Listening to your ipod in the car

ghosstt · Post by **ghosstt** » Mon Nov 17, 2008 7:50 pm

Well, I've got my truck, and it came with a stock stereo receiver, with a CD player, and Cassette player. I was planning on just buying a ipod cassette player thing, but then something happened. I got a receiver from a ford escape that was totaled. Is there anyway to add a direct line to this for my ipod and sorts?

jperryss · Post by **jperryss** » Mon Nov 17, 2008 8:16 pm

ghosstt wrote:Is there anyway to add a direct line to this for my ipod and sorts?

If it has some type of AUX IN (usually a minijack) you can run a mini-mini cable from the ipod to the AUX input. Of course, you'd also have to replace your stock radio with that one, which will either be a direct swap or near-impossible. I'm not very Ford savvy so I couldn't tell you, but if your truck is not also a Ford (Lincoln, Mercury, whatever) then it'll definitely be tough.

Your other option is either the tape adapter you mentioned or an FM transmitter.

grossaffe · Post by **grossaffe** » Mon Nov 17, 2008 8:19 pm

I use an FM transmitter for my mp3 player. Its nice because it charges it at the same time; no need to worry about a dead battery.

HotDog-Cart · Post by **HotDog-Cart** » Mon Nov 17, 2008 8:39 pm

Just remember kids. Using headphones in your car (If your the driver) is ILLEGAL. Atleast it is, in Canada.

SonyPortableizer · Post by **SonyPortableizer** » Mon Nov 17, 2008 8:42 pm

And america

ghosstt · Post by **ghosstt** » Mon Nov 17, 2008 8:56 pm

HotDog-Cart wrote:Just remember kids. Using headphones in your car (If your the driver) is ILLEGAL. Atleast it is, in Canada.

thats why I'm gonna play it through the stereo.

I also have a ford, and I'm pretty sure they match up with the brackets. Sadly, there is no mini jack, but I thought I saw somehow you can splice some wires to ghetto rig it.

vskid · Post by **vskid** » Mon Nov 17, 2008 9:07 pm

You're in luck. With a cassette player, you can easily add an aux-in line. You just solder a headphone jack to the reader head of the cassette player. Google for more info, I couldn't find a very good guide in my short search, but I've seen good ones before.

RockNRoll! · Post by **RockNRoll!** » Mon Nov 17, 2008 9:26 pm

If you have no tape player, your best bet is an FM transmitter. Or just get an aftermarket stereo with an auxiliary jack.

Post by **bicostp** » Mon Nov 17, 2008 9:50 pm

Tape adapter.

It is possible to add a line in jack to some car stereos if you tap into the lines heading from the CD player to the switch circuit, but that would require dismantling the entire stereo.

You could also get a replacement head unit that comes with a line input, but you'll have to mess with the wiring, and no matter how careful you are, you'll never get the dash back together 100% again. (My Saturn has an aftermarket stereo, the people who put it in botched it royally. The whole center cover part rattles, the plastic bezel around the instrument panel is put together wrong, and the wiring is undoubtedly a mess.) If you do go this path, make sure you get a proper installation kit, and for crap's sake don't cut the wiring harness up!!

What year and model is your truck? (I assume F-[X]50 but you could have a Ranger or Explorer...)

ghosstt · Post by **ghosstt** » Tue Nov 18, 2008 2:45 pm

bicostp wrote:Tape adapter.

It is possible to add a line in jack to some car stereos if you tap into the lines heading from the CD player to the switch circuit, but that would require dismantling the entire stereo.

You could also get a replacement head unit that comes with a line input, but you'll have to mess with the wiring, and no matter how careful you are, you'll never get the dash back together 100% again. (My Saturn has an aftermarket stereo, the people who put it in botched it royally. The whole center cover part rattles, the plastic bezel around the instrument panel is put together wrong, and the wiring is undoubtedly a mess.) If you do go this path, make sure you get a proper installation kit, and for crap's sake don't cut the wiring harness up!!

What year and model is your truck? (I assume F-[X]50 but you could have a Ranger or Explorer...)

2001 ford explorer sport trac. The stereo unit I got is from a 2001 ford escape.(It was free, so I'm fine if it gets ruined.) Do you have any guides for tapping the wiring and adding a line-in port?

Post by **CronoTriggerfan** » Tue Nov 18, 2008 3:10 pm

I'm actually having a similar predicament. I just got a 2000 Grand Prix GT, and I'm using a tape adapter with my iPod. It works and all, but the sound quality obviously isn't as good as, say, a direct line-in from an aftermarket dash would be. Seeing as the former is only okay quality and the latter is far too expensive at the moment, it's been suggested to me by a few people to get an FM transmitter and use that instead. Does it really sound that much better, and how would I go about doing it?

ghosstt · Post by **ghosstt** » Tue Nov 18, 2008 3:29 pm

CronoTriggerfan wrote:I'm actually having a similar predicament. I just got a 2000 Grand Prix GT, and I'm using a tape adapter with my iPod. It works and all, but the sound quality obviously isn't as good as, say, a direct line-in from an aftermarket dash would be. Seeing as the former is only okay quality and the latter is far too expensive at the moment, it's been suggested to me by a few people to get an FM transmitter and use that instead. Does it really sound that much better, and how would I go about doing it?

well, I found this guide, and it seems like it may work well. I'm going to open up mine now and see what I've got. If you switch to the CD channel, with no CD in it, you could probably get rid of the background noise.

http://donn.dyndns.org/projects/carstereoinput/

timmeh87 · Post by **timmeh87** » Tue Nov 18, 2008 5:07 pm

bicostp wrote:Tape adapter.

It is possible to add a line in jack to some car stereos if you tap into the lines heading from the CD player to the switch circuit, but that would require dismantling the entire stereo.

I did this on my van, the CD player just has a standard red-white audio line coming out of it... I put one of those switchy jacks in to bypass the CD player if a cable is inserted.

You need a CD playing for it to work though.

ghosstt · Post by **ghosstt** » Tue Nov 18, 2008 5:32 pm

timmeh87 wrote:
bicostp wrote:Tape adapter.

It is possible to add a line in jack to some car stereos if you tap into the lines heading from the CD player to the switch circuit, but that would require dismantling the entire stereo.
I did this on my van, the CD player just has a standard red-white audio line coming out of it... I put one of those switchy jacks in to bypass the CD player if a cable is inserted.

You need a CD playing for it to work though.

Well I've got a CD player. The one from the escape has a 6 cd changer in it, and it comes out as a big unit, with the main board being at the bottom of a shell enclosing that goes around the CD changer. Don't know where exactly I would jump in. (ill post pics in a sec)

Front Cover Piece

Back of over piece

Top of CD changer part.

Bottom Part

"main board"/shell

TI IC from back of front panel

Post by **Triton** » Wed Nov 19, 2008 1:23 pm

it's been suggested to me by a few people to get an FM transmitter and use that instead. Does it really sound that much better

no. in my experience not at all! ive used belkin fm transmitter (the 20$ one from walmart) and it had pisspoor range and mediocre at best sound quality, lots of static regardless of the station set on too. also have a cheap 10$ one from target that works better but still not as good of sound as the tape adapter.

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Listening to your ipod in the car

Listening to your ipod in the car

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