ipod and griffin itrip - my views

[jedi-knight83 0]

thought i would share this

 

i have a 4gb 2nd gen ipod mini and an audi s3 with symphony 2 headunit and the bose package

 

i currently use a tape adapter that i got from maplins for £7 and just plug it into the headphone socket on the ipod. with the EQ set to off and the volume on full i get a pretty decent sound with good bass and trebble although it is noticabley quieter than a cd (ie if i play coldplay x&y in the cd and then switch to the recording on the ipod i have to turn the volume on the headunit up 2 or 3 notches to get the same audiable volume)

 

i hate clutter and wires so i thought i would try the griffin itrip which i bought from ebay for £25. i have heard mixed reviews on this so i thought i would try it myself

 

it is easy enough to use. plug in and go. set the radio to 87.9 and press play on the ipod.

 

sure enough you can hear the music on the ipod and at times it sounds just fine.... but then you get a booming or sometimes a high pitch whistle or sometimes mild static or sometimes if your lucky... a mix of all of them..

 

i loaded the software (that enables you to change the frequency that the itrip transmits at) and then tried a few other frequencys on the radio .... all with the same result.

 

so in short.... i am going to stick with the tape adapter which gives a nice clear constant signal (even though there is a little hiss in the silent bit between songs)

 

i know that there is a better link... the dension icelink but that is atleast £100 and to be honest i dont think i have anymore room behind my headunit for cables and i dont want a cradle on my dash so the tape adapter will have to do.

 

hope this helps anyone thinking of getting an itrip

 

cheers

 

Nathan

[JT 0]

i use an i dock which plugs into the the cig lighter no wires and has the i-trip built into it, you just drop your pod into it and you can change the frequency on the side with a display built into it, and the bonus with it it charges the ipod whilst it's plugged in so you never have a flat pod, i got it for 50 off ebay and it never leaves the car, no hiss no interfearance love it.

[Kevin Bacon 5]

I've researched this and there isn't an iPod solution good enough for my needs yet, but thanks for the warning on the Griffin!

 

I think I've still got my Griffin savers (Midland bank) school bag in the loft somewhere :D

 

I bought and tried the much praised Alpine AI-Net iPod adapter at £50. Sound quality is excellent, barely an different to CD and no hiss at all. What lets it down is the browsing (from the HU), it's painfully slow and unintuitive. It can take as long as 2 minutes to reach a song in the middle of a large collection. It's pants to be honest.

 

So.... I'm waiting for the 9965R to come out in October which plays DVDs, so there really won't be any need for an iPod anymore.

 

For the time being, if you can be arsed with the ipod -> ICE limitations, the Alpine AI-Net et al is the best solution for SQ....just don't expect iPod browsing speed!

[VR6 0]

Kev - how many head units will play DVD?

 

Is it a new feature that they're starting to incorporate and is it going to only be the high end HU's?

[Kevin Bacon 5]

AFAIK, JVC (KD-AVX1) and one other brand do in-dash CD/DVD players that aren't part of a media flip out screen system. The Pioneer Avic X1 is an example of a full on media system but costs £1500!!

 

The JVC is £419 and has GB MP3 capability.... quite a nice unit actually. Seen and used it recently, sounds VERY nice.

 

Expect lower end units to play DVDs in the near future. When Blu Ray finally gets off it's arse, we are talking 50GB of MP3s on ONE disc :D

 

I'm waiting on the 9965R as it's supposed to be the dogs danglies.....

[VR6 0]

Pretty much what I was expecting tbh.

 

Let me guess - the one you're waiting for is an Alpine unit? You whore you.

 

How much is that when it comes out?

[Kevin Bacon 5]

Yep, of course....here she is....

 

 

Price will be around £450-£500 I think.

[coolrado 0]

my 10 disc dvd changer plays mp3's too. hmmm 10 disks worth of mp3's how many tracks do you reckon that would be :lol:

[Guest]

I've got a griffin itrip for my ipod. For £25, you can't really complain about the quality. Yea, so sometimes it hisses, but this is very rare. Overall i'm well cheuffed with it... The only downside is that you have have the volume on the ipod up quite loud, so the battery runs out quicker than if you're just using the headphones...

