LESSONS LEARNED

I thought I should post these for the benefit of the others who plan to go gown this route.

1. For Xs with DSP that DID NOT come with a CD-changer form the factory... FORGET the instructions about 'looking for a COAX cable'... your X will not have one because it has no CD-changer. LOOK FOR A COAX PLUG on the TOP of the DSP amplifier. My X had a 3 and 6 pin connector in the trunk but when I installed the DICE without the DSP kit, I could browse songs on the cluster but there was NO AUDIO. The COAX plug on my DSP amp meant that I had digital DSP and needed the adapter. I could have saved the cost of overnight courier if I had purchased the DSP Kit with the DICE module.

When I got it working, my install used the 3 pin plug, the COAX plug on the DSP, plus taps into the power and ground wires to the DSP amp (see below)... the 6 pin plug I found in the trunk WAS NOT USED.

2. When installing the DSP kit... the 2 wires that you tap in for power (BROWN and RED w/Green Stripe) on top of the DSP amp are ALWAYS HOT - even if the key is off. Disconnect the whole plug from the DSP amp when working on it... I got careless (did not expect the wires to be live, should have known better ) and set them down on my wire stripper... thankfully I just blew a 30 amp fuse (#72). Had I been working with the plug attached to the AMP I may have fried that too.

And No I did not disconnect the car's battery because I did not want to risk erasing data in the engine control computer.

3. While the DICE allows you to browse songs/artists etc... (I have only 900 select songs on my iPod) browsing a long list is a royal PITA. I am now creating many but smaller playlists in iTunes. Think of these small playlists as virtual CDs.

After a few days of testing the DICE, I'm very happy with the sound quality.