looking for iPod purchase advice

2413 Views 21 Replies 11 Participants Last post by MACSPECTRUM, Aug 22, 2007

MACSPECTRUM

Discussion Starter · Aug 21, 2007

I drive long distances and am tired of radio in my car
don't have CD player in the car

was looking at iPod for the car and to get a gizmo to play thru car's stereo

was looking for advice from iPod users comparing nano vs regular iPod

prices are similar, but regular iPod has a lot more memory, but nano doesn't skip and roads in Shangri-La can be a bit bumpy, especially dirt roads

any advice, tips or experiences most welcome

thanks in advance

1 - 20 of 22 Posts

corey111

· #2 · Aug 21, 2007

if its just for the car, check the classifieds here or get a refurbished iPod from Apple.
You probably just need a 4 gig one, I use a 2 gig Nano for my car and its perfect I can drive from Toronto to Ottawa and Back to Toronto without having a song repeat.
Any cheap car adapter works for me, I've used the cassette tape one as well as the radio tuner and they all work good, you can find them for like $20.

hUssain

· #3 · Aug 21, 2007

Depends on how much memory you need. I've found that the iPod rarely skips (it spins, then loads up 25mins of music, locks the drive, better battery life, no skipping, and safer for the drive), lots of HDD space but battery life suffers. Whereas the nano battery life is great, small and more durable, but for my music collection, the space suffers alot.

I have over 6GB of music, and I regurlarly listen to much of it, triming to 3.sum GB is hard to get used to. I don't like CDs

And for the sake of pricing, if space and price are sort of an issue.
Nano 4GB (new) = $57.5/GB
iPod 30GB (new) = $30/GB

West Coast Boy

· #4 · Aug 21, 2007

Apple has the 2GB refurb Silver Nano available for $105 CDN

HowEver

· #5 · Aug 21, 2007

Get a refurb nano, spend the money saved on new shocks.

MACSPECTRUM

Discussion Starter · #6 · Aug 21, 2007

corey111 said:
if its just for the car, check the classifieds here or get a refurbished iPod from Apple.
You probably just need a 4 gig one, I use a 2 gig Nano for my car and its perfect I can drive from Toronto to Ottawa and Back to Toronto without having a song repeat.
Any cheap car adapter works for me, I've used the cassette tape one as well as the radio tuner and they all work good, you can find them for like $20.

i would also like it to double as my stereo music provider so i was thinking of something more than 4 GB

seeing as each CD is bout 650 MB of data

has anyone used a regular iPod with their car and experienced skipping problems?

MACSPECTRUM

Discussion Starter · #7 · Aug 21, 2007

HowEver said:
Get a refurb nano, spend the money saved on new shocks.

new shocks installed last week

a7mc

· #8 · Aug 21, 2007

I have never experienced any skipping with any iPod. Running, jogging, rollerblading, in the car, on the bus, on a bike... never a single skip.

A7

MACSPECTRUM

Discussion Starter · #9 · Aug 21, 2007

apple.ca refurb does have the 8 GB nano on sale for $225 including shipping w/ applecare and extra applecare costs $49

i assume the extra applecare is worth the investment?

does the iPod charge thru the car stereo gizmo?
my days in the car can be 6 hours per day

corey111

· #10 · Aug 21, 2007

you could get away without the apple care, I've never had any problems with any of the iPods i've had (Nano, ipod, and a shuffle).

CanadaRAM

· #11 · Aug 21, 2007

MACSPECTRUM said:
i would also like it to double as my stereo music provider so i was thinking of something more than 4 GB

seeing as each CD is bout 650 MB of data

has anyone used a regular iPod with their car and experienced skipping problems?

It's only 650 Mb if you save the song files as AIFFs. Saving as Apple Lossless will be less, saving them as AAC or MP3 will be WAY less space. I don't know what the average is, on mine a song is 3.5 - 4 Mb in size -- that means 1000 songs on a 4 Gb Nano

The FM transmitters are subject to poor reception or interference - make sure you get one with the right of return if it doesn't work for you.

