iPod dock connector vs. AUX-in

tagscuderia

tagscuderia

Member
Hello all, I'm looking at getting a Becker head unit, it comes with AUX-in but has an optional iPod dock connector kit. Basically, which is better?
My experience is:
1. We have dock connecter to USB in our Pug 3008 which is great but it's not asynchronous so stutters regularly. Also the head unit only allows you to select an artist, it then plays track 1 from each album followed by track 2 (or it might be alphabetical, I forget), not great. The iPod itself is locked out.
2. My brother-in-law has a Focus ST with AUX-in and it's awful; uses the iPod's amp at a guess and if you crank up the volume to audible levels, it distorts! You use the iPod to select tracks though which is better and it doesn't hiccup during playback.
So, what's the general consensus from the A2OC? Is it worth the extra £150 for the iPod kit?
Cheers, greatly appreciated.
 
I don't know about the becker Ipod interface, but generally the standard Audi Ipod interfaces are generally poor in operation but perfectly acceptable in sound quality and so is the aux. Can you find any information of how well the Ipod integration is done. It's the lack of text support on the 6 CD changer interface that lets the Audi down. It only allows the first 5 playlists which effectively emulates the 6 CD changer.
 
one of the major difference is charging. A fully compatible 30pin dock connector should keep your ipod or iphone charged where as using the 3.5mm jack via aux-in obviously doesn't.

In terms of sound quality, the dock connector's output is unamp'ed line level. Then it depends on the specific device, the quality can be significantly better than the 3.5mm headphone amp'ed output. Certainly was the case with my iphone 3GS, the dock unamp'ed output was so noticeably better. The iphone 4 is better and I believe iphone 5 has even better headphone amp. My ipod nano's headphone amp was also better than the 3GS.

I'd choose the dock connector purely for charging, regardless of sound quality. My very old Dension ICELink connects to the dock and has a mode that allows me to control using the ipod itself.
 
tagscuderia said:
Hello all, I'm looking at getting a Becker head unit, it comes with AUX-in but has an optional iPod dock connector kit. Basically, which is better?
My experience is:
1. We have dock connecter to USB in our Pug 3008 which is great but it's not asynchronous so stutters regularly. Also the head unit only allows you to select an artist, it then plays track 1 from each album followed by track 2 (or it might be alphabetical, I forget), not great. The iPod itself is locked out.
2. My brother-in-law has a Focus ST with AUX-in and it's awful; uses the iPod's amp at a guess and if you crank up the volume to audible levels, it distorts! You use the iPod to select tracks though which is better and it doesn't hiccup during playback.
So, what's the general consensus from the A2OC? Is it worth the extra £150 for the iPod kit?
Cheers, greatly appreciated.
Click to expand...

Hi Tagscuderia,

Of the iPod interfaces I've played with, XCarLink's is my favourite. It connects to the CD changer port and will provide all that you love about the setup in your Pug as well as the benefits of the Focus ST's aux in.
When the iPod is connected, it gets charged. The iPod does not get locked out, meaning you can start albums and playlists just as you would normally. The volume control on the iPod does get locked out, meaning that volume control is done from the head unit. The iPod pipes audio into the head unit digitally, meaning there's no chance of clipping and distortion. Whilst you can skip tracks and such on the iPod itself, the skip buttons on the head unit will also control the iPod. If you turn off your head unit, the iPod will pause and go to sleep.

I believe the Dension units work in a similar way, though having installed both, I'd choose the XCarLink model simply because the build quality is better. The XCarLink version will also work in parallel with the genuine boot-mounted CD changer, which is important for me as I have this option fitted to my A2.

Cheers,

Tom

Link: http://www.xcarlink.co.uk/product.php?productid=6&cat=4&page=1
 
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timmus said:
...The iPod pipes audio into the head unit digitally...I believe the Dension units work in a similar way, ...
Click to expand...

The Dension definitely doesn't take digital out from the 30pin dock connector. There are a pair of pins (plus earth) for analogue line level output and that's what the Dension and almost all other docks take. The new 8 pin Lightning Dock (iphone 5, latest ip[a/o]d) is however, all digital and requires an adaptor that has a built in DAC chip to be compatible with existing 30pin docks using analogue line signals (analogue video is no longer supported as well).
 
humps said:
The Dension definitely doesn't take digital out from the 30pin dock connector.
Click to expand...

Hmmm... your post has made me do some more in-depth research.

It seems the OEM CD changer has its own DAC and pipes the audio into the head unit via a stereo analogue pair. Whilst there is a clock pin (which I had assumed was SPDIF-related), this is just for the control data. Consequently, any iPod dock that uses the CD changer port must pipe its audio into the head unit over the aforementioned analogue stereo pair.
This then raises another question... at what point is the iPod's digital audio converted to analogue? Does the iPod transfer its data to the XCarLink interface as a digital stream, for the interface to do the D-to-A conversion, or does the iPod do the conversion itself? I suspect the latter is true, as getting a 30-pin iPod connector to output a digital stream is a licensed process (I believe). As such, XCarLink's claim that you'll "enjoy perfect digital CD quality sound" is somewhat misleading.

Regardless of the technical details and the precise point of D-to-A conversion, it's a decent piece of kit. :)

Cheers,

Tom
 
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If it's the genuine Becker Ipod interface then it actually better than the Audi/X-car link etc.....

