Jottle

I have an observation and question about my newly installed isimple pxamg iPod adapter that's connected to my 120gb iPod classic. Before installing the adapter, I used a 3.5mm to iPod dock cable plugged directly into the aux port on my 06' tsx. This configuration gave me excellent sound quality since it uses the iPod's internal amplifier (through the dock port) instead of the 3.5mm jack at the top of the iPod. After installing the isimple yesterday, I've done some critical listening and found that the fidelity is slightly less than using the dock to 3.5mm cable I was originally using for playback through the oem stereo. Bass is not as well defined, and treble/midrange is recessed. This was pretty surprising to me considering that the isimple uses a direct dock connection and direct connection to the tsx audio system as well. It's not a huge reduction in quality, but it is discernible. My original 3.5m to dock cable and the isimple cable should sound identical. Actually the isimple connection should be superior since it plugs directly into the factory radio input, but this isn't the case. I'm just a little shocked, but also wondering if anyone else has noticed that the isimple doesn't have the best audio quality compared to the 3.5mm to dock cables that are hard to find, but available out there?

I see everyone raving about the increased sound quality of the isimple, but I believe they're usually comparing the quality to a 3.5mm cable connected to the headphone out of the iPod and into the aux input of the tsx, and not a cable that goes from the dock output of the iPod into the aux input. Any thoughts? I've checked my connection, and all cables are tight and there's no distortion/noise issues on the simple connection. I guess I just thought the quality would be better than advertised.

Jottle

Other observations in the infiniti forum as well:

http://g35driver.com/forums/5656093-post47.html

darowa

I use an Isimple on my '05. There is no aux input on the '05 so I can't compare the dock connector audio with an aux input.

The dock connector on an iPod carries what I would call a "line output". It is fixed level. The headphone jack on an iPod is driven by an amplifier controlled by the iPod volume control and the output level can vary.

In making comparisons, you must be careful to have the levels the same because the louder output will generally always sound "better".

I believe the Isimple takes the line level signal (from the dock connector) and connects it into TSX audio bus. Two important parts of the audio are the codec used in storing the music (how you ripped the music) and the D-to-A conversion (done in the iPod). The TSX contributes amplifiers and speakers to the sound.

Jottle

Thanks darowa. I'm aware of level matching when comparing sources, and I seem to not be alone in noticing the decrease in quality when running the iPod via isimple:

http://www.tsxclub.com/forums/1st-ge...tml#post882850

Both my line out iPod cable and the isimple use the same line out cable. But it looks like the isimple is just inferior to other iPod integration kits out there (e.g. usaspec). It's to bad too. No amount of eqing or level matching will fix this issue.