Hi,
Where can I get one of those yokes that transmits your mp3 player signal to a radio staion in the car. I got one of the tape things and found it to be total rubbish.
just got an ipod mini so I've been looking into this:
[broken link removed]
no. 4 from digital age products looks interesting:
- its not ipod specific
- takes its power from the cigarette lighter rather than the player or using batteries. Might be a problem if you need this to recharge your phone or anything similar. Does anyone smoke in cars anymore
Where can I get one of those yokes that transmits your mp3 player signal to a radio staion in the car. I got one of the tape things and found it to be total rubbish.
The tape devices don't get good user review as the tape has to go around to keep tension against the heads, which introduces noise.
The FM broadcast solution doesn't sound very good either.
What I concluded - and intended to buy but haven't done so yet - is that you need a CD/MP3 player with an auxiliary jack input. Some of these actually support scrolling through the playlist of the iPod on the display of the CD/MP3 player. If I can find the link again I will post it here.
As far as I remember those cassette adapters don't actually contain any actual tape at all, just a magnetic head that lines up with the cassette players own reading head. The cogs in the adapter may still spin around but this produces only minimal physical (as opposed to electrical) noise, not something you notice in a car unless its stationary and switched off.
The FM broadcast solution doesn't sound very good either.
The only solution for most without a cassette deck or aux input, which most don't have. I know people who use these (illegally of course) and say they work very well. They only transmit a few feet and can be tuned to different frequencies.
What I concluded - and intended to buy but haven't done so yet - is that you need a CD/MP3 player with an auxiliary jack input. Some of these actually support scrolling through the playlist of the iPod on the display of the CD/MP3 player.
The aux input won't give you any access to the iPod controls in any way at all, its just taking the audio out signal from the headphone socket on the iPod and amplifying it. You can get a cable harness for some BMWs and the new Mini that give very limited access to predefined playlists but not the full iPod menu system.
I think Alpine make a head unit that gives more complete access to the iPod but that just slightly more expensive than a cassette adapter!
For what it's worth a colleague of mine bought an [broken link removed] in the US which seems pretty useful except that in his BMW the radio antenna is built into the rear window (or something like) so to use it he would have to stick the MP3 player there which would prevent access to the controls/navigation limiting playback to predefined playlists etc. My own player (old style bulky [broken link removed] does come with an infrared remote which might suit him but I wouldn't like to be a passenger in the car when he attempts to lean back and use it! :eek ). The transmitter can obviously also be used at home for example. However the idea of using MP3 to get compressed audio files which approach the original CD quality and then broadcast them across FM thus degrading the sound quality seems a bit odd to me to be honest. Why don't car radio manufacturers simply put line-in inputs on their devices to simplify connectivity issues such as this... :\
Just ordered an fm transmitter for 39 euro (not much more than those useless tapes) from a shop in dublin. Back from the future I think is the name of it.
The tape I got was very noisy by the way. Maybe its just a dud one but its going straight into the bin.
Just changed car and had an aux port on my car radio/cd with a Creative jukebox mp3 player. The problem with it was both systems had to be at practically full volume for it to be heard.
Worked fine otherwise but if you forgot to put down the sound before switching over to the radio or cd , YOU HAD THE EARS BLOWN OFF YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I got one of those belkin transmitters a while ago. I find it really good. Volume can be a bit lower at times but in general the quality is excellent. The one I got came with a power lead for the ciggy charger - very handy. You can tune it to 4 different wavelengths which is good if you travel a bit as local stations can have different frequencies as you move around. Paid about $60 for it.
