I expected the cable by now but when I called to check on Saturday the answering machine at Crutchfield said "due to the 27" of snow we received here in SC we are extremely shorthanded, please be patient". At this point I am being patient. I wont have a chance to try it until this weekend anyway so as long as it gets here by Saturday i should be able to try the install then.

I received the adapter Thursday. As long as my wife can do without the car long enough for me to try the part i will do it this weekend.

I also looked up the service bulletin mentioned for the XK. It is the same bulletin that has been in use since '95 and all it states is that only Jaguar branded CD changers will work with Jaguar radios. It states that aftermarket Alpine CD changers will not work with the Jaguar radio. I have personally installed Alpine CD changers in several XJ and XKs from 92-2003 and all have functioned with the Jaguar radio with no problems. I'm pretty sure you will not be able to use a changer capable of playing MP3 files but as long as you get a CD only changer I don't see a problem. This is why I think the Alpine branded aux adapter should work with the jaguar radio.

 

Are you sure you have installed off the shelf Alpine CD changers in an XK8 or X308 car as I remember when these cars were launched we discovered the connector was not the same as the early cars. I had never heard of using anything but an OEM changer in the later cars. Please correct me if I am wrong.

 

I can confirm that the PIE ALP/AI-AUX switch works on a 2002 XKR. The trick is to put the switch between the navigation unit and the amplifier. Putting the switch at the head unit or the cd changer did not work. The aux comes in through the radio.

 

@ markman

Thank you very much for confirming it. Interesting about where it needs to be connected to work, but nothing surprises me anymore on these factory stereos !

 

I've been super busy and sent away for training on the new XJ coming out soon. I am back in town now and my wife and youngest daughter are going to a girl scout mall sleepover Saturday night which means to me they won't be doing any sleeping Saturday night. That should allow me the time with the car on Sunday to try the Alpine adapter while they are catching up on their sleep ¦>)

Yes I have installed off the shelf Alpine CD changers in Jaguars many times from XJ40s through 2002-2003 XJ XK for sure. I'm not sure if I have installed one in a post 2003 XK or not but I think it is still the standard Alpine AI link? connection used through 2003. I've also seen several installed by others on cars that have come in for service.

Maybe we should all buy the new XJ. It has 3 USB connections including Ipod connectivity through the standard Ipod cable you connect to your computer. Plays DVDs with video on main nav screen when vehicle is in park. 40Gb hard drive that has 10Gb dedicated to media the owner can load themselves through the standard CD slot. No more changer at all, no more discs in the car, just load the CDs you want into the hard drive and put them away in the house. Load 10Gb worth of MP3 files and drive many miles without a repeat. Hell, plug a USB terabyte hard drive in and drive for the rest of your life without a repeat taking up little more space than an Ipod. This is what it's coming to, get ready.

 

Thanks for the feedback, but I must admit that I don't really understand how this switch works on your system so please forgive me for being a bit inquisitive here: Are you saying that the aux comes through the radio when the switch "works" or when it "doesn't work" (I can't tell if your last sentence is a continuation of your penultimate sentence or the one before it). If the switch "works" when it plays through the radio, can you be more specific? For example, does it play through FM or AM--and, if so--do you have to tune to a certain station? Or do you mean by "radio" that it just plays over (meaning, along with) whatever source (cassette, CD, AM, FM, Nav) is playing at the time?

Also, how is the level of sound? If you play, for example, a CD using the head-unit at volume 20 and then play something through the Aux In, do you find that you have to set your MP3 player to a very high or very low volume in order to match the sound level of the CD? Do you notice any MP3 sound distortion as a result of going through this switch? Would you say that the MP3 sound is more comparable to the head-unit's radio source or to its CD source sound? Does the Nav audio still retain its ability to lower the sound level of the Aux-In music when it needs to play its audio (as it currently does for AM/FM/cassette/CD)?

Can you tell us where you bought the switch?

Thank you,
Jon

 

The switch senses input from the ipod (or any other RCA input). I turn my radio on (FM or AM, station does not matter) and once I start playing music on my ipod the radio is overridden by my ipod. When I stop the ipod the radio comes back on after a few seconds.

In installed the switch in the trunk between the navigation unit and the amplifier (grey AI cable in my car).

The sound quality seems fine to me but I am not an audiophile. It sounds better than the cassette adaptor. The navigation turns down the aux audio automatically just like it does with the radio. Interestingly enough the volume setting on the ipod has no effect on volume of the head unit. This is a different behavior compared to the cassette adaptor that I used previously and it means that when you switch from CD to AUX there should be no difference in audio volume.

I bought the "ALP/Ai-AUX Ai-NET Audio Switcher" and "IPOD TO RCA AND 3.5 CONNECTION" from amazon (seller: shipsound). The switcher does not work for Jaguar according to pie.net who makes this switch. It works for mine ('02 XKR) but might not work for yours.

If I had to do it again I would be using this fm modulator that plugs directly into your antenna jack at the rear of the head unit. It's cheaper, has more input plugs and eliminates to install a cable from the trunk to your center console. Since it does go through the air like other fm modulators the quality seems to be good from what I hear.

http://www.discountcarstereo.com/detail.aspx?ID=1323

 

@markman

Thanks for the update. Thie system really is bizarre. Anyway, your posting shows that there is potential.

