Hi guys,

One of the things I really miss from my old Fabia, which had a lowly cassette player, was the ability to play my iPod through the car speakers using a cassette adaptor. My current Fabia has the Symphony cd player, which complicates things slightly...

Yesterday I tried one of those wee FM broadcaster things, and the sound quality was utter pants. I know you can get headunits with dedicated iPod interfaces (indeed, I have one in the For Sale section http://briskoda.net/items-sale/jvc-kd-avx11-cd-dvd-headunit-ipod-interface/135518/), but I want to retain the standard look of the dashboard.

So I guess it therefore comes down to one of the interface cables that plugs into the cd changer socket on the back of the Symphony, like those manufactured by Dension and Connects2. My question is, which is the best in terms of sound quality?

Thanks,

Andrew

The genuine VAG one is the same as the Dension & we have that in SWMBO's Fabia. I've been very happy with the sound of this for what it is. It's fair to say that using the standard Symphony HU & Fabia speakers won't give the "best" sound in the first place, but it's all relative & like you we wanted it to remain "standard"!!!!!

The genuine VAG one is the same as the Dension & we have that in SWMBO's Fabia. I've been very happy with the sound of this for what it is. It's fair to say that using the standard Symphony HU & Fabia speakers won't give the "best" sound in the first place, but it's all relative & like you we wanted it to remain "standard"!!!!!

Yes, the standard speakers leave a bit to be desired...but both my front doors suffer from an annoying rattle, so I may do something about the speakers while I have the doors apart for that

Thank you, so one vote for the Dension...

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I've a Connects2 in mine, Can't fault it.

Creative Zen player, So the IPod interfaces were useless for me, And there's just something about IPod's that leaves me cold, So can't see me rushing out to buy one.

The negative sides are no charging ability & no remote control(Through the Symphony).

But for the 30 odd quid i paid and a further 8 quid for a slightly longer and higher quality cable, It's a compromise i was willing to live with!

I've also installed a Connects2 recently, but mine is a dedicated Ipod version (I think they have a couple of different adaptors for the Fabia Symphony) so it charges the Ipod and allows some degree of control from the head unit.

It costs a bit more than the one mikeSM56 has, but I'm very happy with how it works, and at £59.99 it was quite a bit cheaper than the Dension solutions.

More info, and some pics in http://briskoda.net/ice-security-insurance/connects2-ipod-adaptor-fabia-vrs-pics/134581/

I've no experience with the Dension option, so can't comment on differences in sound quality sorry.

Another thumbs up for the Connects2 here..... We've got the cheaper £30 version that doesn't allow control through the HU (Apart from volume of course). We have one in both our vRS's, hence going for the cheaper option, and they sound great.

Cheers

Dave.

sorry to hijack the thread but my fabia has the symphony cd player in and it certainly the worst i have had in any car i have owned. It seems to have problems playing any type of CD in the cold and even if CDs have the lightest of scratches on them it will skip and bounce all over the place.

sorry to hijack the thread but my fabia has the symphony cd player in and it certainly the worst i have had in any car i have owned. It seems to have problems playing any type of CD in the cold and even if CDs have the lightest of scratches on them it will skip and bounce all over the place.

Get it replaced under warranty. The one in the mrs' car was a bit picky and they replaced it under warranty.

Cheers

Dave.

Hi Dave,

Can you give me anymore details? The car has just had its 3rd birthday (registered on 13th Jan) so i am doubting any redress is possible now?! Its not all the time, just very very annoying when you have had much worse CDs play just fine in every other car :(

Hi Dave,

Can you give me anymore details? The car has just had its 3rd birthday (registered on 13th Jan) so i am doubting any redress is possible now?! Its not all the time, just very very annoying when you have had much worse CDs play just fine in every other car :(

She was having problems with CD's skipping / jumping even when the car was stood still..... The car was still within warranty (was about two and a half years old at the time) so the dealers replaced the HU under warranty.

If you've just gone out of warranty then you'd have to try and see what the dealers say etc..... Maybe you were ill recently and couldn't get in to tell them before the warranty ran out.

Cheers

Dave.

Luke, see what the dealers say as it appears to be a fairly common fault. I had mine replaced under warranty (albeit whilst only a year old) as it sometimes wouldn't eject cds.

The genuine VAG one is the same as the Dension & we have that in SWMBO's Fabia. I've been very happy with the sound of this for what it is. It's fair to say that using the standard Symphony HU & Fabia speakers won't give the "best" sound in the first place, but it's all relative & like you we wanted it to remain "standard"!!!!!

Anymore info on the genuine VAG one?

Think it was the Dension 100 just sold under a VAG part number. Basically it plugs into the CD changer socket on the back of the HU and tricks it into thinking that the iPod is a CD player. A combination of keys on the HU allows you to navigate track/album/artist up/down etc or you can set it so that control is handled by the iPod.

So VAG unit or Dension will be the same. It works, but is no way as good as a full iPod ready head unit IMHO. In reality there are so many other factors which affect sound quality that it would probably be difficult to say which of the direct connected types of iPod link would be the best. My "work car" (affectionatly called "the barge") is a 14 year old Mondeo 1.8 estate, which came with an Alpine full speed iPod HU that was worth more than the car, so when it goes to the great breakers in the sky I know what i'll be keeping for the Fabia!!!

Anymore info on the genuine VAG one?

The VAG version was a rebranded Dension Ice>Link Plus. Part numbers and more details are on VRStu's site at Fabia-vrs.com - OEM Ipod Interface

However, Dension have now replaced this with the Gateway 100. Current info on the Skoda UK Accessories site lists the Ice>Link plus as being no longer available - ?koda Accessories

It says it is due to be replaced shortly by the Dension 100 (but its been saying that for a while now!) and I don't see any particular reason to buy from a dealer anyway.

I looked into this a couple of weeks ago, and didn't manage to find any reason to pay Dension / VW / Skoda prices (around £100 IIRC) when the Connects2 lead (see link in my post above) seems to do the same things for £60