ATay71

Hello Everyone...

I'm looking into buying a 2006 RL and I have found one major stumbling block for me: iPod integration. I hear the Acura Musiclink is awful, so I don't want to go down that road. I live near Chicago, so FM transmitters are just about useless, I simply can't find a clear, open and stable station setting. I went to "mp3yourcar.com" and they sell adaptors for most other Honda/Acura models that allow you to use both factory installed XM radio AND an iPod (it does this by adding an additional aux port on the adaptor). However, when you get to the RL product it states that XM must be disconnected to connect the iPod. Does anyone know if the TL connector might work on the RL? Anyone else have any ideas on iPod connection?

I really love the RL and all of its features, but a $50K tech car that doesn't allow for an iPod connection? How much would a mini jack on the dash have cost them? It is supremely frustrating and could be a deal breaker for me - it's supremely disappointing. (I currently own a 2004 TL looking to upgrade.) Please let me know if anyone has any good solutions!

Thanks!

ATay71

hoos90

It works great for me as long as it's just in shuffle mode (and you have no idea what's playing if you can't recognize it on sound). I've been trying to get the feature that supposedly allows you to search by album and artist to work, but haven't been able to do that. Has anyone been able to get this working?

jftjr

Don't worry about it -- be dissapointed no longer.

There's factory integration for the iPod in the 2006 RL. The Music Link option is available at your dealership, it's about $300. Works fine, plugs in, you get control from the steering wheel, and your XM stays intact, along with the cd changer and everything else.


The interface is a little clunky, but not awful once you get the hang of it. Sound quality is fantastic.

If your dealer doesn't know about this, then I'd suggest you find another dealer.

http://www.apple.com/ipod/ipodyourcar/

kgd

I have the mp3 your car interface in another car and it does not even come close to the Acura music link. I did not initially like the Acura music link until I figured out how to do the artist, playlist and other searches. As far as I know the other products out there do not even come close to the ability of the Music Link to control the iPod through the car's factory audio system. The mp3 your car system will let you have limited control of your iPod through the factory radio, but most of what you do will be through the iPod interface.

I guess if you go with the mp3 your car option and get the tech package available on the 2006 RL the collision avoidance will at least minimize the impact when crashing into the car in front of you while searching for songs on the little screen on the iPod.

IMO the music link is one of the best features of the RL.

Kris

ATay71

Thanks for your input on the iPod issue everyone.

I currently use a cassette adapter in my TL and have been pretty satisfied with it. I really like being able to control the iPod via the click wheel while it's connected. Not to say that I browse for particular songs while driving (no accidents yet!) but I like to be able to switch playlists and control whether or not the songs play randomly within a playlist.

It seems that true iPod integration is still a ways off in just about any car out there, but the Musiclink from Acura does seem like a bit of a clunky interface. I wish it just had a simple input somewhere on the dash. In my opinion, this just seems to go against the "techie" nature of this car. (I do see that the new Acura RDX has a front input on the dash - why isn't this carried over to all of the Acuras?)

Well, I'm off to go test driving some other cars on my list today. We'll see how they stack up to the RL. Gonna be hard to beat, I'm sure.

Alan
ATay71

hoos90

for the Musiclink? I'm stuck in shuffle mode. I've put the software on my PC, and the system seemed to load the voice stuff onto my IPOD, but I can still only use "Disc" 5 and 6 in my car when I connect. Any obvious steps I might be missing? Thanks!

kgd

I actually believe the Music Link does put them at the top of the list from a technology standpoint. I can do anything with the Music Link except do a playlist in random order, and I can do all of this without ever taking my eyes off the road! I find that I will listen to it in random mode and then switch to an artist when I hear a song I like, then back to the random and back to an artist again without ever having to touch the iPod or take my eyes of the road. Now that is technology designed for a car!

Now if I was sitting at my desk, on a plane or in my living room, this is not the interface I would like. Although we all say we would NEVER search for a song on the tiny little menu while driving, I have while driving other cars, even though I know it is not a good idea. I have been lucky to not have a close call, but over time I am certain I would.

I really don't believe you will find a better option in todays market with respect to integration with a car. Most of the people that knock it or talk about the clunky interface probably haven't used it for any period of time. It did take me several weeks to get comfortable with it, but now it is second nature and I really like it and use it every time I drive the car. If you want to talk about a clunky interface try to figure out the climate control system! For how long I intend to have the car, I don't see a learning period of a few weeks as any big issue for something that works this good.

What most people probably don't like is the sound of the voice tags. If that is important to you for less than $30 you can get a third party Text to Speech software program to replace the standard one that comes with Windows. I tried a demo version of this and the speech was on par with the voice with the Nav unit in the car. I was fine with the standard Windows speech, even though it sounds a little computerized, so I just stuck with that. But I have never had a problem finding what I was looking for.

