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| Mr. Mobile - Info Center - iPod Car Adapters |
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Technology has come a long way. With the introduction of the iPod a few years ago, you can now take as many as 10,000 songs or more with you any place you go on one small device. No more lugging around all those huge, heavy CD cases. You may have spent hundreds, if not thousands on iTunes buying your favorite songs. You spent hours ripping your CD’s. Now that you have all these songs loaded on your iPod, how can you listen to them when traveling in your car? Well we have many great ways that will allow you to use your iPod. After reading this and understanding the different options you have, check out our fit guide to see what is available for your vehicle so you can “iPod your car.”
How can I play my iPod in my car?
There are a few different ways you can hook up your iPod in your vehicle today and really be able to enjoy all of the songs you have loaded onto it.
Wireless FM module - Using a wireless FM module is the most inexpensive way of hooking up your iPod. This also gives you the worst sound quality. A wireless FM module plugs into your cigarette lighter, you tune your car stereo into one of a few select station frequencies and the FM module transmits from the iPod to the car stereo. It is subject to frequencies overlapping, static and drop out.
Wired FM module - This is a better solution for someone that is not looking to spend a great deal of money to hook up your iPod. The wired FM module is tied into your car stereo via the antenna input and plays though select station on your car stereo. You can have a toggle switch you flip to turn your FM module on so you don’t have the bleed over and interferences you get using the wireless FM module.
Vehicle Specific Auxiliary Input - Most vehicles have a conversion kit available to be able to send an audio signal straight into the factory car stereo via an add on auxiliary input. With the auxiliary input you can hook up any potable device you have. These conversion kits start at $99.99 and up, depending on the vehicle. The aux input now becomes another audio source input for your car stereo so you can play a standard MP3 player to your system.
Vehicle Specific iPod Adapter - A vehicle specific iPod adapter allows you to interface the iPod with your car’s stereo. You can now charge your iPod, control some, if not all, of the functions and have the song info displayed through your existing car stereo. This allows you to hide your iPod inside your glove box, or your center console, so it is out site and out of the way. This will give you very clean audio off your iPod with a clean installed look.
Aftermarket Car Stereo - As the iPod has become more popular, aftermarket car stereo companies like Alpine, Pioneer and Kenwood have made adaptors to be able to communicate with the iPod directly, at or close to full speed. These radios give you full control of your iPod’s functions. You can scroll through artists info, song titles, play lists and be able to see the text data on the display of the car stereo. This allows you to “hide” your iPod in the glove box or console and gives your vehicle interior a very clean look since the iPod is nowhere to be seen.
Video iPod - To be able to play movies and music off of your video iPod, you will need a different adapter than the one you would use to just play music. You will need an iPod A/V adapter and your cars video system must have video inputs.
Factory Navigation Interfacing - As car manufactures are offering more advanced features such as integrated car stereo and GPS systems in their cars, it is becoming more of a challenge for you to integrate other product into these systems. For those of you that have factory installed GPS systems and you would like to expand them, so we have the products for you. Alpine and Kenwood have each come up with a system that will allow you to add sources and features like iPod, satellite radio (XM Radio or Sirius) and HD Radio to your factory GPS system and have all of the info displayed on your existing screen. With this technology you will still need a video interface to connect your factory system and new aftermarket system together. Check out the fit guide for your vehicle to see what’s available.
Please note that not all generation iPods are compatible with some iPod adapters See the product overview page of each adapter to make sure your iPod is compatible.
As you see there are many ways to hook up your iPod to your new or existing car stereo. . Please feel free to call or email one of our knowledgeable Mobile Electronics Specialists with any questions you may have on how to “iPod your car”!!
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