Harman Kardon Drive + Play reviewed
posted Oct 31st 2005 5:45PM
With its large LCD display, the
Harman Kardon Drive + Play is one of the slickest-looking
automotive iPod accessories — it looks more like a GPS unit than an audio accessory. Ars Technica checked it out, and
found that it lives up to those looks; the reviewer calls it "quite a marvelous tool for listening to music in the car
and the best way I've found to enjoy my iPod while driving." The review cites the Drive + Play's solid iPod
integration, good interface, and easy-to-use stickshift-like controller. Of course, one downside is that you'll have to
spring for professional installation, unless you want those good looks spoiled by a sprawl of wires all over your dash.
That could add as much as $100 to the $200 you're already paying for the Drive + Play. But if you want to have your
whole music library with you in the car, Ars Technica sees this as the way to go. Just keep your eyes of that screen
and hand off the controller while you're driving.
It's spelt Harman Kardon. Even the picture you have spells it for you.
Harman, not Harmon :P
touche my good friends. Someone has to be on watch for these follies that make engadget look silly.
I'm gonna disagree with them about the cassette adaptors. They're pretty good sounding, and to lump them in with FM transmitters is kinda ridiculous. The sound quality is miles apart. I've got a Monster cassette adaptor for my car(cause it's THAT ghetto) and it sounds great with my Gigabeat.
Professional Installation? Heck most of us here are geeks (or have geek tendencies) I'm sure we can figure out how to hide those wires ;)
Agree with #4. Cassette adapter is way better sounding than FM transmitter, and one twentieth the price of a professionally installed iPod dock, with almost all of the functionality.
Considering that this thing can also broadcast to your radio via FM, whether or not it'll get you a quality improvement depends largely on whether or not you have an aux port in the back of your stereo. In my case my car doesn't have one, so I'd need to go purchase an adapter for the cd changer port anyways-and at that point I could have just plugged the ipod in and been done with it for far cheaper.
Basically this isn't for a quality boost but rather for the interface enhancement. And I agree with all the cassette adapter supporters-it sounds very good, and save for the annoying sound of the adapter itself (when it's cold the lubrication inside doesn't work quite right) it's pretty high quality.
We have installed this unit into a Porsche Boxster...check out the install here:
http://www.rainydaymagazine.com/RDM2005/Workshops/Garage/RDG_DriveNPlayFirstLook.htm