From: chris <fool_at_dfw.net>
Date: Fri, 16 Jan 2004 13:38:06 -0600

On Wed, Jan 14, 2004 at 11:28:37PM -0500, Stuffed Crust wrote:
 
> If your stereo has some kind of funky unused connector on its back (or
> it's used for the CD changer), the odds are that three of those pins are
> L/R/Gnd, and a little bit of experimentation will tell you what (or
> wiring schematics like I did).
 
unfortunately some newer stereos tend to use a funky digital signalling
setup which basically means you need a piece of electronics at the other
end of a cable to even convince the head unit that there's something there
to play; even if wires correspond to L/R/Gnd, it's useless to wire
something to them when you cannot select that input. apparently for
brands like alpine, it's possible to buy a dongle that convinces the
head unit to take an audio in as an expected component (cd changer i'd
imagine), but that isn't an option for all brands of car stereo.

my 2001 volvo suffers this problem to my great dismay. already being a
$1000 head unit/cd changer that does dolby pro logic and some surround
effects that make full use of the center channel, and make my stereo
sound very much better, as well as tying into buttons on my steering
wheel to control volume/ff/rw, i'm loathe to replace it with something
i can get/hack an audio in upon which will less fully suit my car's
(wonderful) setup.

so i use the irock. it's vastly superior to other fm transmitters i
tried (it actually stays tuned to its frequency and matches very
precisely with the frequencies my digital tuner tunes to), but still
nowhere near perfect. it is fortunately strong enough to override
whatever else is on the frequency for the most part, but position
matters greatly (it works best stretched from the front to the
backseat) and the connector has trouble making contact with the left
channel of the archos, that channel will come and go as i go over
bumps. sigh. even when adjusting the volume level very low (it's
easy to overdrive the irock and get static with louder sounds), and
placing it carefully, highs and lows still sound a little staticky
and obviously overall not as full, as FM does versus CD.

my next step will be asking a pro stereo installer for advice.
maybe they will be able to hack a dongle for my stereo or install
a cheapish tape deck i can plug an adaptor into.

to the person lacking enough cigarette lighter sockets, radio shack
sells very inexpensive splitters; i've used a 2-way and a 3-way
splitter successfully (cellphone/radar detector/inverter powering
my laptop).

i've heard that the fm tuners generally shipped with 3rd party cd
changers are designed to be in direct contact with the antenna wiring
and thus produce really rocksolid sound (which i do not feel myself
to be receiving, tho it qualifies as tolerable), so you might look
into such a part from an older cd changer on ebay; of course the wiring
will be more difficult (>0 effort) since the irock is quite trivial.

luck++;
Received on 2004-01-16