I just paid a deposit on an '05 S Convertible with HK and single in-dash CD head unit and the factory/dealer Ipod adapter (which I did not actually see).

As I have a huge cassette collection...


Here are my questions:

If I pick up a factory/used head unit with cassette:

A: will it still feed to the ipod adapter?
B: will it interface with a CD changer?
C: if so, what is the pin configuration? Maybe I can use my extant Denon 10 disc changer which interfaces with a Sony head unit.

Fundamentally, I want the use of the three sources (plus radio), with the least hassle, expense, and deviation from stock. My present car has enough audio gear in it to fill a fridge, but it has never all worked at once for long or sounded clean. Thanks in advance. Carl

 

why not just spend your evenings converting your cassette tapes
to aac files and listen to it through your ipod? your present car doesnt
sound clean because you are also using cassette tapes.

im a nakamichi user so i know how some cassette decks can sound... but
it's 2007 and it might be a good time to start converting to data files to
archive your old collection.

 

or, what I did was pick up a Sony auto-reverse walkman and have it set to play one side, flip to other side and then stop when gets to the end of side 2.....this way if I forget to shut it off when I leave the car it won't run out the AAA battery as I have to remember to manually reach into my parcel shelf to shut it off......I have it plugged in to the aux input.....but usually my ipod is plugged into the aux input so rarely listen to my cassettes....sound quality: well, the cassettes were never od 'CD quality' anyway....

if the MINI ipod adapter has an aux input, then you could plug the cassette walkman into that.......you could also follow Kenchan's advice and convert the cassettes into your ipod or onto a CD as mp3's as I think your head unit will recognize the mp3 format so you could make a few mp3 CD's if ipod space is at a premium

 

As I have about 1200 cassettes, I really want an in-dash solution. As far as conversions to .AAC or .wav, the gain is questionable to me sonically, and the pain is absurd. The poor sound quality I've been experiencing in my present car is not due to the inherent limitatons of cassettes; it's ground hums and ignition whines (on all sources) which I've paid a sucession of "pros" good money to (unsuccessfully) banish. My cassettes sound fine enough to my concert-damaged ears in my home, my wife's car and elsewhere. Can anyone shed light on my original question? Thanks!

 

Your first problem is HK... This minimizes your ability to actually change speakes and HU without additional items like the HKEnabler.

However, you should be able to find a OEM Cassette HU on Ebay or MINI2 with few problems. In fact I bet someone would be willing to trade and with the OEM 6 pack, that should cover the CD and Casette side. Any OEM radio will function with HK.

The Ipod is a different story. I don't know about DICE, but I do know that the Gateway 400 will allow CD changer and Ipod as it is a switch.

This will allow you to keep the boot cd changer giving all of the items that you want and mataining that OEM look and feel.

 

The HU is no different with HK, only the amp and speaker count. Keep in mind you will lose iPod text capabilities going this route.

 

That was what I meant, thanks for clearing that up.

The point is that the HK system is not really compatable with outside components without a little help like the HKenabler.

 

I seem to be heading mentally down the path suggested by Daflake, but the Gateway says it is not compatible with Nav. Anyone know anything about this? Also, someone on eBay UK is offering a WAVE HU from an '04. Will it definitely swap in for my BOOST? Should I go for it? CArl

 

Wave will not Swap for Boost directly. The pins are different (round instead of flat).

My advice on this matter is to contact Mikey at NewMINIStuff.com and speak to him about what you are trying to achieve. The reason that I say this is Mikey is in the market that generally deals with these different types of radios regularly.

Another route you can think about is buying a cassette walkman and using the AUX port to listen to it. More of a pain, but it would work.

As for the gateway, what he means is that you can't use the text feature if you have Nav. The reason is that they are using the phone text channel to pump the text and when you turn it on, it overrides the map on your nav. The Gateway will work as an option for you. (there is no text/IPOD solution for the MINI with Nav).

P.S. I would normally point you towards Tom (EAS), but I don't know if he has dealt with a Wave before as it is not a US option.

 

hello, i recently picked up an 03mcs with hk... will an mp3 cd work in that? i got about 32gb of music and hate ipod so that will never be an option. as for you downloaders use shareaza... its free..