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BMW 3-Series (E90 E92) Forum > E90 / E92 / E93 3-series Technical Forums > AUDIO/VIDEO + BLUETOOTH + Electronics/Alarm/Software > Spotify -> iPhone -> Pure i-20 -> MS-8



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      12-27-2012, 08:32 PM   #1
kaigoss69
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Spotify -> iPhone -> Pure i-20 -> MS-8

I'm a big fan of high-quality digital music streaming providers such as Spotify and MOG, and both offer up to 320kbps bitrates now over 3G/4G, but until now I have not been able to successfully integrate that option into my car stereo system. In the past I tried to connect the analog audio out from the iPhone dock connector via an RCA cable to the MS-8's AUX input in the trunk, but the RCA picked up a LOT of noise. I like the idea of having a digital connection between the iPhone and the trunk and having a third party DAC do the DA conversion instead of the iPhone itself.

I did some researching and found a unit called the Pure i-20, which is primarily designed for home use, but I believe it will work just as well for this purpose.



The unit extracts the audio signal digitally from the iPhone and then converts it with its own (supposedly high quality) DAC and outputs the signal through RCA connectors.

So I think I'll give this a try. I will use a standard iPhone sync cable to connect to the iPhone, then a male-to-male USB extension cable to the trunk, then another iPhone sync cable and finally a male-to-male iPhone synch connector to connect to the i-20. Between the i-20 and the MS-8 a standard RCA cable into the MS-8's AUX input.

Should be fun!
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      12-28-2012, 01:28 AM   #2
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Great idea! Sending it digital to the trunk, instead of analog, should tremendously reduce the interference.

Only thing is, if I'm reading this right, I think you might have your wiring mixed up. If I understand what you're trying to do, it should go standard male iPhone 30-male usb, female-female usb extension to the trunk.

Then you'd need a male to female 30 pin, because it looks like the Pure has a male iPhone connection, intended to dock with the phone. I'm sure you could find one somewhere. And then like you said, RCA to you amp and you're all set!

Keep us updated!
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      12-28-2012, 10:09 AM   #3
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Ive been waiting on a product called the kivik-one, overdue for 6 months now but designed for exactly this application...except it uses airplay
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      12-28-2012, 04:35 PM   #4
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Quote:
Originally Posted by taibanl
Ive been waiting on a product called the kivik-one, overdue for 6 months now but designed for exactly this application...except it uses airplay
Cool, that looks to be an even better solution. Questions:

- does AirPlay support 320kbps bittates?
- which DAC is used?
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      12-28-2012, 06:01 PM   #5
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Best and OEM way to do this will be to go down the combox route and use mobridge L7 kit. Combox can be coded to read data (easily upto 320Kbps or higher if phone/file supports it) digitally and it goes over the USB to combox and combox will send it on most (fibre so lossless) to CIC and CIC will route it again on most to L7 mobridge.

This only makes sense if you have CIC and if you have apetite for combox.

Just an alternate thought, this keeps your signal digital up until the last point which is input to ms-8.
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      12-28-2012, 06:17 PM   #6
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Quote:
Originally Posted by afsar View Post
Best and OEM way to do this will be to go down the combox route and use mobridge L7 kit. Combox can be coded to read data (easily upto 320Kbps or higher if phone/file supports it) digitally and it goes over the USB to combox and combox will send it on most (fibre so lossless) to CIC and CIC will route it again on most to L7 mobridge.

This only makes sense if you have CIC and if you have apetite for combox.

Just an alternate thought, this keeps your signal digital up until the last point which is input to ms-8.
Yes I would have already done that if I had iDrive!
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      12-28-2012, 06:47 PM   #7
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Using the i-20 into the MS-8 is silly... when you could use it into the H800 and use the Toslink out... if you're gonna have to have another volume knob, make it a nice one
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      12-28-2012, 07:15 PM   #8
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Quote:
Originally Posted by VP Electricity
Using the i-20 into the MS-8 is silly... when you could use it into the H800 and use the Toslink out... if you're gonna have to have another volume knob, make it a nice one
Yeah yeah Ken but what can I say, I like my MS-8, and it sounds pretty damn good, even with those old-fashioned analog inputs! Funny (and ironic), I heard the H800 had a noise problem with the digital input, but not so with the analog one! Do they have that sorted out now?