Skipping.... since Nanos are solid state, and HD based iPods have a large buffer.... naah. No skipping to worry about.

dona83

· #12 · Aug 21, 2007

hUssain said:
And for the sake of pricing, if space and price are sort of an issue.
Nano 4GB (new) = $57.5/GB
iPod 30GB (new) = $30/GB

30GB x $30/GB = $900.

You sure about that?

As for car kits, I'd say a directly wired kit is the best, such as the Harmon & Kardon Drive+Play kit. My picture below shows the display module behind my steering wheel, I also have it wired directly to the antenna input in the back (there's a pass through so you still have your radio antenna connected), a control knob by my hand brake, and iPod is kept in the glove box. I hid all wires behind the dash so it's a very clean setup, and the direct wired FM interface is less subjective to interference although I've sinced upgrade my deck to one with a built in auxiliary input (was on sale for $99 at Future Shop, the Pioneer DEH 1900) and it just sounds so much better. If you go this route you don't even need to get the H&K kit, but I personally like it and got a wicked deal on eBay for it.

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hUssain

· #13 · Aug 21, 2007

oops, $10/GB :lmao:
Dealing with licenses DB lots of numbers going through my head.

screature

· #14 · Aug 21, 2007

Gizmo For playing through car stereo

Does your car have a cassette player? If it does you can buy a product (several different manufactures) that looks like a cassette with a wire coming off of it with a stereo mini jack on the end that plugs in to the headphone plug of the iPod. They are designed for any portable player and so are not very expensive, I just had to buy a replacement one for the one that I had been using for about 5 years that finally died after tons of use and abuse (sitting out in my car in -30C temperatures) and it only cost $29 CDN. The sound quality is great (however only as good as the specs of your tape player) at least in my case. If you need to power up on the road you can always get a car charger, Griffin makes one for $29 and I have seen lesser known brand ones for as low as $19.

So if you have a cassette tape player this is a relatively inexpensive way to get the music out of your car stereo.

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JumboJones

· #15 · Aug 21, 2007

I picked these up the other day at costco for my 30gb iPod, they are bundled together for $99, both are great, no skipping.

Belkin : TuneBase™ FM for iPod

Belkin : TuneCommand™ AV for iPod

Kiddo

· #16 · Aug 21, 2007

As for the "gizmo" for playing it in the car, you can often find the cassette adapters at A Buck Or Two for around $5.

a7mc

· #17 · Aug 21, 2007

My 2 cents on your options for getting the iPod to play in the car:

1- Cassette adapter: Decent quality*, but can sometimes hear cassette turning/squeaking at lower volumes in some cars/adapters. Doesn't charge iPod.

2- FM Tuner: Only passable quality* when it works well, bad quality* when it doesn't. Some charge iPod, some don't.

3- New deck: You can now get new aftermarket car stereos with full iPod integration for under $200. Best possible quality, charges the iPod, and you can control from the deck.

* Quality is subjective to the person hearing it... some people don't notice the difference. For example, if you think FM radio is good quality, then you likely won't notice the difference in quality between any option (or won't care).

A7

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screature

· #18 · Aug 21, 2007

Re: the cassette adaptor
Hey thats great to know! Didn't kow you could get them that cheap, thanks Kiddo.

MACSPECTRUM

Discussion Starter · #19 · Aug 21, 2007

JumboJones said:
I picked these up the other day at costco for my 30gb iPod, they are bundled together for $99, both are great, no skipping.

Belkin : TuneBase™ FM for iPod

Belkin : TuneCommand™ AV for iPod

that's a great deal that i would love to get as i want to make the iPod the hub of my music experience

all i would then need would be a iPod caddy w/ speaker system for playing music on the new deck....

does costco take credit card orders and deliver?

JumboJones

· #20 · Aug 21, 2007

Not sure try Costco.ca, you'll need a membership.

The AV dock is great, I didn't think I would get much use out of it until I realized I didn't have to burn my movies to disk anymore, just pug and play.

One minor this I didn't think about with the TuneBase was I drive Standard and the lighter socket is really close to the stick. It took some fancy bending but I now avoid it when I shift. Quality is same as a CD, I only have factory speakers in my car so, quality isn't getting much better. If you upgrade your deck I suggest you upgrade everything, or else you might as well go with an FM or Tape deck device.

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