iPod car adapters

Steel Angel

So a friend wants to get another friend an iPod car adapter as a gift. I did a bit of my own research but need some actual experiences from people who have dealt with them. I know that the recipient's car should have an aux in jack so we're not stuck with wireless adapters, but I still could use some advice on what brands/models to look at.

sir_pinch-a-loaf

If you can use an aux in jack, do so. easily the best solution for the money. you can use a $3 stereo jack and get reasonably good sound quality. This is literally all you would need, unless you wanted a charger to keep the battery full.

wonderpug

Go to monoprice.com if you need a cigarette lighter charger for your iPod. They charge about $2 for it compared to $20-25 or more at Best Buy or wherever. While you're ordering, might as well throw in the 3.5mm stereo cable you need for like 75 cents or something.

blackranger3d

If the goal is to only play music through the cars speakers then use the aux in jack and a mini stereo jack to rca cable as wonderpug has said.

If the goal is to play music through the car speakers AND control the ipod from the car stereo, you'll need to know the specific make and eyar of car so that you can get the proper adaptor. I'm using a VAIS unit on my car.

Doc Holliday

It's not exactly an adapter, but I just bought the Alpine IDA-x305 head unit and it's absolutely perfect.

If their car has aux in already, then the Griffin AutoPilot is fantastic. Comes with everything you need, and it controls right from the charger. My friend has one and it works a treat.

Steel Angel

So if I'm reading this right, if the recipient is fine with using the ipod's controls to switch music and doesn't care about draining the battery, a cable alone will work?

ASimPerson

Doc Holliday wrote: »

It's not exactly an adapter, but I just bought the Alpine IDA-x305 head unit and it's absolutely perfect.

If their car has aux in already, then the Griffin AutoPilot is fantastic. Comes with everything you need, and it controls right from the charger. My friend has one and it works a treat.

The Griffin LiquidAux, on the other hand, was terrible for me. After a month it just stopped charging my iPod and it didn't turn the iPod off when you turned the car off, which would drain the battery.

http://www.amazon.com/Belkin-Auto-Charger-iPod-White/dp/B00009KAPX/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1257189532&sr=8-1 is the thing I used to use, but after 4 years of use the cable broke off from the connector. Outside of the shoddy build quality, it worked well for my purposes. My main issue is that this product is 4-5 years old now and still $40.

At this point, I'm just thinking about getting a new stereo.

Doc Holliday

Steel Angel wrote: »

So if I'm reading this right, if the recipient is fine with using the ipod's controls to switch music and doesn't care about draining the battery, a cable alone will work?

Assuming his head unit has aux input, yeah.

Unknown

This content has been removed.

Bedigunz

ASimPerson wrote: »

Doc Holliday wrote: »

It's not exactly an adapter, but I just bought the Alpine IDA-x305 head unit and it's absolutely perfect.

If their car has aux in already, then the Griffin AutoPilot is fantastic. Comes with everything you need, and it controls right from the charger. My friend has one and it works a treat.

The Griffin LiquidAux, on the other hand, was terrible for me. After a month it just stopped charging my iPod and it didn't turn the iPod off when you turned the car off, which would drain the battery.

http://www.amazon.com/Belkin-Auto-Charger-iPod-White/dp/B00009KAPX/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1257189532&sr=8-1 is the thing I used to use, but after 4 years of use the cable broke off from the connector. Outside of the shoddy build quality, it worked well for my purposes. My main issue is that this product is 4-5 years old now and still $40.

At this point, I'm just thinking about getting a new stereo.

The only reason I stopped using that Belkin is because I got one of the newer nanos and it wouldn't charge my Ipod anymore due to the nano being too new for that.

Damn shame too. I really liked it.

Steel Angel

So I probably should have mentioned I know jack shit about audio wiring outside of computers. Exactly what are the terms for the wires I should be looking at to connect an iPod to a Aux-In jack as directly as possible?

wunderbar

Unknown

This content has been removed.

DeathPrawn

wunderbar wrote: »

This.

Optionally get a car charger and (if it's an iPhone/iPod Touch) an app that makes car control simpler (i.e. tap the screen to play/pause, swipe left/right to change tracks), but that <$2 cable is the simplest and cheapest method.

Mr. Buttons

This looks like the right place to ask. Looking to get a FM transmitter to listen to the MP3 players (ipod and zune) in the car as I don't want to swap the stereo or buy the auxiliary input. Any suggestions for good quality ones? I see a bunch of them out there, but which ones have you had good experience with?

LoveIsUnity

Mr. Buttons wrote: »

This looks like the right place to ask. Looking to get a FM transmitter to listen to the MP3 players (ipod and zune) in the car as I don't want to swap the stereo or buy the auxiliary input. Any suggestions for good quality ones? I see a bunch of them out there, but which ones have you had good experience with?

I used one for about a year before I got fed up with it and got a head unit that had an aux in. I've used a couple and neither of them worked terribly well. The first one was an actual zune product, but I had comparable results with a no-name brand from circuit city.

Mr. Buttons

LoveIsUnity wrote: »

Mr. Buttons wrote: »

This looks like the right place to ask. Looking to get a FM transmitter to listen to the MP3 players (ipod and zune) in the car as I don't want to swap the stereo or buy the auxiliary input. Any suggestions for good quality ones? I see a bunch of them out there, but which ones have you had good experience with?

I used one for about a year before I got fed up with it and got a head unit that had an aux in. I've used a couple and neither of them worked terribly well. The first one was an actual zune product, but I had comparable results with a no-name brand from circuit city.

yeah, that's been my experience with them too, but I'm hoping that there are exceptions.. something that works "good enough" for the purpose.

I've found This on amazon and it looks like it has the features we need (namely that it works on the full band so we can change frequency to avoid interference, and also that it charges the device), and it gets good reviews, but I've never heard of the name brand before.

Unknown

This content has been removed.