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xAnthony

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Mar 2, 2010
1,174
143
I've been trying to decide on a perfect setup in my car for a while now, but I'm never completely happy with what I do. I'm curious to see what accessories everyone else has in their cars.
 
I'm just about at the perfect point, 1 more tweak should do it.

Pro Clip Charging Mount, Just slide it into the holster mount, and it both charges and plays music.

iSimple, it connects to my stereos AUX input to the Charging Mount so I get the full sound quality.

Parrot Bluetooth, cuts the speakers off when placing or receiving a call, there is a mic next to my rearview mirror, and the callers voice plays through the front left speaker in my car. This is where I need one more tweak, I am thinking I would like a center speaker mounted somewhere as sometimes I dont get great volume.
 
I use a Clarion NX501 w/ Nav, Bluetooth, USB ports and 3.5mm jack. Touch screen controls, works beautifully with my iP4 and iPad. Streaming bluetooth Pandora, and my iPod app and other radio/music apps is great. It charges both devices.

It's a great unit. Paid just about $499 for it, install wasy easy for me, may not be for some others in their car.

I use a proclipusa.net mount, custom molded for my model car. They have custom made mounts for a majority of cars for a nice OEM look for your car.
 
I just received my Mountek case from Amazon. My god I love it. I also ordered the Kensington 2 in 1 cable. So I can plug in one thing to the phone and then have the bottom of the cable running to the stereo and the charger. Less clutter, and works like a charm. When the cable comes in I'll post pics of the entire set up.
 
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My setup in my tow truck. Just a cheap $13 fm transmitter/holder setup that charges and can transmit phone calls through the speakers.
 

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I use Spiderpodium that I attach to my vent and mount my iphone. My car has Ipod control so I just connect my cable to the iphone
 
ProClip mount with passthrough in both cars mounted with Panavise brackets. PAC IS75 in one car for audio and power. Kensington LiquidAux for audio and power in the other car. Both of the latter are hardwired.

Both cars have iPod/iPhone interfaces but those are only used with iPods and not our iPhones.

What have you tried? What head unit do you have in your car? Have you looked into aftermarket aux or iPod/iPhone interfaces?
 
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If you have an AUX input get the Griffen BlueTrip. Its a stub cigarette lighter adapter that connects to your iPhone via bluetooth. There's a cable that runs from that to the AUX port. It also allows you to make phone calls over the car speakers. I've used this for close to a year now.
 
I use the ProClip mount and the Belkin CarAudio Connect AUX with Bluetooth. The Belkin has a USB plug that provides power to the iPhone. You can stream music from different apps and when a call comes in it will pause while you're on the call.

Best thing is that I can remove it easily if I ever change cars.
 
I have a pioneer head unit with usb input in the rear. I ran a usb extension to a regular iPod cable into my glovebox. Pull the cable out when I want to use it to play music and charge my iPhone. i can change the song with the phone or from the head unit, which also shows song info. I just use the speaker phone to make calls and set it in the empty space under my stereo.

If I were you I'd look into buying any decent stereo with a usb input and bluetooth built in. I've helped a couple friends install them in they're cars. Pretty easy to do, might take you 2-3 hours if you have never done it before, but will save you around $150 on installation fees. They usually have a mic built into the head unit, or one with a wire to mount anywhere you want. Some have usb ports in the front, some in the back, some have both but usually cost a little more. The usb plays music at the highest quality and charges the iPhone while showing the song info on the stereo. The bluetooth will be for calls. Music will silence automatically by the phone and will switch over automatically to bluetooth with incoming calls (or you have the option of picking up the phone if you don't want everyone to hear your conversation. I think this is the same with all bluetooth connections). Pioneer, Alpine, Sony, Clarion, pretty much any name brand company you can pick up off amazon for around $200. Not always the cheapest option but usually the best sounding and well worth the cash if you have it. Plus a new head unit set up right almost always makes your regular car speakers shine. I haven't swapped mine out for one with bluetooth yet because I'm hoping to get a new car in the next year!
 
If you've got a Seat I'd recommend this iPod set up here. Otherwise Amazon have some pretty useful products there if you follow some of the reviews on there and look around.
 
Definitely some awesome set-ups to consider! Thanks for all the feedback so far!
 
I just received my Mountek case from Amazon. My god I love it. I also ordered the Kensington 2 in 1 cable. So I can plug in one thing to the phone and then have the bottom of the cable running to the stereo and the charger. Less clutter, and works like a charm. When the cable comes in I'll post pics of the entire set up.

