Corranga
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The Yatour YT-MT 06 is a device that replaces a CD changer. Basically, it plugs into the stereo / head unit in exactly the same way, and 'pretends' to be a CD changer, so the head unit functions as normal, except instead of spinning disks, it plays from an SD card / USB stick / aux port.
I bought one of these for my Panda 100HP about 18 months ago, and briefly tried it in the Maserati before fitting the wires down the back of the dash in the Panda and it worked. 17 months later, I got around to ordering one for the Maserati, and it's now seen some use on my recent NC500 trip, so I thought I'd post my experiences.
Buying:
It's cheap, and Chinese, so many will just ignore it. They cost somewhere around 50 or 60 quid from eBay / AliExpress. You get a few different versions. There is an iPod version, usually cheaper, but it only works with an old iPod / iPhone wide connector. There are then versions for different cars (same unit, with different connectors). The one that works with the 4200 Maserati is the FA one - Fiat Alfa.
What do you get:
It's a small metal cased box, slightly smaller than a box of cigarettes (I think, I've never smoked, but you get the idea!)
The cable feels decent quality, and screws into the back like a VGA monitor cable. The other end of the loom is the Blaupunkt adapter.
You also get a cardboard box, and a user manual with some Chinglish in there to recycle.
There is an optional bluetooth module for another 50 or 60 quid, but I've no interest, so no idea how it works. Being installed in the boot might be problematic for this though. Not even sure if it does calls, or just playing music tbh.
Fitting:
I'm fitting to a 2004 4200 with the blaupunkt disk changer factory fitted in the boot on the left.
This is easy. Remove the CD changer, unplug it, plug in the Yatour. Done.
I also had to plug the 2 earthing wires on the Yatour loom together as the CD changer multi-plug supplies earth, though I believe other cars might not.
Music / Storage Set up:
This is where is gets a bit trickier, and needs a bit of time spent with a PC.
Music files must be in folders named CD01, CD02, CD03 etc.
The advice seemed to be to put no more than 99 songs in each folder, so I stuck to that, and had no issues, though some people online suggested more may work.
The device plays the music files in chronological order, which is really stupid but you can get around that using the mp3DirSorter app from here:
http://www.ycarlink.com/pd_13014_How-to-play-songs-in-alphabetical-order-on-Yatour-YT-M06-.htm
Basically, stick the files on the SD card, then drag and drop the folders onto that app and it changes the create times to be 1 minute apart, ordering alphabetically.
For this, I renamed the files in the order I wanted, 01 through 99, or by putting an album number in front of the track number, e.g. 0101 is album 1 track 1, 0102 album 1 track 2..... 0611 is album 6 track 11, then they all go into CD01 up to 99 songs, then you start a CD02 etc...
Using:
Also easy. If you can use the CD changer, you can use this, it's exactly the same. The up and down arrow buttons change disc, the left and right buttons change tracks.
The audio off button pauses, and the pause/play button starts the disc again.
Since you basically now have many albums on 1 'disc' you might need to use the skip button to get to another album, so arrange them sensibly. I tend to group similar artists, or many albums from 1 artist together.
Support:
It'll play MP3 files, but not Apple M4A files. It doesn't seem to like VBR MP3. The albums I put on mine are a mixture of what I had laying around (so stuff downloaded from Amazon music, iTunes (as mp3) and some new CDs I sampled in iTunes with 320kbps MP3 no variable bitrate options.
I have half of the Genesis back catalogue in mine too, and it seems happy with the 23 minutes that is Supper's Ready.
I'm using an 8Gb Micro SD card in a full size SD card adapter, and it works fine. The manual states 8gb is the maximum size. I use 2GB in the Fiat, never tried any more.
As mentioned above, folders CD01, CD02 etc... I have a CD07 on my SD and the head unit will happily play it despite the original CDC only having 6 (or 5?) slots.
I haven't used a USB stick as I prefer the flush fit of the SD card. The manual says SD card is preferred.
I also haven't used the Aux input in the Maserati since the unit is in the boot. It works in the Fiat, but you need to pop the SD card out first.
Reliability:
Well.. I'll give it 6 or 7/10 here.
My CDC would maybe get 0.25/10 though! My CDC sometimes played, sometimes didn't. It had a full set of CDs in, including 1 that was brand new, put straight into the CDC. It often needed discs ejected or the whole unit unplugged to operate - basically, it was broken!
My experience of using the Yatour in both the Fiat for 18 months and the Maserati is that it works 98% of the time, though sometimes doesn't quite do what you want.
As the 4200 always did, it starts the song over rather than continuing from half way through.
There is a bit of a delay in playing anything after you start the car - sometimes 15 seconds, sometimes longer. I'm not sure if it had failed, or if I was too hasty in pressing the play button, but sometimes I ended up back at track one on the disc. Other times, it happily started playing from track 64 again.
I also had it randomly play a song out of order when I started the car, but it then went back to the correct song.
In the Fiat, it cuts the first second of some songs off, but the Maserati doesn't seem to do this. I guess you can specify a 1 second delay on the mp3 file with a PC to resolve, I've never bothered.
I've also had it fail completely in the Fiat a few times, with the head unit saying 'CD Changer Error' or similar, but it's always worked again after restarting the car - and remember this is in a daily commute car used every day.
In Summary:
I like it. It's cheap and cheerful, and better than a broken CD changer, or even a functioning one.
You can easily much, much more music on there and it'll never skip.
It's smaller, and feels quite nicely built.
You don't have to fit anything ugly to your car, or drill holes, in fact you can even Velcro it to the top of the (unplugged) CDC in the boot and the car would look 100% factory.
There is no messing around connecting phones, or selecting what music to play on an other device.
