ninefourteener

So far..... I have purchased:

A 30 pin (apple) to 3.5mm adapter

A MMI to mini usb (oops)

A MMI to 3.5mm

The first didnt work at all. The 2nd was a mistake. The 3rd works..... but unless I want to reach inside tge glovebox to skip songs.... it is useless. And..... the battery depletes the whole time.

I just found an AMI to micro usb connector. Has anyone used this? Will I be able to controll any of the features on the phone? Should I just stick with the headphone connector?

MP4.2+6.0

Throw away old iPods, iTouches, iPhones, etc. are about a dime a dozen in many homes and w/ friends. Just need one that plugs in and still plays, cracked screens, poor batteries, flaky buttons or whatever.

Just use one as a dedicated slave unit, synched to your same iTunes library. You can also then up the bit rate a lot w/ out maxing the memory while competing w/ pics, videos, apps, etc. Plugging in and unplugging a current phone constantly is impractical and a hassle. And then, the short factory AMI cables do just fine.

ninefourteener

That makes sense.... but even that is going to cause issues when I bluetooth to the stereo with my phone.

Which brings up another argument...... why can I bluetooth "talk" to the stereo, but not my music or pandora?

I had an aftermarket pioneer stereo in my subaru that was bt capable..... and I connected everything. Even the voice from my gps came through the car speakers. Am I missing something?

MP4.2+6.0

if you mean connecting to AMI via bluetooth for music, you can elect to do it that way too w/ the Audi AD2P add on bluetooth adapter (once you have AMI already). Then your phone makes two different bluetooth connections--one for the phone calls and one for music. Th AD2P adapter uses a USB type connector (instead of the 30 pin one) into the AMI drive in the glove box, with another small slave bluetooth box plugged into it (kind of like a dongle). Those parts (and an AMI flash upgrade for it) come in the AD2P kit. D4's and other newer Audis incorporate this all into the OE electronics.

If that's not what you mean, then instead you just connect the old iPod, iTouch, etc. via the short cable and use bluetooth the conventional way with your iPhone. The phone controls integrate fully within MMI and pause the music, switch screens, etc. from the other slave device during calls.

ltooz_a6_a8_q7

Audi bluetooth is old technology - The new technology that 2013 Toyota Camry has built in bluetooth that can talk, stream music from any sources that your phone can provide - That's what he's talking about - new technology which Audi $100k car wasn't designed in with it.
Now, Audi Engineers can design a great car with all well thought out electronics stuff - but can't implement a simple bluetooth function like Toyota? I think not.

Bluetooth is a mean of transporting sound of human frequencies - NOT musical instruments sounds.

Pandora & all internet music streaming for people are listening to $10 head phones or some pretend to be better $100 sound canceling head phones.

Again - it's quality - and if you sit in a $100k car and you wish you can hear a great music piece reproduced by $100 stereo system then Audi is guilty as charged.

Why MOST - Why optical - Why bandwidth - Why Audi A8 or S8? Why not Subaru or Toyota ?

Convenience vs High Fidelity?

Cheers,

Louis

MP4.2+6.0

Compare Camry's (or LS's for that matter for similar classes) of that generation, or A8's of this generation, rather than apples and oranges. For that matter, try a circa 2007 iPhone or similar device--the joke of the original unreliable first generation toy for example--if it's even in the relic drawer that is. The D3 system is what it is, designed in the early millennium. My advice to the poster is to try to help him with the practicalities and limitations of the system in the car he owns. Meanwhile, it plays nice tunes for me in the real world and w/ cheap storage devices, including being able to use obsolete ones the throw away consumer electronics world.

Over in the oranges department, I am enjoying replacing the lower control arms on the 2004 Toyota for the third time now at somewhat over 100K miles. And it only takes 14 hours book time to replace (as in, absurd!). Not hard to diagnose each time it wears out when suspension visibly shifts literally many inches in a parking lot with a brake jab. Inexcusable, crap design. I'll take a safe car w/ 10 year old creature comforts any day to a vehicle with a drivetrain with dangerous flaws that should never be there like that. Same vehicle where the local dealer blew the tranny (5 speed, that is in a 2004) tightening an access cover--right into a cast pressure circuit area; got a new tranny for that little boo boo after about two weeks of their trying to figure out what they had actually done. On the electronics side (brand new design in 04, just like the D3), it would be the vehicle with no auxiliary input ability (sans a Crutchfield kludge kit), the cassette tape slot hidden behind the Nav screen, and the factory Nav screen that on the way to Yosemite always suggests you make a U turn in Los Banos and on the way to Tahoe suggests you get off I 80 for a two lane county road--and that's w/ a map update! But hey, it is a touch screen!

jakematic

Agreed.
Trying to make an 8 MY old vehicle work "perfectly" with new tech will only lead to frustration.

We even have people complaining in the D4 forum that their Audi does not meet their dreams and overly high expectations.
Phone and other technology moves faster than cars, unless you buy a new one every year or two like you do with a mobile.
Even if you did buy yearly, the engineering is always going to be slightly behind consumer electronic devices.
There will never be parity and nothing is "perfect", so my advice is enjoy it for what it is and how it's able to be utilized.

Bangerla

If you do decide to use an old ipod, keep in mind the speed of the ipod / iphone etc, drastically affects the speed of the MMI interface. The mmi can be very fast at changing songs, browsing etc, as long as your ipod can keep up. The system works remarkably well for as old as it is. Try using the microsoft Sync system in a newer Ford, and you will greatly appreciate the simplicity and ease of MMI.

ltooz_a6_a8_q7

Does anyone notice that on the BOSE system - the surround sound is practically off - Only exist in detail with Interface and CD? Why - FM quality?