Car FM Adapter

[napalm1773]

Hey guys I was wondering if anyone knows a good car adapter that plays music from a 2nd Gen iPhone. I was looking for a Wired FM transmitter or anything that offers better sound quality than a Wireless FM transmitter. Also I'm not interested in paying over $40.

[Appzalien]

They still make those cassette tape inserts with the stereo plug that comes out the front. If your car stereo is old enough to have a cassette you could try that. I've had one for years and it comes in handy, I even used it in a portable cassete player that had an equilizer on the front to record with volume boost (out the headphones) and equalization and it worked great.


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16855999602&cm_re=cassette_adapter-_-55-999-602-_-Product

or


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16855991079&cm_re=cassette_adapter-_-55-991-079-_-Product

you might find one at Radio Shack or your local Best Buy as well if you don't want to wait.

[Detale]

LOL "code" tags. haven't seen those in quite some time :D

Where do you live napalm? I'm in NYC so basically they still have them in any radio shack, or even chain pharmacy. Admittedly I still use one. I never upgraded the cassette player that came in my dodge durango and I got mine locally for something like $10

[tesco]

Also depending on what car/stereo you have you might be able to either plug a wire into the back (line in) or buy an attachment to add that capability.
For example in my mazda6 the stereo accepts XM, tape, and midi attachments, but some people were able to reverse engineer the connection for these components to make devices for iPod plugin, or just plain line-in, usb ports, etc.

http://www.therpmstore.com/product_info.php?cPath=26_203&products_id=672 A little expensive but was worth it in my opinion. Perfect sound, allows control from my car stereo or the steering wheel so the iPod is hidden in the glove box, and displays the song name in the stereo display as well...

Those casette tapes work fine as well. The FM transmitters have very poor sound quality, I tried a couple of them and couldn't stand it.

[Detale]

Great link Ross, I think I may look into this myself. I also tried about 4 different FM transmitters and they all sucked bigtime.

[napalm1773]

They still make those cassette tape inserts with the stereo plug that comes out the front. If your car stereo is old enough to have a cassette you could try that. I've had one for years and it comes in handy, I even used it in a portable cassete player that had an equilizer on the front to record with volume boost (out the headphones) and equalization and it worked great.
My stereo actually has a cassette player so I think i'm going to stick with a cassette adapter mainly because their around $15-20. But my main concern is whether they actually make noticeable noise and how good the sound quality is.


Also depending on what car/stereo you have you might be able to either plug a wire into the back (line in) or buy an attachment to add that capability.
I'm actually not looking to spend a lot of money into this so I think I'm probably going to stick with the cassette adapter.


Where do you live napalm? I'm in NYC so basically they still have them in any radio shack, or even chain pharmacy. Admittedly I still use one. I never upgraded the cassette player that came in my dodge durango and I got mine locally for something like $10
I live in Vegas, so buying it locally or anything like that shouldn't be an issue. I'm more concerned with the overall quality of cassette adapters.

Although cassette adapters do sound like the ideal thing to buy, I was also concerned whether their iPhone compatible. I know they work fine with iPod and such but I have seen certain adapters that say iPod compatible but not iPhone.

[Detale]

From what i've seen from the iphone is is a standard 3.5mm jack but the plastic around the jack just needs to be shaved down a bit to fit into the iphone. A friend of mine did it to play his iphone music over my Dewalt work radio where I have my MP3 player usually using a 3.5mm to 3.5mm cable.

[napalm1773]

From what i've seen from the iphone is is a standard 3.5mm jack but the plastic around the jack just needs to be shaved down a bit to fit into the iphone. A friend of mine did it to play his iphone music over my Dewalt work radio where I have my MP3 player usually using a 3.5mm to 3.5mm cable.
Well its not really an issue for me to trim the wire to fit into the headphone jack it's more of a compatibility issue. For example if you look at this cassette adapter that Appzalien linked you can see that it only says iPod. So my question is if I plug in my iPhone will it play music? First Generation iPhone by the way.
http://lookpic.com/d2/i2/1785/43hYlFSQ.jpeg

[Appzalien]

The quality limitation is similar to a tape, because the fake cassette has a little transmit head that transmits to the tape players play head. Because of this you don't get a clean connection as being talked about above. If you can create or find a connector to use with a straight stereo to stereo plug, you'd be much better off quality wise.

[tesco]

... my Dewalt work radio ...
Ah you have one of those too, I've had mine for over 3 years and abuse the hell out of it and it's still going strong. :D Couldn't live without that thing.

