MY wife wants to be able to listen to an Ipod in her Equinox as well as out of the car. I was on Best Buy's site and they say professional install is recommended. How invloved is it? Should I trust the geek squad with our vehicle? While I have you guys here- If all she is going to do is listen to music and probably never have more than 200 songs on it will a Ipod Nano 2 gb be sufficient. I have a sandisk 512 and am content with it but she is dead set on an Ipod which I know little about.
Thanks
Chris

We have a 30 gig IPod and an FM adapter/holder that plugs into the cigarette lighter. Not all lighters are in a suitable location for this unit. You set the radio to 88.1 and listen away. Zero installation needed. The adapter cost all of about $15 and it keeps the I.Pod charged too. Slick as can be not having to carry all those CDs around. Belkin has a much more expensive adapter that does the same thing but doesn't hold the IPod. Just to add something, I do get some background noise but nothing compared to the exhaust background of the old cars. I only notice it when the engine is off.

Make her happy, let her have it.

I got a 4GB nano for Christmas, holds about 1,000 songs. I never thought I'd ever fill it up but I'm almost there. Almost wish I had one of the bigger ipods, and I want to put it my car someday, a lot better than radio. I like the smaller size of the nano, I wear it to the gym, running and slip it in my pocket at work when I need to get away from the distractions around me in the office. My ipod is probably my most favorite thing, next to Chevelles.

I got a 350 SBC blast box broadcastin tunes through a set of twin 1 3/4' primary tube, 3" collector Hooker StratoCasters, travlin out 2 1/2" stainless cables with a forward mounted balance tube, exiting via of a pair of FlowMaster 40 Super Amps.

Plays all the damn tunes I wanna hear.

blksheep...What the hell is an I-Pod anyway???...in Charlotte

...What the hell is an I-Pod anyway???...

x2

Actually I think my wife has one if it's some little thing that gets plugged into the computer and she says it plays music. Also what's a GB, gig, and nano? Man I'm getting left behind the times.

I guess that's why I love the Chevelle, it keeps me grounded to the times when things were simple.

GB is giga bites=1000 bites or 1,000,000,000 bits- gig is the same thing but instead of an acronym it is an abreviation. Nano is the model of the ipod it is a little tiny booger.

I bought my wife a 4 gig nano for mothers day, she absolutely loves it. She uses it to work out everyday, cleaning around the house and we used all the way to and from CB07, my stereo in the chevelle has a front input jack so we can plug the ipod in directly, that was nice.

Get her the 4 gig nano and be done with it. She will love it!!

Jeff

I use an FM adapter in my daily car every day. Works great, no installation required.

K

yeah, i would never have any kind of stereo in the bu (other than stereo exhaust) but i do listen anytime i am driving in the truck. I have the 30 Gb version. it will hold about 6000 songs! I can put it on random and go a long time without repeating. kinda like having my own radio station. I bought the Griffin Roadtrip. this is one of the FM transmitters available that got the better sound quality and functionality ratings of the group. it charges the ipod and transmits to any FM frequency of your choice. that is cool cause you can pick a station that has less interferance that way. the other cool thing is you can use it to transmit for your home stereo if you wanna listen there too. only thing is if you are a hardcore audiophile, you probably will not be happy with the quality as there is some low level static. if you go with the pro install, it will be a lot more expensive, but you will get a wired connection that most likely plugs into some kind of dock or something of that nature. this will give you sound quality as good as the quality of the songs on the ipod and as good as the stereo is capable of producing. depending on what you are willing to spend and whay type of capability the stereo in your car has, will dictate whether or not you will lose the functionality of the ipod menus (the way you access your music on the ipod, which is what makes an ipod so cool) some use the head unit to control the ipod, others allow you to control the ipod directly. in my case it would be counterproductive to have to scroll through 6000 songs looking for a particular song or artist if i were not able to use the ipod menus. so depending on your musical wants and preferences as well as how deep your pockets are those factors will dictate what kind of results you get.

so welcome to the age of technology... I hear ya on things being simple and doing things the old school way. I am currently trying to convince the wife that i need a 60's or 70's truck to replace the 90's toyota of mine that she just stuck a rod through the side of the block on. it is a hard sell telling her that something i can do anything mechanical required on is a moneysaver rather than having to count on more sophisticated mechanics fo rthe new computer type vehicles. so wish me luck on that one. good luck on your ipod integration and making the wife happy in the process. I know in my houshold, that is a key to life going smoothly.

