connecting an iPod to a car stero

[Wreford Miles]

I can get a lead to connect my iPod to the panasonic uint in the car but i's £120 fitted.

What's the views on these devices that you plug into an iPod and then tune to a radio frequency?

Any recoemndations?

A quick look in Currys has iWants at £20 and Griffin's version at £35 and nobody can explain the difference !!

thanks

Wreford

 

[John Armstrong]

I had one a while back but if you're in an area that has high fm usage, and I'll guess London is one of them, then finding a clear unused frequency can be a pita. Also, you then loose any travel info broadcasts.

Does you car have a tape player, as you can bet mp3 adapters for them?

 

[Deleted account 220427002]

denison

http://www.ipodcarkitdirect.co.uk/Dension?items=1000&sort=2a&gclid=CP7n5O-6tJsCFUQA4wod22jKOg

 

[Fanum]

There are two main sorts Wreford.....wired and transmitting.

The wired ones, though a bit more faff, are hugely better..and sod the £120 fitted..it's a piece of pish to do yourself

You take the head unit out (two bits of coathanger if you don't have the forks to do it, or Halfords sell the forks for around a fiver) then find a 12v supply in there.......you can even use the switched supply from the ignition to the head unit to tap into.....that supply goes to the modulator unit (which you'll also need to earth ) then you simply unplug the existing aerial, stick it into the modulator then plug the lead from the modulator back into the head unit aerial socket.....there will also be a jack plug flying lead which you can run somehow (grommet or small hole or even from out of an air vent or something) that you plug into your ipod or whatever, into the headphone output socket.
Effectively, you've put in an inline input to directly to the aerial feed.

You then tune the radio to one of the given frequencies and voila!

The other sort id just a low powered FM transmitter that uses (usually) a ciggy socket for power, then transmits the signal you're putting into it which is picked up by the aerial as if it were a normal radio station broadcasting.

The difference in quality is obvious.....one is hardwired fed into the unit and the other is a weak signal picked up by the unit.

With the transmitted type, you'll get interference (if someone next to you in the traffic queue is using the same frequency, you could end up listening to their shyte hip hop ) and it'll never be as good as the wired version.

The only thing the transmitter type has going for it is that it's portable to any vehicle with an FM radio and a ciggy socket.

HTH

It's certainly not worth paying to get it installed.....as long as you can get the head unit out and are capable of finding a 12v switched live and an earthing point, which obviously you are

 

[Mucky Helmet]

denison

http://www.ipodcarkitdirect.co.uk/Dension?items=1000&sort=2a&gclid=CP7n5O-6tJsCFUQA4wod22jKOg

Have one of THESE fitted in my car and it's bril! It's the Renault version that works through my car stereo and controls. It also charges the ipod. The only downside is it doesn't pipe the ipod display info to the screen in the car.

I had the Griffin FM Transmitter in my previous car and it was poo. Had to keep changing the frequency due to radio stations appearing on my chosen frequency when driving.

I also tried a Belkin tape adaptor - it was OK but noisy mechanism and not great quality on podcasts.

Neighbour has just fitted a Harmon Kardon ipod thingy that has an external screen and jostick. They got if off ebay, no idea how much

HTH
Helmet

 

[DavidJames]

There are two main sorts Wreford.....wired and transmitting.

The wired ones, though a bit more faff, are hugely better..and sod the £120 fitted..it's a piece of pish to do yourself

You take the head unit out (two bits of coathanger if you don't have the forks to do it, or Halfords sell the forks for around a fiver) then find a 12v supply in there.......you can even use the switched supply from the ignition to the head unit to tap into.....that supply goes to the modulator unit (which you'll also need to earth ) then you simply unplug the existing aerial, stick it into the modulator then plug the lead from the modulator back into the head unit aerial socket.....there will also be a jack plug flying lead which you can run somehow (grommet or small hole or even from out of an air vent or something) that you plug into your ipod or whatever, into the headphone output socket.
Effectively, you've put in an inline input to directly to the aerial feed.

You then tune the radio to one of the given frequencies and voila!

The other sort id just a low powered FM transmitter that uses (usually) a ciggy socket for power, then transmits the signal you're putting into it which is picked up by the aerial as if it were a normal radio station broadcasting.

The difference in quality is obvious.....one is hardwired fed into the unit and the other is a weak signal picked up by the unit.

With the transmitted type, you'll get interference (if someone next to you in the traffic queue is using the same frequency, you could end up listening to their shyte hip hop ) and it'll never be as good as the wired version.

The only thing the transmitter type has going for it is that it's portable to any vehicle with an FM radio and a ciggy socket.

HTH

It's certainly not worth paying to get it installed.....as long as you can get the head unit out and are capable of finding a 12v switched live and an earthing point, which obviously you are

Whilst the remote transmitters are worse, I would not say the direct feed ones are perfect. Using the term 'hardwired' is a little dodgy, the music is still transmitted via a radio frequency, so you will only ever get radio quality at best, it is just that rather than being transmitted over the air it is transmitted directly to the aerial socket. To me a 'hardwired' connection would be a direct feed to an auxilary input to the head unit, which is the best option, but not always possible and sometimes expensive.

I used to use a Dension FM link in my Nissan, and whilst the quality of the ipod music was ok, it actually attenuated the normal radio signal which was a pain. I took it out in the end and ended up giving it to Whatton - would be interesting to get his opinion if he fitted it.

 

[Deleted account W]

I took it out in the end and ended up giving it to Whatton - would be interesting to get his opinion if he fitted it.

Fitted and in use daily, no problems, my Abba albums sound as good as the day they were pressed. I get the odd buzz every now and again while listening to the radio now but I like to think it adds to John Humphrys interviews in the morning

 

[Fanum]

Whilst the remote transmitters are worse, I would not say the direct feed ones are perfect. Using the term 'hardwired' is a little dodgy, the music is still transmitted via a radio frequency, so you will only ever get radio quality at best, it is just that rather than being transmitted over the air it is transmitted directly to the aerial socket. To me a 'hardwired' connection would be a direct feed to an auxilary input to the head unit, which is the best option, but not always possible and sometimes expensive.

I used to use a Dension FM link in my Nissan, and whilst the quality of the ipod music was ok, it actually attenuated the normal radio signal which was a pain. I took it out in the end and ended up giving it to Whatton - would be interesting to get his opinion if he fitted it.

You're right, and of course you'll never get the same quality from an fm modulator as you will to a direct proper 'wired' input to a suitably equipped head unit, but TBH, in a car, do you really need anything better than FM quality?
(in fact, a 'hard wired' (Ok, slightly dodgy description but it'll suffice) FM modulator will give you a better-than FM signal because it's so direct and will never suffer from poor reception or interference like you can get listening to FM radio.

I haven't had any experience of these causing any attenuation as you describe, but I'd guess it could have been because the modulator is powered......If you made it a separately switched supply, you'd effectively end up with a straight through signal with no external power involved for normal FM radio listening then a powered signal for listening to the MP3 'broadcast'......but then, I'm not radio engineer so that's just a guess