Has anyone gotten the Phatnoise system installed at the Mazda dealership? How is it?

 

IMO it is way overpriced for what it is. My 60 gig Ipod was half the price. My .02

 

I have been waiting for the Phatnoise to be available for about a year now for my 04 RX8. This past week, I got it installed for a little under $700 (after the 20% first-time buyer discount) at my local Mazda dealership.

My reasons for getting the Phatnoise (my $.02)
1) I wanted an integrated HDD music player
2) Covered under Mazda warranty
3) Has no visible wires
4) Integrated into steering wheel controls and head unit controls
5) Supports many file formats (including anything I get from allofmp3.com)
6) It was a gift, so I didn't have to drop all of the benjimans myself. I would have eventually, though.

I tried the portable music player, and I just couldn't deal with the wires, FM transmitter, etc. Since all my music is in WMAs, I couldn't use an iPod. My advice, try the portable player if you have one. A car charger and FM transmitter can be found for under $50, and for some devices you can find an all-in-one charger/cradle/FM transmitter. I know the iPod has some like that. If you don't like it and you have the dough, upgrade to the Phatnoise.

I was actually the first Phatnoise system installed at my Austin, TX dealership (Roger Beasley Mazda). The system itself was around $600 after the discount and $700 after all of the service and installation fees. The system was installed in the trunk behind the back console. The cartridge came with some default songs, which was nice so I could at least hear something working when I left the dealership.

I installed the software on my PC and uploaded my music collection (about 1700 songs) to the DMS cartridge. It took about 15-20 minutes to complete the entire load. The songs are loaded through custom Phatnoise software, so I couldn't use Windows Media Player to load songs, nor does Phatnoise support any custom loading software. I opted not to create any playlists, since the Phatnoise organizes my music for me. The 1700 songs used up around 75% of the space on the 20GB DMS cartridge.

Skipping the instructions for use in the car really isn't an option, I needed to read it to figure it out. The Phatnoise has four modes for browsing your music. I can partition my music into separate virtual discs, as if they were separate CDs, but I didn't really understand that option. The four modes are playlist mode, artist mode, album mode, and genre mode. Since I didn't have any playlists, it defaults to "My Music", which is just everything.

The album mode organizes my songs first by artist alphabetically, then by album alphabetically. I hit the "Disc Up" to select the mode first, then the "Seek" to navigate the albums. The album names are announced through speech software on the Phatbox through the car speakers. The text wasn't displayed on the center console, but I found it much easier as I was driving to hear the albums than to look at the console. It probably would be dangerous to stare at the console display anyway. In artist mode, the songs are still grouped the same, but the seek button cycles through the artists. For example, I just hit Seek to go from The Bravery to The Beatles. When I stop on an artist, the player begins playing songs grouped by album in alphabetical order. Stopping on "The Beatles" means I hear "Abbey Road" before I hear "Rubber Soul". I have a friend with a Neo Car Jukebox, and I have to say it's easier to hear the songs then have to look down at the display. Plus, the automatic organization of my songs in to artist and album is really nice. Still, it would have been nice to get the song name to display on the center console. As far as I can tell, there is no way to get at the song title, though it may be announced when I browse by playlist.

The sound quality is good, and I could really start to notice differences in bitrates for my songs. Things that sound good through my computer speakers or portable player don't sound as good amplified through the speakers if the bitrate isn't high enough. Basically, you need to pick at least 192 kbps for MP3 or WMA before the high frequency artifacts go away. Cymbal crashes at 128 kbps just sound strange. It doesn't sound as good as straight up CDs, but this is a product of compressing the songs, not the Phatbox itself. If you can't notice the difference listening at home, you may notice when the sound is amplified in your car.

I have a 6-CD changer in my car, and I was always annoyed with having to change CDs all the time. It took forever, and I had to lug all CDs around. Since I buy nearly all of my music online, this meant burning CDs. I usually only burned the music I really wanted to hear, and I couldn't just pick anything from my CD binder, since I had to look through the CDs. The Phatnoise puts my entire music catalog on one cartridge and lets me browse it through intuitive groupings of playslists, artists, albums, or genres.

So far I've been happy with my Phatbox. I don't really care for wires and adapters and such everywhere, and I noticed that even integrated iPod charger/cradle/FM transmitters would get in the way of the shifter, plus it just looks like crap. For me, the interior looks are just as important as the exterior, so the integrated factory option of the Phatbox was ideal for me. I don't listen to music other than in my car, so I don't even own a portable music player, and I would get annoyed having to set the whole thing up everytime I got in the car. The huge minus is the price, but I figured this was an investment. It's double the price of an iPod, but I'm not locked into iTunes and their proprietary AAC format (which can't be licensed to play on non-Apple players). If I had been using iTunes and had an iPod for a long time, I probably wouldn't have gone with the Phatbox since the only format I could play from iTunes is MP3. Phatnoise has said that athey're ready to put AAC support into the Phatbox whenever Apple decides to license AAC, but that's not going to happen soon since Apple's quite content holding the monopoly on their format to help drive sales of their players. I sure do love being able to pick literally any artist, song, or album from my large music collection, now my only problem is choosing which artist or album to hear.

 

and from what I have read the text will be available for our ipod and xm soon

 

I see the Kenwood unit they sell supports FLAC. Do you know if the mazda version does?

 

well if you didnt have to pay for it, bonus I guess. But i got the 120 dollar Icelink mp3 thing for my ipod nano.

All the wires are hidden as well since I dismanteled the dash and all that crap. I can honestly say it wouldnt be worth it for ummm 500 extra dollars for some lousy text on the dash when I already know the name of the song 2 seconds after I hear it.

 

re-read his post.. there is no text displayed on the dash.. it TELLS you what is playing.

 

you can easily purchase the audi/vw phatbox for cheap and reflash the firmware to mazda firmware. It's still cheaper than an ipod+aux input.

 

or omnifi by Rockford Fosgate... much more flexible software.

at $700, you could start to look at CarPc's too.

 

I know very little about hooking car stereo equipment. What all do I need to buy to make the IPod work? I was thinking of buying the new 60GB Ipod. I guess I could go to local car audio shop for the install and provide them with the parts. So what parts and where do I get them? So many postings here. Thank you all!! (new RX owner)

 

I just got it done tonight. It works! It works!

1. $50 cable from http://mzparts.autowebaccessories.co...5_650_8178.php

2. $182 w/ shipping VW/Audi Phatbox from http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...RK%3AMEWN%3AIT

3. Mazda firmware update from http://downloads.phathack.com/sbingner/MZPHATSYS.zip

4. Lots of help from the forum members there:
http://forum.phathack.com/cgi-bin/ya...39130555/10#10

I can comment further on the exact procedure if anyone is interested.

 

As far as the install parts, look at www.crutchfield.com for the ipod and parts. If your still a lil confused call them, their customer service is EXCELLENT and they can walk you through what you'll need!!! Just a piece of advise, unless your getting a great price or planning to put quite a few videos or your ipod, save the extra $70-$100 and get the 30 gig. I dont see how people say they fill there 60 gig. i had one for two years and never came close to filling it or listening to half the music on it for that matter (especially if your primary use for it is in your ride!) With the money you save you can probley buy the adapter to put it in your car! Maybe you can fill a 60 gig but i doubt it. I have a new model 30 gig w/ 3700 songs and i think im some where between 12%-18% used HD space with all the original Apple software still installed. Save some dough man!!!! My cousin has way more music than me and he forked up the xtra scratch for a 60 and a year later he's still wishing he woulda listened to me. Eithere way ipods are great products so ENJOY! 1