I have a fm adapter while my friend has the input jack cord. The fm adapter actually makes it seem louder and fuller compared to the cord. It does get some static but that's usually only when I go too far out of my area and start to pick up another station. It also gets some static on certain songs if the volume on the ipod is too loud so I just keep it about 75%(only way I can describe it) and adjust my radio accordingly.

Fm adapter. Good Idea. I have an "Ipod wife" as well.

I have to disagree about FM modulation. Sound quality is JUNK and you will constantly have to pick a station on the ipod that is not overpowered by whatever radio station might be using that signal in the given area. So 10 miles and you have OK sound (when I use one everything was about on par with am station quality) and then you will hit an area that will have a station that will bleed through, then you need to adjust the ipod again.

Hard line is THE way to go. And if you can do an HEI conversion you can do this install. All you need is a kit and a 12 volt light.

Mine charges off my car, I can switch through playlists with my steering wheel controls and the sound quality is just as good as CD in my truck

I would steer clear of FM modulators. If you like good audio, dont want to have static bleed through in the middle of a good song like you were blasting AM and got out of range, etc then use a hardline kit of some sort. Just plugs right into the cd in / audio in extra port on the back of the radio.

BTDT and got rid of fm modulator on the second day I had it. Took me about 25 minutes to run wire, find a hot plug on the fusebox, hide the wire for the ipod under my center console and start using it. The one I am using was one of the first kits out there with minimal instructions and was still easier than an HEI conversion. :thumbsup:

My daughter wanted a Harmon-Kardone drive and play. It is hard wired to her stock stereo via the antenna but can also be hardwired to RCA jacks(best) if the radio permits. She loves it and sound quality is good. She especially likes seeing what songs are playing on the playlist. A lot of cool features too that I don't know about. Wasn't hard to install either. Bought it at Best Buy and with everything I think it cost me around 175.00 Pete

Thanks for the replies. Keep the opinions coming!
Chris

We have a 30 gig IPod and an FM adapter/holder that plugs into the cigarette lighter. Not all lighters are in a suitable location for this unit. You set the radio to 88.1 and listen away. Zero installation needed. The adapter cost all of about $15 and it keeps the I.Pod charged too. Slick as can be not having to carry all those CDs around. Belkin has a much more expensive adapter that does the same thing but doesn't hold the IPod.


My wife has the same set up and loves it. Plus, we've NEVER had any problems with reception or interference others have mentioned although the modulator we went with with something like $40 or $50. Simple, cheap, and the wife is happy? What more could a guy want?!?!?

PS - I'm a former car audio installer and could have done the hardwire thing but I also considered having the portability of moving the Ipod from one vehicle to another. We don't do it often but if we're going on a road trip, it gets moved to my crew cab...

Good info on the Ipod and install. What is involved in getting the songs into the thing? My wife wants one too but I don't want to spend a ton of money and time downloading stuff I already have bought once. Or do you just down load the CD's onto your computer and transfer them to the Ipod, or does it transfer directly? Thanks Patrick

GB is giga bites=1000 bites or 1,000,000,000 bits- gig is the same thing but instead of an acronym it is an abreviation. Nano is the model of the ipod it is a little tiny booger.

Nope...

GB (gigabyte) 1000^3=10^9 or 1 billion bytes, but to be more specific. Technically it is 1,073,741,824 bytes.

A byte is 8 bits.. so do the math and a gigabyte is 8,589,934,592 bits

Nano is a pefix that refers to 1 billionth, but it is often used to describe something that it very small.

such as the I-Pod Nano, or my Chevelle has 300+ billion nanohorsepower. Something like that.

