Bluetooth adapter for stock radio?

[somebody5788]

Anyone tried the GROM setup? I like the hands free and wireless music streaming in my Jeep and was looking for a way to do it on the B5. This seems to be the only one I can find.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/GROM-USB-VW-...sories&vxp=mtr

with this bluetooth dongle

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ws/eBayISAPI...m=400189787339

[Duds]

Buy it and let us know how it works out lol

[somebody5788]

Buy it and let us know how it works out lol

Lol it's a little bit pricey. If it works it's worth it to keep the OE look in the car.

[mightemouce]

Im using a scosche aux in adapter with the bluetooth media gateway from rim. It doesn't do bluetooth phone calls but I love it for wirelessly streaming music from my iphone.

[ThemarKing]

go with grom, i have that set up in my s4, works really well. answering phone calls would pause the music automatically. the call quality is nice too, but the person on the other end of the line will hear a bit of echoing. i got mine from autotoys.com

[somebody5788]

go with grom, i have that set up in my s4, works really well. answering phone calls would pause the music automatically. the call quality is nice too, but the person on the other end of the line will hear a bit of echoing. i got mine from autotoys.com

Is there a noticeable amount of digital audio quality loss? Like that "pixely" noise?

[ThemarKing]

no, bluetooth streaming has very good quality, can't tell the difference from cds

[somebody5788]

no, bluetooth streaming has very good quality, can't tell the difference from cds

Sweet, thanks for the info.

[mattcr]

I posted this in another thread only on the Grom but thought I'd post it here too with some additional comments...Sorry for the length but this was a fun project.

I almost returned what turned out to be a very good product.

I bought my Grom adapter with bluetooth accessory for my C5 A6 with Symphony II stereo right before Christmas. I didn't touch the stuff for a month. When I installed I had a problem with the adapter. They sent me a new one that was an updated version. It worked finally. I actually now think the adapter was fine but I needed to completely remove the radio from the harness and plug it in again (long story).

When I hooked up the bluetooth adapter and streamed music via AD2P it sounded TERRIBLE! Music was over modulated with a computerized sound. Telephone calls sounded fine though and people told me the microphone connection csounded very good. They sent me a new bluetooth dongle that was, once again, an updated version. It now sounds perfect! The bluetooth quality of music is identical to the wired connection. One other thing though, I had to manually pair the phone with the old bluetooth dongle, the new one connects automatically which is awesome.

Be careful though, you need a really good ground connection for the whole Grom system to work. I went through 2 PIE adapters (no bluetooth) in the past 3 years and I think they failed because my ground connection was poor. I tapped into the radio harness this time after viewing some installation tips on various sites using a 't-tap'. It was a little scary but I got it done and the connection should be rock solid. I think the video I watched that identified the ground wire was on autotoys.com (A6 allroad installation) but I bought my Grom directly from them. I bought a bag of various t-taps with accompanying plugs on ebay for 6 bucks (search 3M t-taps/male connectors or search the seller I purchased them from which was soundextreme1902). The yellow one (they are standardized) worked for the wire harness gauge. Amazon sells them as well.

If you buy the Grom call them or online chat with them. Don't buy the bluetooth accessory unless they can guarantee that it is the Feb. 2012 released version. Think it was coded F 1.5. You should also make sure the firmware is updated by them because doing it yourself is a pain but certainly not difficult as long as you have a micro SD card available.

In the end all the hassles were worth it. I am very, very pleased with the device.

By the way, drop the glovebox in a C5. It was so easy. 5 screws I think. Hide the adapter behind the glovebox in the upper left side. Use wire ties to secure it in place and to organize the wires. The microphone can routed through the headliner through the sunroof control panel and then along the passenger side headliner down the door into the are behind the glovebox. Trick - if the wire falls out of the headliner try this: the microphone wire is thin. Take some electrical tape and wrap piece around it to "bulk it up". It will then be thicker and will hold in place. You don't have to do the whole wire, just a couple places.

I won't go into it right now since this is a bluetooth thread but I also installed a 3.5mm hardwired input into one of the empty black plugs next to the ESC button above the radio. My friends thought it was a factory installation. Bought the input from Monoprice but you need to know how solder to make it work well since you need to connect a male 3.5mm audio cable to plug into the Grom adapter.

Good luck.

[americanthunder]

+1 on a proper ground, I have the dice adapter in my S. My first attempt at grounding it didnt work out. Do yourself a favor , anything audio your putting in your S, drop the panel under the dash and use a tester. There's several blocks under the drivers dash that you can tap into. Figure out which one is a ground (check with key off and on) and take the nut off, put your ground on and your done. totally worth the extra 5 minutes.

[somebody5788]

+1 on a proper ground, I have the dice adapter in my S. My first attempt at grounding it didnt work out. Do yourself a favor , anything audio your putting in your S, drop the panel under the dash and use a tester. There's several blocks under the drivers dash that you can tap into. Figure out which one is a ground (check with key off and on) and take the nut off, put your ground on and your done. totally worth the extra 5 minutes.

The ground is right on the side of the car in the body of it. The post with the yellow label is key on power and the red ones are all constant 12v.

[americanthunder]

The ground is right on the side of the car in the body of it. The post with the yellow label is key on power and the red ones are all constant 12v.

there ya go, Its been like since I've been in there.

[somebody5788]

there ya go, Its been like since I've been in there.

Lol, I love having the power distribution block under the dash. Hard wiring things is so easy and you have the choice of key on or constant.

[americanthunder]

Lol, I love having the power distribution block under the dash. Hard wiring things is so easy and you have the choice of key on or constant.

Yeah I love it too, great design. I have so much shit hooked up down there lol. Meth system, radar dector, boost gauge etc etc.

[R1CH-5100]

There is some really good info here, thx guys. I've been considering this option to replace the solution I pieced together a couple years ago (which still works but is just dated).

I'm definitely going to do this in a month or two.

Link to my current solution