my nissan phatbox arrived last night and i had it installed in my z first thing this morning. for those of you not familiar with it, the phatnoise car audio system (phatbox) is a harddrive-based mp3 player. it pretends to be a cd changer and plugs directly into the stock nissan stereo, so you control it with the normal radio buttons (no external display). this way, your dash looks totally stock and nobody can tell it's installed. i had mine hidden in the glove compartment behind the passenger seat.

i used to have a kenwood music keg in my previous car, which is the same product except that it only works with kenwood stereos. the past few weeks (since i got my z), i've been dying without it. it's alot like the tivo; sounds like a good idea but it's not until you've had one that you realize you can't live without it. now i've got my 20 gigs of music in the z, and it's all good. i've heard of a couple of g35 owners to get one, but i haven't seen any other z owners post about having one of these, so i'm just going to assume i'm the first one

 

the hard thing is explaining to people how it works. so let me see if i can cover your questions:
you organize your music into playlists, on your computer. then you transfer the music to the cartridge (removeable hard drive) through usb. now plug in the cartridge to the phatbox installed in your car (it looks kinda like an amp with a slot in the front). each playlist becomes a 'disc' in your car. i think you can have as many as 999 total discs, and each one can have thousands of tracks in it (i think my biggest one is like 2000 tracks, but i've heard of people having way more).
so, how do you find things? the radio does not display text (the kenwoods do, but not the nissans). instead, it has this voice feedback system. kinda hard to imagine, but it works really well. the 6 disc buttons are no longer used to select disc 1-6. they now become 'mode' buttons. if you press button 2, the phatbox says (over your speakers) "the current playlist is " and then whatever you named your playlist. pressing the 'next track' button will move to the next playlist (and say its name). buttons 3, 4, and 5 become 'artist', 'album', and 'genre' buttons. the phatbox creates playlists in these modes that contain all songs from each artist, album, and genre. so, for example:

press 3, the phatbox says "the current artist is radiohead", starts playing radiohead track.
hold the 'next' button, phatbox says "rage against the machine, ramones, rancid"
release the 'next' button, and now you're listening to all rancid tracks on your phatbox.

if you want to seek really fast, you hold the 'fast forward' button, and the phatbox starts saying the letters of the alphabet, and you can let go when you reach the one you want.

sounds confusing, right? well, it takes a couple of days to get used to, and will probably confuse the hell out of your passengers. but once you get used to it, you can find anything you feel like listening to (out of thousands of tracks) quickly, and without ever having to take your eyes off the road.

man, they should pay me for this kind of publicity. i wonder if i can get a discount on a 60 gig cartridge

 

wow..sounds amazing...but what you have to worry about is naming your songs before you make your playlists...otherwise your screwed...but i guess thats only a small thing to ask

 

hmm..900 bucks

 

how much did it run ya?
never mind, I post slow

 

$900 , IMO is pretty expensive. If they lowered the price to around $500 I would probably think about it.

 

$859. yeah, i know, it's pretty heavy. like i said, though, i was dying without it. i couldn't find a good link for it, but apparently volkswagen and audi sell these at the dealerships.
the music keg is alot cheaper. if you're going aftermarket, check it out.

edit: found a url for it

 

get an ipod.. hook up with line input.. like in the VW's

 

Can this be used with the BOSE systems too?
Also, where does it hook up to? Do you have to run a wire up to the dash?

 

I have the Kenwood Music Keg, I got it brand new for less than $300 on ebay and the FM modulator (hidden in my empty nav area) for really cheap. Its a better deal and the FM mod has text display (the voice feature is an option). The only problem that i have is that my radio reception isn't as good, i heard that installing an on/off switch for my FM mod would fix the problem though. Anyway, cool product.

 

Ive got this one: http://www.ssiamerica.com/products/neo35/

40Gig, i think i paid like $370 for it. Has a seperate controller, but its actually better cause there is full text readout on it. Check that piece out - and oh, BTW, it also can plug into the back of the stock radio via rca to pin adapter.

 

I got an Apline HU and Keg.

Paid $400.00 for the keg and FM Modulator. Hardwired the Keg output to the Alpine Aux In, and the FM mod as a only a controller.

Printed out a list of my disc,and use the Kenwood Remote to navigate directly to a disc, ie Disc 53 to disc 175.

 

Installed the Keg in the DVD Nav slot behind the Driver and got a
6cd change ring to trim it out.

 

MUSIC KEG!

thats what that thing is called!

I forgot thanks

 

konverter, how did you hook up your ipod? i have one to, and i was contemplating how to hook it up to the stereo, i had the FM modulater, but it takes way to many batteries, otherwise i just do the cassette adapter with the iPod car charger.

 

I had mine hooked up with an ipod and tried both cassette adapter and fm modulator...both resulted in bad quality in sound. i ended up returning the 30gb ipod.

 

I got my DVD/CD/MP3 in dash screen for $250 more, lol.

 

I have a 20 gig ipod that it 1000 times smaller then that phatbox and its way cheeper, its portable and its easy to use. But the phatbox is a cool idea. A bit expen$ive, but very cool.

 

sorry to get off topic, do you have anymore pics of the 350Z tag on your interior door??

 

Curious on the resume capabilites... does it resume exactly where it left off?

Also, based on your picture it looks like the true stock stereo works correct? (i.e. not bose)