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Car Stereo?
- Thread starter Gagoots
- Start date
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I just use the aux cable and plug into the headphone jack on my phone into the aux on the head unit. My one car has a built in 20 gb hard drive and I have loaded songs directly into it with a usb thumb drive.
I am not sure if there are any bluetooth head units or not. Try to google it.
I am not sure if there are any bluetooth head units or not. Try to google it.
For my 2004 Acura TSX I have a ipod interface from USASPEC that works really well with my iPhone 3GS (and I hope it works with my iPhone 4 as well when I get it). It connects into the radio unit and you plug in your iPhone/iPod with the 30 pin ipod cable and I can control it with my steering wheel controls. I think it basically makes the car stereo think it is controlling a CD changer. The important thing is that it is a direct connection to the stereo so it sounds really good and you can control it from your steering wheel.
http://www.usaspec.com/
http://www.usaspec.com/
I hope the new phone's headphone jack is better then the current one. My 3GS sounds like ass compared to my 2G.
My 3gs sounds really good in both of my cars. I have a 1500 watt RMS stereo in my one car with 12 speakers and the only issue I run into is not converting the song at a higher quality. If I compress the song too much, I can hear the difference or have to turn it up more
If you could use an Aux cord, that would be easiest. Unfortunately my 2005 Acura TL came out before those were standard. I tried several poor adapters before I tried the iSimple iPod adapter.
They hardwired it behind my radio, then left a small cord that comes out from an empty tray under the radio. It can either run from my steering wheel controls in one mode where it will display all the album/track info on my display. Or I can use another mode where I can control it directly from the iPhone which don't have the display, but makes it much faster to select music.
Since it's hardwired instead of being an FM adapter, the sound is good. Somewhere between FM and CD quality.
Any newer stereo with a USB interface will work. If all your stereo has is an AUX jack DO NOT use the headphone jack as some people are mentioning above. Find a cable that used the 30-pin connector and connect that to the AUX input. It will sound 1000x better then the headphone jack.
Have a kenwood dnx914 in my car and I can connect it with my iPhone via Bluetooth to talk and to listen to music.
I use the Griffin Autopilot: griffintechnology.com/products/autopilot It connects through the aux port and charges your phone at the same time. Plus, you have ipod play/pause and next/previous track buttons. I prefer a system like this to bluetooth since using the GPS will drain your battery like crazy, so it's good to have it connected to power while you're using it.
I've got a Ford Explorer equipped with Microsoft SYNC and Bluetooth. When I coonect the phone by USB the controls are voice activated via SYNC which is very cool. But usually unless I'm running low battery I keep it unplugged and every time I jump in the car it connects automatically and the iPod resumes where I last left off, like say from the gym. If a call comes in it connects through the car speakers hands free and ofcourse there is hands free voice dialing. Works flawless with the iPhone. SYNC is one product of Microsoft's that I must say they did a really good job on.
Does it charge your iPhone? My sister has an adapter like this in her car and it charged her first iPhone but when she got her 3G it didn't work.
Same here. I have a 2007 Corolla, and I connected the USA Spec adapter to the back of my OEM stereo. It works perfectly, charges, controls the iPod app via stereo buttons or iPhone itself. Stereo headunit displays information like normal. It's plugged into the CD2 AUX-in in the back of the stereo, so I can still play CDs (if I actually played CDs).
I always get the stupid "this device is not compatible" popup, but I dismiss it, and it works as advertised.
As for quality, it's CD quality, but of course it depends on how you compress your music.
When I got my iPhone 3GS last year I had to get the firmware updated on my USASPEC (PA15-HON2) to fix an issue that was cause by either the 3GS or the new (at the time iPhone 3.0 software).
They updated the firmware for free and sent it back and besides that "this device is not compatable" message it works great. Charges my iPhone, I can control it with my steering wheel controls, it is directly connected to the radio and so it sounds great. To make it even better, on my 2004 Acura TSX it was a completely tool-less install as well. I just had to remove the center bin from the console to get to the radio. I also added a custom mount.
(I added some cable management clips to that install after the picture was taken, so the final product looks a bit cleaner.)
The only thing that kinda sucks is that my 2004 didn't come with XM radio (they did the year after), otherwise I my NAV display could have shown the text (song name, album etc...) from the iPod/iPhone on my NAV display.
Speaking of that "this device is not compatible" message, did you notice they changed it in iOS4? Here is what it looks like now...
Nice mount!When I got my iPhone 3GS last year I had to get the firmware updated on my USASPEC (PA15-HON2) to fix an issue that was cause by either the 3GS or the new (at the time iPhone 3.0 software).
They updated the firmware for free and sent it back and besides that "this device is not compatable" message it works great. Charges my iPhone, I can control it with my steering wheel controls, it is directly connected to the radio and so it sounds great. To make it even better, on my 2004 Acura TSX it was a completely tool-less install as well. I just had to remove the center bin from the console to get to the radio. I also added a custom mount.
(I added some cable management clips to that install after the picture was taken, so the final product looks a bit cleaner.)
The only thing that kinda sucks is that my 2004 didn't come with XM radio (they did the year after), otherwise I my NAV display could have shown the text (song name, album etc...) from the iPod/iPhone on my NAV display.
Speaking of that "this device is not compatible" message, did you notice they changed it in iOS4? Here is what it looks like now...
I use the Griffin WindowSeat, since I keep it by the window for better GPS reception. My cable comes out of one of the center consoles, and can be put away completely if need be. I love the USA SPEC solution. Very painless, fairly cheap, and about 95% compatible. Every once in a while, it doesn't connect correctly and doesn't register, but disconnecting and reconnecting fixes it. I should have signed up to get commissions, because several people I know have installed them after I got mine last August.