[napalm1773]

The quality limitation is similar to a tape, because the fake cassette has a little transmit head that transmits to the tape players play head. Because of this you don't get a clean connection as being talked about above. If you can create or find a connector to use with a straight stereo to stereo plug, you'd be much better off quality wise.
Well I don't actually have a headphone jack in my radio, nor do I want to disconnect it and use its RCA port to plug in my iPhone. Which is why I think I'm going to stick with purchasing a cassette adapter. But my main concern is if their iPhone compatible. Most of the cassette adapters that I've seen don't mention whether they are, for example the one I've posted above.

[tesco]

The quality limitation is similar to a tape, because the fake cassette has a little transmit head that transmits to the tape players play head. Because of this you don't get a clean connection as being talked about above. If you can create or find a connector to use with a straight stereo to stereo plug, you'd be much better off quality wise.
Well I don't actually have a headphone jack in my radio, nor do I want to disconnect it and use its RCA port to plug in my iPhone. Which is why I think I'm going to stick with purchasing a cassette adapter. But my main concern is if their iPhone compatible. Most of the cassette adapters that I've seen don't mention whether they are, for example the one I've posted above.
They won't mention it because they work with anything that you can plug headphones into. It's not digital. Just using a 100 year old standard (might be exaggerating just a touch).
They claim "for iPod" purely for marketing reasons. It will work with any MP3 player, md player, cd player, etc. They probably just haven't updated the site since the iPhone was released.

Now I have never paid attention to the headphone jack on an iphone so if it is not the standard jack then this device will not be compatible. If you are able to plug in a pair of old headphones to it, you can use this device.

[napalm1773]

They claim "for iPod" purely for marketing reasons. It will work with any MP3 player, md player, cd player, etc. They probably just haven't updated the site since the iPhone was released.
Sounds fair enough, I'll give them a shot.

[Detale]

... my Dewalt work radio ...
Ah you have one of those too, I've had mine for over 3 years and abuse the hell out of it and it's still going strong. :D Couldn't live without that thing.
Oh it's the best thing ever. I've had mine for around 3 years as well and it still kicks ass. loud as hell but it looks like it's been through the wringer, oh wait it has. It's a really great product but it's a shame it doesn't come with a battery. Good thing I can steal them from just about any job I go on nowadays (I'm up to 6 now) :)



From what i've seen from the iphone is is a standard 3.5mm jack but the plastic around the jack just needs to be shaved down a bit to fit into the iphone. A friend of mine did it to play his iphone music over my Dewalt work radio where I have my MP3 player usually using a 3.5mm to 3.5mm cable.
Well its not really an issue for me to trim the wire to fit into the headphone jack it's more of a compatibility issue. For example if you look at this cassette adapter that Appzalien linked you can see that it only says iPod. So my question is if I plug in my iPhone will it play music? First Generation iPhone by the way.


Apple may have mad things as propitiatory as they possibly can but I don't think even they can get their own encrypted signal. A signal is a signal. Doesn't matter where it comes from.

[tesco]

Ah you have one of those too, I've had mine for over 3 years and abuse the hell out of it and it's still going strong. :D Couldn't live without that thing.
Oh it's the best thing ever. I've had mine for around 3 years as well and it still kicks ass. loud as hell but it looks like it's been through the wringer, oh wait it has. It's a really great product but it's a shame it doesn't come with a battery. Good thing I can steal them from just about any job I go on nowadays (I'm up to 6 now) :)I used to take the old ones from people that I work with.
None of us use any dewalt power tools anymore though, makita has taken the number one spot in my opinion.

Anyway I bought one 12volt dewalt battery just for the radio and it lasts for about 3 days on a full charge, and cost $50. With the old batteries I was changing them every couple of hours. :wacko:

[Mikity]

For Mazdas there is a litte doohickey called the "Auxmod" that will let you install an aux (headphone) port in your system. They used to be hard to find but there seems to be better availability these days. I added one to my car and of course the sound is much better than over FM, no crackling, loss of signal etc.
Maybe there are similar devices available for other makes?

By the way, here's the link to that Auxmod thingie:
http://www.sylfex.com/products/AuxMod/

[Detale]

Oh it's the best thing ever. I've had mine for around 3 years as well and it still kicks ass. loud as hell but it looks like it's been through the wringer, oh wait it has. It's a really great product but it's a shame it doesn't come with a battery. Good thing I can steal them from just about any job I go on nowadays (I'm up to 6 now) :)I used to take the old ones from people that I work with.
None of us use any dewalt power tools anymore though, makita has taken the number one spot in my opinion.