BTW Ken, welcome back!
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      12-29-2012, 06:32 AM   #9
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Does the dock connector to Y cable lose quality? I'm upgrading my system to a Level 2 Musicar NW (if Ken ever gets around to mailing my stuff!) and I want to get the best sound out. I don't want to drop $4k to hear static!
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      12-30-2012, 01:34 PM   #10
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Quote:
Originally Posted by torifile View Post
Does the dock connector to Y cable lose quality? I'm upgrading my system to a Level 2 Musicar NW (if Ken ever gets around to mailing my stuff!) and I want to get the best sound out. I don't want to drop $4k to hear static!
Yes, that connection uses the iPhone's DAC and the AUX jack (and wiring) further degrades the signal.
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      12-30-2012, 01:36 PM   #11
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On a side note, I was looking for a way to stream Spotify to my HT system, and almost bought the Apple TV - streaming it from the iPhone via Airplay - when today I found out that Spotify is now available on Roku!
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      01-15-2013, 02:38 PM   #12
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So I've done some more research and while the Kivic unit sounds to be a great solution, it is still not available. So I'm going with plan B. I'm going with an Apple AirportExpress which streams audio from the iPhone digitally and has a built-in DAC and then an analog audio output. Now the DAC is not supposed to be of very high quality, but it seems, from what I have read, that it is good enough to not cause any degradation of MP3s which is what I will be using as the source. If I was using FLAC or other lossless files, I probably could not stand the thought of them being "degraded" in the signal chain, but since I have gotten used to listening to MP3s with bitrates of 192kbps or more, I'm not going to sweat it. If I was really anal about it though, I could add an external DAC after the AE, but again with MP3 source material and beaucoup road noise is it really going to make an audible difference...
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      01-15-2013, 06:00 PM   #13
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Wow an airport express for music in a car, that is some outside the box thinking. It must be 12 vdc?
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      01-15-2013, 08:32 PM   #14
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Quote:
Originally Posted by cdgatti View Post
Wow an airport express for music in a car, that is some outside the box thinking. It must be 12 vdc?
I'll look something like this:
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      03-05-2013, 12:51 AM   #15
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Quote:
Originally Posted by kaigoss69 View Post
I'll look something like this:
So Kaigoss,

Have you done this project?...I started a similar thread few minutes ago looking for a good way to stream spotify via iPhone ...was thinking USB stick but streaming from iPhone is so much better
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      03-05-2013, 10:47 AM   #16
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I am not sure if this will work but I was thinking of trying something later tonight...I have a airport express and a power inverter that plugs into cigarette lighter...I could get power to the airport express this way...now I need an audio signal going out to the head unit/idrive.

Can I use the usb port from airport to plug into the usb slot in center console?...or is this usb slot on airport strictly an input rather than output.???...you could use the audio jack out on airport if you had amp that had rca inputs that is wired into the head unit but this seems like a huge hassle.

So are the purists on here using music on their USB sticks and plugging into the slot on center console or in the glovebox so they dont have to stream with bluetooth or use the 3.5mm jack????
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      03-06-2013, 07:39 AM   #17
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mact3333 View Post
I am not sure if this will work but I was thinking of trying something later tonight...I have a airport express and a power inverter that plugs into cigarette lighter...I could get power to the airport express this way...now I need an audio signal going out to the head unit/idrive.

Can I use the usb port from airport to plug into the usb slot in center console?...or is this usb slot on airport strictly an input rather than output.???...you could use the audio jack out on airport if you had amp that had rca inputs that is wired into the head unit but this seems like a huge hassle.

So are the purists on here using music on their USB sticks and plugging into the slot on center console or in the glovebox so they dont have to stream with bluetooth or use the 3.5mm jack????
I have started another thread. I am using it now and it sounds great, but I am having some issues with the Airplay connection dropping out. I did some reading and it seems the issue may be related to the iPhone 4S which is what I have. Have not found a solution yet. Some days it'll work perfectly, others it drops the connection every 30 seconds...

A word of advice, the power inverter will probably introduce unwanted noise. Mine was humming so loud I could barely hear the music. I bought a step-down voltage converter (see other thread) and it works great, but you'll have to open up the AE and make some wire connections.

As far as audio output from the AE, you can only use the headphone out as an analog output and you can theoretically feed that into the car's aux in but that would be a lot of trouble for trying to eliminate 2 feet of wiring. You cannot use the USB out as it is only for SW updates.
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      03-06-2013, 09:06 PM   #18
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Kaigloss.

Link to your other thread???
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      03-06-2013, 09:57 PM   #19
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mact3333 View Post
Kaigloss.

Link to your other thread???
http://www.e90post.com/forums/showth...ght=cd+quality
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