consultant1027

Installed the iSimple iPod and Bluetooth modules in my G37X Journey. Not very happy with it.

The major problem is the iPod volume via the cable or via Bluetooth streaming is about 40-50% lower than the built-in analog aux input in the car and the Radio and CD. I think the fault though may primarily lie in the low input sensitivity of the SAT input for the factory head unit. What frustrates me a bit is the iSimple tech support claims it is only 20% lower volume. They are WAY off.

Here's how I determined that aside from just noticing right away. I plugged the iPod into the analog built-in Aux jack of the car and turned the iPod volume to 100% full. I then adjusted the car volume to a nice medium volume level which is about 1/3 volume on the car stereo. I then switched to the iSimple interface and the volume is WAY WAY lower. To get the same volume I had to turn the car stereo volume up to about 2/3!! My normally loudest listening level is now 100% UP / FULL on the car stereo when listening. It is probably actually about 90% of highest listening level but it won't go any farther. In a way it is now almost like protecting my ears only allowing me to crank my music to 90% my maximum tolerance. But, if you leave the volume that high and switch to the radio or CD, you might DAMAGE your ears!

All my MP3 gains are optimized to 93db which is about as high as you can go on most songs without clipping. There is no Sound Check or Volume Limit turned on, on the iPod. I found many other complaints in other forums and threads regarding this low volume issues. It's a real shame.

In addition the bass and treble need to be boosted a little when using the iSimple. But that is just the difference between the balance on the digital versus the analog input. The stock stereo sounds very good (as good as the Premium or maybe even a little better) when an iPod with flat EQ is plugged into the analog Aux input.

Further more, the up and down buttons on the steering wheel don't advance the track like the instruction booklet says they should. They make the system switch to FM radio and advance to the next track and you get BLOWN OUT with the volume being SUPER high. You have to use only the Tune **** to for next and previous track. You can HOLD the down button and it changes to P.List on the stereo but I haven't figured out what you can do from there with the steering wheel controls as pressing it again, changes to FM radio and advances the station (and blows your ears out.)

In addition, I haven't figured out a way to actually pause song playback either. In fact if the song is already playing and you plug it in, the iSimple may actually pause the song instead of start it and there is no way to start it (as far as I can tell so far) except unplug it and then plug it back in (I may have that backwards but you get what I mean)

I was almost thinking of just going back to the analog aux input and buying a bluetooth based remote control that mounts on the steering wheel, but that is kind of cheezy.

The streaming bluetooth sounds exactly the same as the ipod interface. I'd use that but I prefer to just throw an extra iPod in the glove compartment and not put additional drain on my phone.

The best solution may very well be using BT streaming on your iPhone coupled with a BT remote device to control the phone. You could mount the phone on a mount on the dash or plop it sideways in the ashtray area so then you could see album art, etc. But if you wanted to charge it you would have to run an unsightly cord.

You can't really put the iPhone in the glove compartment because there is no way to initiate a voice dial using the cars buttons, you have to press and hold the button on the iPhone, then you can do a hands free voice dial. That's really the only major flaw with the BT interface.

I would think most of these drawbacks are limitations in the factory head unit's interface, but I would also think, (being a programmer years back), that at least some of these things can be overcome or improved a bit with some changes to the iSimple's firmware programming.