Good info on the Ipod and install. What is involved in getting the songs into the thing? My wife wants one too but I don't want to spend a ton of money and time downloading stuff I already have bought once. Or do you just down load the CD's onto your computer and transfer them to the Ipod, or does it transfer directly? Thanks Patrick

I took all my favorite Cd's and transferred them to my computer on windows media player . I can then go in and transsfer songs fairly quickly to my Mp3 player (Ipod or any other). This was nice because most of my Cd's were beggining to be become unuseable due to scratches. I haven't really touched my cd's since. When I find a song I like that I don't have I download it from limewire right into media player. sorry for all the spelling errors. You'll be happy once once you get used to it.

Good info on the Ipod and install. What is involved in getting the songs into the thing? My wife wants one too but I don't want to spend a ton of money and time downloading stuff I already have bought once. Or do you just down load the CD's onto your computer and transfer them to the Ipod, or does it transfer directly? Thanks Patrick

Its not that tough, but like everything that is new you will have to learn it. ITunes is free and is pretty simple, Windows media has the same features. They both have the synchronization feature that lets your ipod synch with the music library on your computer.

Big D

Looks like Ms. Joan may be getting that new computer sooner since our current one is almost 5 years old and has low, low memory. Thanks for the info, I know the program I use now for transfering CD to computer CD takes about 30 minutes per CD (about 2 minutes per track). Is the new software any faster???

Tape deck, end of story. Just get a 4gb and a tape deck connector

Looks like Ms. Joan may be getting that new computer sooner since our current one is almost 5 years old and has low, low memory. Thanks for the info, I know the program I use now for transfering CD to computer CD takes about 30 minutes per CD (about 2 minutes per track). Is the new software any faster???


Yes..I can burn 700 meg cd in about 6 minutes or so.
DVDs take a bit more time.

Yes, is always nice to hear.

friend at work just ran a cable from his ipod to his amp. doesnt even use the car stereo anymore. jim

I put an Ipod in my truck. Tried the fm adapter and didn't like it. There was a lot of static and it was difficult to read the Ipod and stay on the road.
I've since installed a new radio with an Ipod jack in the back of the unit. this is awesome, I can keep the ipod plugged in and hidden in the glove box and the display comes up on the radio face.

In the 69 SS I din't like the AM radio. I put in 500 watt Fosgates in the rear, flamethrower kickers in the front, 12" pro DJ subwoofer, and Power Acoustik 2600 watt power amp. I turned on the stereo, and blew out the back window.So...I have to cut this short, It's going to take a while to vacuum up everything.:D

What year is your wife's equinox? The new ones have a line input jack on the front of the radio- plug and play, although you still have to control the ipod manually. Beyond that, look here: http://www.discountcarstereo.com/detail.aspx?ID=994

I would do it myself...

FM adapter in both are vehicles, may not be as many stations here though.

you can alwasy get this deck for about $180.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=180096306218

it does everything. plays cds (all different formats; MP3, WMA, WAV, iTunes AAC Files), am/fm, XM radio ready, AND has a plug that you can hook your ipod into. Ipod can be hidden anywhere (mine is in my glovebox) and you control the ipod FROM the deck or with the remote control. If you have bluetooth technology (which i dont) you can talk hands free through the deck also.

So, yeah, its an idea and its pretty affordable. Sound quality is great

alright so since we are on this subject. like i posted earlier, i have the modulator. not so impressed since i am an incurable audiophile. but on the other hand, i would like to be able to use the menus on the ipod to control it rather than through the deck. I have a relatively new kenwood deck that will play mp3, wma etc. it does not however have rca in (has rca out going to the amps) it has a squarish usb type jack in the back. I have asked a lot of people how to do this without a satisfactory answer. how do i get a hardwired setup that will not lose the functionality of the ipod??

It's an '06. I don't know if I want to try installing that thing. Rust and seized bolts in old cars don't scare me but wiring does.

What year is your wife's equinox? The new ones have a line input jack on the front of the radio- plug and play, although you still have to control the ipod manually. Beyond that, look here: http://www.discountcarstereo.com/detail.aspx?ID=994

I would do it myself...

believe it or not, newer cars are very easy to work on especially when installing something like that. They make pigtail plugs that connect to a new stereo, and plugs direclty into the factory harness without hacking the car.