I have an awesome old cd & tuner head unit in my vehicle. The only thing that makes it skip is getting the vehicle airborne. The tuner is very good as well. It has no line in and was made in the days before MP3.
I really don't want to replace it if I don't have to.
Sound quality is important. I bought the 160G Ipod because that is the only one that holds my music uncompressed. it's a waste of time if the FM transmitter isn't close in quality.
I see three options:
1:
My preferred option is an FM transmitter & charger than connects to the docking connector of the Ipod. This means it's going to need that nasty little Apple approved chip in it which limits options considerably.
Has anyone tried any of them? Reviews from the general public are useless (they often think 128k mp3 is great) I have my doubts this will be successful.
2:
An FM modulator that connects inline with the antenna. Either forn the headphones connector or with an Apple chipped line out cable fron the dock connector. a bit ungainly but is likely to be good if a decent modulator is available.
3:
hack the head unit. Attempt to find the DAC and disconnect it's output. Connect a cable from the Ipod's headphone connector (or docking connector with the special chipped apple cable) into this point. put a dummy cd in the head unit on repeat to enable the audio path. This should result in the best sound quality. it might be impossible, it trashes an otherwise excellent head unit but will it matter if all of my cds are on the Ipod anyway?
Any thoughts or opinions?
I really don't want to replace it if I don't have to.
Sound quality is important. I bought the 160G Ipod because that is the only one that holds my music uncompressed. it's a waste of time if the FM transmitter isn't close in quality.
I see three options:
1:
My preferred option is an FM transmitter & charger than connects to the docking connector of the Ipod. This means it's going to need that nasty little Apple approved chip in it which limits options considerably.
Has anyone tried any of them? Reviews from the general public are useless (they often think 128k mp3 is great) I have my doubts this will be successful.
2:
An FM modulator that connects inline with the antenna. Either forn the headphones connector or with an Apple chipped line out cable fron the dock connector. a bit ungainly but is likely to be good if a decent modulator is available.
3:
hack the head unit. Attempt to find the DAC and disconnect it's output. Connect a cable from the Ipod's headphone connector (or docking connector with the special chipped apple cable) into this point. put a dummy cd in the head unit on repeat to enable the audio path. This should result in the best sound quality. it might be impossible, it trashes an otherwise excellent head unit but will it matter if all of my cds are on the Ipod anyway?
Any thoughts or opinions?
I would probably go with a good transmitter (modulator?) that goes inline with the car's antenna.
Hacking into the line input after the DAC would probably have better sound,but would be pretty involved,and would 'trash' the headunit,as you say.
There might be a way to tap into the signal path without disabling the DAC/CD player..but it's hard to say without having a look inside.
Hacking into the line input after the DAC would probably have better sound,but would be pretty involved,and would 'trash' the headunit,as you say.
There might be a way to tap into the signal path without disabling the DAC/CD player..but it's hard to say without having a look inside.
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