After fitting the factory iPod and Bluetooth streaming kits to my DB9 and recoding the car, I thought I'd take a chance on a used Sirius module from an 08 Vantage. The gamble paid off and I was able to get the Sirius tuner working. I'm pretty sure our 07 is now the most uniquely equipped DB9 with the Linn 950 system, bluetooth streaming, ipod/mp3, and Sirius radio.

Still need to find a place to mount the antenna under the parcel shelf. Reception isn't great in the garage, but music does break in and out. It seems like it's already activated, so I'm hopeful I found one with a lifetime subscription.


The radio receiver stack is above the right rear wheel.



The Sirius module fits right above the FM tuner module. There's a single hole to screw it down on the left, but I also used 3M tape to secure it to the FM tuner. Models overseas have a second AM/FM tuner for TMC that's not installed in the US. Aston was nice enough to leave an extra most fiber connector anyway.


After uploading a new config to the car the Sirius radio is alive!

 

Most Aston Martins of that vintage came with free sat radio for life if you had the sat radio option. I was able to get my 2009 transfered to my Sirius account. Free for life. I will say quality and fidelity of sat is poor compared to hidef streaming

 

That's what I was hoping for when I picked out a 2008/2009 unit. The biggest unknown was whether or not the satellite would work at all with the 2007 Linn amplifier since that was never a factory option. It seems to work as long as you have the updated ICM that comes with the factory bluetooth kit and can find someone to code it.

 

Slick installation! The original owner of my ‘05 DB-9 had Sirius installed aftermarket, presumably by a stereo shop. They used a generic module with no MOST connector and a remote display, which is mounted at the edge of the headliner above the mirror. Those components work well enough but to access the Linn stereo they used an FM transmitter, which was just plain godawful. So I had a lifetime subscription to godawful sound. Yippee. Fortunately, the Mr. 12 volt Bluetooth adaptor also features a stereo AUX port and the Sirius module had RCA outs. The sound now is more than acceptable.
As for Sirius versus HD audio streaming, I find the sound quality is dictated more by the bandwidth available at a particular location than by the general format. Maybe that’s because I live in the Pacific Northwest, with all of its mountains, hills, valleys, tall trees, etc. sometimes the satellite feed is strong and cell signal is barely 4g. Other times it’s the opposite.

 

Was really curious about that SXM option, and I knew my Rapide was fitted with it, but I never tried it... Sure enough it's working now that I looked into it
Thanks for the nice addition!

 

is there a thread on installing the iPod/Bluetooth kits? Where did you source them? Inquiring minds want to know.

Jim

 

I haven't done a write-up. I think I took a few pictures just to verify where wires got pulled from certain connectors and relocated to other positions. To be honest, the Aston installation document that came with the kit is pretty darn good and I'm not sure I could do any better.

As far as sourcing... I was lucky enough to find a full LHD ipod kit on ebay a couple years ago (4G43-37-11003). It came with a few custom parts to mount the connector module in the glovebox, MOST wye harness, the AUU module, power pigtail, misc nuts and screws, and a new ICM. The AUU itself mounts behind the false floor of the passenger footwell, splices power from the fusebox, and the MOST interface connect inline near the floor at the center console. The hardest part was re-pinning the mute wire from the old Motorola bluetooth module, the CCM, and the Linn amplifier to repurpose it to connect the bluetooth buttons to the CCM. Also had to disassemble the center stack to swap the ICM.

From there I pieced the bluetooth kit together from ebay. I found an updated bracket to hold the Dension bluetooth module and repurposed an old car-phone MOST harness that pops up pretty cheap from time to time by stripping off all the wiring and keeping only the orange MOST fibers. Since 90% of the work was already done during the ipod kit install, the bluetooth module consisted mainly of swapping the old Motorola unit for the Dension and routing its MOST harness to the passenger footwell.

After doing all of that work, I spent about a year and a half with no entertainment system at all. I even took the car to my local dealer to re-code the car's config. They gave it back to me in the same state saying they couldn't flash the ICM and gave up. Fast forward to a few months ago... I found myself with access to an AMDS system and spent a few weeks reverse engineering the car config file. Eventually, I figured out how to rewrite the config with the new options so AMDS could upload it back to the car without connecting back to the mothership. Once this was done, the ICM, CCM, BPM, and AUU could all be flashed with the right firmware. The dealer just didn't follow the instructions written by the factory that I left printed out on the passenger seat having circled the steps left for them to do.

None of this is for the faint of heart, but I really wanted an integrated, factory upgrade for the car we love so much. The phone pairs to a "DB9" phone module, spotify streaming sound amazing, the ipod music sounds amazing, and the Sirius radio sounds like Sirius radio. The buttons on the left side of the steering wheel now work to control the media system as well. Overall it's worth it to me. The Linn system gets such a bad rap, but with the right source feeding into it, it's actually pretty good.

 

Thanks for the quick reply and the PN. I looked at Scuderia's website and they want $3,370 for the iPod upgrade kit....WOW!!!!!!
I'll be searching the scrapyards I guess.
I agree on the Linn system with the right source and since I use my DB9 for long road trips, I'd love to put my Sirius subscription to work in that car. Having a stack of CD's in the seat next to me feels so '90's ...LOL!!!

Jim

 

No problem at all. The bluetooth kit is probably more practical, though the ipod kit could technically give you an aux input with the right adapter. Feel free to PM me if you want any details on parts or installation.

I'll just put this out there as a huge caveat... I don't recommend any of these options unless you have a way to get the car coded. Not everyone with an AMDS will know how to do it. While a dealer *should* be able to, they're not going to be very motivated it if they're not the ones doing the physical install.

 

Considering a DB9 and would like to try what you've done to enhance your audio options.

For my other cars (JLR, AMG, etc) I'm able to get cloned dealer tools and deal with all of this stuff myself at home. Is this not available for Aston?

 

The tools are out there *if* you can find them. Even so, expect to pay $10k or more for a complete setup. If you decide to pull the trigger on one, there are no included tools for modifying the car's as-built configuration. I spent quite a while staring at the raw hex dump of the config file mapping out the bits to set to enable the various options.

 

Are these tools that difficult to clone? The JLR guys had a whole thread going on virtual machines at different versions. It was very useful

 

after 7 years of Aston Martin ownership, I've not heard of any clones of the factory software.

Unlike BMW which is practically open source and even Mercedes has some STARtec that's available, nothing from AML, likely because it's a very low output manufacturer with even a smaller DIY enthusiast base