TheMAN
12-15-2006, 04:30 PM
I got sick of burning CDs for the car and the amount of CDs I have in the door pockets, glovebox, and inside the center console was just disgusting...
I didn't want to get an aftermarket headunit (that could handle an ipod or mp3 cds) either because it screams "steal me!" not to mention I hate the lack of ergonomics many aftermarket headunits offer and I've been very pleased with the stock system my car has so far (the only upgrades I'd consider would be speakers)... and besides, I don't care much more than that as far as sound because I care more about performance than this weight adding garbage
now that the mazda ipod adapter has been out for the past few months, it finally was a viable means to discreetly listen to mp3s in the car... so I went ahead and picked up a refurbished 4th gen 20 gig ipod color (I'm not paying the extortion prices on a brand new unit!) and then the mazda ipod adapter
as some of you may have been aware already, it basically fools the stock radio into thinking there's an external CD changer and acts accordingly... in otherwords, NO song information is displayed, and navigation is extremely difficult
the ipod adapter plugs into the back of all the facelift BJ stock radios (except for the kenwood units that come on the MP3 and MSP), however it is not officially supported by mazda (more below)... an evidence of that is the lack of any installation manuals for the BJ or mentioning of the car... so as far as installation goes, there's a small space perfect for the adapter box located next to the radio between the glovebox and where the radio would go.... I padded the adapter box with the supplied foam pads and ziptied it onto the dashboard frame in that area... the adapter box can be seen if you removed the glovebox and look up in that top corner area, but it's still invisible and away from all the other things in the dashboard that could potentially hit it
all functions work as advertised and the sound quality is supurb... better in some cases than converting MP3s to audio CDs on your computer and listening to the burned CDs in the car most likely due to better DACs in the ipod, floating point or 32-bit codecs (CDs are only limited to 16-bit afterall), and/or audio post processing... sound quality will definately be better than using the headphones output on the ipod as the audio output from the dock connector is unamplified... switching tracks is a little slow as the radio has to tell the "cd changer" (the ipod adapter box) that it wants to change tracks, and then the box will tell the ipod to change tracks... even slower when "changing discs"... patience is needed to switch tracks
the only issue that's apparent with the older mazda radios (what the BJ has is considered "older" in comparison to what's currently in the new mazdas) is the lack of display size... on all of the newer mazdas, putting the radio into external CD changer mode (what the ipod adapter does) will display the disc number and track number, and then the elapsed time of the track... this is not possible with the older mazda radios despite the same internal archetecture (hence why the adpater works with the older radios)... you can only display one or the other, and will always display disc-track unless you press the fast forward or rewind buttons which will display the track time as you hold the button
ok, no big deal about the display right? wrong! it is very important to have the elapsed time displayed simultaneously as the disc-track info because it is needed for changing playback modes! when changing between playback modes, a code is supposed to be displayed (momentarily) in the elapsed time telling you what playback mode it is in, for example playlist mode will be 1'00"... but on the older mazda radios as I've said, only the disc-track info is displayed, so when switching modes, there's no way for you to know what mode it switched to! in otherwords, you'll have to know the first song of each different playback mode (6 in all) so that you can switch modes blindly.... hence why it is not officially supported in the BJ!
WHAT A PAIN IN THE ASS!
as I've said, it's not a problem at all if you own a mazda3 or any other newer mazda as the display is larger and will display all of that shit at the same time... but regardless of which mazda it is used on, NO song info will be displayed and there is NO navigation menu for you to directly select tracks like you would if you were using the ipod standalone
to sum it up, whichever car you use the ipod adapter on, it's a quick little dirty hack mazda made to let you use the ipod and halfass control it with your stock radio, it is very limited and is difficult to use... setting it in playlist mode or album mode and just leaving it there is what I'd recommend so that it'll at least act like a normal CD changer... that there is livable... it won't ever be as usable as any of the aftermarket adapters out there, such as the harmon kardon... the downside to those aftermarket adapters is most of them make use of FM modulators (either inline with the antenna wire or directly broadcasting from a small transmitter) which reduces sound quality, and having to attach things to the interior which maybe undesirable as far as aesthetics or attracting theives
the mazda ipod adapter is for you if you don't care about all these shortcomings and ultimately, want something stealth... no one will ever give a second thought that my glovebox has an ipod inside! no one will ever care about the ugly stock radio either!
