kenwood HU + ipod

[xenergyx]

I just got a Kenwood KDC-MP628 headunit with the added $100 iPod interface connecter for my iPod.... (pic in sig)

Its perfect for this car, since the stereo is low, and the faceplate is tiltable... Without the tilt you wouldn't be able to see the whole screen...

Its kinda tricky to use my iPod with it though though... Near impossible to find one song out of 3000...

I was wondering if anyone else had a similar setup...
I'm talking about the interface built by just about every brand of stereo, made for a compatible unit of that brand only, not the mp3yourcar.com version.

How has your's worked out for you?
Does it treat your iPod just like a CD changer and scroll though disc and track numbers before loading names?
Or when you scroll through do you view artist or album or playlist names as you scroll, like you would on the iPod?


Anyways... I got it yesterday, wired everything myself. I installed a new, shorter, ground cable to avoid the ground loop problem I had with the OEM HU. Used a Metra pocket kit for the ISO mount in my dash.

I have to pull up my center console to finish running the wire from the conversion box under the dash into the center console compartment...

I also have to replace the stock speaker wire so I will be taking out the back deck and routing out a new one since I broke the 16 year old stock deck tightening down my back speakers...


The back speakers are Jensen 50w 2 way 6x9's.



The front speakers are Audiovox 50w 3 way 6's (supposedly with built in crossovers)



I wish I could have gotten an amp, but the cheaper headunit I wanted was out of stock, and I wouldn't have had enough money for the wiring anyways...

Some words of advice to anyone else who may get the setup I did.... I wish I would have just got the highest model amp, and just hooked my iPod up with RCAs, because the higher model amp has a lot of really nice features and I would have retained better control of my iPod with pretty much the same level of audio quality...

Think twice and try to check out headunit you want to buy with the ipod interface attached and your ipod hooked up... if the navigation is crappy, I'd spring for a nicer HU and RCAs...

If I'm lucky, by the end of tomorrow I will have all my wires run through my car and hidden as well as my back speakers on a new, plain piece of board, deck....




Then I will continue to have fiberglass dreams of the kickpods and back deck I want to build...





Here's a 3D rendered model of the basic concept of what I want my back deck to look like (only with the Jensen 6x9s)...
The base and rings would be MDF (anyone know how to cut an oval in MDF with a router?) and I would fiberglass from all sides of the deck up to the rings in hopes of getting a parabolic curve (unlike the flat slope in the 3D model)...

I'm definitely going to tackle the kickpods first, as the back deck will be more costly and time consuming...

Just gotta find some MDF... All I can find in my city is 'hardboard' and 'fiberboard', but they both seem different than MDF...

[cam2Xrunner]

MDF means Medium Density Fiberboard In case you didn't know, and the wood that you are using is MDF.

[xenergyx]

Well yes I knew that... But like I said, this stuff seems different than stuff labeled 'MDF'...
Seems to be more crumbley and flakey than MDF...

The stuff in the pic is also darker in color than MDF and seems to be made of recycled cardboard rather than wood fibers... I know, recycled cardboard is still wood fibers, but it seems a lot weaker being processed twice...

The stuff in the pic was called 'fiberboard' and at the other end of town is a identically sized sheet of 'hardboard' that is much closer to MDF in color and it is stronger than this stuff...

[EKam]

Interesting, I guess it is also a much cheaper alternative than the Music Keg offered by Kenwood.

[xenergyx]

Yup.. A 20 gig iPod is about 1/2 the cost of the keg; combined with the interface, HU, and taxes and its still cheapers than the MSRP of the 20 gig Keg...



Since pictures speak 1000 words, here's 'hardboard' on the left and 'fiberboard' on the right.





The 'hardboard' is indeed MDF, and $1.29 cheaper than the same sized sheet of weaker 'fiberboard'. Too bad it only comes in 1/4" though....

I got everything done today that I wanted too, but it took forever...

It was the first time I've taken off the center console... there was a ton of dog hair, nickels, and dimes between it and both seats, as well as more junk inside the console... I vacuumed the whole car out and that new car smell came right back...

In the picture, the iPod interface is circled... Thats where I put it first, but now its at the back of the center console under the ashtray.. The wire goes though to the center console, coming out at the bolt at the bottom of the picture, then goes up into the console's compartment...











I ran wire for the back speakers along the floor up to the back deck, which I replaced with 1/4" MDF...

The MDF is pretty much held in place just by the windsheild and tops of the seats, but since my speakers are attached to the trunk, they help pull the deck down to hold it in place....

The speakers are now held firmly in place and are slightly higher up...

To keep the magnets from hitting the trunk lid release bars, I hacked up the plastic OEM speaker covers to give the speakers more lift over the bars...

You can see 2 black dots... thats where the stock holes are, so I will bolt through those in my final design...





The board wasn't quite wide enough but it worked out fine as it would have been diffictult to get in if it were the same size as the old deck...

I wish I covered it, I might be able to salvage the material from the old deck so I wont have to worry about cutting anything, but I was just trying to finish after working so long...



Think: kickpods...






.

[no2faber]

yeah i'm very curious about the navigability (if there's such a word) for these new ipod ready aftermarket HU's. i think the ipod itself doesn't have a very good system for finding a song in a list of 3000. i think it'll be even harder through a HU, even if it's ipod ready. i'm wondering if it's worth the $100 or if i'm better off waiting for a better mp3 player that can better be adapted to a car stereo.
MDF should be at any Home Depot, at least that's where i got mine.

[xenergyx]

If your asking if its worth the $100 to get the iPod interface, then no I would say it isn't...

If you think its hard enough on the iPod to find a song you probably wouldn't want to mess with controlling it through your headunit...

www.mp3yourcar.com has an interface for pretty much every headunit (OEM or aftermarket) with a CD changer input that allows you to control the iPod with it's own buttons and I believe still control it with the headunit if you so desire...

That unit, IMO, would be [kind of] worth the money since you retain the iPod's controls, But if you dont care about having your car charge your iPod and dont care about being able to control your iPod through your HU, you might as well just go with RCAs...

Even going with RCA's, you could build your own dock cable with a stereo preamp output and the ability to charge your iPod, but it would be highly technical to build one in which you could control your iPod through your HU...

If you want info on building your own charging/audio cable that plugs into your iPod's dock connector PM me and I'll tell you how to do it...

Personally, I dont think there will ever be an mp3 player with an easier system for finding a song than an iPod w/clickwheel until something comes out that has voice recognition...

PS: and yes I know they have MDF at HD, I just haven't gone up that way yet as it's not in my city... But I need gas so I'll be going up there this week... as soon as I cut my rings I'll just go to the store and buy all my supplies and get glassin'


My car is perfect for kickpods... If I make the backing of the pods the same size/shape of the kickpanels and wrap the fiberglass around the edge of the door frame just like the kickpanels are I will only need a single nut to attach the pods at the rear of the floorboard on a stock bolt...