xcarlink ipod connection version

Hi everyone, my first post, I thought I'd share my experence of the xcarlink interface with the skoda symphony with my iphone 3G (-yes I'm an owner that queue to get one)

I bought the xcarlink new in the hope of using it with my fabia's symphony CD player.

pluged it all in, grounded the earth points - (I used a nut and bolted it to the rear of the symphony - that worked out well)

pluged it into the iphone and... got a message on the phone about it not supporting charging, WHAT! I wasnt best pleased. anyway I gave it a try anyway to find the audio sounding very disorted. the level out of the iphone is obviously too high - and you Cannnot adjust this.

The only good point so far was that you could skip tracks and alike - though if you DO then it locks you out of the iphone so you cant make a call - making it useless.

I decided to try the 3.5mm jack on the interface into the headphone socket of the iphone instead. This worked better and if I turned the output down the audio was perfect.

I then decided to set the audio limit on the iphone - so the Max loudness would be the perfect setting for the xcarlink. - that worked well.

I then red faced, decided to take out the centre console and mount a cigar lighter socket hidden Underneath the centre console, chaining it to the real cigar lighter( soldering involved, wired in parallel - very easy!) then I pluged in my iphone charger (made by griffin, which is self-fused) into it and taped it up so it couldn't get loose - it will now stay there indefinatly.

I got a working system out of it which sounds great though the Only good point is that, if I wanted- and I don't, I could install a cd changer "aswell as" this interface.

If I could go back in time I would not bother with this device- there are cheaper and better alternatives out there, just accept that you need a seperate charger and headphone cable, and you can't control the iphone from the head unit.

Hidding the charger out of the way and having just the 3.5 jack coming from out of the dash, and obviouly the charger coming out somewhere is a fine alternative - though if you hit radio by mistake - and you will- you're ears may bleed as the radio is So much louder.

note. I founs that "35" on the symphony volume is the max for signal to noise; meaning that you get amp hiss there after.

I recommend turning "loud" off and setting treb to 0 and bass to +2

In summary,

Just get one of though other adaptors that you can get on ebay and alike 20-40 quid and dont spent 80 pounds on this one.