J&M GL1800 Accessory Digital Music Player/Changer Uses Factory OEM Handlebar Controls

I rate the digital music player at only 2 stars to help offset those who reviewed the product with high stars without even owning or using the product.

The J&M Corp digital music player is ALMOST great. My problem is, if you try to switch between CD/FM and back to CD it “sometimes” doesn’t work. When this happens, the only way to get the player back on is to switch the ignition off and back on, or you can hit the reset button on the player, but that’s hard to do when you’re riding down the road.

My other reason for the 2 star reviews is the fact that J&M doesn’t seem interested at all in helping to solve my problem. I’ve been in contact with them during my whole experience and although they have been responsive to my emails and phone calls, all they’ve really told me is #1 - the Honda audio system is very complex and we can’t spend the time and money to figure it out. #2 – you can buy the XM radio adapter for $99 and that should solve your problem. They did offer to give me a 10% discount on the adapter and said if it didn’t work they would see that I get a refund.

I decided to not spend almost another $100 dollars to make the player function as advertised. The description on the player shows compatibility with 2001-2010 GL1800’s. I have a 2004. Now they want me to spend all that extra money for an adapter designed for 2009-2010 GL1800 to make this player function as originally advertised.

Another issue I want to address is “folders”. J&M Corp makes it very clear that “folders” are not supported at all. I believe, understand, and respect that that although it might seem to work in some cases it is simply and completely unsupported. The fact it seems to work in some cases doesn’t mean it should be expected to work in your case.

But I want to be clear; I experience the problems above with my 2004 GL1800 when my SD card is loaded with individual songs and ZERO folders. In my few days owning the product, I've experienced that I can switch between CD/FM/CD constantly and consistently for about the first 20 minutes of riding and then it won’t switch back to CD unless I hit the reset button on the digital music player or I turn the ignition off and back on. This can probably suite my riding/listening style on long trips since I’m used to only an MP3 player while on trips and no radio, but around town I enjoy flipping between my MP3 player and the radio. I’m guessing others (maybe you) might want to do the same.

I’ve played the digital music player for more than two hours with the SD loaded with individual songs and another time I did so with the player loaded with “folders”, in each instance, the player functioned flawlessly (as long as you don't switch from CD to FM).

I think I’ll keep the player (with folders) for those longer trips. When your on the road and don’t know the “good” radio stations, or the radio stations are only within range for an hour or so, the player seems capable of keeping the tunes going. Just don’t switch to FM/AM/ or WB unless you need to stop for gas soon…

Pay attention to the other reviews. Maybe I do have the one defective unit and you will have better luck. But remember, if you run into a situation similar to mine, J&M doesn't seem interested in supporting this product. In my experience they just explain that the Honda audio system is complex and this box might not work the way you want.

From what I understand talking with J&M Corp, they have only tested it with one or two model years. (I think 2009 and something else).

I don't know if my review shows it but I'm a bit down on this J&M Corp product. It's unfortunate because J&M is the only player to introduce this product that I'm so interested in. I've been a proud customer and supporter of J&M in the past but this experience hasn't been very good. I really expected them to stand behind their product and right now I would almost bet from my interaction with them that they are ready to abandon the GL1800 digital music player just like they did with the GL1800 Hand-held CB MIC.

It should just hook up to i-pod,then it would be great!

This is really not a rating. I am considering purchasing this for my 09 wing. There are not many detail on this website. Does anyone have the installation/documentation in electronic format they could send me. Also, does the memory card insert directly into the blue changer box or is there a remote location by cable.

well after having it running for a few days there a few things to do to make it more adaptable, 1st format the sd card in fat32, then create some folders on the sd card and name them cd2 cd3 cd4 cd5 etcc.....I loaded approx 45 songs on each you can number them the songs as eg. 1 maybe baby, 2 labamba etcc etc...the number will aloow the songs to play in order and not random or by alphabit if your on song 10 and want to go to 5 you can do this by 5 hits of the button it is slow but gets there .
you can also change to another folder cd2 etc by holding the button and it is slow but it will go there etcc so basically works well the only drawback is the song name is not displayed but as most of us know after a certain time you get to know the sequence and can get where you want quickly...

well that is is a 5*+ in my books well packaged and the accessories that came with it the cable and loader are good quality so good luck everyone

graham

After living with this product for a few days I wanted to pass on a few findings. Reviewer wrgraves sent me some advice on loading music onto my SD card and by following his advice everything worked like a charm. The product does what it’s suppose to it’s simple straight forward, and for the cost of 2GB SD cards you can have endless hours of traveling music without adding any additional gadgets to your handlebars. I put in parentheses what wrgraves advice was to help me properly load music so I just wanted to pass on my sincere thanks to him. I think J&M should have included this information with their product. So after the learning curve I will stay with my original rating of 3-stars due to the lack of information provided by the manufacturer and the stupid grommet you have to install.

Wrgraves Comments to me in a personal message “I guess you need to know more about the setup on the SD card. The root directory is the first CD. Add 5 folders and put songs in them and you have 5 more CD's. Once you have folders a long pull on the track switch will jump between the root directory and the folders in either direction.”

This advice worked flawlessly and I hope my learning curve helps others thinking about this for their bike. Good luck.