Does Symphony II need programming to take Phatnoise?

A few people on the Phathack forum had problems with their VAG radios not being coded for an external CD changer (luck of the draw). Its not a common problem, but it has happened to more than one person so cannot be discounted without checking, VAG Com will recoded it for you.

Also a lot of problems are linked to the cable plugs not seated correctly (even though they look it) or the brown ground wire disconnected etc.

The Audi cable has 10 pins at the Phatbox end and nine at the head unit end this is because the audio input is changed from separate left / right ground to a common ground mid cable (pin 18).

Pins 10 -16 - 17 supply the power and ground IIRC 16 is always on & 17 being the trigger not sure if it’s a constant or a pulse trigger the phatnoise does not use pin 6.

Multi-pin connector I, 20-pin - black connector at the back of the Symphony II.


1 - Line output - left rear, to Amplifier R12
2 - Line output - right rear, to Amplifier R12
3 - Line output - Ground, to Amplifier R12
4 - Line output - left front, to Amplifier R12
5 - Line output - right front, to Amplifier R12
6 - Switched positive to Amplifier R12
7 - Infotainment CAN-Bus - High
10 - CD - Ground, to CD Changer R41
12 - Infotainment CAN-Bus Low
13 - CD data input from CD Changer R41
14 - CD data output to CD Changer R41
15 - CD-Clock from CD Changer R41
16 - Battery positive (B+) - Terminal 30 to CD Changer R41
17 - Switched positive to CD Changer R41
18 - Line output - Ground, to CD Changer R41
19 - Line output - left, from CD Changer R41
20 - Line output - right, from CD Changer R41


Phatnoise/ CD - Pin/Wire locations. Depending the on cable I have seen 2 colour codes there may be more i have seen a bit of confusion where people follow the wrong colour code .

Pin 13 = Green or orange
Pin 14 = Black or pink
Pin 15 = Orange or Black
Pin 16 = Violet or blue
Pin 17 = Yellow or yellow
Pin 18 = Blue or brown / black
Pin 19 = Red or white
Pin 20 = White or red
Pin 10 = Brown or brown

If the cable looks ok then its probably the coding

Just a thought.

In the context of consumer electronics, the term "DIN connector" commonly refers to a member of a family of circular connectors that were initially standardized by DIN for analog audio signals.

So we are taking about the Audi DIN plug (Round) & not the VW/ (new) Audi rectangular plug (not known as DIN).

The rectangular plug only has nine pins but the Round DIN has ten.

If you are a pin missing in the round plug then you are going to have some sort of problems depending on which pin.