Well, last week I decided I definitely ~needed~ to install some kind of iPod interface in my 997TT. Ironically, Eric said he was in a dealing mood last week, so I ~just had~ to order the Dension unit.

Before I knew it, I got a shipping confirmation from Eric and was turning my attention to finding an installer. Although I wasn't sure I wanted the dealer to do it, I gave them a call nonetheless. Well, they made the decision easy--"We don't mess around with any third-party addon, especially electronics." Well, that answers that.


They gave me a name of a local audio installer--at least that was helpful. Unfortunately, the local audio guy had no experience installing a Dension and very little experience with fiber optics. Uhmmmm......click.

So, I decided I would do it myself. At least if I screwed it up, it's my fault.

On Friday night, I jumped into it. I decided to mount the iPod, the aux input panel, and the USB jumper cable up front in the small cubby above the Nav unit in the Turbo (similar to the C4 cars). I put the Dension unit itself below the Nav, behind the small cover panel. I ran the wires from the Dension to the small cubby behind the carpet.

After updating the firmware, reseting the unit, and going through the arming process (set it and forget it ... for 10 minutes), I was surprised to find out that the PCM recognized the Dension, even though I didn't have a CD changer. That was a pleasant surprise.

Unfortunately, configuring the Dension to use the Gateway interface was .... well .... very challenging. That part took me 2 days on-and-off to get the text to appear on the PCM, but finally it worked about an hour ago.

The Dension (Denison, when mispelled) unit provides good sound quality, although I suspect it will take a bit of time for me to get used to the user interface. I'm pleased to have my iPod back and functioning.

Anyway, after only 6 days of ownership I've hardwired my Valentine One and now installed a Dension system.

 

Its really not that hard to install. There have been a few posts here that really help.
For what the unit goes for the installiation instructions and what it cost to build it they should provide a videotape and the proper connectors on power cables

Now that you have it try to resist the temptation to operate it while driving. The interface isn't the best and the more music you have the harder it is to navigate through it. I have an 8GB nano and scrolling through the pages can take a while. I suggest you spend time and create lots of playlists. I'm replacing the IPOD with a solid state disk with all my music ~60GB and I'm going to have a lot of playlists to manage that much music.

 

+1 on those comments.

I did the install, not that hard but it required a bit of fiddling around!

Managing large amounts of music is difficult; I basically gave up on my 80GB unit (10,000 songs) and bought a little 4GB Nano (cute!) for the car, and built some playlists. I am still pretty pleased since I can get about 65 Albums on the 4GB unit so that gives me lots of music to play with and I can just reload from time to time as my mood changes. Album, Artist and Playlist load much quicker with smaller units as well so it makes the whole thing work well.

I don't play with it much when I am driving either; I just select the Playlist that matches my mood and skip forward from time to time. Random mode is nice for long trips.

Reloading is easy I have my iTunes library in 2 places (home and laptop) so on long road trips I have access to my entire CD collection anyway!

 

Nice job. I am hoping to do the same. Could you not have plugged in the trunk where the CD Changer goes to make life easier? Not being a smart *** just trying to learn.

 

It seems that playlists are definitely the best way to go.

What I've found that is a bit frustrating is that if you select an artist (through CD2 or 3 (can't recall) and start playing that artist, you can't advance to a later song until the Dension has timed out back to CD5. Perhaps there are some shortcuts that I'm not aware of.

 

Uhmm, you can plug into the CD changer's unused power cable for power to the Dension, but there is no fiber optic cable going to the unused CD changer that I'm aware of, so I don't think that is possible.

But, I'm not positive. Perhaps the install guide has more detail..... heheh (I jest)

 

That's what I spliced into. My gripe is that the Dension power cable doesn't come with a connector to plug into that. Just bare wires.

 

That's because there isn't just one place to derive +/- 12 volts from.

If they (Dension) did put the Porsche CD changer connector on the Dension unit many installers would simply cut it off anyway.

 

For what they charge they should have several cables for the different possibilities.

 

Ya . . . Maybe they should throw in an IPOD as well (lol)

 

i am thinking of trying this install too, but i am unsure of where to get the power from and how to hook it up, the picture directions that come with it are pretty bad. i have no cd changer, and want the install in my trunk...does anyone have step by step directions on how to do this, or some threads that can help

 

Unfortunately, there is no one good thread laying out all of the details. Much to my dismay.

I almost attempted to write-up a DIY install, like my suspension DIY below, but I didn't actually know what the heck I was doing when I started. If I did another one, I could finally record it in pictures/text.

However, one note that I could not figure out while I was in the mist of the install was where the heck is the CD changer power clip. Apparently, our cars without CD changers still have the power clip sitting up in the front truck.....unused. I searched high and low for that darn clip but could not find it. I eventually used the Voltmeter to test for unswitch 12V and ended up using the power to the Nav unit (spliced in to it).

However, when I was cleaning up the area I pulled the carpeted mat out of the front truck and low and behold the unused power clip is positioned under the mat. Go figure.

I have a collection of thread links from Rennlist and 6SpeedOnline, which I will post later (ones that I stored before I purchased the Dension in hopes they would make sense later). Here is one of them showing the install in the front truck:

http://www.6speedonline.com/forums/s...ad.php?t=75250

And others:

http://www.6speedonline.com/forums/s...ad.php?t=78660
http://www.caymanclub.net/cayman-ele...tallation.html
http://www.6speedonline.com/forums/s...ad.php?t=83011
https://rennlist.com/forums/showthre...enison+install
https://rennlist.com/forums/showthre...enison+install

 

In the thread "Dension Gateway 500 iPod Adapter Arrived Today " there are some good pointers. someplace in there there are pictures detailing the install or a pointer to pictures. I did the install in under an hour following the instructions. YMMV...

 

In all honesty, that thread is so big it is worthless (to me). I gave up trying to find anything useful in it a long time ago. In fact, that thread was nearly the cause of me NOT buying a Dension.

 

How did you finally get the song title to appear? I just get Track01 etc.

Thanks,
John