I would not look for any of the manufactures to put in an interface that is going to let you control the iPod while driving, that is a serious liability issue. And by the way, the TL should allow you to shuffle a playlist as the button for that I believe is a hard button on the radio. On the RL that hard button is the Scan button which does nothing. If they wanted to over come the only short coming I have found, they could simply map the Scan button on the radio to random in the interface software and then it would be perfect.

Any Acura engineers that are reading this, please try to incorporate that into the unit.

Kris

kgd

You can use the disk 5 and 6 buttons to change the disk number on the display on the top of the dash. (Disk 5 moves down the disk number and Disk 6 moves up. The disk buttons do not direct access the disk number you are looking for.) If you go to Disk 1 it will search playlists, Disk 2 artists, ect. it is in the book that came with the unit. Once you select the disk you want press and hold for about 2 seconds the Tune + button and it should start to go through the alphabet A...Z. If you press the Tune - button it will go the opposite way Z...A. Once you get to the first letter of what you are looking for press the Seek + button once, but do not hold it. Right after you release the Seek + button press and hold for about 2 seconds the Seek + or Seek - buttons to start the search within the letter you selected. When you hear the name of the Artist, Playlist, etc. that you are looking for press the Seek + button (but don't hold it) again and the first song will start to play. You need to make sure you use the buttons on the radio not on the stearing wheel for this selection process. Once the Playlist or Artist starts to play you can use the Seek buttons on the radio or stearing wheel to move up or down on the song selections.

Hope that helps. Once you get it to work once it is very easy.

Kris

hoos90

ATay71

Hey Everyone!

I answered my own question today! There actually is a way to integrate the iPod NOT using Acura's Musiclink. This applies to 2006 models only, I beleive, but you can get a kit that allows you to charge your iPod, listen to high quality audio, change tracks on the iPod via the steering wheel controls or the iPod itself. All of this while still retaining full use of your CD changer AND XM Satellite radio. I found this on (mp3yourcar.com).

Important Note: Although their website has not been updated with the proper information, I contacted them and they confirmed everything as detailed above.

Going RL shopping today... wish me luck!

ATay71

bobwied

What I'd love to see is an adapter that allows full control of the ipod and displays the ipod interface on the nav screen.

sdermer

PLEASE reply with the details on what you purchased and let us know if it worked!

I am having the Musiclink taken out of my two week old 06 RL because it is the worst consumer electronic product I have ever seen. It totally destroys the users ability to use the ipod in any meaningful way. I listen to audiobooks on my ipod and the muscilink makes this impossible. Shame on Acura for endorsing and selling such a lousy product when there are much better solutions readily available.

Thanks

kgd

I tried the mp3 your car on one of my other cars, tried two different units and ended up sending them both back. I suspect the Acura version of their product will only allow you to change tracks with the cars controls if you want to access the menus on the iPod itself. I did find their customer support to be friendly, but not alot of help. They did however, give me a full credit for the purchase price without any hassle. If only they could give me the 6 hours of my life back I spent trying to get the damn thing to work. (The module I ordered from them was not for an Acura / Honda vehicle, so maybe those ones work fine.)

It is too bad some people are having problems with the music link. I find this the best money I have spent on my car to date and love it. I have iPod adapters of some sort in all my cars and really don't like having to use the iPod to navigate and find that in real world use I rarely do. Once I figured it out I have had zero problems with it and I use the search functions pretty much every time I drive the car. I have never had an audio book on my iPod so I have no idea how the MusicLink would deal with that. From the post above, doesn't sound like it works very well.

I continue to find this the best interface (for a car) available to date. Although, I would love the see full menu support with the Nav screen. I really don't believe we will see that for liability reasons. I would just like the title display added there but continue to have the controls via the voice tags. I would also like to see them map the SCAN button on the radio to the shuffle command on the MusicLink controller.

Hope this helps those considering this product.

kgd

Did you add the software that came with it to your computer? I could see this being a problem with the audio books because you can't fast forward the unit with the module. I also don't know how the MusicLink software deals with voice tags for the books. I suspect it really wasn't designed for this and probably would not be a good solution for those wanting to listen to books.

It took me about three weeks before I figured out how to search by the voice tags and I was not happy with the unit at all until I figured that out.

stingerbtry

I never really figured it out and don't use it anymore because of it. I haven't been able to reliably get it to do what I want since I got the car. All I can do is keep it in shuffle mode and skip tracks. I really wish I hadn't bought and installed it.

hoos90

though I would still prefer to see a display of what is playing.