Okay so my headunit is on its last legs and I'm trying to come up with ways I can just use my iPhone to play through my stereo instead of using a hard disk/USB stick like I do at the moment with my Blaupunkt headunit - not very easy to navigate music. I've never seen a good FM transmitter, we've have everything from £10 to £60 here and they're all crap so that rules that one out. Would prefer not to use the aux in either as I already have one cable charging my iPhone. How do you play your MP3 player/ipod/iphone through your car speakers?
You could try http://www.ipodcarkitdirect.co.uk/ that have a number I things that might be if use to you.
http://www.belkin.com/IWCatProductPage.process?Product_Id=166893 - got an older model of that, it's pretty good when you tune into 88.9MHz (for me anyways, sometimes you get white noise and the radio station playing through a bit)
I do believe almost all Pioneer headunits have support for an iPad adapter. It may cost a bit, though.
I have a two year old pioneer headunit, it has a direct input for iPod that you can control on the headunit itself. I have an old 40GB classic that i bought with a buggered screen that lives in the glovebox, i just take it in and resync it everynow and then, I have absolutely no other use for it, so with the broken screen it made a really cheap storage device and you always have a massive music collection on tap The headunit also has two auxiliary inputs for non iPod connections which is pretty useful, i used this for my incarpc when it was under the chair, twin 3.5mm jack inputs for when the misses plugs her non-ipod mp3 player in when i have to listen to her **** music. But mainly in regards to an iPhone. I have had a few iPhones and the latest firmware allows me to play music whilst its connected to the headunit via bluetooth so no wires required, this is handy for my latest music, the headunit also has an inbuilt handsfree with a mic that ive located at the top of the "a" pillar trim, the phone rings through the speakers etc when someone calls, mutes the music and you look like those idiots talking to themselves in their cars everyday Check pioneers website for the options then find a second hand one on ebay, mine was only a couple of ton, has many outputs, pre-amp's etc, sounds bloody great =D
There is many headunit manufacturers who offer direct Ipod/Iphone control. Alpine headunits have support for Ipod's, not sure about Iphone but I believe those should work as well if you buy unit with updated software. My alpine headunit has it's own connector for Ipod cable which would enable me to control my whole audio system with Ipod. So that's the way how I would do it.
Alpine all thew way as said above, got mine 2 years ago now, IDA X-100 sorry for the blurry phone pic, ignore the CD player. Had it for 2 years, not a single problem. Audio sounds infinitely better than through any FM/tape thing you'll get. Cannot recommend this style product enough.
Apple have a habit of making changes in their hardware/software revisions which stop new devices working with head units. My Alpine is temperamental with iphones for example. I have a double din pioneer which has full ipod control works as a blue tooth hands free kit too.
Hmm I'm not convinced! Only because I've tested loads and the sound quality is poor compared to other methods. @Elton - I will definitely get a new headunit with Aux in just in case the direct control gets iffy. Thanks for the Alpine recommendations everyone, I think I'll probably go down this route.
I've got an Alpine unit with the ipod adapter - it'll charge an ipod Touch (but not my iphone for some strange reason) and it'll usually play/control the music from both my ipod touch and iphone. I say usually, as it's developed a fault where it will randomly lose the connection to the Touch and give an error code on the radio display and where as I usually listen to my music shuffled it'll change it back to alphabetical order it could be the cable though, so I intend to nick my brothers (he had the same model radio in his old car) and see if it's that.
I have one of these in the Jag: http://www.caraudiocentre.co.uk/product_m-kenwood-ddx8024bt_p-24199.htm And one of these in the Golf: http://www.caraudiocentre.co.uk/product_m-kenwood-kdc-bt50u_p-26036.htm Allows me to plug in my iPhone or any USB mass storage and play music. The one on the Jag also accepts SD cards, and supports Video out from the iPhone / iPod Both units also allow BT audio streaming, and Handsfree calling - and can be connected to your steering wheel controls with the correct interface (I've done this in the Jag) [Edit] link to pics of the Jag install: http://jaguarforums.com/forum/showpost.php?p=168962&postcount=53
That'll be down to the Alpine charging the iPod via the Firewire pins on the dock connector. The iPhone (and later model iPods) can't charge via the Firewire pins, as apple shifted everything to USB charging. What you need is one of these: http://www.cancomuk.com/Brand/Griff...od-and-iPhone-3031-FWUSB&ref=5681a404afd60a8d or one of these http://store.apple.com/uk/product/TS696LL/A They both do the same thing - take the 12V FW power and convert it to 5V USB power on the correct dock pins.
I've used a bluetouch kit with excellent results (flawless audio quality, and firmware upgradeable via USB to support new Apple devices) since I started driving.
cheap radio transmitter hooks my creative zen touch to my stereo, very old CD head unit (Panasonic) to stock Volvo speakers. Good enough for audio books and such. TBH I find it nicer to listen to the radio whilst driving, music can change my mood to much, either causing me to hard and fast, or fall asleep with no middle ground.
