Possible to retrofit the Mrs. vehicle so that she can plug in her iPhone and use Pandora et al as well as anything that's stored on the phone's hard drive? I've looked and there's no USB in her car.

thanks in advance.

 

Without Mini Connect, she won't be able to use Pandora.

 

You can use the aux input port, which is like connecting the headphone output from the phone to your stereo. Whatever you play on the iPhone will go to the stereo (including Pandora).

I noticed that you previously posted about a kit from NewMINIStuff: https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ium-sound.html. Did you decide not to go with it? It would work, and give somewhat better sound than the aux input.

 

Yep use the AUX cable. Whatever you play on your iPhone or any multimedia device with audio will go to the speakers when you set it to the AUX setting on your car.

This includes Pandora etc.. You just have to control the interface via the iPhone as opposed to the screen/MINI controls since it isn't integrated (as you do not have MINI Connected)

The AUX port is near your cup holders by your bottom toggle switches

 

I wasn't clear but I am also wanting to see if anyone has retrofitted bluetooth with or without the standard y cable iPhone integration. We've got the steering wheel with the phone and voice command buttons but as I understand it most of the cars come with this steering wheel stock. The bluetooth works very nicely in my car and Pandora streams very nicely without wires so if bluetooth could be retrofitted then she would have the best of both worlds. Previous threads mentioned that it wasn't possible without the help of the dealership so I was wondering if there'd been an update? I unfortunately used the phrase "plugged in" in my original post and should have clarified that we're just trying to "plug in" to technology that we never got with her car...

Cheers.

 

The answer is NO! Not without Mini connected, Even if you retrofitted BT you can't stream audio over bluetooth.

 

Thanks very much.

 

+1 Not with the OEM bluetooth system.

But with a Blackberry Stereo Bluetooth Gateway you could have bluetooth audio in the car for music. I have one in my car and it works very well But it does need a 5VDC source (USB port) to power it. I also plugs into the AUX port for audio.

There are other Bluetooth A2DP adapters out there that will do the same thing but have different power requirements.

 

this looks promising and thanks for the reply!!

http://www.newministuff.com/new/shop...roducts&cat=36

 

It depends on what you want to do. Do you just want audio streaming or do you want to do the phone too?

Most of the phone solutions suck because the mic is on the unit and often has just bad quality.

If you just want the Bluetooth streaming then I recommend the TuneLink Auto by NewPotato tech. Plug it in to your Aux jack, and then stream anything audio off your iPhone. There is even a neat app on it that will let you "auto connect" and auto play, it also doubles as an FM transmitter too if you don't have an Aux jack.

Love mine.

 

We can plug her iPhone into the AUX input on her car but I am wondering about sound quality and that's why I was looking into wiring kits that will presumably provide better performance. Thanks though, neat product.

Regards.

 

That aux jack is wired right into the factory radio. If you detect a sound quality issue, I'd suggest that comes form playing compressed audio from an iPhone.

 

It is so cheap and easy that you should just try it and see if it satisfies you. A few dollars for a 3.5mm male-male stereo cable that goes between the headphone jack and the aux input. Get one from anyplace that sells audio accessories (Radio Shack, Best Buy, Fry's, etc). Practically free from eBay (except for shipping).

If you want to charge at the same time, there are many products similar to this: http://www.amazon.com/Griffin-AutoPi.../ref=pd_cp_p_0
It connects to the dock at the bottom of the iPhone/iPod, which provides slightly better quality sound than from the headphone jack.

 

Bingo...

If you in any way used Itunes and didn't choose the lossless format when you imported the music, sound quality will really suffer.

 

The aux jack is not quite direct. There is some filtering in the aux circuit that people have complained about. The kit from NewMINIStuff uses the CD changer port, which seems to give better sound (the OEM iPod adapter also uses the CD changer port, and people have reported that it sounds noticeably better than the aux port). As far as compressed audio, the OP mentioned wanting to play Pandora, so I doubt it would be an issue.

 

Not completely true. On the cars without USB the aux port goes directly to the radio and from everything I have been able to find on the internal workings of the head unit there is no electrical filtering. That does not mean that the sound is not played with digitally though. As we know there are digital filters in the head unit for other things like the 100hz cut off.

On the cars with USB the aux goes to the ULF (bluetooth) module and then on to the headunit and at that point there is no real filtering but the audio circuits in the ULF module are really not that great and cause distortion of the audio.

 

Thanks for the information... it would appear then then since she only has the AUX that I really don't gain anything by going with the wiring kit from ministuff.com?? I'm really appreciative of everyone's help. If my wife doesn't feel the need to have a special wiring kit then I guess I'll surprise her in some other way.

I get my y-cable for the Mini Connect system this week so that will be interesting though I've enjoyed pairing my Pandora to the system via bluetooth and been really impressed with the sound.

Thanks again.