As far as FM modulator is concerned, I'm not an audiophile, but I did notice a clear improvement in the AUX input method. Running the wire through from trunk to centre console in an XJ8/R is easy, I guess it's more difficult with an XK8/R

 

@Markman:

Thank you for answering all of my (many) question. Wow, I never would have expected the device to play on any radio setting! When you mentioned "radio", I thought you were using the term colloquially to refer to the "head unit" and not literally to the radio portion of the head unit, but you have now knocked some sense into me! That's rather fascinating that it works that way!

Also, it is awesome that the Nav can still reduce the volume of the Aux-In when sending audio prompts! How cool is that?!

I am an audiophile--and the cassette adapters (yes, plural) I had tried (I think I bought 5 of them from different manufacturers including Monster and Apple) were all woefully inadequate. Not only was the sound quite horrible, but I was distracted by the sound of the take-up reel turning while listening at lower levels. Those adapters seem to amplify the motor of the cassette, especially when they heat up after 10 minutes or so of use.

I have seem the FM kits too and tried those and I personally think they're ridiculous. Perhaps if you are listening only to something like the CBS Radio Mystery Theater, or other such vocal-only audio, they might be acceptable--but for music? No. I have also seen the "direct" FM kits that connect to the antenna, but I am leery of such devices and feel that they too would not offer anything near the quality attainable with a direct wire connection to the amp. So I think you should be consoled that you had spent some extra money to get a superior solution installed into your vehicle.

You didn't actually say it--and I understand that it is better than a cassette adapter--but I would want to know if you (even though you're a professed "non-audiophile") can tell the difference between Aux-In music from your MP3 (recorded, say, at a 256 Kbps bitrate or higher) and the SAME music played with a CD on the same system. If you thought the sound was equal or nearly-equal, I would like to know...

Shame on PIE.Net for not knowing that you can connect using the Nav connection. I had e-mailed the support for that company and received a "It won't work" message. I just can't believe they could not/would not be more helpful. You would think they'd want to sell their product. Clearly, there is a market for such a device. I appreciate that you say that it may not work in my vehicle (a 2000 XJR) but I suspect it will.

I have just purchase a new head unit to replace my existing one (this is my second try)--it has yet to arrive but should be here by the weekend. I first need to ensure that the problem in my system is the head unit and not the amp. Once I fix my system's issue, I may look into the solution you chose. Otherwise, I will go with the relay-based direct-wire solution aptly proposed by the brilliant QuadManiac user.

Again, thanks for all the great feedback!

Regards,
Jon

 

@Jon
if you are replacing the head unit then you might as well buy one that has all the input (ipod, mp3, bluetooth etc) that you want. Are you replacing it with a head unit from Jaguar?

I did a "hearing test" and I think cd and ipod are very much the same. Can't tell you much about the bitrate.


I also learned that I accidentally bought an ipod adapter/charger for the old (3rd gen nano) power style (firewire). Nano 4th and 5th gen use a different powering mode (5V USB). This one charges the old as well as the new nanos:

http://ipodcarparts.com/ipod-dock-co...ing-p-369.html

 

I am not replacing the head unit with anything other than the same part.

I have since determined that my issues are not related to the head unit but to the amp. I have ordered a new amp and will post later once I have results of the new amp in my vehicle.

 

Hi Guy's..........I am very interested in hacking up my cd changer so I can play my i-pod through it, but when I tried to find the schemo for the wiring I can't seem to find it anywhere. When I follow this link

http://j.roal.home.mchsi.com/X308Bluetooth.pdf

It takes me to a blank page. Can someone please send me a link to the wiring diagram......Thanks................Dan

 

@Dan

Thats a DISASTER ! I'm at work right now but when I get home I'll check on my home pc to see if I saved this golden document. If not we should be able to work it out together from AI-NET pin out diagrams that are available. You only need to connect to 3 wires (left, right and ground).

 

the link still works for me...do you have adobe acrobat reader installed?

 

It has to download the whole document before you will see anything but a blank PDF page. It took me about 30 seconds - may take longer depending upon your connection speed.

Also, a good recommendation for anyone who accesses the document - save it on your computer - so if it ever does go away, we'll have plenty of copies to pass around, if necessary.

 

@3down

Thats weird, I tried several times earlier today and was getting "page not found" errors. (I have adobe installed, etc). Now when I tried it I got the same errors the first 2 times, then the document appeared on the 3rd reload. Anyway, yes, good idea to save it now :-)

 

IE can timeout if download connection takes too long, perhaps that was your problem.

 

Hi Guy's......I finally was able to get the bluetooth phone install file created by Jim Roal. It took a couple more tries and I think my problems were related to the size of the file. What a great piece of work from Jim. I can see that quite a lot of time and engineering was put into this work. Many thanks to both Jim and all the other posters who helped me out, you guy's are awesome..!!!.............Dan

 

Guys, I am also working on this, I will post as things come along (good & bad). so far not much success, I was hoping that the alpine AI net to Ipod box KCA-420i would work but save your money, it does not all it manages to do is block the head unit so no buttons work. I have more parts on order, next will be to try one of the PIE AI/AUX switches mentioned earlier. it will mean RCA connection so no control from the head unit but if I can get sound then it will be a big improvement.

 

Thanks LuxXKR for your post. Please keep us in the loop with your findings....Dan