Customer Reviews

USA SPEC PA11-HON2y - iPod to 2003-2006 Honda Factory Radio Interface w/ Auxiliary Audio input

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Prior to purchasing this, I had a Dension ice>Link which worked well for a while until I restarted the my car. To restore functionality, I had to pull a fuse out and plug it back in. I did this several times until eventually, it just died on me.

The USA Spec Adapter however gave me no such problems. It's very stable and works exactly as advertised. Installation in my 2005 Accord LX was fairly easy. The toughest part was plugging the socket under the radio without removing the cubby hole -- it's possible but you need small hands.

This is an excellent purchase. I'd recommend this product to anyone.

Today I purchased and had the PA11-HON-2Y ipod integration kit installed in my 2005 Acura RL with XM, 6 disc changer, bluetooth, DVD-a, MP3 CD, and Navigation. First, the exact unit I bought is the PA11-HON-2Y. I took it to a local stereo shop who installed it for sixty bucks total. They did it immediately. It took about an hour and they let me watch and/or "help."

Removing the "Not an Ashtray" was very difficult, as were the two screws on the very bottom of the stereo. I thought about having them run the cable past the cup holder into the center console, but decided that I wanted to be able to change the song, browse the playlists, etc. without opening center console.

We set DIP switch 2 to "off" (Direct mode) to prevent the IPod Touch from locking down. (We tried it both ways before installing) When in this mode, the navigation display shows "EXTENSION" when it is on the IPod mode, after pushing "Disc" on the stereo itself.

So far, the IPod Touch seems to work beautifully in Direct mode. (meaning, all functions seem to work on the iPod) This includes Lyrics display, Coverflow works, video playback, and and all normal functions of the Ipod such as On-The-Go. All of these work on the IPod itself, not on the nav screen.

Also, steering wheel controls work(!!!!) Volume control, next song, previous song, mode select. I had them run the cable up through the "Not an ashtray" because I want to be able to control the ipod directly.

PLEASE NOTE: the Ipod touch charges, but apparently you need a different cable if you want an iPhone 3G to charge off of this setup. (There was an insert inside that said so)

Also, one REALLY nice feature: when you turn the car off it continues to charge the iPod for 20 minutes, then puts it to sleep.

This works great and doesn't disable XM or GPS in my 2005 Accord. Easy to install, and I had zero experience with car stereo installations. Sound quality is excellent, I am so glad to be rid of my FM transmitter (I had two of those--both were lame). The 'hybrid' playlist/manual mode is cool--it allows you to control the ipod directly or through the car stereo. My only complaint is that the controls on the car stereo itself are a bit sluggish--it take a few seconds to switch between playlists and sometimes it doesn't do behave as you would expect.

Let me start by saying this is an amazing product, but I have to give it 3 stars because the first unit I received was defective and only played audio through the left channel... so the build quality is less than perfect. However, the merchant I purchased it from gladly replaced it, and it works fine now (luckly he was also located in so. cal. so i could just drive to his place instead of paying extra shipping charges). Also, anyone installing this in a 2003 Honda Accord will have remove the ENTIRE stereo to access the cable in the back to plug into the y-connector (my car has a navigation system, im not sure if this is the case for all 2003 accords). This was a huge pain for me, and added a few extra hours to my project. As for the 2004 and up models, installation is much easier as you can access the cord at the bottom of the stereo by simply removing the bin. There are multiple online guides that can guide you with pictures and everything (google: "install ipod accord pictures").
Also, this product works fine with the ipod touch. They have also "unlocked" the device when its playing in playlist mode so that you can access other features (ie safari, youtube, etc) while music is still playing through the "ipod" function of your itouch... I dont recommend this while driving (duh). Audio quality is excellent, on the itouch, i can still use the equalizer in the ipod or the one on the navigation screen, which is a nice feature if you like fine-tuning audio like I do.
It would have been nice if they supported a text display on the navigation screen, but i'll settle for the track and playlist number. Also, there is a slight lag between pressing buttons on the steering wheel/radio and getting a response from the ipod.
I have taken multiple pictures of the installation process and would happily share them if anyone needs help installing their own usa spec in their 2003 accord. I dont know if amazon supports a PM feature, but if it doesn't, facebook message (USC) me and I'll see what I can do.

Probably the best 120 bucks I've ever spent on my car.

Having bought an 08 TL, it was disappointing that car did not come with a built in ipod interface. Using an FM transmitter give you very low audio quality and I pretty much like having my ipod hidden away like i did in my previous car. The USA Spec is very easy to install, took me about 2 hours and I am not a stereo installer. I just researched carefully on the internet and found installation diagrams. Once installed you get ipod controls on you vehicles factory stereo via CD Changer emulation. You car detects the ipod as a CD Changer. The only thing that you don't get from this adapter is text on your screen. I highly recommend this adapter and suggest you do the installation yourself and save a few bucks.

Like the reviewer above I am getting a high pitched noise when the ipod starts charging. This usually occurs a few seconds after the song begains to play. I called USA-Spec and they were suprised that I could hear this noise. They sent me a replacement, but it was the wrong model !!! I am disappointed in them and at this point I would not recommend buying this because of poor customeer support.

I had the USA SPEC pa11h2y professionally installed on my 2006 Acura RL. When I play the ipod there is a high pitched background noise. I spoke with USA SPEC and they told me that from my description of the problem it appears that I am getting this noise as a result of the charging of my ipod. The noise is only present when I play the ipod on the radio but not from the XM, CD, Radio. And the noise goes away for a few moments after I press the next track from the steering wheel button and then returns. Crutchfield had me do a couple of attempts at a fix but to no avail. USA SPEC will be sending me a unit that they will disable the ipod charging and they believe that this will fix my problem. I will post a follow up when I get the new unit in the car and see if it fixes it. The sound quality is very diminished with this feedback noise so if this does not fix the problem I will not be able to use this unit. I saw a few posts elsewhere with this same problem so I figured I'd post it right here.USA SPEC PA11-HON2y - iPod to 2003-2006 Honda Factory Radio Interface w/ Auxiliary Audio input

Works really really well. You can control your ipod from the steering wheel or directly on the ipod itself without having to change any switches. It charges the ipod while its plugged in and its a direct input vs. a headphone jack. So sound quality is much better. If you have an audio input that isn't an ipod, you can still listen to it cuz it has a regular headphone jack input too. But you'll need to switch a dip switch on the device. I love it.

Worked excellent. NO problems
Buy it! I love it so much that I bought one for my son's
Acura.

I had been using an FM transmitter for quite some time before deciding to spend the extra money on this. Best $150 I've spent in a long time. Took 30 min to install (can do it in 10-15 min if you've done it before) and didnt have to remove the radio (03 w/o nav) just the bin and i could get my hand up there to just plug it in. Does have a high pitch whine that is pretty annoying when you notice it, and seems to oscilate with the rpms. While kind of annoying totally bearable to live with compared to an fm transmitter. The picture shows the usa spec unit placed in the arm rest but i chose to just keep it behind my radio and just drilled a hole in the back corner of the cubby thing and just let the ipod sit in the not an ashtray. Cable has tons of slack and passengers in the back seat can lean forward and choose songs if i pull the cable all the way out. Also deffinitly charges iphone 3gs and have seen friends plug iphone 4 into it to play music (which it does fine) but didnt look to see if it was charging