skiiirt Posted April 29, 2005 Report Share Posted April 29, 2005 I bought the Zen Portable Media Center. It is basically small LCD that plays mp3's and movies. I eventually plan on mounting this into my car somewhere. Now this all depends on one thing What is the quality of those crazy cheap FM transmitters (plugs into headphones and transmits sound to a FM frequency)? Anyone had any experience with these? ultimately what I want is to have my sony deck installed in the glove box or something and have the Zen play through that but at the same time I would like to keep my factory tape deck. I dont know if these FM transmitters can achieve high quality sound as I would like to put some fairly nice speakers into my car. Anyone? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GP1138 Posted April 29, 2005 Report Share Posted April 29, 2005 Don't bother. Get a cassette head unit and use a cassette adapter, or get a nice unit with an RCA input. Otherwise, you're wasting your time. FM adapters are shitty in my experience, they're limited to the dynamic range of FM radio, which sucks, and the reception sucks ass. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1990lumina Posted April 29, 2005 Report Share Posted April 29, 2005 The one I have sucks...but my buddies' Griffin iTrip for his iPod works nicely in my car..and in his as well.. - Jeff L. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skiiirt Posted April 29, 2005 Author Report Share Posted April 29, 2005 The HU I have is a Sony CDX-M610 This is what the back side looks like It has a BUS AUDIO IN any idea what the hell that is for? I have long since lost the manual for this thing. I think I left it in my old cutty where this came out of Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GP1138 Posted April 29, 2005 Report Share Posted April 29, 2005 The HU I have is a Sony CDX-M610This is what the back side looks like It has a BUS AUDIO IN any idea what the hell that is for? I have long since lost the manual for this thing. I think I left it in my old cutty where this came out of You can buy a $30 adapter so that you can just plug in anything with RCA cables into the adapter and plug the adapter into the BUS audio in on there, and it'll play through your AUX source on the deck. Might as well do that, you'll spend just as much on the FM modulator. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
89GPSE Posted April 29, 2005 Report Share Posted April 29, 2005 What is the quality of those crazy cheap FM transmitters (plugs into headphones and transmits sound to a FM frequency)? Anyone had any experience with these? These work great if you buy a good one, and suck if you buy a cheap one. If you buy the digital "iRock" Brand FM transmitter it will work as good as if it was wired, but if you go cheap and get almost anything else you will hate it. Be prepared to spend about $35 on a good one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skiiirt Posted April 29, 2005 Author Report Share Posted April 29, 2005 You can buy a $30 adapter so that you can just plug in anything with RCA cables into the adapter and plug the adapter into the BUS audio in on there, and it'll play through your AUX source on the deck. Might as well do that, you'll spend just as much on the FM modulator. Do you have any name brands you would reccomend? I may as well have it go into the actual head unit My next question is how can I hook both, the cd player and the tape deck at the same time? impossible? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
john99gtp Posted April 29, 2005 Report Share Posted April 29, 2005 i bought the nice irock just last week for my trip to ohio. i tested it out on my home theater system, and sounded really good. before that, i got a cheapo one from best buy. big mistake. thats why i ended up ordering a different one. im happy (for now) i havent tested it in my car yet, but if it sounded that good on my home stereo, it should be decent in the car. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GP1138 Posted April 29, 2005 Report Share Posted April 29, 2005 My next question is how can I hook both, the cd player and the tape deck at the same time? impossible? What do you mean? If you hook a stereo RCA to 1/4" Headphone jack cord, you can have both. I'm not sure I understand the question. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slick Posted April 29, 2005 Report Share Posted April 29, 2005 I sell the Monster brand for rougly $50 at work. Supposidly, it works a ton better than anything else in the store. But, as posted above, at sounddomain.com, you can buy adapters that will conver the I-BUS into a set of RCA inputs. You can then buy an adapter for like $5 that will convert from RCA to headphone style jack. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
runt Posted April 29, 2005 Report Share Posted April 29, 2005 My next question is how can I hook both, the cd player and the tape deck at the same time? impossible? What do you mean? If you hook a stereo RCA to 1/4" Headphone jack cord, you can have both. I'm not sure I understand the question. He wants the tape deck AND the Head Unit in the car, wired and working. I guess you could just splice into the factory harness, maybe add another pigtail from the same genre of car and plug and play with the H.U. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skiiirt Posted April 29, 2005 Author Report Share Posted April 29, 2005 My zen came with a headphone to rca converter. The zen has a headphone and a a/v out. I just need to convert the rca to the BUS IN. I have read a little on the subject (Im trying to study for finals so i'm not searching too hard) and have read the HU won't recognize the player unless it sends out a signal to the deck telling the deck its alive. So I may need to buy the huge ass adapter from sony which allows for multiple things to be plugged in (which I don't need). I've also been thinking. I might just keep the power to the current tape deck just so it turns on and displays the time. But run the wiring to the new deck. I've got so many ideas and such little knowledge. Nobody at the electronic shops seems to be able to answer my questions Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
THe_DeTAiL3R Posted April 29, 2005 Report Share Posted April 29, 2005 My car came with a FM modulated CD-changer in the trunk. Sounded about as good as the stock Delco tape deck could sound (better than cassettes or FM radio anyways). But I didn't want a crappy 10 disk in the trunk so I sold it and put my Kenwood HU in.. I guess I'd agree that a good one will sound good, and cheap ones crappy... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DiscoStudd Posted April 29, 2005 Report Share Posted April 29, 2005 This might work: http://www.installer.com/photos/son-aux.jpg Aux adapters can be found here: http://www.installer.com/aux/index.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Psych0matt Posted April 29, 2005 Report Share Posted April 29, 2005 My car came with a FM modulated CD-changer in the trunk. Sounded about as good as the stock Delco tape deck could sound (better than cassettes or FM radio anyways). But I didn't want a crappy 10 disk in the trunk so I sold it and put my Kenwood HU in.. I guess I'd agree that a good one will sound good, and cheap ones crappy... Usually (or at least the few ive had in my experience) are fm modulated but not wirelessly if i remember correctly. I remember having an antenna adapter or something that all plugged into the stereo via the antenna. I think? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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