i Pod, transmitters to boat stereos?

Jeff Asbury

Jeff Asbury

Principal Partner
:confused: . Any one use these? Are some better than others? Sounds like a good idea, to have a i Pod loaded with 10,000 songs and have this at your finger tips with the volume control in the cockpit. Seems like a great idea, not having to drag out all those CDs & tapes for my longer voyages. I am not a i Poder yet, but I like this idea. I know that all the FM transmitters for i Pods are not the same. Depending where you are, you can get interference and FM drop outs. Any advice?
 
Graham Cole

Graham Cole

The Zoomer
Several friends (not Eboats) use the fm ipod link with great success. You will lose a slight amount of sound quality via the radio link due to the frequency limitations of the fm module. I doubt you'll notice. I was rafted to this boat and could recieve music from next door! I's suggest you get a stereo with a dedicated AUX IN however. I have an Alpine unit with CDR MP3 and Aux in with wireless remote >300 cdn. Graham
 
Sven

Sven

Seglare
We use a TransPod (I think that's the name), plugs into the cigarette lighter/outlet and broadcasts FM. Use the same one when driving down to the boat or when on travel in rented cars.

(Edit: I would use line-in if available)



-Sven
 
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Emerald

Moderator
I don't know if the I-pod has a mini-phono out type jack (I assume it does as most "mini" players of whatever flavor I have seen do). If it does, you might want to check out a cassette adapter like one of these:

http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Maxe...68389/catOid/-12927/rpem/ccd/productDetail.do

the down side is you must use a cord to connect. The upside is that you don't have to worry about interfearance from someone else doing the same thing with the FM tuner. I would think sound quality would be better with this adapter, but having said that, a frequent crew member brings their I-Pod and tunes in my FM on Emerald and it has sounded very nice.

choices choices choices :D


-David
Independence 31
Emerald
 
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stbdtack

Member III
fm transmitters...

The transmitters work well when youre not in an Urban area with lots of stations in the high or low bands (where you can select from a few frequencies) It will help to have the transmitter really close to the antenna as well. If you have a cassette player, the plug in wired cassette units work really well with no interference. The best sound will come from an aux input if your radio has one.

Im not a big fan of hard drive ipods as mine died a few months after the warranty expired. I think the better choice is flash memory players like the nano. As memory gets smaller and cheaper, all players will be using it, since it uses way less power than a "spinning disc" hard drive player. I still get 300+ songs on my 1 GB flash player. I keep all my music on the computer anyway.
 
mark reed

mark reed

Member III
I love having the iPod on board. No more shuttling CD collections back and forth from house to car to boat. Having used both an FM transmitter (iTrip) and a cassette adapter, I would vote for the cassette adapter (or a line in if you have a CD player instead of cassette player). The iTrip is very unreliable. Works best if there are no nearby FM stations. I've heard other FM transmitters may work better, but haven't tried 'em.
 
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NateHanson

Sustaining Member
I agree with Mark. We've been very unhappy with the FM transmitters. Tried two - one that fit right on top of the ipod with a digital tuner and ran off the ipod's battery. The other was a separate black unit by Belkin, that used AAA batteries, and had a selector for four channels. The larger unit worked much better, but still very spotty in a city, or in some cars.
 
Jeff Asbury

Jeff Asbury

Principal Partner
Great feed back guys!

Wow, Great feed back guys, better than those review web sites for electronics. That's a interesting point you make about i Pod drives vs the Nano, Ben. I know a couple friends who had there i Pods die after a couple years. I will need to research the Nano player a bit. I am a Graphic Designer and 100% Mac, so we'll see.:esad:
 
treilley

treilley

Sustaining Partner
Mp3 and Phatnoise

This may be too late now but for all those looking to upgrade their stereos, check this out. There is a product called Phatnoise that can store over 100GB of MP3s on a removable hard drive. It was made to interface with many Automotive OEM stereos but I believe it will also work with some Kenwood and Sony models. It interfaces directly and you choose your music through the cd controls of your head unit. It uses a voice prompt to tell you what album or song you are about to play. No more CD cases to clutter up my car or move from car to car.

I drive an Audi that can connect one of these and I will be installing one shortly(I hope). It should also work in my boat which has a Sony player.

I currently have all my music ripped to MP3 on about 15 discs that I can play in my boat. This setup works well but the Phatnoise is real slick. I think this is Sony's answer to the Ipod. They are pretty pissed they lost all that Walkman business to Apple!

http://www.phatnoise.com/products/digitalmediaplayers/index.php

Tim R.
 
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rgoff

Member III
I bought a Belkin Tunecast II that allows programming any FM frequency . I don't have an iPod, but use it with something similar.

I haven't used it much, but it seems to work OK. Not sure what the max distance would be, but probably OK for a boat.
 
C

corkhead

Julian Ashton
I made a 20-25' cable (mini plug to mini plug) so I can have the iPod in the cockpit while sailing, works great and is easy to use. downside is you need an aux in jack on the stereo
 
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Lynda Radke

Junior Member
We just installed a new "car" type stereo in our boat. It receives Sirius and connects directly to my ipod with a special connector we purchased. We store the ipod safely away and control it from the stereo receiver. It works great and we have been very happy with it.
 
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