I didn't want to get an aftermarket headunit (that could handle an ipod or mp3 cds) either because it screams "steal me!" not to mention I hate the lack of ergonomics many aftermarket headunits offer and I've been very pleased with the stock system my car has so far (the only upgrades I'd consider would be speakers)... and besides, I don't care much more than that as far as sound because I care more about performance than this weight adding garbage
now that the mazda ipod adapter has been out for the past few months, it finally was a viable means to discreetly listen to mp3s in the car... so I went ahead and picked up a refurbished 4th gen 20 gig ipod color (I'm not paying the extortion prices on a brand new unit!) and then the mazda ipod adapter
as some of you may have been aware already, it basically fools the stock radio into thinking there's an external CD changer and acts accordingly... in otherwords, NO song information is displayed, and navigation is extremely difficult
the ipod adapter plugs into the back of all the facelift BJ stock radios (except for the kenwood units that come on the MP3 and MSP), however it is not officially supported by mazda (more below)... an evidence of that is the lack of any installation manuals for the BJ or mentioning of the car... so as far as installation goes, there's a small space perfect for the adapter box located next to the radio between the glovebox and where the radio would go.... I padded the adapter box with the supplied foam pads and ziptied it onto the dashboard frame in that area... the adapter box can be seen if you removed the glovebox and look up in that top corner area, but it's still invisible and away from all the other things in the dashboard that could potentially hit it
all functions work as advertised and the sound quality is supurb... better in some cases than converting MP3s to audio CDs on your computer and listening to the burned CDs in the car most likely due to better DACs in the ipod, floating point or 32-bit codecs (CDs are only limited to 16-bit afterall), and/or audio post processing... sound quality will definately be better than using the headphones output on the ipod as the audio output from the dock connector is unamplified... switching tracks is a little slow as the radio has to tell the "cd changer" (the ipod adapter box) that it wants to change tracks, and then the box will tell the ipod to change tracks... even slower when "changing discs"... patience is needed to switch tracks
the only issue that's apparent with the older mazda radios (what the BJ has is considered "older" in comparison to what's currently in the new mazdas) is the lack of display size... on all of the newer mazdas, putting the radio into external CD changer mode (what the ipod adapter does) will display the disc number and track number, and then the elapsed time of the track... this is not possible with the older mazda radios despite the same internal archetecture (hence why the adpater works with the older radios)... you can only display one or the other, and will always display disc-track unless you press the fast forward or rewind buttons which will display the track time as you hold the button
ok, no big deal about the display right? wrong! it is very important to have the elapsed time displayed simultaneously as the disc-track info because it is needed for changing playback modes! when changing between playback modes, a code is supposed to be displayed (momentarily) in the elapsed time telling you what playback mode it is in, for example playlist mode will be 1'00"... but on the older mazda radios as I've said, only the disc-track info is displayed, so when switching modes, there's no way for you to know what mode it switched to! in otherwords, you'll have to know the first song of each different playback mode (6 in all) so that you can switch modes blindly.... hence why it is not officially supported in the BJ!
WHAT A PAIN IN THE ASS!
as I've said, it's not a problem at all if you own a mazda3 or any other newer mazda as the display is larger and will display all of that shit at the same time... but regardless of which mazda it is used on, NO song info will be displayed and there is NO navigation menu for you to directly select tracks like you would if you were using the ipod standalone
to sum it up, whichever car you use the ipod adapter on, it's a quick little dirty hack mazda made to let you use the ipod and halfass control it with your stock radio, it is very limited and is difficult to use... setting it in playlist mode or album mode and just leaving it there is what I'd recommend so that it'll at least act like a normal CD changer... that there is livable... it won't ever be as usable as any of the aftermarket adapters out there, such as the harmon kardon... the downside to those aftermarket adapters is most of them make use of FM modulators (either inline with the antenna wire or directly broadcasting from a small transmitter) which reduces sound quality, and having to attach things to the interior which maybe undesirable as far as aesthetics or attracting theives
the mazda ipod adapter is for you if you don't care about all these shortcomings and ultimately, want something stealth... no one will ever give a second thought that my glovebox has an ipod inside! no one will ever care about the ugly stock radio either!