When I bought my 325, it did not have a CD changer in the trunk, relegating me to a single CD at a time through the in dash player. This was a little bit of a shock to the system as my previous car, a Lexus GS 300, had a 12 disc changer - not to mention a kick-ass tape deck for all my Def Leppard cassettes. That tape player, however antiquated, did provide an avenue for me to pipe in tunes from my iPod though. Now what do I do?This is where DICE comes in. An iPod interface for BMW is not exactly new. BMW offers an OEM unit for the E46 and has for some time. While functional, it is a pretty inflexible design limiting you to five playlists with no display information other than the fact that you are listening to track 157 on CD (playlist) 2. DICE, on the other hand, allows full control of the iPod and scrolls id3 tag information across the screen (the "Flaming" part of "Flaming Lips" can be seen in the picture below). Very nice. You can also "browse" through playlists and albums as well as songs. This includes songs within the selected playlist or album. You do this navigation via the radio controls and preset buttons or through the multi-function steering wheel. Be warned though - "browse" is in clever quotes because you can move around but not via any textual means: you have to know that 'My Top Rated' playlist is the 11th playlist on your iPod. This small shortcoming is somewhat mitigated by the fact that you still have full control of the iPod - assuming it is close at hand. More on that in a minute.
So how was installation? I did it all myself and it was fairly easy if you are comfortable with simple hand tools and have some knowledge/patience with the myriad of trim clips that auto manufacturers use to hold everything together. Fortunately BMW uses very well-designed clips that do not self destruct when you dissemble. The unit plugs into the wiring harness for the CD changer (all US cars were pre-wired) that hides behind the trunk trim. I then routed the cable up underneath the seat, which required rear seat removal, and up along the sill trim to the front passenger foot-well. From there I took out the glove-box assembly and routed the cables and "brain box" behind, ending with a dock cable that comes
out inside the glovebox. Once everything is back together, you cannot even tell it exists and it all looks very clean. As a bonus, the iPod is relatively accessible to the driver if you need to find an artist or playlist, but I would not recommend doing it at speed. This might all sound daunting but it only took about an hour or so and cost a couple PBRs.What are my impressions? Well, I can hardly fault the sound quality. If your original rips are good or they were purchased from iTunes, it is hard to tell the difference from CD. Yeah yeah, I know - the quality is technically not as good. You are also technically not in a concert hall and even the "premium" Harman Kardon sound system is technically mediocre at best. Get over it. The convenience and cool-factor outweigh the shortcomings of a compressed digital music format. I simply love the fact that I have about 10GB (my current iPod capacity) at my fingertips. Jazz? Sure we can listen to that. The Shins? Got that too. Richard Cheese's lounge singer rendition of "Down with the Sickness" or "Creep": check - just a click or two away. There are a couple faults though. I have a 3G iPod (with the four horizontal touch buttons) which has some compatibility issues. If you change to the radio or that single cd for old times sake, the iPod does not pause. Furthermore, when you start the car it reinitializes each time. These issues went away when I plugged in my sister's 4G. Additionally, the faux-browsing is a little annoying and the advertising is a little misleading. There are rumors of a firmware upgrade to add features, but I am not sure how logistically feasible that is, unless you can pump the software in via the iPod (I am sure not interested in taking the car apart again to ship it somewhere). Finally, there has been reports of weird noise and interference one some units, but I my suspicion is that the installs were FUBAR or the wiring was already molested.
In summary, the DICE unit is a great purchase and I would even ditch a changer for it. Install is painless and the result met expectations. I recommend buying the unit from European Auto Source. Tom has provided a tremendous level of support and is very knowledgeable, and I know he goes out of his way to help people and make things right. Buy DICE and you will not be dissapointed.
