Using a portable MP3 player in a car
 

Does anyone have experience in using their mp3 player in their car? It looks like their are devices to either transmit an FM signal from the player to your car stereo or to use a cassette format device to play from the MP3 player to the car stereo. Do these sound good? Any experience as to which of the two approaches sounds better? Thanks for sharing any experience.

I hard wired mine in to get better quality sound from my ipod than available using a cassette adapter or an FM transmitter. Blitzsafe sells adapters to provide an input into your car stereo.

www.blitzsafe.com

http://www.acuramdx.org/forums/showt...0&pagenumber=1

I use an iPod and here's my experiences:

1. I got the Belkin FM Adapter. Thought it sucked for two reasons. One it used external battery power so it was more cumbersome. Second, you could only select from 4 stations for the output.

2. Then I went to a cassette adapter. Not high on the cool factor, but it works.

3. I bought a Griffin iTrip because I thought it was so cool. At least you can tune it into any FM station, but it still isn't great in crowded radio environments (large cities)

I use the cassette adapter day in and day out. It'd be my recommendation. Let us know what you decide...

I have had experience with both the FM adaptor and the cassette adaptor from trying to run a portable CD player in the car. I had much more underlying hiss from the cassette adaptor than from the FM adaptor - possibly partly due to the quality of the cassette player, but I think hiss is more of an issue with cassette players than FM tuners in general. If you generally crank the volume up then maybe the hiss won't be much of an issue.

The FM adapter I use plugs into the cig lighter and has four voltage settings and different power plugs for powering the CD player (or whatever other tunes device you're using). It only had a couple of frequency settings but I never had a problem with that.

My SO tried the iTrip, but it sucks, it's transmitting power is very low and changing frequencies is a major hassle, we ended up with the Monster iPod charger/transmitter, amazing quality and manual station selection.

Does the stereo have an input for a cd changer or aux input? If so, then there is probably an adapter that you can get to go from the MP3 player to the radio, depending on the make and model.

For example, we have an input for a CD changer in the trunk, and if we wanted, we can get an adapter that will allow us to plug an MP3 Player (or just about anything else into it) and it will play through as if it was the changer playing.

This is a damn fine suggestion. I called the Acura dealer where I got the car and they recommended me to a car sound place they recommend. They said they were sure but thought the factory radio didnt have inputs. I will have to find out more, Im not convinced they knew for sure, but that would be a great solution. Ill try to find out more about this. Thanks.

I tried both methods and came to conclusion that tape adapter is much better. Very good sound quality and absolutely no hiss.

Agreed. It is my first and only use of my cassette deck in the car...

I have been unable to find anyone at Acura who knows if the radio has an auxillary input. Sounds like I should try the cassette method. Ill give it a try (I too havent used my cassette deck). Thanks for the info.

From the published info on the portable Sirius and XM radios, the cassette adapter interface has a much higher quality rating than the FM adapter. Same should apply for iPods and other portable mp3 players...

I have a cd changer installed that uses FM (because my dealer-installed didn't have an aux) - it's not anywhere near as loud or clear as using the cassette adapter method.