iPod/Cassette Adapter install

Works really well. Even with the 2002 Nav screen, there is enough space to tuck the wire from a generic Radio Shack cassette adapter cleanly in the screen's "seam."

I'm realizing that part of what makes these cars feel so solid is the malleable, flexible nature of much of the materials used... they absorb shocks and the compression/expansion from temperature variations. The material along the side of the shifter console was easily flexed with just some fingernail pressure to allow the wire to be tucked away neatly, all the way down to the cupholders.

Did I mention I love my iPod? :thumb:

And it sits nicely in the front cupholder, easily accessed by passenger or driver.

I might eventually get a cell-phone mount to hold it, but it doesn't really seem necessary.

Extreme tunage! :thumb:

Plaz, have you had your car long enough to have dust on your console? Nice rez on the camera! And thanks for the idea! I knew I shoulda got the nav!

Nice job, you can barely notice the wiring. Heard good things about iPod, but also heard that you need a Mac to use it. Is that true?

Originally posted by ict330xi
Plaz, have you had your car long enough to have dust on your console? Nice rez on the camera! And thanks for the idea! I knew I shoulda got the nav!

LOL! Yeah... couldn't even see the dust when I was in there... the flash made it all appear. That's L.A. for you... I washed the car on Friday, and by the evening yesterday, the whole car was covered with a layer of dust.

I have to get me one of those california car dusters.

Originally posted by hantavirus
Nice job, you can barely notice the wiring. Heard good things about iPod, but also heard that you need a Mac to use it. Is that true?

There are people working on shareware/freeware Windows utilities -- I'm a Mac guy, so I'm not sure where those apps stand at this point. I'm sure they'll get it working eventually though.

The only interface the iPod has is FireWire, though, so you'd need that as well. (Transfers FAST!! About a song a second... about ten or fifteen seconds for a standard-length CD's worth of material encoded at 160k)

hey plaz. thanks SOOOOOO much for those pics and the info. you are going to save me a bunch of money now. i THOUGHT i would have to get a trunk cd changer but I am convinced that I can hook up a MP3 CD player using the casette adapter now. that looks like a very clean install. how long did it take you? is the NAV screen motorized flip down or do you manually move it down to access the cassette deck? so there was enough room behind the screen to hold the wire huh. cooool. now my next dilemna is to whether keep my HK upgrade or get the Xenon's instead. I am on a budget and don't want to splurge on both. thanks again....

I have seen those tape adapters before, but I have never used one nor do I quite understand how they work. Is there much loss in the quality of the sound that comes out of them, like tape vs. CD?

Also, does the NAV system have any sort of audio-in jacks in the back?

Clever idea!

--SONET

PS Speaking of Macs, do you use OSX? If so, do you experience problems posting to this forum using IE on OSX like I do?

Originally posted by SONET
PS Speaking of Macs, do you use OSX? If so, do you experience problems posting to this forum using IE on OSX like I do?

I use OS X all the time (it's what I do for a living!), and I've had no issues posting here. See, I'm doing it now!

I should have been more specific - I can post here using OSX. I just can't use the stuff in the 'vB Code' section (bold, quote, etc.). What's up with that?

Otherwise OSX is great;I bought my laptop in anticipation of OSX last year instead of a Dell machine, and I'm glad I did. Nothing like having a terminial window running while having a nice GUI and app selection along with it. OSX is the only way to have all three at once without having to telnet/ssh to a *NIX box IMHO.

--SONET

Originally posted by SONET
I should have been more specific - I can post here using OSX. I just can't use the stuff in the 'vB Code' section (bold, quote, etc.). What's up with that?

Otherwise OSX is great;I bought my laptop in anticipation of OSX last year instead of a Dell machine, and I'm glad I did. Nothing like having a terminial window running while having a nice GUI and app selection along with it. OSX is the only way to have all three at once without having to telnet/ssh to a *NIX box IMHO.

--SONET

Hmm. Seems to work for me, though the dialog that comes up doesn't tell you what it wants. Bold Italics Large

I love being able to have all my favorite Mac apps and still have a BSD unix system underneath. You can download any standard distribution of anything like mysql or whatnot, and just compile it and go. It's totally cool!

Originally posted by punkman79
hey plaz. thanks SOOOOOO much for those pics and the info. you are going to save me a bunch of money now. i THOUGHT i would have to get a trunk cd changer but I am convinced that I can hook up a MP3 CD player using the casette adapter now. that looks like a very clean install. how long did it take you? is the NAV screen motorized flip down or do you manually move it down to access the cassette deck? so there was enough room behind the screen to hold the wire huh. cooool. now my next dilemna is to whether keep my HK upgrade or get the Xenon's instead. I am on a budget and don't want to splurge on both. thanks again....

