03 M45 IPod integration using HKDP2 poor sound quality solution

[travisthecat1]

I dedicate this post to my good friend Ray McDonald, a man of unmatched skills and ingenuity as well as unparalleled patience.

About a year ago I decided to integrate an IPod with my 2003 M45 OEM sound system. I purchased from the EBay a used cassette deck from a wrecked 2003 M45 and after some experimenting, Ray rewired this thing to accept an IPod audio signal.Having spent countless hours working on the stealth installation of the display into the ashtray, Ray came up with a perfect solution. Unfortunately, I can not host these pictures on this site but if any one is interested I will be happy to e-mail them.After turning the unit on I was deeply disappointed by the quality of sound. There was some hiss, no trebles and distorted base. On top of that, the input level was low and I had to compensate for this by turning volume knob on the car system almost all the way to the end, therefore degrading sound quality even more.I was blaming the cassette unit, and thought that the only way to rectify this problem was to find a satellite radio adaptor and utilize it as an AUX input for DP2. I spent hours researching this through the internet but found no adapters available. Everyone was telling me that 2003 and 2004 M45 were an extremely low volume cars therefore no one tried their products on these cars, let alone designing them for these vehicles.Finally, last night, after unsuccessful attempt to install Peripheral’s PXNI adapter that did not work, Ray experimented with the direct connection of the IPod audio output to the tape deck. To our amazement this was an almost CD quality dynamic sound with no distortions and good volume.The moral of the story: $400 dollars that we paid for Harman Kardon Drive and Play 2 was not enough to supply this unit with a descent internal amplifier, so instead, they opted for a cheap piece of junk that defeats the purpose of this otherwise neat setup. Next thing Ray did was to arrange for the separate cable to bypass audio input of the DP2 brain directly into the input that he jury rigged on the cassette deck. Now I have to plug in DP2 cable that provides me with total IPod control and a cable with a mini plug that provides an excellent audio.I think that the above could be of help to other 2003/2004 M45 owners who appreciate good sound quality.

[Boon]

Was gonna send you the link to these pictures for you to post with your letter but just saw you posted it already. Here are the pics of his install.

[travisthecat1]

Thank you, Boon.I saw your recent post in which you indicated that your M45 is for sale and I thought that you are no longer interested in this topic.I guess that I should have known better...Thank you for posting my pictures.You are a Gentleman.Thanks again,travisthecat1

[mcrews]

Yeah,We have the same problem W/ the F50 Q45s.We have tried many different harness and attachments to try to get an IPOD to hook up. A guy in austin Tx has wired a mini plugin line directly into the CD player, soldered actually.I see that you are in SF. I'm up in Satco and go to San Ramon a couple of times a week.

BTW, I uuse my ashtray to hide my parrot bluetooth!

[SKperformance]

I thank you for posting as it may help all 200 owners of the 03-04's LOL.I am slightly confused on the wiring option mentioned.

What is now connected directly form the HKDP2 , is it a cassette adapter or a wire soldered to the rear harness( after the tapes amp circuit ) or connected to the internals of the tape adapter in front of its internal amplifier ?

Any idea on a swicher and using the cd player inputs?

thanks

[travisthecat1]

In order to gain an Aux. input to M45 OEM system the cassette deck was slightly modified as described in Boon's post "Advanced IPod Integration Instructions (write up)" of 4/10/2008.Instead of routing iPod audio signal through the IPod adapter I opted to feed the audio signal from the earphone output of my iPod directly into cassette deck, bypassing the built in amplifier of DP2.Now I have to plug into the IPod the adapter that will give me the screen display and control and a mini stereo jack for the sound. Not only it will sound louder but also you will not hear the annoying distortions created by the cheap DP2 amplifier

[SKperformance]

Thanks again , I will look into the tape mod some more as i was not understanding the mod clearly.Hopefully ii can get this done.I wish i could make it easy and have the screen bypassed to show nav and dvd for the non nav ones, but i have seen a module that is supposed to work on the Q45 without nav to make it show video but it uses wireless rf for audio ?