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I downloaded all my music onto a flash drive but was not able to include the playlists. What cable is needed to use an older iPod in my SL? I see an input slot in the console but do not recognize the cable design. I did not get a cable with the vehicle. I have an iPod Classic and an iPod Touch and would like to use one of them so I could enjoy my playlists. Thanks for any help.
My armrest has a cable that has a 15 pin for your classic ipod and also a line in RCA for any player.
The Comand plays the ipod perfectly, you can see what is playing and it comes on when you start the car.
On the other hand the sound out of the ipod classis or any apple product is mediocre at best. The DAC chips probably cost about 50 cents.
New players like A&K or Sony that have a line out 3.5mm jack work and the sound is WAY better. Buy you have to turn it on every time you get in the car and then use the player to control the sound. As it is analog line out it can play hi-rez or any other format as it is being converted to analog in the player. The APTX bluetooth even works and still bests the old ipod.
It looks like it is a mercedes part - right below where it plugs in to the car in the compartment there is also a traditional USB port that your ipod cable will plug into - although I doubt it will play - you can try it. I was going to use it to charge my more modern player that will use the line in I referenced. Here is a picture of the cable and a deal on ebay - I would jump on it
Thanks, guyotrd. Great find. I found a couple on Amazon but much more expensive. A Mercedes parts online search revealed that it is NLA at dealers. Thanks again. I bought the one on ebay.
Received the cable today. Works perfectly with my iPod Classic. Can call up by Artist, Genre as well as all my playlists. Great buy on ebay. Thanks guyotrd!
My Pleasure and I was happy to help - I am generally not that valuable on the mechanical stuff and ask a lot more questions than give answers. But I definitely know audio.
The ipods were great in their day and 3 of my vehicles use them as a primary sound source - I have about 600 albums (6000 songs) on each and on shuffle they are basically the soundtrack to my life. The SL Comand works perfectly with them. As I stated before, the only issue is that their sound quality has been significantly bested by higher end DAC's and hi-rez files with newer players
For long trips where convenience is not paramount I will use my A&K Kann on the line level input on the cable you bought and the sound crushes the ipod - although it is a pain to use. You have to use the USB jack next to the cable where yours in plugged in for charging and then a 3.5M to 3.5 male cable - which your cable has the female 3.5. You then have to turn it on every time you get in the car and hit play as opposed to the ipod where everything works perfectly - and you can see on the Comand. I at least burn all my music into itunes as lossless so the ipod is not the horrid MP3 the kids listen to.
If your ipod ever dies (they seem to last forever) then https://www.etsy.com/shop/PiratePTiPods makes really nice ones and with much bigger capacity - they work in the cars just like the originals.
Another option is you can burn your music on to DVD's as a music DVD and use the player in the SL - this will also best the ipod as it will be using the DAC in the SL as opposed to the one in the ipod.
A lot of people complain about the HK stock sound system in the SL's and yeah I wish they used Mark Levinson like Lexus did for a while, but with a decent source it is really not that bad. I imagine the B&O is also better but I could not find any preowned with the option (they are a unicorn like ABC) Audio in a car is very tricky - especially the bass, which Mercedes has put in the frame and is pretty decent. If you listen to Sirius or MP3 sound - you are not going to get a great sound - garbage in garbage out.
If you really want the best possible sound and are willing to slightly risk safety then a Kann with some $400 headphones like Shure SE535 will OBLITERATE all car sound systems and also be perfect with the top down - you will just not be able to hear traffic around you or your wife. I do that on my motorcycle - but my policy is to monitor 360 degrees around me at all times and ride like everyone is trying to kill me so it works out.
So, is there a different connector in the 2015s than the 2017s? I used a regular usb/15pin cable to connect my wife's old Touch to the car and it was full function from the get-go. In fact, something odd happened. I burned all my music into iTunes (the last supported version) in "high-res" MP3 (320kbs?) and, in order to save room, I didn't load any of the album art for any of it. The other night I switched the COMAND to media and STYX started playing...with the album art displayed! How did that happen? Is there a version of that music info thingy (can't remember the name...duh) loaded as part of the COMAND software?
Dr Manhattan - here is more information than you asked, perhaps you will find it interesting.
