ipod/car audio advice

[zums]

Hey all -

I'm looking for some advice on mp3s and car audio.. here's my situation:

I used to drive a 97 Grand Am with an mp3 capable cd deck installed. Allowed me to hold about 135 songs/cd and worked well enough. However, soon after graduating college in December my car died and so did the cd player. I now have a very nice Infinity I35 with a Bose system... but it has a six-disc cd changer that is not mp3 capable. I have a substansive music collection that is constantly being added to and updated, so it is just not working for me to have to constantly be burning new individual cds, rather than burning a disc w/ 6-7 cds on it.. or more importantly to just be able to put about 130 songs on random.

So I have decided that I need mp3 capability in my car again, and am looking at the best option for me to do that. I'm thinking my options are to install an mp3-capable cd deck in my car again, or to get an ipod and hook that up in my car. I'm looking for advice from anyone who uses their ipod in their car and their experiences, what products you use, advice, etc...

Some things I have taken into consideration:

-capacity - while the 135 songs/cd is nice and what I was used to before, I cant help but be enticed by having 10-15,000 songs available

-price - a nice, mp3 capable cd deck will run me around $150-250, while an ipod costs $400 (w/o any necessary adapters/hookups) and money is a little tight for me right now

-Since this is my first nice car being in the real world and it is a "luxury" car, I'm worried about ruining the look of the car if I removed the factory dash and put in a cd deck

-I know very little about ipods or what the best way to hook them up to a car stereo is - from what I understand cassette adapters or fm transmitters get the job done but are not ideal - what other options/products are out there to do this? what is required.. would I most likely need an ipod ready deck anyway to get the most out of the system?



Sorry for such a long post, but being that this is a semi-major purchase money-wise for me right now, and I just want some quality input and thought put ino the decision so I get the most for my money. Any experiences you have had w/ any products or equipment is great or even pointing me in the right direction on where to research... THANKS!

-zums

[KWhit]

All I can say is avoid FM adapters. They suck.

[Honolulu_Blue]

All I can say is avoid FM adapters. They suck.

I second this. I have one of those i-Trips. I have never successfully gotten it to work. Ever.

[BrianD]

All I can say is avoid FM adapters. They suck.

I use an FM adapter, and it is decent. Not great, but decent.

[Bee]

We have an FM adapter for my wife's I-pod and it works great. We've used it for about 2 years and most recently for the entire drive from DC to Atlanta without any problems.

[zums]

All I can say is avoid FM adapters. They suck.


That is what I had kinda heard also. Plus, I live in a ruralish area so I dont even want to mess w/ them.. the problem is not knowing what other options are there? It seems like they are pretty predominant, but if I'm going to spring for this I want it to be quality.

-zums

[MikeVic]

I'm pretty sure that if you get a deck that has iPod support, you can buy an adapter (that runs around $200 I believe?), and that'll get you the best quality possible with an iPod in your car... but it'll be expensive.

[BrianD]

If your deck has any kind of Aux line-in, you could connect it to the iPod headphone jack. There aren't really any other cheap options.

[oliegirl]

I've had an iTrip for a couple of years and love it...it works perfectly and I haven't had any problems with it. I have the Griffin iTrip...I had another brand (Belkin I think) and it sucked - but I haven't had any problems at all with the Griffin one.

[cthomer5000]

Your options appear to be:

1. Use a line-in on the stereo (sounds like you dont have an AUX input, so lets move on)
2. Install a new stereo with an input (pricey)
3. Use an FM Transmitter (it's a bonus that you're in a rural area, less intereference). Some work well, some don't. I've heard very good things about the iTrip, which is surprising given the fact that i live in an area where every single band on the radio dial is in use.

[Pyser]

That is what I had kinda heard also. Plus, I live in a ruralish area so I dont even want to mess w/ them.. the problem is not knowing what other options are there? It seems like they are pretty predominant, but if I'm going to spring for this I want it to be quality.

-zums

thats an advantage

get an fm transmitter that broadcasts to any channel, not just 4 channels in the uppers 80s. find a channel thats dead air, and broadcast to that. you should be golden.

then just buy a cheaper mp3 player if you want...or, you could really even get a cheap walkmen that plays mp3 cds. it doesnt have to be an mp3 player that the fm transmitters hook up to. just anything with a 1/8th inch jack.

[cartman]

Check out crutchfield.com. They can tell you if there are aftermarket adapters that will connect to your factory receiver. I have a Sony receiver in my car, and I recently picked up a $99 device that plugs in the place on the back of the radio where a CD changer would go. I can leave my iPod in the glove box, and control it through the normal stereo controls. The downside was I had to remove the 10 disc changer, but I now have more room in the trunk. :)

[MJ4H]

FM transmitters are ok as long as you get one with a good signal. I have an itrip and Im stunned to see people saying it is passable. It is the worst piece of junk I think Ive ever bought. Half the time it doesnt even work, and when it does the signal is far too weak to be useful. I have used other FM transmitters in the past with CD players and they had none of these problems. I just heartily recommend doing research on the product and buy a good one, not a cheap one.

