Aux input for Bose SoundDock

posted Jun 4th 2006 8:00am by Eliot Phillips
filed under: ipod hacks

aux input

Reader Rob requested this hack back in November so I jumped on it when it showed up in my RSS reader. Although Mike Kruckenberg preferred the sound of his SoundDock to the iPod HiFi, he was disappointed that it didn’t feature an auxiliary input. He decided to crack the box open and mount his own aux port. Bose doesn’t use the same pin numbers, but Mike was able to figure out the left, right, and ground. He still needs to do a little more digging to figure out how to turn on the dock without having the iPod in place. I think a nice hack would be building a dummy plug that appeared to the dock as an iPod but only has a line-in jack.

[via Digg]

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Comments [9]

Reader Comments

>I think a nice hack would be building a dummy
>plug that appeared to the dock as an iPod but
>only has a line-in jack.

I agree

Such a device would let me use my Zen with the myriad of iPod devices out there!

Somebody get on it ;)

Posted at 9:11 am on Jun 4th, 2006 by Liam

you know, all highs..no lows..it’s gotta be Bose.

for a more refreshing set of speakers, try the klipsch igroove, it’s 50$ less, sounds much better AND has an aux in. problem solved, eh?

Posted at 10:24 am on Jun 4th, 2006 by bobby koerper

but, this hack does deserve praise, as it was well done and helpful, especially since to interface with, bose products are incredibly hard

Posted at 10:30 am on Jun 4th, 2006 by bobby koerper

dang though, If I spent that much money on that, I wouldn’t be doing anything not exspained in the instruction manual. I don’t mind doing some dicing of a Win 95 machine, but a bose sound dock

Posted at 8:45 pm on Jun 4th, 2006 by Wesley

i agree with 1–an interface would have been easier and more practical. now he’s lost the warranty on some very expensive speakers.

also, for $350 he could have bought either a small stereo with and aux in, or a kickass amp and speaker setup. or a combination–something like small speakers to be portable and a decent pair for his desk.

bose :(
hack :(

Posted at 7:33 am on Jun 5th, 2006 by jim

All excellent points (esp #3). I agree something like number 1 is a much better solution, but it requires trying to figure out how the SoundDock switches on and off when the iPod is connected. The trial and error with that was more risk than I wanted to take. If Bose doesn’t add an aux in, someone will eventually build a cable.

As far as the warrantee . . . once I got the idea no amount of reasoning could stop me from trying it. I’ll be up a creek if the SoundDock ever needs service. I may regret this hack if that happens.

Posted at 1:13 pm on Jun 5th, 2006 by mike

I did this mod over a year ago to my sound dock, except I used RCA plugs for a more stable connection. In fact i was using my sounddock’s line in when i read this hack. It is really not a difficult one, I was able to do the whole thing from scratch in about 3 hours, with doccumentation this hack should take 30 mins top.

Posted at 1:48 pm on Jun 5th, 2006 by Bruce

Ok, now i’d love it if someone could explain how to do one of these in say, a cd player alarm clock, or other things where its not as easy to tap into an unamplified signal.

Posted at 11:59 pm on Jun 8th, 2006 by KActapuss

As a follow up, I have created the cable mentioned in number 3:

http://mike.kruckenberg.com/archives/2006/10/building_an_aux_input_cable_for_bose_sounddock.html

For the non-hack type you can purchase them at:

http://www.cablejive.com

Posted at 6:00 pm on Feb 28th, 2007 by Mike Kruckenberg