I am pretty sure Itunes gets the artwork from the Gracenotes on-line library. My music is all burned from physical media (cd's I actually purchased) because I am a dinosaur. So I actually have to tell itunes to download the images and I think they are very small compared to the music files. I have heard rumors that on music you buy from apple and download - the album or songs come with the art imbedded in the music file although I do not know. Perhaps your wife did that. They typically download the songs at 128 k so they should charge you accordingly since they are giving you less than half of the music If not then your comand would have to have some connection to the Internet to download from gracenotes - The comand clearly has internet access because of the subscriptions Mercedes offers for their own apps , or possibly how the Nav gets it's data - I do not know. Discogs is another comprehensive library.
The 320 Hi res Mp3 is a lossy format and is considered close to lossless (which has the extension m4a) most say you can only hear the difference on high end systems. I prefer to use Apple lossless so I get all the sound at half the size of the WAV file that the CD format is in. It is slightly bigger than 320 MP3 though but in effect gives you a free lunch.
My 13 has a USB plug (I assume it is for charging) and the proprietary cable connector in which the cable gives you an Apple 15 pin male for the legacy apple products and also 3.5 in. for either connecting to the headphone out of any player or line out if your player has it. Line out is far better as the headphone out signal is being routed through your volume control on the player and then again through the comand on the benz. (stepped on twice)
When using the 15 pin for apple the music is coming from the device at line-out which is the best way to get it from the Apple Device.
At home I use a device no longer made from Wadia that actually strips out the pure digital signal from the ipod before it converts it to analog with it's 2 dollar DAC and then my home theater receiver does the digital to analog conversion - it then sounds as good as the original CD and is very handy to store over 600 albums on the 160GB ipod classic.
The music is very important to me while I am driving my beautiful Benz - as it brings back memories of my youth and happier times. For me it probably makes more of an impact than the subtle differences between Michelin and Continental All season hi performance tires. But that is a personal preference and I still love "carving the corners" in the mountains and not going over the cliff, so the tires absolutely matter.
I guess our SL's have the Gracenote artwork in the memory of the car ( obviously up to the date of SL production ) the same as Lexus LS 460 that I have, that's why the artwork show up, again it is my guess only....
I ended up using 320 instead of Apple Lossless because I originally had an old gen4 16G iPod and when I tried to put my CD collection on it I quickly ran out of room with Lossless. Then my wife's old gen3 Touch with 32G became available for my use, but I didn't feel like re-ripping my whole collection into iTunes yet again with Lossless (the first time I did it was at 128k). Add to that the sad fact that my hearing just isn't what it used to be, and I chose to leave the collection at 320k. Even with my current hearing, I can still tell the difference between vinyl and CD, but I don't listen that often and I'm too lazy to redo everything.
Years ago after spending $5000 dollars on a high end digital front end - the audio salesman calls me to tell me to come in an listen to a new ultra high resolution format.
I get there and he whips out a record.
As long as our ears are analog I imagine it will be hard to beat well produced vinyl although with some of the recent Beatles CD remasters they are getting real close.
I just don't see how a CD can sound as good as analog with only a 44khz sampling rate...there's just so much of the wave form missing that it has to sound cold and dry in comparison. What was the deal with SACD...didn't that have a higher sampling rate or something?
My experience is that the quality of the recording is more important than redbook (traditional cd) vs SACD or DVD Audio, both known as DSD.
Most of the first generation cd's from the 80's sounded awful and even early SACD's like the Isley Brothers 3+3 were not that great. On the other hand recent redbook CD's where that artist cares about the sound and is not boosting the gain and bass are also good.
The new Pink Floyd DSD multichannel Wish you Were Here is amazing and the SACD Blood on the Tracks is also quite good.
On the other hand the original Led Zeppelin records I bough in the 70's sounded awful and both the records and cd's recently remastered by Jimmy Page sound great.
Mercedes SLR McLaren 722 S Is Extremely Rare Example Modified by McLaren
Slideshow: A one-of-one U.S.-spec Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren Roadster became even rarer after a factory-backed transformation at McLaren's headquarters.
If not then your comand would have to have some connection to the Internet to download from gracenotes - The comand clearly has internet access because of the subscriptions Mercedes offers for their own apps , or possibly how the Nav gets it's data - I do not know. Discogs is another comprehensive library.
