[davidwarren]

So my iPod is connected via a y-cable and has slowly deteriorated in audio quality over the past few months. It started as cutting out when I hit a bump, and progressed to the current state of cutting out entirely or certain ranges (just highs, mids, or low end) all the time.

I thought it might be my iPod, so I tried a different one. That didn't work. Thought it might be my y-cable, so I ordered a new one this week and just tried it tonight. That didn't work. I thought it could be the connections on the back side of the USB/Aux port, so I pried that out and unplugged and replugged the audio connector. No luck.

Has anyone else experienced this? Any suggested next steps? I thought I had read something about the audio jack in the USB/Aux port going bad a few months ago, but I don' see that anywhere right now.

[davidwarren]

well I took the USB/AUX port apart. Nothing looked off at a glance. I found on a 5er board where someone removed small capacitors that connect the ground to the left and right channels. I tried that, and no improvement. I soldered on a new headphone jack on the connection contacts, and that didn't work.

So, my solution is . . . I'm just going to use a USB stick for audio files. I tried that, and it worked great.