[Fidatelo]

I have an iTrip and it is mediocre. Is it better than nothing? For sure. But I often get a lot of static which can be really frustrating.

I just got my new car yesterday, so this topic is of great interest to me as well.

Sometimes in the store I have seen boxes for "adapter kits" or something that would hook up an iPod to your factory car stereo. Are those any good? How do they work?

[cthomer5000]

Check out crutchfield.com. They can tell you if there are aftermarket adapters that will connect to your factory receiver. I have a Sony receiver in my car, and I recently picked up a $99 device that plugs in the place on the back of the radio where a CD changer would go. I can leave my iPod in the glove box, and control it through the normal stereo controls. The downside was I had to remove the 10 disc changer, but I now have more room in the trunk. :)

This sounds like the best advice in the thread so far... and who uses CDs these days anyway?

[MJ4H]

my wife

[Vinatieri for Prez]

I just got my ipod and have the same issue. I have yet to make the plunge, but I have been told by some that the FM transmitters suck for the most part (at least in city)(mine also did for my old rio player). I was told that the cassette adapter works better but I am still undecided. I'm liking this auxiliary jack thing. I will have to check it out in my car.

[Ksyrup]

and who uses CDs these days anyway?

Definitely me.

I've found the cassette adapter to work fairly well, and extremely well in comparison to the FM transmitter. I've never heard what one of these MP3 players sounds like when hooked up to an auxiliary jack, but my problem with these things in general is that there's no comparison in sound to a CD. The MP3 player/cassette adapter works fine enough if I'm playing music at "family in the car" level; it's pretty much indistinguishable from the CD. But when I'm driving alone, and I want to crank it, the MP3 player is practically worthless. Anything above a certain minimum (to me) volume level, and it just levels off and is useless. In my Acura, it sounds fine in the 4-8 volume range; but I regularly crank it to 25-30, and for that, only the CD will do.

Not sure if things change much with the auxiliary jack, but I doubt it. This is the single biggest problem for me with trading CDs for MP3s. Even when I try MP3s in the 384 kbit/s range, they still pale in comparison, especially in the car.

[Pyser]

my other advice would be to find a message board for your specific car.

i did that when i bought a mazda, and there were like 10 different "ipod solutions". i ended up taking apart my dash in like 2 easy steps to hook up a $50 connector to a tape deck connection (i dont have a tape deck, but the connector is always there), and now i have a line in.

im sure theres an infinity board with 2006 i35 ipod help, and itd be far more specific than anything we could say here.

[AgustusM]

I had tons of trouble with "other" FM transmitters, probably going through about 5 of them - until I found this one and it has worked GREAT:

http://www.crutchfield.com/S-5vOfF2akuyF/cgi-bin/ProdView.asp?g=225450&I=119MBLFMXT

I also looked into getting one of these:
http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Audiovox-FM-Modulator-FMM100A-/sem/rpsm/oid/80974/catOid/-13100/rpem/ccd/productDetail.do
These are FM modulators not transmitters, must be installed but reportedly work great. of course this is more costly.

finally CNET just did an article on all of this:
http://reviews.cnet.com/4321-6519_7-6544158-1.html

[Fidatelo]

my other advice would be to find a message board for your specific car.

I think this is where I'm personally screwed, as my car is not sold in the US (it's a Nissan X-Trail). I did what you suggested and there are a lot of people asking "what can I do?" and not a lot of answers. All of the aftermarket solutions are japanese or basically to "get a new deck", which I'm loathe to do.

Dang, looks like I'll be listening to the lovely hiss of static for the forseeable future :(

[Hammer755]

AUX Port >>> Cassette Adapter >>> FM Transmitter

[Rich1033]

I have heard that Bose systems can be a huge bitch to replace, so Id stay away from replacing any part of your system. If you can connect a CD changer you may be able to find something like http://www.mp3newswire.net/stories/2002/musickeg.html that will work(but obviously one that isnt brand specific). Other than that Id see if you can connect a MP3 player through an Aux imput. Like others I tried an FM transmitter and found the sound quality pretty bad.

[Radii]

add me to the list of people who has had 0 trouble with my iTrip, I've been using it for about 3 months, it works perfectly.

[cartman]

CD Changer Port >>> AUX Port >>> Cassette Adapter >>> FM Transmitter

Edited that for you. I absolutely LOVE the way I have mine connected. The iPod gets charged through the connection so I don't have to worry about dead batteries, I control the iPod through the normal controls on the receiver so I can leave the iPod out of view, and the MP3 tag info gets displayed on the receiver. I couldn't have asked for a better solution.