Bit of a long shot but, my girlfriend has an Audi A4 (convertible) in which she wants to play her iPod. Had anyone fitted Assn iPod compatible head unit that can recommend one, does it need blanking plates? I think the stock one is bigger.

Failing that, anyone fitted an alternative such as a ‘connects2’ connector box? Any idea which model and what is needed to fit?

Cheers.

both my and my girlfriends cars have alpine 313 ‘media recievers’ in them – they’ve worked faultlessly

http://www.alpine-electronics.co.uk/products/product-singleview/digital-media-receiver/ida-x313.html

you’d probably also need something like this

http://www.caraudiodirect.co.uk/con-ct24au06-ct24au06-facia-plate-for-audi-a4-2002.html

and something like this

http://www.caraudiodirect.co.uk/con-ct20au05-ct20au05-harness-adaptor-for-for-audi-vehicles-2004.html

I have an XCarLink in my 55 plate A4 with the standard Audi Concert stereo.

It is not without fault, but I’d recommend it. My iphone connects to it easily, the sound quality is great and I can control skipping tracks from the little control wheels on my steering wheel.

A few observations:
It works by pretending to be a CD changer, so if you already have a CD changer I’m not sure how they co-exist.

It uses the different simulated discs to select different playlists on your ipod/iphone.. on mine it defaults to CD4 whenever you turn it on, which for me maps to the ‘purchased’ auto playlist on my phone so it always plays the same song when I turn it on – this gets annoying!

When it is playing one of the playlists, the display shows ‘accessory connected’ and you can’t use the ipod controls, only the stereo or steering wheel ones. You need to change to CD1 to access the on device controls – once you’ve done this, it is all good – it is just a little annoying having to do it every time.

I suspect these issues would be identical with any of the third party boxes that pretend to be a CD changer.

Like I said, not without fault, but overall recommended.

Dave

just to compare that to the alpine – the alpine has full access to the ipod controls using the stereo – the big round thing acts as the click wheel, plus you can skip forwards\backwards letters (it might be the model up i’ve got that allows you to do that). so if I want album ‘x’ I can find it pretty easily without having to use the ipod itself, whic his nice.

obviously the xcarlink is a much ‘neater’ solution, and probably easier to fit. I’ve got 40 gigs of music on my ipod so having the menu access is really handy

there are some sony ones now where you put your ipod into the headunit, like an oldschool casette.

I should probably qualify that I can’t really comment on usability of ipod with xcarlink, since I’ve only used it with my iphone.

I have my iphone in a cradle mounted in front of the central dash air vents (I use it for satnav), so selecting albums or playlists is pretty easy and actually nearer and easier to see than if I was using the stereo fascia.

My car has the ‘phone prep’ bluetooth integration thingy, so I didn’t want to change the stereo to an aftermarket one in case that nobbled the smooth way that that works.

Dave

Just give the guy from this site a call : –

Craigyb

He is the Audi retrofit guru and is well known / respected amongst the Audi forum folk.

He is also very helpful! 😀

Thanks all. I’ll look further into your suggestions 🙂

I had an iPod connector put in my Beemer, it replicates a CD box and means that you can do the basics through the stereo/wheel, but not any of the iPod menu items – consequently I just put the iPod on shuffle and let it play.

Try a specialist and see what options you’ve got.