USA-Spec PA12 iPod/iPhone adapter

[spencers]

I ordered a USA-Spec PA12 after reading and watching video of steve.325i and delmarco's reviews on E46Fanatics.

[danewilson77]

Great writeup for the "i" peeps. Thanks Spencer!

[Marcus-SanDiego]

Spence, where did you buy this?

[johnrando]

Good writeup. I had similar issues with the DICE but they fixed it at DICE HQ (local to me) (s/w upload and more shielding)... sounds like the USA Spec has the same features, including working well with BT, etc. John

[Washburn]

Proud owner of USA Spec here as well - rock solid performance, and great build quality. Most of all very good SQ.
Very glad I went with it instead of DICE.

[KevinC]

Just added USA*Spec to both my ZHP & a couple of weekends later, the Z4M. LOVE it in the E46 - functions exactly as advertised, navigates quickly, displays artist/title/track info, and sounds great.

In my Z4M, because it has a DSP amp, it uses the other model, the PA12-BMW-DSP. The only difference is it adds a digital connection. Gotta say it doesn't sound as good in this car. Something is missing - music sounds more artificial and digital than the analog connection in the ZHP. Not a huge difference, but noticeable.

Overall - EXTREMELY pleased with the results in the ZHP, satisfactory in the Z4m.

[WOLFN8TR]

Proud owner of USA Spec here as well - rock solid performance, and great build quality. Most of all very good SQ.
Very glad I went with it instead of DICE.

Same Here. Very happy with my USA SPEC.

[Johal E32]

I have a Dice in mine and I think it's garbage.. The dice kit always needs to be reset or it won't work otherwise..

I wish the po had installed the USA pa12 instead..

[SureShot434]

I'm kind of confused. Do you have to have playlists made to play the music through the unit or can you select the song on your iPod/iPhone and it will play through the unit and you can then change songs with the buttons on the steering wheel instead of picking up the iPhod again?

[KevinC]

I'm kind of confused. Do you have to have playlists made to play the music through the unit or can you select the song on your iPod/iPhone and it will play through the unit and you can then change songs with the buttons on the steering wheel instead of picking up the iPhod again?

Uh.. both of those approaches work. In its default mode, radio preset buttons 1-4 are playlists that you title BMW1, BMW2, etc. Button 5 is everything on the whole iPod - as if it were one giant playlist. Button 6 is "direct" mode - you have full control from the iPod (or iPhone) itself, and your radio display just shows "direct" rather than artist, title, & track# info. In that mode, I think you can still use the forwards/backwards button on the steering wheel to navigate through songs, not 100% sure about that for direct mode.. definitely works in the other modes. It has other nice features like remembering where you left off, in EACH playlist. If I stop at song 26 in Playlist 1, then go to Playlist 2 and go through 10, it remembers where you were in both, not just in the last one you were in. This is not a trivial feature and I'd like the thing a lot less if this didn't work as it does.