connected to car AUX jack -- inferior sound ?

Yes, that is definitely correct.

The main advantage of using the dealer installed iPod/iPhone native connection kits is that they use the dock connector instead of the mini-jack...

That being said, my brother uses the mini-jack connector in his Explorer and it actually sounds quite good.

When you connect your iPhone to via 3.5mm...

The audio on the iPod (iphone) song will most likely have to be turned up all the way. Then control the volume in your car.

You may have to turn on the EQ in the ipod settings to get better sound.

See if that works.

Also, you don't want to use a cheap cable, especially with an analog connection.. A high quality cable will make a night and day difference..

if you just used any old cable that might be your problem. the input on the iPhone, while it's 3.5mm, it's deeper than a standard jack. you need to get a cable that's compatible with the iPhone. i bought the Belkin retractable cable they had at the Apple store.

Why don't you try this instead: http://catalog.belkin.com/IWCatProductPage.process?Product_Id=193794

At the cigarette lighter end, you can plug a 3.5 mm cable to feed it directly to your AUX input of your car.

This is how I'm using my iPhone in my car. Sound is excellent. Of course that too depends on your stereo and speakers.

I would bet money that you have a plug problem. The 3.5 jacks appear to plug in but the housing is too large to allow them to connect correctly. This issue has been discussed extensively on this forum. You will have to use a small adaptor or trim down the end of the plug that attaches to the Iphone.

If anything, my Iphone sounds better than my old Ipod Video when plugged into the aux jack on the car stereo. Since the volume of your Iphone determines the level of sound that is output, you will have to adjust it so that the sound level from the CD or radio functions is approximately the same. For me it is approximately 1/8" on the slider below full volume.

Hope this helps.

MacBook Pro 2.0 Mac OS X (10.4.10) Need XP capability

Once you are sure the plug is seating properly in your iPhone, then the trick is to adjust the volume on the iPhone correctly. If you use the dock connection, no such adjustment is needed.

Put the car volume at slightly higher than normal levels from another source, such as a CD. Turn the iPhone all the way down. As you increase the phone volume, you should begin to hear music but with some background hiss. Increase until the hiss stops but stop before you hit distortion. Make any further adjustments for different songs by using the car volume.

-dan

A workaround solution is to plug your iPhone into its dock and then use the Line Out connection on the back of the dock to connect to your car's auxiliary input.

The cable with a dock connector taps into that same Line Out connection on the back of the iPhone dock.

Matt

Yes, there is also a cord from monster.

You will get poor analog output directly from cord to cord.

You will get better output from the dock connecter output, even though the output still will be a small earpiece plug.

Brian,

When you use the Belkin power car adapter with 3.5mm out, do you have to put the iPhone in airplane mode to get clean sound? Or does it just work with the phone in normal mode- that is, will it power the phone and take audio out at the same time without crazy interference?

Thanks for the help.

Just FYI, the dock output will not allow sending phone call audio to the car system. To do that you have to use the headphone jack, which will send both iPod output and phone calls, but with the sound quality tradeoffs already mentioned here.

-dan

Dan,

That's not an issue for me because my car links to the phone through bluetooth so I can use the handsfree system built into the stereo to take calls.

Matt

lostsol,

Is the 3.5 mm cord seating fully into the recessed headphone jack on the iPhone?

Is the cord crimped anywhere, for example to fit into the dash around the radio by any chance?

Anything that might break the continuity of the 3.5mm cord you are using to the iPhone could affect the audio quality.

Hope this helps,

Nathan C.