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iPod as a standalone car stereo...

I'm pretty clueless about the Ipod, but just a passing thought. Lately I've been looking into crossovers/signal prossessors. I see alot of those have adjustable gains. I don't know if one of those would work for you infront of your amp(s) or not, but thought I'd mention it.
 
Greg72 said:
One of the difficulties for me is that I didn't want to rip my collection down into a compressed format. I wanted the original copies to be lossless. I started out doing them as .WAVs and learned that you can't get album art if you do that, since the album art is embedded in the music file itself and .WAVs were never setup for that.

SO, I went back a second time and re-ripped everything as "Apple Lossless", which is fine except for the fact that each song is between 30MB and 35MB!!! :yikes:

So now I've got a collection of 6000 songs which takes 160GB of space...no matter what I buy, I can't fit the whole collection on an iPod. Honestly, I don't really care about being able to do that anyway...I was just hoping to save a few playlists since in a car, I would typically carry a handful of CDs and only have access to maybe 100 songs.

By some quick calcs, here what I could store on the iPods using my existing Apple Lossless encoding:

Nano 2GB = 57 Songs
Nano 4GB = 114 Songs
iPod 20GB = 571 Songs
iPod 60GB = 1714 Songs

A 4GB Nano would be fine for what I was after, but since it's new I may not have the aftermarket support for some of the cradles and adapters yet...

OR

I was told I can create a separate iTunes library of my entire database using some sort of compressed format, and then load the iPod from that...that way I'd get more songs to fit. Apparently, iTunes doesn't convert "on the fly" from Lossless to a compressed format when moving the songs across to the iPod. (Though I heard that there little "Shuffle" product WILL do that) Hmmmmm????

:thinking:
Click to expand...

Definitly figure out the compression route and get more tunes on the iPod for the road, I dont think you'll notice much difference in the confines of a vehicle.
 
tuffdogstudio said:
I cannot vouch for this, but could be along the lines of what you seek:
http://www.theistore.com/ijet.html
Click to expand...


NICE LINK!!! :thumb:

That may have just sealed the deal for me on an iPOD vs Nano.... looks like that device is iPod only.

Throw the iPod in the glovebox on a line driver and control the basic functions from that wireless remote....pretty sweet.


Z3PR,

Some crossovers have built-in line drivers, but you can also buy a simple line driver without the extra bells and whistles. If I end up recycling my existing amps and speakers, I will need a crossover (no built in x-overs on my old school amps) so I may end up going with a line driver/crossover combo.
 
Greg72 said:
What's wrong with Japanese cars?

Z3PR,

Some crossovers have built-in line drivers, but you can also buy a simple line driver without the extra bells and whistles. If I end up recycling my existing amps and speakers, I will need a crossover (no built in x-overs on my old school amps) so I may end up going with a line driver/crossover combo.
Click to expand...
The 4 channel amp I bought doesn't have a built in crossover, so I'm researching crossovers. Sence you know way more about this stuff then I do, do you have any recomendations for a crossover ??? I just need it for the 4 main speakers. I have Infinity Kappa 4X6 2-way plate speakers in the front, and will be replacing the craptory 6X9's with some Infinity Kappa 3-ways in the near future. The amp powering my sub has a built in low pass crossover, so I don't really need too mess with that. Any recomendations would be awesum. I'm kind of looking at this Clarion unit . Think it'd work for my needs ??
 
From what I've seen, it's going to be a challenge to use the Apple interface when driving in a bouncy truck. I wonder if there's a way to "tap in" to the main functions (track forward, track backward, volume up, volume down) from the interface connector???
Click to expand...

greg I was thinking of hope for this before I saw the link to the wireless fob (geez they have nearly everything for these ipods) Clarion, sells an adaptor that connects an ipod to some of the newer headunits to run all of the ipod functions off of the headunit while still charging the ipod.

figured it could be something to retrofit. But the fob may be the easiest route
 
Z3PR said:
What's wrong with Japanese cars?
Click to expand...

