I've noticed that there were alot of complaints on the quality of the sound from the aux-port of the 1st Generation R53's using a standard 3.5mm audio cable (not the line-out cable) to an iPhone/Droid.

However, I recently rented a 2011 model Mini Cooper S w/ an Aux port and used a standard 3.5mm cable connected to my iPhone 5 and the sound was AMAZING. No distortion, and I even had to turn DOWN the bass because it was thumping too hard. Granted it was HarmonKardon equipped, I doubt that it would have made that much of a difference even if it wasn't seeing how the audio is bottle-necked through the cable.

My question is this: do I have some sort of magical 3.5mm cable? Or did the newer Mini Coopers have "better" aux ports? Or does the HarmonKardon system really do wonders even with a cable-fed audio?

I wish I had heard the quality of the 1st generation aux ports in-person, but based on the reviews here, using the male-to-male 3.5mm cable produces a stale, "mono" sound. I purchased the 1st Gen OEM Aux-port kit for my R53 (non-HK) and if I got half of the quality I got from the '11 MC-S, I will be in heaven.