I left my iPod on the plane when I moved in December, but I got another one recently. What is the best kind of car adapter? I know the Harman Kardon one looks good as does the Monster I Cruze. I'm sure there are others. Which one is best?
It depends on what connections you have on your car stereo. I have mine hooked up through one of the tape adapters and it has good quality. I would suggest avoiding anything that broadcasts over FM though, they tend to have bad reception.
I use an iTrip (FM broadcaster) along with a car charger and I LOVE it. I rarely ever have a problem with it. Griffin Technology makes them both and they rule. http://www.griffintechnology.com/products/
I use an adapter that connect to the CD changer port of my CD player, perfect quality... HERE! You have to get one that matches your brand of CD player tho...
had two iTrips crap out on me...would definitely NOT suggest that right now i have a direct connect to my car stereo. works great. http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-10163_7-6212328-1.html?tag=viddet decent intro tutorial on how to do that. may sound like a lot of work at first, but def worthwhile in the end.
I used to use an iTrip, but got tired of always having to program it repeatedly. When you go into different areas, it gets all static-y and you have to change the station - annoying. A friend of mine showed me his setup in his car where a wire goes directly into the back of your faceplate, down to the floorboard, and then it extends from the floor up to your iPod. My stock radio was outdated, so I got a new faceplate and this iPod wire. The wire wasn't cheap, it cost around $100 but it's perfect quality. If you care about music as much as I do, you'll go ask around car audio places about it. I'm sure any respectable place will have it.
I use a tape deck adapter from Sony into the tape player in my Camry. it was about $10 at Worst Buy or Circuit Pity. It definitely does the work, but not the clearest, sharpest, high-definition sound... although you will go as high quality as your songs go, anyway. I have had it for about 2 years on my 1st gen. iPod... have had NO problems with it. I can't use that in my corolla, though, since it has no tape deck . Last weekend I used an FM transmitter I bought at Worst Buy because the rental I took didn't have a tape deck. Bad thing about that is that in San Antonio, Phoenix, and most definitely LA, you couldn't find ANY station to tune it, as there was a station on every dial possible, without one to tune the iPod. I definitely would not recommend the FM transmitter, unless you're going on long trips. Even then the most unused station is 107.3, and that's not even the best reception. The one I had was cheap, and it connected to the lighter while it gave the reception, but as soon as we listened to the iPod while my girls viewed their DVDs, the reception got worse. You could, however, listen to the iPod on your headphones, but you must be very, very careful not to be seen by a cop... I think you won't get a ticket, but you will get a dirty look.
I was thinking about that as well....i see people all the time in there car with headphones talking on their phone or whatever...whats the difference if you're listening to an ipod?
Exactly, Flyer... just keep your phone handy so that if a copper sees you, you pretend to talk into it, but disconnect the iPod quickly. I thought about doing that in my Corolla while with my iPod, but I was CHICKEN. Not anymore, since you seem you want to do it as well.
Not sure how safe driving while listening to headphones is. I tend not to pay attention to things when my headphones on, can't afford to do that while driving. But back to the topic, what I would do is get an Alpine radio with the iPod attachment. I think Panasonic makes this as well. You can control the iPod with the remote that controls the radio. The radio also charges the iPod as you listen.
I believe its against the law to drive with headphones on. The reasoning is you won't be able to hear emergency vehicles on the road. That being said f the police.
I use the Monster FM transmitter and it works fine even when there radio station on the same frequency (albeit a weak signal). The sound quality is not as good as the headphones but with the traffic/road noise it's good enough. Also, in Massachusetts it is illegal to wear headphones while driving unless the headphones are part of a communications device. Once I was stopped for running a red light (it was yellow but the cop disagreed). I was wearing the ear buds at the time but I took them off when the officer approached my car. I was given a warning for the illegal turn and he didn't mention anything about the iPod other than it may have been distracting me.
And thats any different than someone who has subwoofers in the back of there car blaring music? I know music can get just as loud on those things and not be able to hear sirens. Besides people using their phone use headphone things as well...i'm thinking for the most part you could get away with it, and if anything the police would prob only warn ya if you did do that.
A little tip for those with an itrip... If you hold in the button for about 10 sec you can change from US settings to INTL. This lets you use lower RXs. I cant remember for sure, but I think 87.9 is what I found works best in Houston. It cut way down on the interference I was getting.... I still think this thing is a piece of crap though. Carrying a cd wallet around is worth it.
Exactly, you figure they cant be that much more distracting than if you had music blaring with subwoofers.
Get a car stereo with Aux In port on the front...get the $2 wire from RadioShack and connect your IPod ... the sound quality beats any adapater that you can possibly buy...you would have to buy a new car stereo though
I use one of these in my Grand Cherokee, and its awesome. http://www.installer.com/aux/ The FM Modulators never worked for me, and I don't have a cassette deck. I thought about getting a new head unit with a front aux input, but this was a little cheaper, and was really easy to install.
I used to use the Monster FM transmitter one, and it sucked. Some stations would work sometimes then change on the drive just around the neighborhood. I got a tape adapter one. Their is some hiss to the sound, but at least it is consistent, and it works decently all the time. It was cheaper as well.
Direct wired connection (via line out) >>> Direct wired connection (via headphone jack out) >>> cassette adapter > FM modulator Thankfully, newer car stereos are more likely to have an aux input jack on the front. Evan
