Butch341

Thanks everyone. I am definitely going to get the Sik ram din iPod connector. I will probably get it before I try to take my car into the Dealer to see what it does. That way I will know 100% for sure if it's the car or not. If it fixes it, that would be a really good thing. If not, then at least I know where the problem lies.

Have a good one. I will post a reply as soon as I get the Sik ram din in the mail and have had a chance to try it out. It will probably be about a week at least.

Bichon

The reason that the Sik works so well is not because of the grade of wire or special plating on the connector, but because it connects to the dock connector instead of the headphone jack. By doing so, you bypass the mediocre quality headphone amp in the iPod, resulting in cleaner sound. It's also more convenient because you don't need to worry about setting the volume control on the iPod. (which if at too low a level will cause excess noise, and if too high a level will cause distortion)

Xanadu350

Bichon, I took your advice and bought this ram din even before my car came in, it was a wise decision...another benefit is you can turn the iPod volume all the way down (thus savings battery strength) Being able to use the steering wheel control for the volume is worth the price of the cable alone. My only gripe is why the heck did they make it so short?

By the way did you see pics of me new ride? I love this car.

Bichon

Glad it worked out.

Sure did. Got a real chuckle when I saw the one with the thermometer sticking out of the A/C vent. First time I'd seen that in a series of new car shots.

And though I didn't post in your picture thread, nice car!

Butch341

Update: I got the ram din and a new, expensive monster cable in the mail a few days ago and unfortunately, I still have the same problem. Both the cable and the ram din make the sound even more distorted. On both iPod's (with either monster cable alone or hooked up to my ram din) music plays out of the left (Driver) speaker at full blast, and this time it plays out the right (passenger) as it should, but is extremely muted. I don't get the "all-speaker" left channel sound like I used to. Instead, when you play a song at normal level, unless you listen real carefully for it (or turn the balance all the way to the right), you cannot hear the right speakers. Sounds really weird. I've pretty much decided there is definitely something wrong in the car here. I took my car in for the 15,000K service this morning, gave the tech a demonstration with the din, monster cable, and FM Transmitter (to demonstrate how the "stereo" sound works/sounds when interfaced properly) and he said he had to "make some calls". I don't know what in the world he plans to do. I hope they fix it. Anyone have any ideas? I'll post a reply when I pick my car up in a few hours.
Thanks in advance.

Xanadu350

That's weird, I hope the dealer can fix that for you. I have the ram din cable and I swear the sound from my iPod through my ML system is awesome. I seriously didn't think it would sound this good, it almost rivals my Cd's, the sound really envelopes all around you. I've noticed that the center speaker on the dash is not so dominant when the iPod is used with the ram din cable. Let us know what the dealer says.

Butch341

So I went to the Dealer to pick my car up and they didn't fix it. .. I had to argue with the tech guy (he kept saying it wasn't a problem with the car while pointing to my iPod ) for a little while and finally we decided to go get in another IS to hear what it sounded like. Of course everything sounded fine in the other car (wow, I wish mine sounded like that!) and he had what you would call a "moment of clarity".. He once again said he had to make some calls and that I would have to bring it back in. I guess I'm the only one with this very unique, difficult to explain problem. He totally had no idea what I was talking about until we got in the other car. I guess explaining something to these "tech" guys 3-4 times to get through to them is par for the course. While I'm sure he's probably a smart guy, he sure hasn't impressed me much at all so far. I've only had my car in THREE times for this now. I think I've FINALLY got through their "thick" skulls enough to where they know exactly what the deal is, which is FINALLY a step in the right direction on this issue. It's a problem with the car and its either the AUX line, amplifier, or deck. Does the deck serve as the amplifier for this car or is there a separate one mounted somewhere? Oh well, I'm being patient for now, but this is about to start getting under my skin if it's not fixed the next time I take it in. I'm going to call them back very soon if I haven't heard anything in the next few days. Somehow I feel like I'm going to have to be very persistent to get this fixed. What a situation, let me tell you. I'll be back (hopefully soon) to say EXACTLY what was wrong and how they fixed it.

tmag

Sorry to hear about the multiple trips with out any results, but atleast now the tech did agree that there is in fact a problem. Good luck, hope this gets resolved soon!