Phatnoise Phatbox and RNS-E: Usability, experiences etc.

i vote phatbox

I would say that the phatbox is more user friendly with the Symphony II unit because you have separate buttons for each function (eg skip track, fast forward, scan) and you can feel your way through without having to look at the head unit. With the RNS-E you rely on the screen and the single round knob (although you do have skip track forward and reverse buttons on the top right corner of the RNS-E). Perhaps I have not gotten use to the RNS-E and phatbox since I just listen to my playlists without changing tracks too often. I’m sure once I get used to the setup it will be easier. I do like the “Mix†feature on the RNS-E which can be access with one click of the button, as opposed to the symphony where you must go through a couple of levels of menus to get the random function.

In terms of navigating and looking for songs, it would appear that the text display through the SD cards or MP3 cd’s would be faster than voice prompts. With the voice prompts there is more of a delay because you have to listen to the entire phrase rather then just glancing at text. Speed of light is always faster than sound! The display text, if you have id’s attached is high on the coolness factor because it displays album, year, title, etc. With phatbox, you can get all this information by pressing the “scan†button, which prompts the phatnoise to read out the information. Note that by default, phatbox will not read out the track title of the song, but you can download a free plug-in by a third party developer to give you this feature. You can also choose between a male and female voice.

Cost and storage wise, phatbox makes much more sense that the SD card option. You can get a phatbox now for about $120, not including the cable harness needed (glove box mount ~$30). Keep in mind that for less than the price of 2 SD cards you get 20 Gig of music, compared to the typical 2 Gigs with 2 SD’s cards.

In summary:

If you want maximum storage: phatbox
If you want less expensive route: phatbox
If you want coolness of text: SD cards
If you want voice prompts: phatbox (although the novelty will wear out)

I would personally go with phatbox.

Re: i vote phatbox

TeddyBGame said:

wingnut1122 said:

In summary:

If you want maximum storage: phatbox
If you want less expensive route: phatbox
If you want coolness of text: SD cards
If you want voice prompts: phatbox (although the novelty will wear out)

I would personally go with phatbox.

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Great summary. That's kinda what I was thinking too.

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My 2 cents: I completely agree with wingnut1122...

I would add that one of the coolest this that could be added would be the chance of seeing the text (we all know this won't be possible) and the chance of having some other button change the playlist instead of the single song... Maybe this could be done using the manual wheel (where scan is) in a different way...

Anyway PB for me too, definitely.

I just keep baby music in my two SD cards: this way is easier for me to reach the needed song each time... ;-)

Ciao