I also posted this in the Audio/electronics section.

As long as I've had my '69, I've had trouble with the radio sounding at all decent. I had the guts to the original stereo radio converted to modern, tried a couple speaker options, added an amp, etc. Results have been mixed, but that's not the problem.

The converted stereo now has a wire that I can plug into my phone to use as an iPod. Usually this is pretty great but it's always been wonky. Often, as I drive along the play jumps back and forth from what the iTunes is playing on my phone over to the radio channel. It's startling because I need the volume up more for the phone play, and when it jumps to the radio it's suddenly blasts loud.

Even when it's working right, when it's between songs on the phone, it will jump back to the radio. Sometimes it picks back up on the phone, sometimes not for a while, sometimes not at all. Some days I go for a ride and I cannot ever get the phone music to play at all. The phone always plays music when I just listen to it or use headphones on it.

This was with an iPhone 5. I bought a 7 which doesn't have the jack, but comes with a converter/connector which does not work at all on the 7, ever. I've read online posts that there's some some of electronic conversion that does not work when using the jack plus converter plug, but I don't know if that's true.

Tonight I tested the car using a different iPhone 5. It seemed to work much better and was even a bit louder. I figured it all must be in my phone. However, on the way back the music started drifting to the radio between songs, and then started switching back and forth from the radio and phone erratically like on my phone.

I've thought it might be heat, but that doesn't hold up. It seems my phone is worse, but I'm not convinced the radio or wire is working properly.

Any crazy ideas?

 

Sounds like a connection problem to me if all of a sudden it switches from aux input (your phone) to the radio. What head unit are you using?

 

The radio is stock 1969, converted to modern guts.

 

I've used various iphones with a number of different vehicles and connected them either with the 3.5mm cable or Bluetooth. No issues. I usually leave the phone volume all the way up and then control the volume I want to hear in the vehicle with the stereo.

Find something else you can plug your iphone into - maybe another car? Only way to prove out the phone.

While testing elsewhere it try another cable - I have damaged a couple of them and they have caused connection problems. I lost the cable a while ago and went strictly Bluetooth. Maybe your receiver can do that too ?

As for the iphone itself - without getting into the weeds - it's 'best practice' in general to make sure it's on the current OS and has it's updates. Don't go down that rabbit hole until you've tested your phone & cable somewhere else.

 

So all you do to play from the phone is connect a wire?

If so then I bet the "wonkiness" has everything to do with the signal detection circuitry in your converted radio.

 

The new iphone 7 appears to have its own set of issues. The removed port for the wire is actually an analog port, and the other power port is digital. This is causing issues apparently in using the cable with the lightning adapter Apple provides, because its not converting, Im told. Also, the songs on my new iphone show "in the cloud" which make them inaccessable for headphone use in an airplane because they arent actually downloaded on the phone. Im guessing my old iphone 5 does work (sometimes) because those songs are physically downloaded to the phone, like an Ipod.

Unfortunately, it does seem something is wonky with the radio or the cable.

 

My uneducated feeling is the same, which is a bad result for me.

 

I wouldn’t get too deep into how the sausage is made. Using a Lightning/3.5mm adapter is OK and won’t be a problem. I've used all sorts. I was trapped in service trucks in the NY metro area for years and podcasts & music kept me from chewing on the steering wheel or swallowing my tongue in the heavy traffic I had to contend with. I keep thousands of songs and hundreds of podcasts in my phone. I do not use cloud storage – I suggest a local copy.

What has been a problem for me in the past is that any time you have a cable there is a physical ‘point of failure’. Adapters add additional point of failure. Not all cables are equal either and there are lots of cheapos in circulation. I’ve had similar weird problems because I’ve somehow damaged the cable, adapter or had fuzz in the female port of the radio or the phone – regardless if it’s the 3.5 or Lightning. Never once had an iPhone by itself cause issues.

Like I said, I’d just try the phone in another vehicle and if the problem persists either replace the cable/adapter until its good connected to another receiver. Personally, I use Bluetooth and avoid all that but it can have its own frustrations sometimes. When I jump in my 2015 F150 my phone and truck receiver sync up automatically; if I crash the thing will even dial 911 on its own.

SO, when that’s all working you might get a hoot out of this: go to iTunes and check out “Corvette Chief - David McLellan” and look for Episode 2 “Test Drive with Zora Arkus-Duntov” and go for a ride in a ’61 Corvette with the man himself. I guess it was a recording put on a 45 sent out as a promotional item. It’s cool. Every time I have to reach out and poke that ‘Fasten Seat Belt’ button I can hear him say “is your seat belt fastened?”

Good luck.

 

Well, further testing kinda muddies things further.

-iPhone 7: further research confirmed that the songs labeled by a cloud icon on that phone were not downloaded to the phone, which caused the problems on the plane and I assumed, in the car. I hit the cloud icon at the top of the list which made all the cloud icons by each song show "downloading". The phone Settings showed they were all on the phone now.

