Aygo Xcarlink Ipod Interface Adaptor

[Stevec427]

Only had my Aygo (62 reg Fire) a few months so am quite new to Toyota ownership. Got an ipod touch for my birthday acouple of weeks ago and altho i've connected it to the stereo with an AUX lead, the sound isnt great. The ipod is on full volume and the Aygo stereo needs turning up much louder than the radio to get decent volume.

Ive found on eBay an XCARLINK interface adaptor thats supposed to connect to the CD changer input on the back of the stereo and allow me to change track, alubum etc with the controls on the stereo.

My question i guess is ' are they any good?' I dont really want to change the head unit for an aftermarket item and thought the XCARLINK seemed a good idea. Would really appreciate your thoughts!!

[alan333]

On both our Toyota's the ipod volume is lower than the radio or a cd. It's the same with our iphones. It's also the same if connected by bluetooth rather than the Apple cable to USB.

There was a court case against Apple a while ago, something about someone hurting their hearing, which resulted in Apple reducing the max volume on their ipods (Europe only IIRC). There's a setting on my (older, non-touch) ipod which you can increase to max permitted volume (or something similar). Check yours is set to max (if yours has that particular setting). It probably won't make any difference tho.

I assume you can control the ipod with your stereo at the moment? I don't think you'll gain anything by fitting the xcarlink, although i've never used one.

[Stevec427]

On both our Toyota's the ipod volume is lower than the radio or a cd. It's the same with our iphones. It's also the same if connected by bluetooth rather than the Apple cable to USB.

There was a court case against Apple a while ago, something about someone hurting their hearing, which resulted in Apple reducing the max volume on their ipods (Europe only IIRC). There's a setting on my (older, non-touch) ipod which you can increase to max permitted volume (or something similar). Check yours is set to max (if yours has that particular setting). It probably won't make any difference tho.

I assume you can control the ipod with your stereo at the moment? I don't think you'll gain anything by fitting the xcarlink, although i've never used one.

No, my ipod touch is connected with the 3.5mm jack lead; the controls have no effect on it.

[Cyker]

I have one of those in my Yaris, but just the USB/SD card version.

Seems to work well enough, can skip etc. with the steering controls and car thinks I have a 14 disc CD changer currently

They are pretty expensive for what they do, but they work pretty well.

Interestingly, the volume when playing from USB or SD card is okay but if I plug anything into the AUX on the Xcarlink it has the same problem you describe (i.e. much lower volume).