I'm really interested in this cable. I think I read some reviews that it didn't clip into the dock very well.

I am currently using an old Monster cable (with a 2003 Alpine that has a rear aux input, I think I posed the model a few months back).

At the moment I am able to listen to everything through the speakers (EXCEPT phone calls) but it won't charge. So I need to upgrade the cable.

Someone directed me to a Scosch adapter but that's about a much as a new cable!

I am hoping this will fit with my Commuter case as I am tired of pulling the plastic shell off to plug it in.
 
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Bump.

I still haven't decided on my car set-up yet. In-car pictures would be helpful if anyone wants to go through that hassle. I prefer neat and sleek setups. Nothing with wires running everywhere.
 
^ I started looking for a A2DP setup for my Audi, but I always plugged in to recharge anyway, so it didn't become cost efficient. Streaming through bluetooth would only kill the battery even more. So I stuck with a DICE kit:

S4_iphone_01-01.jpg


Charges through the dock connector. Plays directly into the radio through the dock connector. Charges for 20min even while the car is off (for my ipod when I leave it in the car). Lossless audio, and I can control the tracks through the radio and steering wheel controls. I have since gotten a new cradle that allows me to rotate to view in landscape mode.

Ipod_S4_Birdseye.jpg


It's just 1 dock, 1 mounting plate, and 1 cable that I hide under the trim. The cable stays completely out of the way even when opening and closing the glove box.

It's clean and it does the job. No cable mess and clutter. The iphone drops into the cradle without having to grab the cable and plugging it into your iphone. Drop it in and forget it.
 
I have a Kia forte, which has blue tooth capability, but unfortunately it is only for phone calls and not music streaming.

Kia is idiotic and does not let you use the apple plug to connect directly to their USB port in the car. You have to either buy their cable for $46, which is only a foot long, or use a regular aux cable.

I found an awesome device on amazon called tunelink by a company named new potato technology. It uses the aux connection and plays music over Bluetooth so the sound quality is great and I don't have to have any cords connected unless I want to charge the phone as well.

I can't recommend this device enough to people. It is AMAZING! It's also an FM transmitter in case your vehicle does not have an aux connection.

I love it because it has an app to go with it which allows you to set your phone up where you get in your car and as long as BT is on it automatically starts playing your music over the car stereo. So I don't even have to take my phone out and go through the settings menu to pair it. This along with a jailbroken iPhone and either sbsettings or intelliscreenx quick settings makes using your phone in the car to play music easy. Just turn BT on before you walk out your door!
 
I have a Kia forte, which has blue tooth capability, but unfortunately it is only for phone calls and not music streaming.

Kia is idiotic and does not let you use the apple plug to connect directly to their USB port in the car. You have to either buy their cable for $46, which is only a foot long, or use a regular aux cable.

I found an awesome device on amazon called tunelink by a company named new potato technology. It uses the aux connection and plays music over Bluetooth so the sound quality is great and I don't have to have any cords connected unless I want to charge the phone as well.

I can't recommend this device enough to people. It is AMAZING! It's also an FM transmitter in case your vehicle does not have an aux connection.

I love it because it has an app to go with it which allows you to set your phone up where you get in your car and as long as BT is on it automatically starts playing your music over the car stereo. So I don't even have to take my phone out and go through the settings menu to pair it. This along with a jailbroken iPhone and either sbsettings or intelliscreenx quick settings makes using your phone in the car to play music easy. Just turn BT on before you walk out your door!

I have an iPhone 4s and my brother has a Galaxy Nexus, bluetooth streaming works perfectly fine for music thats on the phones as well as pandora.

I have a 2011 Kia Optima, he has a 2010 Kia Forte, Parents have a 2011 Kia Sportage, All work perfectly fine with bluetooth streaming for music/calls.

What you have to do is have your phone connected via bluetooth and have no cable plugged in into the Aux in. Then when you choose Aux on the radio, the music will come through the bluetooth.
 
I just received my Mountek case from Amazon. My god I love it. I also ordered the Kensington 2 in 1 cable. So I can plug in one thing to the phone and then have the bottom of the cable running to the stereo and the charger. Less clutter, and works like a charm. When the cable comes in I'll post pics of the entire set up.

So how is the kensington 2n1 working out for you. Looking for this type of solution for my van. I already have a Brodit clip and holder.
 
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