You're welcome. It took about ten minutes. The screen is motorized. Choose safety over sound quality, if necessary. Good luck!

Originally posted by SONET
I have seen those tape adapters before, but I have never used one nor do I quite understand how they work. Is there much loss in the quality of the sound that comes out of them, like tape vs. CD?

Also, does the NAV system have any sort of audio-in jacks in the back?

Clever idea!

--SONET

PS Speaking of Macs, do you use OSX? If so, do you experience problems posting to this forum using IE on OSX like I do?

The sound is not ideal, but it sounds better to me than the little FM transmitters or modulators. Given that an MP3 is not of ideal quality to begin with, it works well enough. No jacks on the nav that I've seen.

I use OS X exclusively at home, and have no problems using OmniWeb.

Originally posted by Imola Ed


Hmm. Seems to work for me, though the dialog that comes up doesn't tell you what it wants. Bold Italics Large

I love being able to have all my favorite Mac apps and still have a BSD unix system underneath. You can download any standard distribution of anything like mysql or whatnot, and just compile it and go. It's totally cool!

It is amazing. Having used NeXT machines back in the day, it's gratifying to see where the technology has been taken. It's an awesome, stable, elegant OS.

Originally posted by jag3er
I'm ready to jump to the OSX but since I have an old G3 tower, the OSX 10.0.3 seems very slow on my machine. I can't really justify getting a new Mac since the old one still does everything I want it to do.

The newer updates really speed things up... if you already have it installed, run the software update preferences panel... and update the system. It really makes a difference, especially on non-G4 machines.

I picked up an XLR8 G4/500 ZIF CPU upgrade for my G3/400 "smurf" tower, and it runs at a very good clip now.

Originally posted by Plaz 330i


It is amazing. Having used NeXT machines back in the day, it's gratifying to see where the technology has been taken. It's an awesome, stable, elegant OS.

Here's a pic to bring back memories. I turned it on just to take this picture...

Originally posted by Imola Ed


Here's a pic to bring back memories. I turned it on just to take this picture...

Nice! That's an '030 cube, too, isn't it? Not even a "turbo" '040 pizzabox!

Ahhh....

I'd love to have NeXT-like tear-off menus in OS X, but I fear the "the menu bar must always, always, invariably be at the top" UI dogma from hardcore old-school Mac DTS guys will prevail.

Nice that the Dock can be moved around these days, though. :thumb:

I'm sure you guys still have an Open-step-esque "OS X on Intel" skunkworks project going on somewhere in the bowels of Infinite Loop, too... but I won't ask you about that.

The other thing I miss about the old NeXT systems is NX-Hosting. Not sure if the demise of Display Postscript killed that... can Quartz do that nifty trick? I have yet to see any real elegant implementation like that since NeXT boxes... the program running on one machine, while the interface runs on another. Sweet stuff.

I'm both jealous of you, and not... I think I would LOVE to work for Apple, and to channel my Apple-passion to further the cause of their great technology, but at the same time, I bet it gets pretty freaking nuts there at times. The endless Steve anecdotes definitely make one pause when considering...

But nonetheless, it would be my dream job.

Plaz, check this out: IPOD Install

When you want to kick your IPOD install up a notch, give this a roll... I bet you get much better sound quality since you're not losing anything going through a tape converter.

Originally posted by alee
Plaz, check this out: IPOD Install

When you want to kick your IPOD install up a notch, give this a roll... I bet you get much better sound quality since you're not losing anything going through a tape converter.

Sweet! Thanks, Al!

I predict I will do this in a couple of months!

Originally posted by jag3er
What are your settings when you play the iPod in car? Dolby, volume in car and also iPod volume. I just bought a new tape adapter and I'm getting the same low volume, no bass sound. According to Apple, the iPod should be set to 1/2 volume and no Dolby setting. I did that and I can barely hear the iPod at normal volume while the BMW demo cassette plays nice and loud.

I changed the Pod's volume to max and I could hear it through the car stereo but it was really bad quality, high treble, no bass.

I have a feeling the Pod is defective. My friend's Nomad plays just fine, like listening to a CD. I do not get this.

I usually have the iPod at about 60-70% volume. Any louder than that, and it starts to distort. At that level, it's only slightly quieter than the radio or CD changer. No problem with bass response... or at least no problem that's not inherent to the MP3 compression. I did nothing with dolby... don't even know if it's a selectable option.

Hope this helps!

It would be really cool if we could get some black plastics for the iPod to make it match the interior better...