:confused::confused::confused::confused::confused::confused::confused::confused::confused::confused::confused:


Paul,

I'll answer your question in your other crossover thread. mmmmKay? :D
 
Impressed

ok, I just jerry rigged my 4 channel and single channel amps, to work with the single output from the iPod and I am pretty impressed, I lost a little volume/sound (maybe 10%), but I think thats from loosing the 4 speakers my deck runs. The system with just the iPod was running two front 6.5s in the doors and two 5.25s in the rear A/C housing along with the 12" sub.

Sounded pretty damn good to me, sounds better through the Aux input on my deck (but again I think its because I get the additional 4 speakers).

My suggestion is to try your setup sans Line Driver first and see what you think.

FWIW, the system with the iPod ran like this... iPod with minijack to rca cable to input on a single channel sub amp with built in crossover, output from sub amp to RCA "Y" cables to the 4 channel amp with built in crossover.

Hope this helps ya out some Greg :)
 
TDS,

Thanks for the info...the line driver won't be an expensive part of the solution anyway, so I might just try it once without it and see what I end up with.


:cool:
 
Ordered a 60GB iPod today.....

I guess we'll all know the answer to this question in the next couple of weeks.


:deal:
 
Greg72 said:
Ordered a 60GB iPod today.....

I guess we'll all know the answer to this question in the next couple of weeks.


:deal:
Click to expand...


You lucky sob. I want one so bad. I had a 15gig poop out and just haven't had the scratch to get another one.

I'd really like to know the answer because I'm seriously considering doing the same thing. I could take the money I would be spending on a head unit and put it towards the iPod.
 
Greg72 said:
Ordered a 60GB iPod today.....

I guess we'll all know the answer to this question in the next couple of weeks.


:deal:
Click to expand...

I think you made the right choice getting the 60 gigger, are you going to get a wireless remote as well?
 
tuffdogstudio said:
I think you made the right choice getting the 60 gigger, are you going to get a wireless remote as well?
Click to expand...

Yeah, I've found a number of "goodies" I like already...

I'll start with the iPod and then I'll probably start sounding like one of those "iPod Cult" members who never shut up about the stupid things..... :haha:
 
Greg72 said:
I'll probably start sounding like one of those "iPod Cult" members who never shut up about the stupid things..... :haha:
Click to expand...

LOL...

TuffDogStudio <----------- Card carrying member "Cult of Macintosh"
 
One step closer to finding out the answer....

Just got the iPod this AM via FedEx.

It needs to sit on the charger for about 5 hours (and I don't really have time to play with it today anyhow)...

I guess tomorrow I'll start putting music on it and then I'll be ready to start buying the accessories I'll need. It comes from the factory with almost nothing included.....

iPod
Earphones
USB cable
AC Wall Adapter
Installation CD
Apple Window Stickers :rolleyes:





Friggin' Apple Cult :D Where's my Kool-Aid?
 
Phoenix Gold used to build sweet stuff....I'm not sure if they still do, but that line driver looks pretty good. Any idea about a price? :dunno:



I bought a Precision Power PAR245 on eBay last night. That may get used as my volume knob/line driver for this experiment. If not, I'll use it in one of the other vehicles.

I have plenty of speakers/amps/crossovere/stiffening caps/wire already. All that stuff you see in my gallery pages under "Audio Installation" is sitting in boxes waiting to be used for something new.

Today, I may spend some time getting songs loaded, and then start assessing what sort of cradle to buy for the iPod (I may just throw it in the glovebox with a wired connector instead of doing a cradle). So many options..... :wink1:
 
You know, if you wanted to you could build a line driver out of a dual op-amp and a half dozen resistors, all for about $1.50 if you're electronically inclined.
 
Greg72 said:
Phoenix Gold used to build sweet stuff....I'm not sure if they still do, but that line driver looks pretty good. Any idea about a price? :dunno:
Click to expand...
I emailed Phoenix Gold about the SDL44. this is thier reply. ...
The SLD44 is available through our authorized dealers locally to you or
through a direct online link from our website. They have an MSRP of $149;
some dealers may need to order them.

Thank you,



Errin Keeling

Technical Support

Phoenix Gold International
9300 North Decatur
Portland, Oregon 97203

E-mail [email protected]
Click to expand...
 
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