Scoops

Almost a year ago now I had my dealership install an aux input in my car. They put it in the glove, I bought a fancy Monster gold plated aux cable and yet I've always been very disappointed with the quality. I understand that AUX will never match CD quality but there has always been next to NO bass.

Now recently I've had 2 ipods have a problem with their AUX jack, a friend of mine looked at them and told me they got fried from too much power going through them. I only ever used those in my car... Dunno how much truth there is to that but I'm scared to plug my new iphone 4 in the darn thing.

Finally; as of late vocals in songs seem a bit staticy, dunno if that's my cable dying or the jack yet; but based on past experience I'm gonna make a fair assumption that it's the actual input.

What have your experiences been with AUX? Do you get bass at all? Should I get it replaced with an iphone cable? What should I do?

Edit: The car is a 2006 E60 btw.

swajames

Try a different kind of cable - one that sends a line level signal to the AUX input. Stereo mini-jack AUX cables rely on balancing the volume with the audio device and if the volume is set too high or too low you'll impact your audio experience. There are a number of cables that take the line level output from your dock connector through to the stereo mini-jack input. You might find this helps - the audio quality will generally be better. Also make sure you're using good source material. iPods do actually have decent audio hardware, they use decent DACs, but you can't polish a turd - if you're using low quality low bit-rate material it's not going to sound good. Feed the iPod some high bit-rate (or, better still, lossless) material and see if you have the same issues. If you have tried two different iPods it may well be that you have a hardware issue or an install issue with your auxiliary input, but I would recommend you try the taking your audio at line-level from the dock connector and making sure you're using good material. One last thing to check - make sure your iPod EQ is set to off, and make sure you're not boosting treble on the car audio side. If you are using an over-bright EQ setting on the iPod and further boosting high frequencies with your in-car EQ you'll get a lot of audio artifacts - and this will be turned up to 11 if you did happen to be running lower quality material on your iPod.

Scoops

Thanks so much for this amazingly informative reply! As for the quality of the music I'm putting in I usually try to get 320Kbps when I can and the exact same song burned on a CD will produce bass. As for the in-car EQ I usually boost bass all the way on aux since it barely produces any and leave treble as is.

I'm not sure I understand some of the technical stuff you've told me to do. I'm a bit of an audio noob Could I just go to Best Buy or any electronics store and ask for an aux cable that sends a line level signal or is there something I should be looking for on the packaging?

I'll buy whatever cable I need today, run some music from my iphone with and let you know how it goes.

Thanks again for a very helpful reply. Kinda gives me some hope. I was dreading the first reply being along the lines of "get a new one".

swajames

Scoops,

here's the kind of cable that you might want to try:


Monster also make something similar (it is combined with a charger) and I would expect you'd be able to find one of these kinds of connectors at Best Buy or Frys etc.

It does sound like your source material should be good. Is the audio lacking bass on all audio sources or just your aux-in? If it's just the latter, I would have to suspect that it may just be that your install didn't go quite right. If you can return the cable if that doesn't help then you've (hopefully) got nothing to lose by trying a different kind of connector. I'm thinking you're most probably correct in your suggestion that you may simply have an install issue here (my aux-in on my 550 sounded just fine when run as I described above with a line-level signal) but let's hope the different kind of cable helps.

good luck!

Scoops

Went to Best Buy and they don't have anything like that. The person there told me it wasn't even possible to which I replied that I saw one online.

Tried ordering off Amazon but they don't ship to Canada. Any idea how I can get a hold of one in Canada?

EDIT: Nvm, I think I found it on amazon.ca

EDIT2: I'm at checkout now and I found this hilarious and sad at the same time:

Items: CDN$ 12.99
Shipping & Handling: CDN$ 6.98

7 bloody dollars for shipping on a cable? Just throw it in an envelope!

swajames

Try looking for the Monster product which is a combined charger (using the cigarette lighter socket) and line level output to stereo 3.5mm mini-jack in one.

I'm really starting to think that your issue may well be with the install or the aux input itself. Quick question, though. Have you tried another cable just like the one you already have? Using a few iPods and decent material probably rules them out as the culprit, have you also tried a different cable? I wonder if your issue could be your current mini-jack to mini-jack cable? If you have access to another, and these are of course readily available, it may be worth a try too. Either way, even if it is your current cable the line-level connector will improve your audio quality anyway and is a decent investment in itself.

If none of the above work, I fear your only recourse is going to be with the dealer to have them check it out for you seeing as they installed it for you. Did it always do this or has it just started?

Anyway - best of luck!

Scoops

Ya.... for the time being I'll try some other solutions...

Paid 7$ shipping on a cable that doesn't even weigh 500g for it to take 2+ weeks to ship. Amazon is beyond terrible in Canada. I don't even understand how a company can become so bad operating a few KM north across the border.

Anyways, like you said it's a cable which will come in handy either way so I look forward to receiving it. In the mean time I will find another aux cable to try it out with. AUX in my car hasn't produced bass or any amazing sound quality since day 1 but the actual distortion is recent.

If that doesn't work I have a service soon anyways so I'll have them look at that too.

Thanks again for all your help.

swajames

I hope you get this fixed soon. Do keep us posted!

Scoops

Update:

I just called BMW and made a service appointment for the 31st. Looks like the AUX is covered under a 2 year unlimited KM warranty so they'll take a look at it.