fitting mp3 to car radio, cork

real_484

Hiya

I have a zen vision M and want to connect it to my radio/cd player thorough the aux connection. Unfortunately all the connection are at the back of the system and I am a bit nervous about going at this myself after some failed attempts at car repairs. Any recommendations for a radio shop in Cork that has experience in doing this and that has lots of accessories for player holder and cables?

DukeDredd

Try this crowd:


Car Stereo & Alarm Systems
10 Patricks qy Cork Cork

Tel (021)4504602

Supposed to be a good bunch to deal with.

FX Meister

`what type of stereo is it?

real_484

DukeDredd wrote:

Try this crowd:


Car Stereo & Alarm Systems
10 Patricks qy Cork Cork

Tel (021)4504602

Supposed to be a good bunch to deal with.

thanks for that will check them out this weekend.

Hi FX Meister

Its the standard factory fit Gemma stereo radio with a Blaupunkt five CD changer on top in a 1.8T Golf 2001. I want a bit more of a selection, so hopefully should not be a problem to do.

FX Meister

I presume you got the manual with it. Have you checked to see what it says about an aux in? Not all stereos have them. I have a pioneer and I know I need to buy an extra adapter for an aux in. That said, I just got my pioneer ipod adapter today, lets me connect my ipod to my stereo with full control.

kazper

Why not just buy an fm transmitter, no foolin around with wires and you can bring it anywhere. i got mine from ebay €15 including postage and packaging

FX Meister

Crap sound, no control from the steering wheel, no track info on the display.

real_484

FX Meister wrote:

I presume you got the manual with it. Have you checked to see what it says about an aux in? Not all stereos have them. I have a pioneer and I know I need to buy an extra adapter for an aux in. That said, I just got my pioneer ipod adapter today, lets me connect my ipod to my stereo with full control.

second hand car, unfortunity no manual, but am optimistic, going to check it out tomorrow, have some tunes for the weekend, have to agree with you about the FM transmitter, in my experience you have lost so much sound quality with Mp3 the transmitter only makes it worst, better than the cassette job and I think they are illegal to boot.

ds20prefecture

You can get the adapter cable for most any Blaupunkt from http://www.bluespot.co.uk/stock/auxin.asp. You can also get the wee tool to remove the unit, but you should be able to get/borrow them anywhere. All you need to do is find a place to route the 3.5mm jack out into the car with the minimum of fuss. If you have a receptable below the stereo maybe remove it and drill a small hole in the back to route the cable. How will you charge the Zen? It might be handy to stick a car charger in behind the dash at the same time, and route it in a similar way.

cormie

Don't pay for somebody to do this, it's really easy, all you need is to unlock the radio, pull it out, and plug in the right cable and bring it around the front. If you're unsure, ask a friend, but it's a 2 minute job so don't pay something ridiculous. Of course, you could just go to the shop you need to buy the cable etc in and ask would they do it:)

real_484

Thanks for the information all very helpful, and the last two posts were great,

Just to update you, I went into Car Stereo & Alarm Systems on Patricks qy Cork Cork and they thought the best option was fit a new Sony stereo with a audio input on the front, 200E. So the last two options look very good, someone mentioned that if you connect in this way power spikes by adjusting the volume can mess up you MP3 player, is this accurate?

cormie

WOW! You don't need to spend €200 on a whole new system:eek: They just want money! All you need is a cable, wont cost you more than €5. The only way you can mess up your mp3 player is by plugging in the wrong voltage into the power socket. Where your power socket on the mp3 player is, it will have a little sign like this (-)---C----(+) this means it's plus (+) polarity, if the C was facing the -, it would be negative. It should also say something like DC IN 5.0V, this means you need a DC adaptor and to set it to 5 volts. You probably wont even need to plug it in, only for journeys across the country if you charge it every night at home the normal way. You will be simply outputting sound from the MP3 player, so there is no way this can damage the actual MP3, but if you put the volume too high, your speakers could blow, just don't distort the music and you'll be fine.

All you need is a cable and to put it in the back, don't pay €200!! Pay me €150 for saving you €200 if you like though;)

rymus

on a somewhat similar subject, who's the best around to fit a nokia car kit? Quick more than cheap preferably.