drmike5000

My car did not come with the iPod integration kit, so I decided to have it installed. My issue might have been discussed before, I don't know. Anyway, the price came down on the kit, now $171 for the parts. I know its cheaper on Ebay, but I bought from the dealer.

For 2007 and 2008 (maybe 2009 I'm not sure) there is also an iPod amp that needs to be installed with the kit, that I'm sure many are aware of, but it fixes a volume issue. I found the part number on MBworld which is 204 870 39 94. I called the parts department ahead of time to make sure they had it, and they did.

There's a bulletin that goes along with this which covers the part and install under warranty which is P-B-82.85/597. This deals primarily with the C class, but the kits are all the same and if your service advisor is a decent guy he will pay attention to it like mine did.

So, quoted parts, labor, and tax was around $500 for everything (including amp which is covered). That's cheaper than it used to be. I'm sure the Dension is better. I've read about it, but I decided to go with the MB kit.

Install labor should be about 2 hours.

Well, here's the thing. My car wasn't pre-wired for this kit. It was supposed to be. Apparently there's a few VIN numbers that didn't get pre-wired and mine was one.

I don't know if others have experienced this.

End result, a 2 hour job turned into a 7 hour job with $2000 in parts and labor. They basically had to pull everything out, install the harness that should have been done at the factory, and re-wire the back of my head unit. It took them all day.

I had this done at Fletcher Jones in Newport beach. They were honorable. I've had good experience with them so far, and I find them to be very professional. They told me the situation, said my car should have been pre-wired, so they didn't charge me a penny over the estimate. I paid $568 for parts, labor, tax. They were going to bill MB for the difference as a warranty issue.

When I first plugged in the iPod, I noticed the sound was very distorted on some songs. I thought, "what the hell have I done?", since the AUX port actually had pretty decent sound quality. No volume problems with that iPod amp, however. Anyway, I played with the settings. Turning on Sound Check on the iPod solved the distortion problem, made it equivalent to the AUX port in my opinion. The rest is a matter of taste. I turned the volume on the iPod down slightly, since volume isn't an issue. I played with the EQ on the iPod but it seems best set to OFF.

I'm happy enough with it. Controlling the pod from the steering wheel is a big plus for me. My one complaint is that connecting the iPod to the cable relinquishes the controls on the iPod, so to switch playlists you have to disconnect it, change to another playlist, and connect it back.

cls63intx

Drmike thanks for sharing...was considering this myself for my '08..having second thoughts now...I use my iPhone so I guess I need to see if it's iPhone compatible anyway

are you going back to the dealer with any complaints?

drmike5000

No, I don't need to go back, it works fine. You just have to play with the settings to get it right.

With an 08, I'm sure you're pre-wired and won't have the problems that I did. Most all of the 07's are pre-wired too, so I'm told. Mine was an anomaly. I'm not pre-wired for voice control either, as apparently many are.

There is a different cable for the iPhone, a specific kit just for that. The service guy called me and asked me more than once if I had or was using an iPhone. I kept telling him no, just an iPod. I'm a blackberry user, and will stay that way for the foreseeable future.

With the iPod kit, you have to have that amp. The biggest complaint that I've read is low volume. With the amp, there's no problem with that. In fact, I turned my iPod to half volume to get rid of any distortion, and it's still more than loud enough. The Sound Check on the iPod set to "on" gets rid of almost all of the distortion.

So, far my setting on iPod is Sound Check "on", Eq on "rock", and just a little more than half volume. It sounds as good as the Aux port did, set this way. Sometimes the bass is too much, so I turn that down on the Comand.

I would do it again. I like the steering wheel controls. But, you can't switch among playlists. You have to unplug the iPod and switch manually. That's a drag, but not a big deal for me. I made one big playlist, works out well.

One thing, the Nav voice is much quieter using the iPod, even if you fade out completely. I don't see this as a bad thing, I thought it was way too loud before. I had the Nav voice faded all the way to the back, and I turned the bass and treble all the way down because it was too loud. Now, it's faded all the way to the front. It's not as annoying.

The Dension Gateway 500 definitely has more features, good things like control from Comand, scroll through playlists. I'm not sure if you have to remove your CD changer or not with that kit, that's not clear to me. With the price drop of the MB iPod kit, Dension is the more expensive option if that matters.

drmike5000

now I'm having second thoughts. About 10% of the songs have significant distortion that I can't get rid of. I'm sure it's how these particular songs were encoded since other songs are just fine, but I didn't notice this with the AUX port. I think the iPod amp adds distortion.

I'm thinking of going back and having the AUX port hooked back up for the sound, but leave the cable connected for steering wheel controls.

t-bone

Are you sure you can't scroll through playlists?

I think you push the phone buttons on the steering wheel to navigate those menus.

At least that is how it is on my iPod kit which was installed when they first came out. I doubt they removed this feature.

drmike5000

Ha, you're right. They didn't give me an instruction manual, nor did they tell me anything about the system so I didn't know. It does work like you say.

Still, the distortion is really starting to annoy me. MBtech says the iPod amp is for the C class not this one, so I don't know why they installed it then. I did ask for it, but what do I know? If it wasn't meant for it they should have told me. I'm taking it back to have that amp pulled.

t-bone

I had distortion with the amp too. I think you'll find it much better without the amp.

TraumaDude

Are you kidding!? You are my hero! I had the same annoyance with not being able to scroll through playlists. Sure enough, the phone buttons do it! Thanks for the tip!

drmike5000

OK, so I had them pull the iPod amp today.

