Denison Gateway 100 and iPhone (Updated)

Just changed my car to a BMW 3 Series and I have been looking around for a while at ways of integrating my iPhone with my car stereo so I can enjoy podcasts and my music collection while I am driving. I have tried many FM transmitters before and although they are a quick and easy solution the sound quality just does not cut it for me. I eventually stumbled upon the Denison Gateway 100.

 This small black rectangular box connects into the rear of your car stereo via a supplied cable harness (Specific to car model) and then provides two inputs, one for your ipod and a 3.5mm jack for any other mp3 player etc.

Installing the kit was really easy apart from one bit, more on that later, you simply remove the factory fitted stereo, unclip the existing cable connections, plug the existing connections into the new harness and plug the new harness into the stereo. The kit can be supplied with a proper cradle for the ipod (only available for ipod video or older at this time), or a standard ipod flyng lead with the normal dock connector. I went for the latter as I wanted to use it with the iPhone.

Now comes the hard bit, with the extra cable harness and black box clogging up the small slot where you withdrew the stereo from originally you have to get your hand in and try and get the cables etc out of the way so the stereo can be positioned back inside. This was very difficult to do and took me about half an hour to get it back in with a lot of cursing and skin removed from my knuckles.

Once complete I finished the installation with a brodit mount for the iPhone which is a fantastic mounting solution, plugged it in and turned the stereo to CD changer mode and wow was I blown away.

I have full control of the iPhone screen for selecting tracks etc and the sound produced through the stereo is simply fantastic quality just like listening to a CD.

The iPhone is charged whilst it is playing and works fine with my existing bluetooth headset or wired headset for calls at the same time.

This is a fantastic solution if you are looking to integrate your iPod or iPhone into your standard car stereo, highly recommended.

Steve Trotto over at Mobility Today has also just installed the brodit / Proclip in his car, you can check out his thoughts here.