Emwonk

How does tune 2 air compare to: Add Bluetooth A2DP Streaming to your Audi - A2DP4AUDI - Audi Bluetooth Adapters


It appears this a2dp option can take a $25 (!!!) transmitter-only approach for those who own the cable that currently connects the car and iPhone. Very cheap and minimal risk


I note the tune2air is $85 for cable and transmitter, and a2dp4audi is $79.


Therefore a2dp is mostly cable cost. However the old outdated WMA1000 alone is $90 -- so my curiosity is how well each works technically, in terms of data quality, and smoothness with Audi integration.


Both transmitters are the same size and shape; perhaps implying similar circuitry.


Thoughts?

Emwonk

P.S. Looks like the a2d might require the specially modified cable bringing its price to $90.


Meanwhile, I am seeing a troubling post in the Amazon sales page for tune2air. (It's important to me that the modified MMI car works with my iPhone playlists, etc.) That user feedback says:


1. I need to disable the car's blue tooth. Otherwise, I will hear skips when playing music through Apple's Music App.
2. The MMI will show the music information reliably only when using the car's interface (MMI) to control the music. Changing music on the phone causes the MMI to become confused. It won't show the current song playing and it will eventually go back to playing your first playlist. If you don't have any playlists the first song in your catalog will be played.
3. The unit doesn't reliably continue playing the last song. Example: play a song, turn off the car, leave, and then come back. Sometimes the last song played is continued. Most of the time the first song in your playlist is played. If you don't have any playlists then the first song in your catalog is played.

icemancometh

I've experienced all those issues mentioned in the user feedback. The most annoying is the skipping which happens for me every few min.

The downside of the special cable from a2dp is that it's seen as an aux in so no songs show on the MMI and all music controls must use the phone except for volume and mute.

With VAGCOM you don't need a special cable. Just set the cable to AUX IN. Search the forums for details.

icemancometh

Btw the newest version of tune2air is the WMA3000, which still has the skipping issue.

Emwonk

Tune2air failure to even list the WMA3000 in its technical support options, and its apparent silence on the skipping makes it a no-go for me.

I am leaning toward getting a 6 foot female-to-male extension for the cable in the glovebox. It can be routed up through the center console, mostly out of sight until used. Avoiding having to lean over to the glovebox to use the phone.

There are sufficient unresolved, complaints about the tune2air skipping that I don't trust it.

Emwonk

Neither company responded to questions about the functionality.

If they can't answer questions before a sale they are unlikely to have any post-sale support.

Fail. No sale.

Lynne Reece

My local high-end audio place is recommending this for Bluetooth functions for my 2012 A4. Has anyone ever tried this brand? They guarantee it will work plus they provide service. they put an aftermarket Kenwood system in my old Audi 2000 A6. It was great!
Vehicle Compatibility Guide | mObridge

Emwonk

An update and two questions:



UPDATE: A2DP got back to me. As mentioned by others above, this streams Bluetooth, but there are no iPhone controls. Just music-to-car.


Kudos for good pre-sale service; and this is the system I will buy unless I can find something that will operate via car.


Why? The A2DP still allows the phone to control the phone. This is good for me because the Audi interface itself seems iPhone-impaired. (See below) The A2DP basically removes the phone from the glove box, which allows me to control the phone in my hand. That works better than the Audi interface. It also lets my 15-year-old daughter remain in perpetual texting mode while listening to her profane ("it's art!!") music, without having to lean into the open glove box to multi-ignore me.


I have the 3G version, different from your MMI? I note your option adds phone function too. Is that defeatable? The Audi phone works OK as is.

-----------------------------------
QUESTION: Is anyone else succeeding to get random play on IOS to actually random play with Audi controls? iPhone 6+; Verison 8.1.3 (one back). When I am in random play mode on phone in a playlist, the forward track button on the console forwards one track vs. randoms, and manual mode mix setting merely advances one song at a time. (The burdens we must endure in the first world!)


My verdict on my "new" 2012 S4 phone/nav/music electronics is that the engineers must have time traveled back to 2007 to see how they could make the system perform worse than a 2007 BMW 335i. And the BMW felt primitive compared to new vanilla-class rental cars of that 2007 era. What I miss:

• Push up arrow to make iPhone random play my playlist music.
• Say the words "Frequency 105.7" and have a supplicant-sounding dude repeat the words and make the radio play that station.
• Easily store phone numbers
• Easily operate the navigation

I bought the car to drive, used long- distance, so it is my own fault for not doing due diligence. I operated on faith that Audi nav/radio/phone in 2012 must be better than BMW in 2007. Wrong. Slightly better than a tie for "bad."


I love driving the S4 but there are enough "usability" warts on the prom queen's nose it diminishes the experience some. Time for gratitude for all of the many nice things about the car.

erik.wahlstrom

Sorry for the late reply. PM me if you still want it.

Erik

boondagle

To answer this part of the original question, they need to be full size SD cards, not micro or mini sd. 128gb (and probably larger) cards do work in the car BUT they do need to be formatted as FAT32. Any of the larger cards will likely come formatted as exFAT and will not work out of the box. I use a 128gb card in my car every day.