An opportunity at an inopportune time earlier this month landed me a barely used '13 Ibis white S4 with very low mileage. While I wasn't 100% on the silver alcantara gut, the dealer included a 3 year 3M paint and interior package that basically means they will clean or replace anything should it go wrong (coffee spills, dirt, my dog, etc.), which put my mind at ease. It would appear that the original owner chose to spend the money on the seat upgrade but not on the nav package, which at first I was pretty OK with. Mostly because I find factory Nav annoying to use and out dated, and new maps are rarely available. The Concert Audio system has the controls in the 'traditional' location of the head unit and not by the shift knob, which is fine with me, although I know some people prefer the arm rest location. That was not a breaking point for me, either.
The problem as many of you know is that there is no easy way to stream Bluetooth to the factory sound system, which I'm really impressed with the B&O by the way. Using the SD card is not solid solution for me as I listen to a lot of podcasts, although I do like the option of having it there. Given my car doesn't have nav, I've found my iPhone sits really well on the 'shelf' for the MMI horizontally and is great for using Google Maps.
I scoured this forum and read everything, reviews on this and reviews on that. Everyone seemed to have problems or qualms with quality, skipping, scratching or audio sounding like the FM transmitters from a decade ago. I was about to purchase the 2dp4audi solution until I read top to bottom on the FAQ page to realize I'd also need to buy a hard wire kit, effectively doubling the cost. I did one last scan on Friday and found the steaming thread so I gave one more look at the ViseeO option.
The next step was to figure out what the hell the difference was between the slightly more expensive WMA1000 model and the WMA3000 model. Amazon isn't as reliable for reviews as Newegg in my experience but from what I could gather, the 3000 was the newer one and solved a lot of the problems the 1000 had with skipping and static. Ordered it Friday with 2-day Prime shipping and because my area has guaranteed Sunday delivery, it showed up early in the afternoon.
Ripped the box open, found the device and unfolded the instructions, the Bluetooth access code is the same as my Audi Bluetooth, 0000 and that's all I really read. I headed out to my car, unplugged the AMI to Apple Lightning adapter and put in the ViseeO one. Turned the bluetooth on my phone off, turned the car on, then turned on the Bluetooth for my phone again.
The phone picked up the new adapter, I paired it and was off. So, let me get the bad out of the way right now:
- Bluetooth phone calls can't be made through the Concert stereo option when using the ViseeO
- Can't access streaming audio services (Pandora, Spotify, Sirius, etc.) from the MMI
That's really it. Again I'm slightly biased but from the person on the other end of the call, all in-car hands free calls sound like poop. I've been using wired hands free kits for 15 years now, back to when Nokia was the leader in cell phones and all phones could do was make calls and play Snake. I'm OK with losing BT phone calls
The good list:
- Two 45-minute drives had zero skips, lag, static or other problems, while using Google Maps, Snapchat, texting and about a dozen 'open' apps on my iPhone
- Sirius streaming to my iPhone / connected via Bluetooth Tune2Air sounds better than the trial Sirius I started last week in the Concert stereo
- Podcasts are accessible from MMI
- If you've started a podcast on your phone, in your home, it will start where you left it off in the car
- Sirius, Pandora & Spotify all work and can be controlled from the phone to stream, MMI displays what is currently playing on the phone
- The bluetooth pairing is quick from the time the car starts
- The Audi Bluetooth hasn't tried to fight for the Tune2Air space
In a nutshell, I'm about as happy as I could be for buying the Tune2Air. It's half the price of the full hard wire kit from a2dp4audi and install takes less than 2 seconds with configuration minimal. Integration is what I've had in many previous cars with similar products and quality is on par without the added need to pull the head unit and plug in the Bluetooth adapter into the CD changer socket.
Because the sound quality of Sirius streaming to the car directly, most noticeably with the tinny sound in Howard's show, I'll most likely let that expire after the 2-month trial and just stream from my phone, which is what I've been doing for the last 5-6 years anyway. For me and my purpose, the Tune2Air works flawlessly and if it stops, I can quickly return it to Amazon.
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Originally Posted by turbophreak
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