It sounds great now, but it's not as loud.

At first, the amp distortion on a few songs didn't bother me as much, but then it really started to annoy me. It was the anticipation, I didn't know which song would be bad, then when a bad one started, I punched through to find a good one. Got old quick.

So I took it back.

Now it sounds good, but some songs are at half volume.

Now, it's another problem, some songs aren't loud enough, some are OK.

It's hard to win on this one. I think, like others have said, you're better off with just the AUX port.

I should have listened. The dealer said they would contact MB and see if there was something else that could be done.

t-bone

You can also try this if you have the latest iPod interface:

FYI if equipped with the latest iPod interface, you can also use this procedure to adjust the Aux volume output:
- Use the MFD buttons to select the iPod menu (Aux) in the IC
- Simultaneously hold down the down arrow + Tel hang-up MFD buttons for about 8 seconds the IC displays “DIAG”, “HW” -> wait another 5 seconds -> “DIAG” “Vol…”
- Within 5 seconds of the “DIAG”, “VOL” display appearing, pres the up or down arrow to adjust the Aux volume. Make sure it is set to the loudest -> wait 5 seconds without pressing any buttons -> the display will return to iPod main screen automatically.

This information is found in this thread:

https://mbworld.org/forums/e-class-w...olume-etc.html

MBtech1098

Another option, though time consuming, is go into iTunes > select "get info" for a particular track that has low volume > select "options" > and you can adjust the volume for each song. Then re-sync your iPod with iTunes.
(in case you were not aware of this)

drmike5000

Thanks to both, but I learned about this last night when I was doing my reading, and I did both things.

I checked the diagnostic pages on the iPod kit, and the volume was already turned up "+++".

I also raised the volume levels on all songs (all 6,000 of them) in iTunes and re-synched.

The volume is still not as loud as the radio or CD. I wouldn't say it's quiet, you can hear it standing outside the car with the doors and windows closed. It's probably 60 to 70% as loud as CD.



One thing I didn't check, because I didn't know, the volume in the diagnostic page is supposed to be turned down if the amp is installed, "---". I don't know if it was, because I didn't know about the diagnostic pages before they pulled the amp. If the volume was turned up, that could have been adding distortion. So, I will call the SA and see if the service techs who were working yesterday knew whether or not the volume was up or down when the amp was in.

Probably means another trip. What a fiasco.

At least I picked up some trunk nets and new mats from Trez63.

t-bone

I think I tried that combination.

Low volume on iPod control + amplifier.

It didn't help. The amplifier still distorts things badly.

I removed the amplifier myself and just have the iPod module now.

drmike5000

Well,

You can fix the volume problem with software. I used a third party app called "iVolume" vs. 3.5. This is like MP3gain, brings all the sound levels relatively even from one song to the next, so you don't get those annoying variations. I don't know if previous versions do this, but with vs. 3.5 you can also add an additional 6 db gain "boost" to the whole library. You can also set the standard volume of the whole library from 0 to 100 db with a slider.

I combined this with raising the volume level in itunes, and the volume is loud. Don't need an amp.

But, there is distortion again. Seems like you can't have loud music without distortion with this system.

I'm going to play with this, play with the levels between ivolume and itunes and see if I can get satisfactory volume without the distortion.

I think it's itunes adding the distortion, because there was some of this before without using iVolume, so I'm going to try setting the iTunes volume to 0%, and use iVolume to boost. We'll see if that works.

I'll play with it and see.

rband

I set the ipod`s EQ setting to "Bass Reducer" and that seemed to help with the distortion from the amp.

drmike5000

I tried that, I tried everything, and it seems no matter what I did, about 10 to 15% of the songs were un-listenable.

In particular, it really didn't like Johnny Cash, and some classical music. Heavy industrial stuff like Ministry really sounded dirty and cacophonous.

Anyway, I cleaned up the songs now with iTunes and iVolume by normalizing all the levels and not trying to boost them. With the iPod EQ set to "Off" almost all the songs sound fine. With the EQ set to "loudness" some richness returns, but on a few songs there is distortion. However, I can even listen to Ministry now.

However, like MBTech told me, it's really just not as good as the AUX port was. Probably for most people it's fine. My wife thinks it's fine. I'm a bit of an audiophile, so I really notice the imperfections. Some of that is my fault and/or my wife's fault for not encoding some songs at a high enough bit rate. Usually when I do it, I encode at least at 192 kbps, and some at 250 kbps, but I noticed a lot of the songs were encoded at 128. Probably my wife did that, just popping the CD's in and uploading the songs without paying attention to the bit rate. I don't think she even knows what that is. I uploaded a lot of these songs before the "lossless" codec, which I'm using from now on.

I could redo it all, but it's thousands of songs.

RaceGate

The factory sound system in our cars are horrible. I would replace the entire setup with something aftermarket.

drmike5000

I hear that, but I didn't want to get into all that with this car. I've done plenty of aftermarket stuff in the past, but this one I wanted to keep clean and stock. You're right though, not the best system. My wife's acura might have a better system.

RaceGate

I have seen some pretty clean installs and there are some very nice double din head units on the market as you know. Best of luck with your ipod trouble.

MBtech1098

HaHa...sounds like my iPod.

But makes sense, Cash, is recorded on old equipment, that did not use filters like today's music. Ministry alot of the stuff already is distorted, so adding more makes in as you said "un-listenable"

drmike5000

I also found iPod sounds better on Standard then Logic7. I don't know about this Logic7, doesn't do well at high volume.