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dobbin

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jan 28, 2002
587
5
England
Does anyone have any experience of connecting an iPod to your car stereo?

I have looking at the Denison Icelink but it seems quite expensive at around £150 including the fixing plate (thats more than I paid for the iPod on cram & jam!).

I have a CD player so a tape converter is no good, and my brother has an itrip which I don't think works too well either (too many radio stations too close together already).

I'd like a direct link to the CD-changer socker like the icelink uses, but I'm not bothered about the bracket. Just a cable would be OK on its own.

I have a Citroen C3 with the standard Clarion stereo head unit in it. My iPod is a 4G 20Gb.

Anyone know anything about this?
 

altair

macrumors regular
Nov 22, 2002
221
0
Seattle, WA
What I did was purchase a new stereo that had an Auxilary feature, and i run my ipod through the aux-in. You would have to find out if your stereo has an auxilary feature, but besides that i have no clue :)
 

Peyote

macrumors 6502a
Apr 11, 2002
760
1
Clarion just released an touch screen LCD that links to the iPod as well :D
 

PlaceofDis

macrumors Core
Jan 6, 2004
19,241
6
i just bought a cheap Awia cdplay for my car, but i made sure that it had the aux in so that i could hook up my ipod, no problems with it at al, simple and easy
 

dobbin

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jan 28, 2002
587
5
England
Thanks everyone. I had thought about a new stereo, but the current one is styled to match the car and I think it looks good.

It has its display in a different place in the dashboard to the main unit, and also has steering wheel controls, so it gets more complicated to put a whole new stereo in.

It doesn't have aux in, so I guess the Ice-link is the only way to go.

Natebg - how many cables come out of your ipod when its in the Icelink - and where do you run them? Is it a neat looking solution? I don't suppose you have a picture of a real-world installation do you?
 

morkintosh

macrumors regular
Nov 25, 2003
193
0
dobbin said:
Anyone know anything about this?

Don't mess around with any of that, the only way to go is get a head unit that has an aux input and then get a (in the case of pioneer) p-bus to RCA converter so that you have a direct RCA into the stereo, then you hook your ipod up just like you would to a normal stereo. It's the only way to go.
 

sigamy

macrumors 65816
Mar 7, 2003
1,392
181
NJ USA
An auxilary input adapter will convert the CD changer connection to standard RCA jacks. Then you just need a small cable from RadioShack to convert to the 1/8" mini plug.

Check http://www.logjamelectronics.com/auxinpconv.html for a converter for your head-unit. You may have to do some research to find your Clarion HU. And I'm not sure if they ship to UK. The Aux converters run around $80US

I have one in my VW Jetta and it works great. I can't control the iPod via the HU but I put the iPod in the cupholder and have full control that way. I have one cable coming up from the trunk hidden thru the rear seats. Very clean and great sound.
 

timnosenzo

macrumors 6502a
Jun 21, 2004
888
1
ct, us
I have an adapter from this company. The adapter plugs into the CD Changer port (in the HU, not the trunk), and charges the iPod while plugged in. The iPod is held with a ProClip. Here's a not-so-good pic.

DSCN1639.jpg


Hey natebg, my Jetta is a diesel as well, and I frequent tdiclub.com. Small world. :)
 
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