I do however only use it in my Xantia, which has a standard crappy stereo without a cd player, so the sound quality isn't great to begin with. But, as i said before, for £25, i'm not complaining. Its cheaper than getting a new head unit and changer for a car which im reluctant to spend any money on.

 

Cheers

Steve

[jedi-knight83 0]

kev, the dension icelink will give you a direct link to any headunit and will allow you to browse songs using the ipods controls still (dont have to use the headunit controls atall. best of both worlds and its £100

[AKA-Andrew 0]

If you want to go Blaupunkt for your head unit you can use this:

 

http://www.bluespot.co.uk/stock/ipod_cable.asp

 

I've got one and the only things I can find wrong is you need to turn the head unit up more and it can be a little slow getting to songs not at the start. I'm using mine with a Gen 3 20 gig one which i'm just going to fill then hide it away somewhere behind the dash out of the way.

[Kevin Bacon 5]

kev, the dension icelink will give you a direct link to any headunit and will allow you to browse songs using the ipods controls still (dont have to use the headunit controls atall. best of both worlds and its £100

 

Ah... I hadn't checked that one out, I assumed it was just for their own hard disk head units. Assumption is the mother.....

 

I liked the Alpine one (or the idea of it at least) though as you just hide the iPod away in the glovebox and you browse the songs with the headunit (song title etc comes up on the Alpine display) which is sooooo convenient and nifty....but the reality of it is the Alpine does not share the iPods clever file tagging system, so is slow....

 

One question, do these things output the analogue signal to the headunit or do they take the source file? Just wondering if Apple lossless format would work? I just tried regular MP3s....

[jedi-knight83 0]

the dension takes a line out feed (so you can have your ipod volume down low to conserve battery) and just plugs into the cd changer input to give you L and R channel sound input. it doesnt transfer each file.

 

i would get the dension as you can specify just a cable and not have a cradle on your dash but i dont think i have room for the plugs and wires behind my headunit now i have installed my nokia handsfree kit.

[Henny 0]

can I just chip in that Dension kit is VERY well made... :) 8)

[Hank_Marvin 0]

hi, my brother has the griffin itrip and i really don't rate the quality, u loose the real sound, sounds muffled, i shopped around a bit for another fm transmitter read a lot of reviews and i bought the belkin tunecast II. its far better quality and can b used with ipods and all other players, so i really do recomend it if you want to try another, i tip there are two models one is white and the other is gray which has a ciggarette lighter fitting, although the white one comes with a small ac lead that works with 1 model of ipod, but rechargable batterys do a very good job. check it out.

 

hank

[jedi-knight83 0]

thanks for this... how would you rate it against a tape adapter if you have ever tried one of those? does the signal get muddled at times?

 

so it doesnt take power from the ipod? instead uses its own batteries of the car changer?

[Hank_Marvin 0]

well i've been in friends cars with tape adaptors and again, the belkin tunecast II is far better, if you dont use the ipod's power, u just use 2 AAA battarys or the cig lighter. and of course even with an ipod u dont hav 2 use the ipod lead, just battarys or cig lighter. its the top dog for £30ish if u ask me. i like it a lot. its really easy to use, every station between 87-106 so easy to find a gud reception. its beast

 

o and if any1 wants to no a good mp3 player, i have a iriver hp140 40gb, a great music jukebox in your car.

[Trig 0]

I have an iTrip and for £25 its damn good. I also got a cigarette lighter charger from somewhere for a tenner, so the battery never runs out. I have never experienced hissing in the car but I have at home tuned into the hifi.

 

Also after playing it through my seperates setup indoors I think the sound quality is pretty good (its as good as FM radio).

 

I have also found that as well as needing to have the ipod volume high (80% is best quality) you also need to have the volume on your stereo up higher than usual.

[Hank_Marvin 0]

thats another good thing about the belkin tunecast II, sound quality is great on all volumes u need stereo up a few notches more then normal use