BigJim

Hi,

I am new to this forum having browsed posts for a few months now. I had a 320 CDI delivered a few weeks ago with the IPOD kit and had something to add to this thread.

It was made clear to me from the start that the IPOD could not be controlled through the COMMAND system. Apart from that it works very well: I can play songs from any artist, album, playlist, genre etc etc. You can even randomly play (called shuffle) from most of these. My only gripe is I can't seem to shuffle a play list. As for it taking a long time if you press and hold the arrow keys it goes quite quickly through the list. What would be cool would be to link the IPOD with linguatronic!

My kids listen to book tapes on long trips (say 9 hours interstate) and the IPOD is the ONLY way to do this easily. I have currently about 30 book tapes on the IPOD and subscribe to audible.com for regular additions.

IMAO most of the problems that people are having, with IPOD and other things, are more related to having a bad dealer than anything to do with MB. If you are having trouble I would suggest going to a different dealer. My local dealer is excellent having fixed everything that I have thrown at them for many years now. They have even fixed problems caused by third parties at no charge (such as the wiring for an overhead DVD player effecting the head airbag on the drivers side).

Anyway good luck with the foreign languages, I only need english and it works perfectly.

ezwinner701

if you dont have the ipod kit, what other options do you have to use the ipod?

jcr22042

Buy the Belkin TuneDock, which fits in the cupholder and has a "arm" which holds the ipod, nicely angled towards the driver. Connect the ipod to the aux input, and you have great sound quality, the ipod is easy to see and use, and you still have the other cupholder for drinks. By the way, the cord fits perfectly in the gap of center console/dash over to the glove compartment and is barely visable, the door of the glove compartment stays closed, and any slack in the cord can be tucked in the map pocket below the glove compartment.

mhaskelo

how did glove compartment close with wire? mine wouldn'tclose???

jcr22042

It closes fine--maybe your cable was thicker? I just used a standard $5 cable, not a fancy $20 one that tends to be thicker.

ezwinner701

ok sorry for asking this. i just got the ipod nano now, what kind of cable do i need to buy to hook it up to my ML?

thanks

jcr22042

if you just want to plug it in the aux input (in glove box), all you need is a stnd cable that has a mini-headphone jack on both ends. If you want to have full functionality using your steering wheel controls, you'll need the dealer-installed kit.

juank350

Today I just bought the harman kardon drive + play...that thing is awsome..I prefer the HK system than the ipod integration kit and is three times less expensive. Sound quality connected through the aux input is great..sounds just like any cd.

mhaskelo

JCR....great idea....got "thin wire", plugged it into accessory jack. Glove compartment closes and hooked to Belkin cup holder. Very nice and no reception problems as i had w/ radio transmitter. Can't really see wire.Gotta love these forums!!THANKS!!!

chinhster

When I first read this, I thought you meant you couldn't shuffle between playlists which I thought was a strange thing to say since you can't do it on the iPod either. I just got the iPod integration kit last week (thanks to Sunil Patel who did a great job and when he says it takes only an hour, it really only takes an hour) and now realize what you're saying--you can't shuffle songs within a playlist. It's extremely annoying. Selecting Shuffle Songs is not the same as putting the iPod in shuffle mode but rather sets the playlist to your library and shuffles all the songs.

The only other gripe (for now) I can think of is that I can hear a little whine during the quieter parts of the music and the few seconds before a song plays. I haven't tested it to see if it happens when the engine is off but I don't remember hearing it when we tested it out after the kit was installed (the engine was off). Oddly enough, it doesn't happen all the time but maybe 75% of the time which is enough. I'm going to try another iPod later to see if it's just my iPod.

chinhster

I figured out where the whine is coming from. It happens when the harddrive spins up. I tend to skip tracks a lot and doing so causes the harddrive to spin up more than usual. That's why I was only hearing the whine between songs and not every time (I thought I was hearing it during quiet parts of the music but that wasn't true). It only lasts for a few seconds and then goes away.

I figured out how to get around the lack of song shuffling within a playlist. Don't use the iPod. I burned the mp3's from my playlist onto a CD and just switch to the changer when I want to hear a specific playlist and switch back to the iPod when I want to listen to the rest of my collection.

So is the iPod integration kit worth the money? Not if you already have the CD/mp3 changer since the changer and the single disc player gives you access to 4+ gigs of music. If it was integrated with COMAND (and MB replaced the crappy joystick with something usable), it would be. But until it is, I'd hold off on getting one. I only got it because I like having access to all of my music at any time and have installed an iPod in every vehicle I've owned since my first iPod.

chinhster

Here's another annoying thing about the iPod integration. On the steering wheel, pressing the down arrow selects the next track, pressing the up arrow selects the previous track. This is the complete opposite of the CD controls. That's just plain idiotic. Is the integration kit firmware upgradeable?

ahm

Look at this thread: https://mbworld.org/forums/audio-electronics/121670-i-pod-kit-idiosyncrasies.html

I was also puzzled by MB's choice, but now I just imagine that the songs' list is in paper. To go to the previous song, which is up in the list, I must press the UP ARROW.

mtan8

I have the ipod integration kit in my 06 Ml 350 and I haven't had any problems with it. I'm using the old ipod with click wheel and it sounds great with the HK system.

With changing to the next track I just see it like its on iTunes ( you have to scroll down for the next song ). Might be a Mac thing not MB.