I appreciate the input. I am thinking of installing the Bluetooth since the wife and I have 3 bluetooth phones between us. I just retro-fitted a bluetooth module to my 2001 BMW X5. It integrates with the Nav unit. It is fabulous, and I put the phone cradle in which charges the phone and gives me an external antenna. My Moto V600 is in the cradle. The beauty of the system is the integration with the 'head unit' , steering wheel and voice recognition.
Now for the 2001 LS430. There does not appear to be integration with the Levinson System. But, I am now looking to see if I can do the Bluetooth and use a cradle that can be hard wired, as you have suggested, that would charge the phone and give me access to the external antenna. I wholeheartedly agree that using an external antenna dramatically improves signal strength.......and is worth the effort to gain that feature. But, I would only work for the hardwired phone. Though, for trips around town/local, the Bluetooth would allow any of the 3 phone to be functional.
So, if there is a schematic for the phone connecor in the console, it would be sincerely appreciated. I will probably install the Nokia Bluetooth Kit for the 6820, and install the cradle with access to charging, muting and external antenna........I may be asking for tooo much.
Thanks for the input :)