I have a Sony MHC-E609iP, a mini hifi system with a 30 pin iDevice connector. It sits on top of a fridge and every time the door slams the iPod jiggles around on the connector and stops playing. I could move it, but I'm still tied to the inflexibility of walking over to use an ancient (iOS 5?) ipod that struggles to play more than one youtube video in a row, so I thought I'd look into device to upgrade it to Bluetooth, so I can play something on the phone and not have to mess with the noisy end
It turns out such devices exist; they sit on top of the connector, pretend to be an ipod, get power from the dock, pretend to be a Bluetooth audio receiver device and pipe received audio into the system, "upgrading" it to be a Bluetooth capable
(I did have a link to one but it causes my message to be marked as spam - searching a well known auction site for BLUETOOTH 30 PIN will bring plenty of examples up tho)
Bit of a kick in the pants with these things though; the adverts for most of them say they don't necessarily work with a variety of docks/bases. This Sony isn't specifically mentioned but it'll be a lot less mainstream compared to the likes of an old Bose dock so I really don't think I'll find an advert that says "yes, guaranteed to work with a sony mhc-E609iP". Some Sonys are mentioned as "not working" and I guess there isn't a lot of variety in the guts of the Sony devices when it comes to bluetooth
I picked one such adapter up for a low sum. Sure enough, it doesn't work on the Sony, but it works great on the more basic, budget Philips system upstairs that also has an ipod dock. Both these devices can charge the ipod and they both power the Bluetooth device correctly, but the Sony just sits there flashing "connecting" in the display. The connector of the Sony does work, as if I connect a real iSomething, it will change the display to say "ipod" and use it
I can't remember if the Philips can control the ipod but the Sony definitely can.. So perhaps there is one difference. Maybe the Sony is too intelligent, and requires a Bluetooth dongle to do a better job of pretending to be an ipod than this one currently does..
So, i'm on the hunt for a similar Bluetooth device that will work with the sony.. More expensive items on ebay claim to be compatible with a wider range of decrepit Bose hardware; is it something I should be trying? Does anyone know what quality/attribute/design intent a Bluetooth adapter such as this needs to have to work with this Sony system? Does the bluetooth hardware in Sony devices of ten years ago (or whatever era the E609iP is) have sufficient similarities that I could look for something that says "yes, works with [insert model number of sony's most popular dock from that era]" and have a reasonable chance of it working? What model number sony should I be looking for?