I used the Lightning adapter... still won't play on my car. I tested the adapter itself and it functions doing something else. I then tested the phone plugged directly into a newer car USB... works through the radio. Then I tested the phone on my other old car with similarly converted radio and cable and lightning adapter... it won't work there either.

-iPhone 5: I tried plugging it into the other old car through that cable... works fine in that car.

So, this tells me:

-my iPhone 5 isn't the problem, the radio or cable in the '69 is not functioning properly

-even though I downloaded the cloud songs to my iPhone 7, they will not play using the Lightning connector to the analog cable.

 

Sorry to be a nitwit but I’m not exactly clear what you are saying and I do want to help.

You are definitely on the right track by downloading a local copy to your phone – hopefully they actually did. That’s one problem solved no matter what you are playing it through. See if you can play those songs through the itty little speaker built into the phone first.

Depending on the receiver you might have to select the correct input. I put an Alpine stereo in my wife’s Subaru and I have to go through a menu and select AUX (or something similar) to get it to work through the cable. On my Chevy HHR (they gave it to me to use…I didn’t buy that p.o.s) I just plug in the cable and dont have to do anything else.

You plugged the iPhone 5 into another car with the 3.5mm male-male cable and it worked so that tells me that cable and the old phone are probably OK. At that point you should have been able to go directly to your ‘vette and do exactly the same thing with the same phone/cable. If it doesn’t work the problem is the receiver in your ‘vette.

While in the other car, after making sure the songs are local and do play though the iPhone 7's little internal speaker then put the Lightning adapter on that tested-good cable and see if it’ll play through the receiver exactly as the iPhone 5 did. If not I’d suspect the adapter. I only use the white Apple ones for about $10. If it still won’t work after trying another adapter I dunno what to say about that. Logically that would point to the Phone 7 but that’s the first I’ve ever seen or heard of that problem.

You mentioned USB – shouldn’t have anything to do with all this.

As an alternative I find Bluetooth pairing very convenient. No cables at all. You can get inexpensive Bluetooth adapters for older cable-only receivers. I would sometimes use one in my service truck so I could charge the phone and listen to podcasts/music at the same time.

Seriously – got a teenage kid handy? My brother has his 13 year old grandson and the kid set him up in about ten seconds.

Good luck.

Jeff

 

It's just me but I'll never use the cloud to store any of my information. The level of control of my property and privacy is just not there.
What I do is have one of my old cell phones stripped of everything except an mp3 player and the OS. I use Android and what I call my "music phone" has over 100gig of songs on it. If you have an old phone or iPod etc. laying around you could do that and hard-wire it to your car stereo.

My "music phone" doesn't have that wonky fire connector, it's uses the old 3.5mm headphone jack and they are more robust IMO. My kids and wife go through those darn Apple cords like they were water. So much so I could probably make a little money recycling the copper.

 

Thats what the iphone 5 was being used as. All music on that phone, everything else completely removed. I was using it as an "ipod" but its not working anymore. I hadnt considered hardwiring it.

 

I guess I wasnt clear about a lot of this:

 

Just trying to help. Back & forth in writing can get a bit old. If you think a phone conversation would help PM me a # and a time and we'll work it out.

Jeff

 

I had this problem with my factory radio with modern guts. I have to have the volume on the phone all the way up for it to work properly. I've never had a problem after that.

 

i have had 2 aftermarket radios, a USA 630 and a 600$ unit sold by all the vendors.

the radio part works fine, it's just the aux input that's wonky,
the circuitry senses the slightest pause/low volume and switches to the radio again,

i found that by turning up the volume to flat out from phone/mps player etc, it overcome the problem.

never again, i have left the original looking radio in the dash and have bought a bluetoohh amp and just play thru that.....

 

So, to be clear, you guys are both saying that the iPhone volume turned all the way up affected/improved the playing through the phone?

That's interesting, because recently I started running at the park with that phone on headphones, so I turned the volume down on it...

 

Well, uh, OK.

I took the car for a ride, turning the iphone 5 volume up to max. It worked nearly perfectly.

Once between songs when the new song was quiet sounding at the start, it flickered to the radio, then switched back when the song started up. It also switched over to the radio for a moment when I was pulling in and hit the garage door opener. Signal distrurbed? Straightened out almost immediately.

I'd call it 95% working properly now.

Doesn't address the iPhone 7 non functionality, but I don't need it now. May consider the Bluetooth idea in the future. But for now, .

Thanks for the suggestions, to everyone who tried to help. Much appreciated.

 

some music player apps have the ability to change/adjust the fade time between songs as it's playing,
ie: as one song is winding down the next song is starting up.

the android player i use has that ability.

doesn't help if there are pauses in the songs or quiet sections, but having loud input certainly helps.