Has anyone installed one of these? It seems like the best way to get MP3's into the MINI.

Phatnoise MP3 Player

It seems to be plug and play with the MINIs OEM headunit and is suposed to work with the MFSW.

Just curious if anyone has actually tried it, or has any experience with the product.

 

It's just a Blitzsafe adapter plugged into the CD changer plug in the boot. Nothing special about Phatnoise. It's just the MP3 player.

R

 

If there's nothing special about it, are there other mp3 players that will work with the MFSW, and display through the stock head unit? I'm looking for a hard-disk mp3 player, not a cd player that will play mp3's.

 

Davbret,
I am sorry to disagree but ...
I am thinking about getting a Phatbox, so I don't have exact knowledge but lots of reading.
The cool thing about the Phatbox is that it uses the 1...6 buttons on the HU to control how you select tracks to listen to - by style/artist/album/etc - then it SPEAKS the track details to you. You use the up/down buttons to step between tracks according to the currently selected mode ... so you might be stepping through tracks on a single album, or all tracks by an artist, or all tracks of a certain "genre" or all tracks in a specific playlist (which you set up by PC when the data was written).

The other big difference of course is the price and availability ... which is why I am still only thinking about getting one!

 

I've been watching the Phatbox for a while now. I say "watching" because they have been out of stock for three months for the BMW/Mini. :smile:

 

I am very close to getting a Phatbox. I have been doing some upgrades to my PC (80gb hd and USB 2.0) so that I have no reason not to get it when they are available. I even downloaded the music manager and am currently ripping all my CD's. The only remaining hurdles are that I'm going to be out of town the week they come out, so if demand is high, I might just miss out. The other obstical is the spousal hurdle - I'm working that one.

I still am struggling a bit with the expense, but it is so cool and the new ones they've announced sound somewhat better than the last batch. There is just not anything else out there that seems to touch it from a techology and integration point of view.

I'll let you know if I do get it.

Don.

 

I think for the price of the unit $859 USD I would put my money to another use. You could easily upgrade your headunit and speakers along with maybe an intake for that type of cash.

Mahalo

 

Sorry to be dense about this, but are you guys saying that the Phatbox will work with the controls on the steering wheel of the Mini?

The pix are kinda strange on the site, but it looks like there is a mounting plate that goes inside the storage space in the boot. Is that about right. I think that this is a great concept. I really like my portable Mp3 player and would love to have one in the car.

 

Hey Kevin, a new HU isn't really going to get my music collection in the car. For much lower cost, I could get a jukebox that is wired in as an accessory, but then I need the box in my hand to control it - probably not the best thing when driving. I guess I could go with the Music Keg, but I don't think the user interface is as good as the voice prompted interface (SSA I think they call it) and I don't know if I can use the steering wheel controls. The Sony HU with the build in hard drive cost more than the phatbox and you need to sit in the car to rip your music (although I would get to spend more time in my MINI).

I think one of the big issues when you have the ability to have so much music is to be able to easily listen to what you want. We're talking about 100's of CD's of music. Between playlists and the other pre-defined music selection methods (Artist, Genre, etc), combined with the rather clever use of the HU disc select buttons and the voice prompting, I think you have a pretty good user interface. The phatbox is almost exactly what I want, except it would be even cooler if it had a Wi-Fi in it so I could just push my music from my computer to the car sitting in the driveway.

 

I just installed the PhatBox. Will do a write-up next week with pics and all but basically, I used the Kenwood Keg 710 with a Ventura Technologies interface. No SSA but otherwise, it's the real PhatBox and integrates completely with the stock radio (no text) for under $500. Oh, and it fits *inside* the cubby. :smile: :smile: :smile:

 

Vespa - can you post a pic (or email me) of your phatbox installation?
I want to see how/where it sits...

many thanks

 

I have had one installed for quite some time, it's really a good system fully integrated into the HU uses speech technology to announce title, artist and album. Phatnoise box is a UNIX based computer that has one major function and that is to be a media manager.
All I can say is that with my 20GB cartridge only half full I have enough tracks loaded so that I never have to hear the same track on my long drives from NY to Florida with full control from the MFSW

 

Sorry - I should have been more succint; I have a Phatbox LE - took it out of my other car and have updated the firmware back to the BMW version. I just wanted to see it mounted in the back of somone's mini so that I can see how its done.

cheers - Surj.