iPhone to Symphony with Bose

[ncr1]

I'm after an interface for my A3 so I can listen to my iPhone music via the car.
Head unit is a Symphony with Bose, and the car is 2005 MY. Apparently, in 2005, the audio systems in these cars changed.........how can I tell which one it is? also, which is the best one to go for? There's a few about.

[jonathanfenton]

I'm after an interface for my A3 so I can listen to my iPhone music via the car.
Head unit is a Symphony with Bose, and the car is 2005 MY. Apparently, in 2005, the audio systems in these cars changed.........how can I tell which one it is? also, which is the best one to go for? There's a few about.

I have the fully amplified system meaning my headunit uses preamps and send a low level signal to the bose amp in the boot. Meaning there was no easy way to interface a solution. In my MK4 Golf i had a Parrot Kit the MKi9200 which just plugged and played.

When i looked into putting this kit into my A3 i unleashed a whole world of pain. The problem lies with the fact that the symphony system using fully amplified system means that for you to interface with this setup you need a convert the parrots system to a preamp level. As the parrot kit has built in amplifiers its signal is far too strong for the Bose amp to process and needs turning down dramatically. I found a cable from Auto leads which has a built in reducer which does just that it reduces the signal from the parrot into the a preamp signal which then feeds to the amp and utilises all the bose speakers.

From that i then have a small screen between my two vents in the middle and i have a cradle to the left on my gear stick which i dock my iPhone straght onto it which has the parrot lead secured to the back of it i think its called a passive connector meaning it converts the parrots iPhone connector into a dock connector. The difference is instead of having to press the little buttons on the side of the connector to pull the iphone out you can just plug in and pull off again with ease. I can send a picture if you want?

Back to your question. You need to pull the radio out and check the back of the unit. You will have to check to see if there are amplified out puts. On some models the front speakers are amplified by the radio and the rear speakers by the bose amp. The newer systems are fully amplified.

Some companys say they can interface there kits into your car by tapping into speakers which is completely stupid way of doing it! They do this to cars with front speaker amplification from the head unit and basically cut into your speaker wires meaning your iPhone/pod will only be playing over your front speakers. Very messy and very poor.

So to conclude i would recommend an Auto Leads (They have both types of harness adaptors half amplfied and full) install. If you want hands free calling use a parrot system and if you dont then still use a parrot system but dont install the microphone!

On another note i noticed the other day (whilst stuck in traffic obviously) an Audi Handsfree whilst browsing on my phone. I connected with pin 0000 and my car had built in bluetooth handsfree! The callers name came up on the drivers information system and my headunit says "Phone". I dont know if this was supposed to be switched on as i dont have the steering wheel controls or think it has the phone option pack but definatly worth while checking!

Rant over.