Anyway I bought one 12volt dewalt battery just for the radio and it lasts for about 3 days on a full charge, and cost $50. With the old batteries I was changing them every couple of hours. :wacko:
I can't believe you said that, I was going to say the same thing but figured no one would get it/care. Oh hell yeah Makita's ion tools are the shit. I was given a set by my boss because I recommended them for the company to buy. They are small, light and powerful. The best cordless I've used in ages. At the risk of sounding racist the white ones are better than the blue. They have more torque for some reason. My peronal fav is the tiny impact gun. You can drive a 6" screw into a solid piece of wood without stripping it, now that's a tool :) I have this set with a flashlight.
http://img714.imageshack.us/img714/127/basemedia5088159.jpg

[napalm1773]

For Mazdas there is a litte doohickey called the "Auxmod" that will let you install an aux (headphone) port in your system. They used to be hard to find but there seems to be better availability these days. I added one to my car and of course the sound is much better than over FM, no crackling, loss of signal etc.
Maybe there are similar devices available for other makes?

That a pretty great device, I drive a 2001 Toyota Sequoia so I wonder if they have anything for that.

[Mikity]

That a pretty great device, I drive a 2001 Toyota Sequoia so I wonder if they have anything for that.

Would this device (http://www.oemautosound.com/pc-339-101-pie-toy-aux-toyota-1998-2005-auxiliary-input-adapter.aspx) work?

[napalm1773]

The device that you linked seems great but I mistyped the model of my truck, its actually an 04. But on the other hand I found the 2003-2007 (http://www.oemautosound.com/pc-340-101-pie-toy03-aux-toyota-2003-2007-auxiliary-input-adapter.aspx) device which is about the same cost, $65. However, at the bottom of the page it said "for connecting iPods we recommend using this cable (http://www.oemautosound.com/pc-353-151-ipod-docking-to-rca-charging-cable.aspx). This cable ends up being an additional $25. So I'm running the numbers through my head and it adds up to $90 without shipping. Although It would be nice to have AUX quality audio from my iPhone playing in my car it just seems too much, mainly because I'm also interested in finding something that I can move from one car to another. Which is why I'm considering a cassette or FM transmitter that's decently price and delivers decent quality.

[tesco]

The device that you linked seems great but I mistyped the model of my truck, its actually an 04. But on the other hand I found the 2003-2007 (http://www.oemautosound.com/pc-340-101-pie-toy03-aux-toyota-2003-2007-auxiliary-input-adapter.aspx) device which is about the same cost, $65. However, at the bottom of the page it said "for connecting iPods we recommend using this cable (http://www.oemautosound.com/pc-353-151-ipod-docking-to-rca-charging-cable.aspx). This cable ends up being an additional $25. So I'm running the numbers through my head and it adds up to $90 without shipping. Although It would be nice to have AUX quality audio from my iPhone playing in my car it just seems too much, mainly because I'm also interested in finding something that I can move from one car to another. Which is why I'm considering a cassette or FM transmitter that's decently price and delivers decent quality.
You don't have to buy that extra cable. That is if you want to charge your ipod on the go (and would require a little bit of wiring skills to install).

You can buy the $65 adapter and use one of these:
http://www.cablesdirect.com/prodimages/CC399-25_LR.jpg
Called an RCA-to-3.5mm adapter (male to male).
Should only cost a few dollars from radioshack.


But try the cassette tape first. You can easily return that if you don't like the sound quality.

[Appzalien]

Its funny, this reminds me how when I was younger I used to tap onto the potentiometer (volume nob insides) in the radio and I could even put a mic onto it (I used to use old telephone mics cause the telephone company didn't seal their equipment very well back then). I actually remember once having a radio outside the front door of the house on the porch and I was inside with the mic. My brothers got a kid neighbor over and I flipped a switch and changed from actual radio music to mic and pretended to be a news announcer and said there was a tornado heading for Jimmy Scarzinsky's house and he ran home screaming at the top of his lungs.

That same year my parents went out on halloween and left us kids in charge of handing out candy. I used the same radio but wired a speaker outside of it so I could put it into a pumpkin on the porch. When the kids would come to the door I made spooky sounds, and most of them ran away. When my parents got home they couldn't believe how much candy we had left. My uncle was into electronics and used to tutor me and give me all kinds of stuff to play with it was great. To this day I'm not afraid to go inside anything no matter how small or high voltage it might be inside. My Uncle Emil taught me more in a few years then my Dad did my whole life. God bless Uncle Em.