amp with a cartridge sticking out of it. You really need to play with the interface in person to understand the beauty of the system. You can do cool things like listen to a "grunge rock" playlist/genre, and when you say, hit a song from "Stone Temple Pilots-Core", press the 3 button to switch to Album mode. It'll announce the album title. Now changing tracks will let you thumb through the other songs on that album only.

The biggest downside is seeking to a particular artist is a pain if you have tons of music. You search alphabetically but if there are 90 bands that start with M it takes a little while to find what you're looking for. That's a very minor quibble though. You can organize things in so many ways that it's a non-issue.

The randomize function on the radio works too. What's extra cool is that when you randomize, it creates an internal playlist. You won't hear the same song twice, and you can go forward/backwards through the randomized list.

The sound quality is terrific. Playing a FLAC or high bitrate MP3 file it does sound a bit better than the in-dash disc player. According to posts over on their forums they're using some kind of higher end DACs which may be part of the reason.

 

Any more updates on the beta SAT software/cable where it allows the use of the SAT button instead and displays the song titles on the head unit?

If you have the regular software, do you have to reinstall everything using the new SAT software?

 

Anyone using the SAT firmware probably can't discuss it per a beta agreement.

The Phatbox has a neat firmware/update system. After you've put the DMS cartridge in the Phatbox and turned it on once, it writes out its firmware information to the cartridge. When you put it in the cradle to sync with your computer, you can see what firmware version you have and can change options and/or upload new firmware. Then when you return the cartridge to the Phatbox it will load in the new firmware when you start the car. So no, you shouldn't need to remove the Phatbox.

I haven't bothered with the SAT/title display firmware because I really would like to get the SAT and Phatbox working together at the same time.

-- Rob