Kurtz

iTrader: (1)

First, my apologies to the OP for the gender pronoun confusion.... second:

You need the AUX port TSIB it sounds like, adds a ground loop isolator to fix the interference that can happen when you have something in the AUX port and the power port at the same time.

Audio from the AUX port should sound exactly as good as the VAIS kit as long as you're using a line-level output on the player since both are line-level inputs to the audio system.

(disclaimer- this assumes you're using a line-level analog audio VAIS kit, which is most of em- I think they have one higher end one at least with some digital processing added that could impact sound quality if you have Mark Levinson and it uses a digital input rather than the analog one all the other/non-ML systems use)


and third...

USB wasn't added until 2010.... are you sure it's not a lexus ipod kit that was added to the car? This was optional for most of the older cars.

You can see most of the model year changes here:
http://www.lexus.com/cpo/model_libra...0_options.html

that's part of the "new for 2010" info.

Under 2009 you find no mention of USB whatsoever, but you DO find this:
http://www.lexus.com/cpo/model_libra...OptionPackages

The downside to the older ipod kit, besides the fact it only did ipods, not all USB devices, is the fact it was incompatible with satellite radio too.