Connecting phone to play music through stereo

[dg12]

Morning
I have just bought myself an 03 E85 3.0 upgrading from my last one which was a 2.5 and already seeing the difference!
Its currently got installed the BMW stereo with sat nav and cd changer plus someone has fitted a ck3100 parrot bluetooth device aswell

Im.after advice on the best/easiest way to be able to play music through the speakers, there seems to be a million ways to do it

Ideas so far are changing the cd changer for an aux set up which i did in a 07 civic a few years ago but not sure if it can be done with bmw?

Or changing the parrot unit for one that supports music streaming and not just hands-free

Any adivce would be greatly appriciated

Thanks in advance

 

[NickDE]

I have a GROM audio in mine, along with the bluetooth dongle for handsfree calling. I pulled an old Parrot out to fit it.

 

[mr.tourette]

easiest and cheapest way is fitting a regular aux in such as the well regarded "fruity car cables" one which retains your current cd changer set up and costs around 15 quid.. you want to spend more then I'll let the more experienced audio techs chime in

https://fruitycarcables.co.uk/fruity%20car%20cables/shop/select%20your%20model.html#!/products/z4-e85-e86-aux

 

[Kevoz4]

I would not bother with fruity cables, he sent me one and it did not work. I’ve been emailing him for about 3 weeks and not one reply. Used him in the past and no problem but I’m well pi$$ed off now.

 

[kis]

Can you not play through the bluetooth? I've got a parrot as well and I can put an old style ipod in the glovebox and connect phone via bluetooth and play audio through either.

If it can't then I'd look into how complicated it is to just upgrade the parrot?

 

[coupedan]

I bought an aux kit from BMW for about £45.. I heard mixed reviews about Fruity - I wanted one to just "work"

Only issue is, you can't really take calls through it that well but plays music fine.

 

[coupedan]

Oh.. and you get to keep your CD drive (least I have in mine) but I had no NAV

 

[BMWZ4MC]

I have an aux input in my car and you can use it to take calls (at least with an iPhone). The phone mic is still active and the aux lead works like headphones. Of course, when listening to the radio or CDs, it doesn’t work without selecting aux.
I rarely use the Bluetooth function in my Zed now because it’s clunky connecting a new phone.

 

[Vijay]

Panasonic have released a new unit which uses your phone as the display: https://www.pioneer-car.eu/eur/products/SPH-10BT
Perhaps someone can if it will works on older cars as it seems it's aimed at that market....

 

[srhutch]

Panasonic have released a new unit which uses your phone as the display: https://www.pioneer-car.eu/eur/products/SPH-10BT
Perhaps someone can if it will works on older cars as it seems it's aimed at that market....

That’s a head unit.

Think the OP is looking to retain the OEM one.

 

[MKZ4000]

I would not bother with fruity cables, he sent me one and it did not work. I’ve been emailing him for about 3 weeks and not one reply. Used him in the past and no problem but I’m well pi$$ed off now.

Where does this connect? I have the CD changer at the back of the car. Does this connect at the CD Changer or to the head unit?

 

[chuckmiester]

If I remember right when I fitted one to the original e85I had, I tried a cheep cable of eBay and it did not work. It didn’t have the resister fitted that the genuine bmw one has. You need to remove the head unit, unplug the cd changer, and plug the aux cable in in its place. Then route the cable to a suitable place down near the ash tray. I fitted a Harmon Kardon I drive to mine which would be very dated now.

 

[sharpyboy]

Panasonic have released a new unit which uses your phone as the display: https://www.pioneer-car.eu/eur/products/SPH-10BT
Perhaps someone can if it will works on older cars as it seems it's aimed at that market....

I have this head unit as my Grom unit started playing up and it works quite well with one exception and that is the different volume levels of different AV sources. The iPhone connection via lightning cable is loud as is the radio and USB but playing the iPhone music via the app and Bluetooth streaming music is at a lower volume so if you switch sources you either get deafened or can't hear it. The built in phone holder is excellent though. I'm thinking of replacing this head unit with a single din 7" screen CarPlay unit.

 

[Kevoz4]

I would not bother with fruity cables, he sent me one and it did not work. I’ve been emailing him for about 3 weeks and not one reply. Used him in the past and no problem but I’m well pi$$ed off now.

Where does this connect? I have the CD changer at the back of the car. Does this connect at the CD Changer or to the head unit?

Hi
Mine doesn’t have the CD changer so it plugs onto the head unit. I’m adapting the one I bought to a aux jack as opposed to a older type 30 pin iPhone plug which also had a fused pos and a neg lead, which didn’t charge the phone either.
Don’t know what’s happened to Rory at Fruity Car Cables but there is zilch contact.

 

[Torpalasse]

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.de%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F253153228002

Fitted this one today. SUPER sound. I had the aux cable before and this one is so much better. Go for bt.

 

[Jembo]

+1 for the GROM

Only downside is manual CD activation, otherwise a quality unit for both Bluetooth & streaming

 

[Vijay]

@sharpyboy does the SPH-10BT come with Apple Car-Play?....

 

[mmm-five]

@sharpyboy does the SPH-10BT come with Apple Car-Play?....

According to the link, it doesn't "come" with anything as it's a receiver for whatever phone your using as a display (just think of it as a dock between your phone and a car-based amplifier). If you've got an iPhone then it uses the Apple ecosystem; if it's an Android phone then it uses that.

 

[mjennings23]

Looking to do a Grom at some time myself. Currently using a Bluetooth aux adaptor and it works perfectly well, but the sound quality when swapping to the cd or radio input is vastly different, feels like it wakes the amplifier up properly.

I expect it's due to the way the head unit and amp handle the inputs, my cd changer is directly linked to the amp via coaxial (DSP system) so that may well explain why it's so good.

 

[Vijay]

Thanks mmm-five, that's what I thought!