Car Adapter For CD/MP3 Player

[BruiseLee]

I'm planning on buying a car kit for my CD and MP3 Players. I have an old 1972 Ford Mustang which only accepts the old style dual shaft car stereos. I have a ton of MP 3's and CD's, and 2 portable players to play them in (a cheap Phillips CD player and a Creative Nomad Jukebox 3), so I want to get a car kit for them.

You know, those funky looking devices which has a cassette looking apparatus you stick in your car stereos tape cassette slot. Attached to said device is a wire you plug into your player.

I have no idea how these things work. Are they capable of providing high fidelity?

I'm considering the following models, but if you know of a good one, please tell me!

I've seen 2 Sony car adapters at Fry's Electronics, the cheaper of which was about $25. I've seen a Jensen model for about $20. I know I've also seen a Coby(?), and I think GE makes one too. Oh, and the most expensive one is Creative Labs, which I've seen on the net advertised as an accessory for the Jukebox 3 for about $40.

So, what is the best car adapter out there?

Bruise

 

[gyverpete]

I use one. They work pretty good. I drive for a living and get alot of discs from the library, and I take the portable cd and power & cassette adapters between my car and company car. The adapter came with my player. I've also use a cheap adapter as a spare (no name for $1 at the "dollar store") and it sounds indistinguishable from the Sony.

I've also tried the "FM modulator" adaptors that plug in the same way on the player, but transmit the signal to an unused fm station instead of through the cassette deck. They're available from Circuit City and Radio Shack, but I don't recommend these. They're pretty awful compared to the cassette adapter.

I also have an Alpine deck and disc changer in my own car but I find myself using my portable Sony player/adapter setup most of the time because I "disc-surf alot and also, I tend to forget what discs in what order I have in the magazine. The sound quality is a little lower than the changer, though to my ears, not by much. I do notice a louder hiss between tracks and in softer portions of music the way you would with a tape, but there is no flutter or pops/clicks or distortion that you get with an audio tape. They are stereo and I guess sort of hi-fi.

I think $25 seems a little steep for one, and I'm not aware of any "high-end" ones. The adapter is limited to whatever sound quality the cassete deck can offer, which is always less than even a cheap cd player.

I suggest you pick one or two, expensive and cheap, and return the one you prefer less.

 

[cave dave]

The sony has good sound quality but it makes a lot of whirring noise in the deck though. I don't think its worth the dough. I use one that came with my CD player It works better thatn the sony. I think its a memorex.
PM me I think i might have an extra one around for cheaper.

 

[James S]

I have had several of those pop in cassette adaptors over the years, and they all were lousy. The sound quality was OK, but I could never get them to stay in my radio. Some kinds just don't work at all. If you have a reversible cassette player they will just click back and forth. Even with the most expensive ones that work for a little while it will eventually start switching sides and cutting off the music as it does. Some decks will just eject them. Most recently I had the most expensive one I could find thinking it would work better. And it did for a few weeks. Now as the deck heats up during use it starts switching sides and is horrible annoying. So even if it works now, it may not work a week from now.

As far as I'm concerned the absolute best option is one of the modulators that hooks into the antenna line. I would not recommend the ones that just have a little antenna on them, the ones I've played with had lousy sound quality. But for around $50 you can get a very good one. Installing it is a little more trouble, you need to get behind your radio and connect the antenna plugs and run power to it too. But the power can be as simple as running it under the dash to a lighter socket that you just reach under and plug in when you want to use it. You don't have to install new switches in the dash if you don't want to.

When it's on it's blocking the regular antenna, so no interference. When it's off it's transparent to the radio signals so the reception is at least as good as before. You just tune your radio to a specific channel and listen, then switch it off to get regular radio again.

And you don't have quite so many wires hanging around getting tangled in your gear shift /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

 

[BF Hammer]

I have used the cassette adapters for several years. I'm an office equipment service tech that drives from place to place all day. I get a different company car every 2-3 years and they have had factory cassette deck stereos in the last 3 cars I've been issued. I can't install a different stereo unless I'm willing to donate it to the company (righhht...) so I use an adapter. Initially I used the one that came packed with my Aiwa portable CD player, then I started using it for my Rio 500 mp3 player. It wore out after 5 years and I had to replace it with a $20 unit (don't remember the brand). The sound has the freq response of a good quality cassette, less hiss (but some nonetheless). I've had no problems in Ford or Delco factory systems, the auto reverse mechanism has never caused a problem. High-end aftermarket systems might insist on a real cassette to work properly, which could explain some other people's problems (at least I'm assumming that the adapter was used in a high-end system). The adapter is definitly a compromise because the sound would be better with a stereo that can play cd's or mp3's directly, but it won't be any worse than cassette sound quality. The wires hanging out of the dash are definitly ugly.

 

[lemlux]

The cassette adapters work in some cassette players, but not in others that need to sense tape movement. Test the tape player you intend to use before buying the adapter.

I also have one of the RS FM adapters. Sound quality is horrible, but you can entertain yourself by seeing how each fraction of an inch that you move the transmitter (or adjust your body position) will change your RFI noise pattern. It reminded me of some cheap radios that would provide best reception when impacted favorably by my personal magnetic field when held.

Neither approach is satisfactory, but my Son's 1995 Lumina MiniVan stock radio works better with a cassette adapter than any other radio I've seen it tried with. (an admittedly small sample.)