The delay / random song choice bug doesn't really bother me, it's still playing music I like.
I'd recommend it, providing you're happy with the above compromises.
Chris
I bought one of these for my Panda 100HP about 18 months ago, and briefly tried it in the Maserati before fitting the wires down the back of the dash in the Panda and it worked. 17 months later, I got around to ordering one for the Maserati, and it's now seen some use on my recent NC500 trip, so I thought I'd post my experiences.
Buying:
It's cheap, and Chinese, so many will just ignore it. They cost somewhere around 50 or 60 quid from eBay / AliExpress. You get a few different versions. There is an iPod version, usually cheaper, but it only works with an old iPod / iPhone wide connector. There are then versions for different cars (same unit, with different connectors). The one that works with the 4200 Maserati is the FA one - Fiat Alfa.
What do you get:
It's a small metal cased box, slightly smaller than a box of cigarettes (I think, I've never smoked, but you get the idea!)
The cable feels decent quality, and screws into the back like a VGA monitor cable. The other end of the loom is the Blaupunkt adapter.
You also get a cardboard box, and a user manual with some Chinglish in there to recycle.
There is an optional bluetooth module for another 50 or 60 quid, but I've no interest, so no idea how it works. Being installed in the boot might be problematic for this though. Not even sure if it does calls, or just playing music tbh.
Fitting:
I'm fitting to a 2004 4200 with the blaupunkt disk changer factory fitted in the boot on the left.
This is easy. Remove the CD changer, unplug it, plug in the Yatour. Done.
I also had to plug the 2 earthing wires on the Yatour loom together as the CD changer multi-plug supplies earth, though I believe other cars might not.
Music / Storage Set up:
This is where is gets a bit trickier, and needs a bit of time spent with a PC.
Music files must be in folders named CD01, CD02, CD03 etc.
The advice seemed to be to put no more than 99 songs in each folder, so I stuck to that, and had no issues, though some people online suggested more may work.
The device plays the music files in chronological order, which is really stupid but you can get around that using the mp3DirSorter app from here:
http://www.ycarlink.com/pd_13014_How-to-play-songs-in-alphabetical-order-on-Yatour-YT-M06-.htm
Basically, stick the files on the SD card, then drag and drop the folders onto that app and it changes the create times to be 1 minute apart, ordering alphabetically.
For this, I renamed the files in the order I wanted, 01 through 99, or by putting an album number in front of the track number, e.g. 0101 is album 1 track 1, 0102 album 1 track 2..... 0611 is album 6 track 11, then they all go into CD01 up to 99 songs, then you start a CD02 etc...
Using:
Also easy. If you can use the CD changer, you can use this, it's exactly the same. The up and down arrow buttons change disc, the left and right buttons change tracks.
The audio off button pauses, and the pause/play button starts the disc again.
Since you basically now have many albums on 1 'disc' you might need to use the skip button to get to another album, so arrange them sensibly. I tend to group similar artists, or many albums from 1 artist together.
Support:
It'll play MP3 files, but not Apple M4A files. It doesn't seem to like VBR MP3. The albums I put on mine are a mixture of what I had laying around (so stuff downloaded from Amazon music, iTunes (as mp3) and some new CDs I sampled in iTunes with 320kbps MP3 no variable bitrate options.
I have half of the Genesis back catalogue in mine too, and it seems happy with the 23 minutes that is Supper's Ready.
I'm using an 8Gb Micro SD card in a full size SD card adapter, and it works fine. The manual states 8gb is the maximum size. I use 2GB in the Fiat, never tried any more.
As mentioned above, folders CD01, CD02 etc... I have a CD07 on my SD and the head unit will happily play it despite the original CDC only having 6 (or 5?) slots.
I haven't used a USB stick as I prefer the flush fit of the SD card. The manual says SD card is preferred.
I also haven't used the Aux input in the Maserati since the unit is in the boot. It works in the Fiat, but you need to pop the SD card out first.
Reliability:
Well.. I'll give it 6 or 7/10 here.
My CDC would maybe get 0.25/10 though! My CDC sometimes played, sometimes didn't. It had a full set of CDs in, including 1 that was brand new, put straight into the CDC. It often needed discs ejected or the whole unit unplugged to operate - basically, it was broken!
My experience of using the Yatour in both the Fiat for 18 months and the Maserati is that it works 98% of the time, though sometimes doesn't quite do what you want.
As the 4200 always did, it starts the song over rather than continuing from half way through.
There is a bit of a delay in playing anything after you start the car - sometimes 15 seconds, sometimes longer. I'm not sure if it had failed, or if I was too hasty in pressing the play button, but sometimes I ended up back at track one on the disc. Other times, it happily started playing from track 64 again.
I also had it randomly play a song out of order when I started the car, but it then went back to the correct song.
In the Fiat, it cuts the first second of some songs off, but the Maserati doesn't seem to do this. I guess you can specify a 1 second delay on the mp3 file with a PC to resolve, I've never bothered.
I've also had it fail completely in the Fiat a few times, with the head unit saying 'CD Changer Error' or similar, but it's always worked again after restarting the car - and remember this is in a daily commute car used every day.
In Summary:
I like it. It's cheap and cheerful, and better than a broken CD changer, or even a functioning one.
You can easily much, much more music on there and it'll never skip.
It's smaller, and feels quite nicely built.
You don't have to fit anything ugly to your car, or drill holes, in fact you can even Velcro it to the top of the (unplugged) CDC in the boot and the car would look 100% factory.
There is no messing around connecting phones, or selecting what music to play on an other device.
The delay / random song choice bug doesn't really bother me, it's still playing music I like.
I'd recommend it, providing you're happy with the above compromises.
Chris