E46 USB Audio

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I have a 2001 E46 with cd changer and cd nav and am fed up of burning cd's to listen to music as they only hold around 10 songs each.

I don't have an ipod so what is the best way to perhaps plug a USB drive into the system to play mp3's and use the steering wheel to control song selection?

So far I have only read about the GROM solution - is this the best route to follow?

Any other USB solutions out there? Not looking to break teh bank, just want to plug in USB drive - if it means losing the cd changer then that's ok
 
Only September 05 onwards CD Changers do mp3.

There is no easy and efficient way to get what you want. The best way is to use an Intravee with an Alpine AInet adaptor to give you complete ipod integration with the whole thing controlled via the head unit. There are, however, two snags involved in this:

a) The single line business display on an 01 E46 is terrible and barely shows any text making control hard
b) Intravee's use hard to get AInet stuff, so there is a setup cost of £200-£250 + iPod.

The easiest thing to do is to retrofit an MP3 CD changer. Any E46/E53/E39 changer with a production date of September 05 or later will read MP3 CD's but you wont get track names etc.
 
I just noticed you said you had nav?

Definately 100% get an intravee. It will be worth every penny of the considerable cost. You will get FULL ipod integration with track and album names on your nav screen. It'll look completely OEM and you can control the entire Ipod from your nav system as well as the steering wheel buttons. You can even customise what some of the steering wheel buttons do.

I have a button on my steering wheel that just loads a specific playlist :)
 
Thanks Fox - I was hoping you would respond :)

As I say, Intravee is a little too expensive for me and a bit overkill, I was hoping for something simple that perhaps uses the cd changer connection, in which a usb drive plugs into. Would be very convenient to just use my existing 8gig drive - plug it in the boot and from the nav/steering controls choose a playlist and go.

The GROM thing seems to be ok from what I have seen on youtube - busy reading up about it some more
 
Its not that expensive really - 200 quid for perfect integration? It's the price of a rear tyre for the best integration you can get! I wouldnt recommend any of the other half way house solutions. Intravee is perfect - you control everything as if its OEM. It's just great.
 
I know what you mean, but I have an impending service in december which I'm saving up for and imo it's a lot of money to correct, a now, archaic 2001 sound system. If I had a newer car then yes but atm I have other concerns.

This GROM thing doesn't look too bad though, not OEM but seems to be doing exactly what I want

 
You have got to be joking? That looks absolutely terrible, the display still shows it as being a CD changer, how are you supposed to navigate around that!?

I'd rather not bother at all than fit that to save some money.
 
Just do it properly then you can have hundreds of albums and custom playlists etc etc and easily jump to whatever one you wanted using a proper menu system :(

Its not even cheap, thats going to cost you about £100 by the time you've got it here! Surely its worth the extra for the Intravee, its so much better!
 
What about the Alpine CD Changer CHA-S634 (think it plays mp3 and accepts CD-RW) with an Intravee II as a cheaper middle ground solution?

I really don't want an ipod and have to deal with itunes so an mp3 cd changer with text is ideal?
 
If you are going to get an Intravee, get an ipod. Seriously.

I hate Apple, but its the best way.

My 60Gb Ipod cost me £15 because the screen is broken and non functional. I use Winamp to load music onto it, and it sits in my boot for all of its life.

Perfect. It stops being an ipod and is pretty much like having a 60gb HDD in the boot.
 
oh didn't knwo you could use winamp to load tunes onto an ipod, is it quite straight forward? and what generation ipod do you have Fox?

So Intravee replaces CD Changer > this plugs into an IPOD interface > and the Ipod plugs into this interface and that's it? So need 3 bits of hardware?
 
Yes its very straight forward. Think mine is a 4th or 5th gen?

Intravee replaces the CD changer, the ipod plugs into a KCA-420i, the KCA-420i plugs into the ipod.

Yes 3 bits of hardware :)

The new Intravee firmware allows you to see all sorts of info about your car as well, including the distance objects are from your PDC sensors, coolant temp, etc etc
 
[Corsa]Fox;17833393 said:
The easiest thing to do is to retrofit an MP3 CD changer. Any E46/E53/E39 changer with a production date of September 05 or later will read MP3 CD's but you wont get track names etc.

I didn't know you could do that?! Is it just a case of changing the CD changer & cartridge? Or does the HU need updating too?

(Sorry for the slight thread hijack!)
 
I didn't know you could do that?! Is it just a case of changing the CD changer & cartridge? Or does the HU need updating too?

(Sorry for the slight thread hijack!)

Nope, just change the CD changer.

It doesnt recognise folders - it just plays all the music, so if you've got 139 tracks you get tracks 1-99 displayed on the display and then it sits at 99 as it plays 100, 101, etc etc, but hey, its better than nothing.
 
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