Transmitting audio to car's FM tuner
 

A long long time ago, based on recommendations by Toad in <a href="http://www.cellar.org/showthread.php?t=2539&highlight=Clarion">this thread</a>, I picked up a <a href="http://www.crutchfield.com/S-WKxpcpsgAhm/cgi-bin/prodview.asp?I=020DB625MP&search=DB625MP">Clarion DB625MP</a> deck for my wife's Ford Contour. It's served her well for a couple of years.

She picks up her new car tonight, a 2005 Toyota RAV4. The stereo in this system is nothing dramatic (CD/AM-FM/Cassette), though passable, but she's going to miss MP3 capabilities. I'm not sure whether her Clarion deck is compatible, but I'm sure that the steering wheel buttons that control radio functions wouldn't work with any third-party replacements.

She _does_ have a portable CD player that plays MP3 files, so the notion of an FM Transmitter came to mind, passing MP3s to the radio without any hardware tinkering or loss of function involved. Unfortunately, Crutchfield's <a href="http://www.crutchfield.com/S-WKxpcpsgAhm/cgi-bin/ProdGroup.asp?g=234550&avf=Y">list of such</a> is full of negative reviews. Big shock there, as it's audiophiles bitching about sound quality from a modulator, but still...

Anyone have any positive experiences with any of these gadgets? The expensive ones don't seem to be drawing any more raves than the cheapies.

(Oh, and BOO to Clarion; when I looked up their newer models, they're all Sirius-ready, not XM. If I end up taking the plunge on satellite at some point, I'd rather go with XM.)

EDIT: FM Modulator vs. FM Transmitter. Discuss.

Aside from sound quality, interference has always been a big issue. Around Philadelphia, there just aren't any clear spots of the dial.

Having said that, They make FM transmitters than plug straight into the antenna jack of the stereo. (You then plug the antenna cable into the transmitter for pass-through.) It's a little more cumbersome in that it has to be at least semi-permanently wired in. But I have one for my XM and it sounds fine (to my non-audiophile ears).

There are also companies that make add-ons that will give you a line in to the stereo. (Why even cheap systems don't have this in this day and age is beyond me--it would probably add about $0.93 to the manufacturing cost of the unit.) That's an even better solution but again would require some tinkering.

Having said that I don't know any specifics--if you check out some of the XM message boards they will give you an earful on these issues with more hardware pecifics than I have.

Why not a cassette adapter?

Yeah, I've used two different FM tuners (not sure of the brand - got them at Brookstone/Circuit City) and both were awful. Way too much interference and often the frequency broadcast by the tuner was not actually what the dial was set to (had to fiddle with the radio channels to find your player).

If you have a cassette deck, definitely go for the adapter. Much better option.

What possible reason could car manufacturers have for not putting a line-in jack on the faceplate of all factory radios? Similar jacks have been pretty standard on TV faceplates for years now. If consumers will choose a car based on cupholders, they will also choose one based on a line-in jack. There are so many things you could plug into one, from iPods to portable dvd players for the kids.

It's one more wire to deal with, and I've never had much luck with cassette adapters. Those I've used in the past have been tempermental and fussy about which decks they'd work with.

A transmitter would either have a wire of its own (going to the lighter) or use batteries, of course, but at least that wire's out of the way instead of sticking out of the middle of the dashboard and hanging down.

Yeah, I was wondering about that myself. Seems it would make sense - especially since some radios already have a headphone jack. Easy enough to put an input plug, wouldn't ya think?

What possible reason could they have? Selling you a car stereo with more features at a higher price.

Fair enough. I can understand not including it on the basic radio only because then they would lose some CD player sales or some cassette player sales. But they won't lose any sales by including it when you upgrade and get the factroy cd player or cd/cassette player. They could charge an extra $15 more above the normal upgrade cost, include the input jack, and market it as "MP3 player ready", or "DVD player ready". They make $15 on a $1 part and many people will be thrilled to have it. Some will even choose that car over others just for the input jack.

I think a lot of new decks come with an input jack in the back (i.e. an extra wire) so that you can add a CD changer or whatever...you could investigate this.

i got a decent one by belkin at either walmart or target for about $30. works just fine.

I've used one by Radio Shack and I like it. It has four transmit frequencies, two low and two high and I have had to change the "station" as I travel down the road into to the broadcast area of a channel that was previously free. I have never been in a location where all four channels were already occupied. Although, that would certainly increase my chances of hearing something interesting on the radio :).

One important consideration regarding the wires. The unit itself is sleek and tidy, about the size of a couple of Zippo lighters side by side. It has two wires, one thin one about 2 feet long that is called the antenna. The other wire is realllllly long, maybe 6-8 feet, and it's the line in cable. There is no power cable, mine is powered by two AAA batteries. I have found that the reception is moderately good at best when the antenna cable is deployed, and the line in cable is bundled up. But when I stretch out the line in cable too, the quality and strength of the radio signal goes waay up. So I wind up putting the cd player in the passenger seat, line out/headphone jack to the fm transmitter and then toss the transmitter in the back seat. The wire trailing behind "deploys" the "antenna" for best effect. Works great. Easily worth the $25-30.

If you're hellbent on the concept then consider this stunningly feature laden geek gizmo:

http://neurosaudio.com/prod_neuros_main.asp

excellent screencap timing on my part

http://img141.echo.cx/img141/7336/ca...fcap1uz.th.png

I just had a Mothers Day car stereo put into the wife's car. She wanted the external input option, and I was only able to find *one* that had it built in on the unit face. There wasn't any other higher priced option available.

The guy at (electronic crap sold here) said that you could get an external input put on most of the other ones, but it was some sort of stuck to the dashboard with doublesided tape abominations, which was unacceptable.

Because there are usually inputs on the *back* of aftermarket car stereos, but if you use those inputs you have to wire up a plug input somewhere else, and hw good that wiring is depends on how motivated the installer is.