The Becker Remote Kit lets you control your iPod®, conveniently select titles from your music library via the car radio display and enjoy top-quality sound. Compatible with 3rd 4th and 5th generation iPods®, Mini and Photo iPods®.

The following Becker products are iPod® compatible:
Mexico 7903, 7948 (starting system-cd 3.5)
Mexico 7942 (starting system-cd 3.6.1)
Cascade Pro 7941(starting system-cd 3.5)
Cascade 7904, 7944 (starting system-cd 2.5)
Traffic Pro 7945 (starting system-cd 2.5)
Traffic Pro 7949 (starting system-cd 2.5)
Indianapolis Pro 7950, 7951, 7952, 7953, 7955 (starting software version 3.0)
Indianapolis 7850, 7851, 7852, 7853, 7855, 7920, 7921, 7922, 7923, 7925 (starting software version 2.0)
Grand Prix 7990, 7992, 7993, 7995
Mexico Pro 7936, 7937, 7938, 7939
 
Cheers for the response, @craigyb yes I'm looking at the genuine Becker unit, makes sense to get the matching unit. From your description it certainly sounds like the best option, cheers for that.
As discussed the dock connector/line-out uses the iPod's DAC but the head-unit's amp. AUX uses both onboard DAC and weedy headphone amp -- it's the latter that I presume to be the issue in the ST, not powerful enough. From Humps' post, I guess that it'll be the same story across cars... kind of knew that I wouldn't be happy with AUX-in, this confirms it.
@timmus, the Xcarlink interface sounds better than the Pug's integrated kit, irritating! You can get a dock connector to USB/3.5mm cable, got one on order. Hopefully that'll be best of both; charging with uninterrupted un-amped music stream. Will probably still lock the iPod out though :(
 
My Alpine HU takes a digital stream from the iPod and it has its own 24-bit Burr Brown to do the conversion, so essentially the iPod just becomes a hard drive. I'm not sure whether any of the others interfaces mentioned here have that same functionality. It does lock out the iPod although the controls are mimicked in the head unit. Downside is the UI is typically Alpine-lousy and some think it looks too aftermarket. Maybe this is more trouble than you want to go to?

Clearly lots of pros and cons to be weighed here!

Cheers
 
shreddedmeat said:
My Alpine HU takes a digital stream from the iPod and it has its own 24-bit Burr Brown to do the conversion, so essentially the iPod just becomes a hard drive. I'm not sure whether any of the others interfaces mentioned here have that same functionality. It does lock out the iPod although the controls are mimicked in the head unit. Downside is the UI is typically Alpine-lousy and some think it looks too aftermarket. Maybe this is more trouble than you want to go to?

Clearly lots of pros and cons to be weighed here!

Cheers
Click to expand...

Genuinely surprised to read that! I'm not an audiophile but I use Fidelia (plus FHX) on my Mac with an rPAC DAC/amp and Sony PFR-V1s i.e, I care about sound quality. So I'm surprised and interested.
Does the Alpine unit definitely use its DAC for iPod playback? Digital-out is strictly controlled by Apple, even most docks make do with the onboard Cirrus or Wolfson chips! I looked a while ago for an iPod compatible DAC+amp but they all used LOD -- for the iPad (and possibly others) you can use the "camera connection kit" to get digital-out but most of the time you're stuck with analogue.
On the face of it, I'd presume the Alpine to be advertising its DAC for CD playback but I'd be interested in getting confirmation otherwise!
Thanks.
 
Indeed it does. It's a mechless deck so no CD drive, iPod only, which is fine for my uses.

The sound is good, but then most Alpine units generally sound good - I can't say how much of that is down to the DAC though.

It's an iDA-X305 if you're interested, there are also some CDA models with the same features

Cheers
 
To add my 2p
I've got an xcarlink and am very happy...
Had it in 3 different audi's now and it works well in all

I don't use the Bluetooth bit now but do use it for my iPhone 5 with an apple lightning adapter

J
 
shreddedmeat said:
Indeed it does. It's a mechless deck so no CD drive, iPod only, which is fine for my uses.

The sound is good, but then most Alpine units generally sound good - I can't say how much of that is down to the DAC though.

It's an iDA-X305 if you're interested, there are also some CDA models with the same features

Cheers
Click to expand...

Thanks for clarifying, certainly piqued my interest technically.
 
Anybody know of a decent in car audio specialist I could use in London? I've got a radio cassette in my car (2001) which I've tried using one of those FM transmitter things in & it's been hopeless.

Much as I'd like to keep an Audi unit in mine I don't think any of them have USB/ Aux features in them? So to me they're pretty useless for my needs; I just want to be able to play my iPhone (4S) through it.

I do a ton of miles & like my choones so any advice would be most welcome.

Cheers,
Hedge
 
Hedge said:
Anybody know of a decent in car audio specialist I could use in London? I've got a radio cassette in my car (2001) which I've tried using one of those FM transmitter things in & it's been hopeless.

Much as I'd like to keep an Audi unit in mine I don't think any of them have USB/ Aux features in them? So to me they're pretty useless for my needs; I just want to be able to play my iPhone (4S) through it.

I do a ton of miles & like my choones so any advice would be most welcome.

Cheers,
Hedge
Click to expand...

If you're near north London you are welcome to meet up and listen to mine
J
 
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