I've finally joined the technological revolution and bought an ipod. Just working my way through my hundreds of CDs, with the intention that when the ipod is full up, it cam come in the car with me instead of 60+ cds. Don't worry, I'm buying it a sock so that it can be put safely in my bag and taken with me!
Question is, what are the options for listening to the ipod in the car? Two colleagues have an adaptor that connects to the cigarette lighter (in my case a straight forward power socket as I don't have a smoker's pack) - one loves it and the other says he's always having to move the ipod around to get a good signal. I don't know if there is anything a bit more reliable around?
Specifics are that it's a 2nd generation nano (in case that makes a difference) going into an 06 Golf with the standard stereo in. No CD changer, although I did have a handsfree kit fitted in November which needs to be redone as they've given me an extra speaker instead of putting it through the stereo speakers. It also needs a software upgrade apparently (got the phonecall about the recall last week).
I have no idea where to start!
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Have a look at an FM transmitter. Small device which plugs into the headphone socket of your nano and then transmits a signal directly into your car radio or any other radio that has an FM band. Not very expensive (£20) and gives quite good results. You just tune the transmitter to a frequency and then scan with your car radio until it picks up that frequency.
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If you want something a bit more professional than one of the many FM transmitters then have a look at the cradle kits by Dension or Connects2. I bought the Dension several years ago when it first came out and it's worked very well for me. Had a few minor glitches with the installation because it was a very new product at the time but a couple of software updates later it all worked fine. My kit is wired as a direct replacement to the CD changer but I think they do another version that uses the aerial socket too. It also charges the ipod while docked and in my view the sound quality is excellent.
Have you checked with VW? As it's a new car they might do a simple cable solution like some of the other car manufactures use.
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The neatest solution is to get a new head unit (car stereo) that has iPod direct connect. I did this & got an Alpine, which is particularly good as you can set its backlight screen colours & button illumination to match your VW's red and blue dash colours. You can leave the ipod in the glove box out of sight bwith the wire hidden round the back, and browse albums on the screen of the car stereo using the knob. I've always found those cradle solutions to look naff, advertise to theives that there may be an ipod in your car too. The iTrip FM transmitters are not that good quality wise but probaly fine for the average public - just not if you're really into your music & sound quality
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The neatest solution is to get a new head unit (car stereo) that has iPod direct connect.
Alternatively just burn MP3 disks on your PC and use these directly in the head unit. You can usually fit about 16-17 CD's on one MP3 disc and the quality is as good as you will get with the IPOD (assuming you use say MP3 Pro at 96Kbps).
This saves a lot of faffing around and uses the head units built in ability to read MP3 or WMA file tags.
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FM transmitters work ok most of the time, but when the signal goes bad they are fiddly to deal with. Not so bad if you have someone with you in the car, but a hazard, if you have to do it yourself.
Best is to find a way of wiring it in to the stereo. You may need a new one. It makes no difference which kind of mp3 player you have, they all need to be connected somehow. The advantage of the iPod is that, being ubiquitous, many car head units are made to interact with it, but a simple headphone to line in connection will work just fine.
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I pair up a Nano 8Gb and a Griffin iTrip FM, this seems to work fine but you have to be careful about frequency selection. You need to find a part of the FM spectrum that is unused where you live of travel most.
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I largely gave up on the FM transmitter solution. The iTrip only works properly if it's positioned somewhere inconvenient in the car, nothing within 20km is broadcasting on the selected frequency and the planets are in alignment. If there no AUX socket on the Golf for connecting an external MP3 player you could ask if one could be fitted. Sound quality would be as good as the Denison solution at a fraction of the installation cost. You wouldn't be able to control the iPod from the car stereo though.
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Hmph...I went for a Belkin kit where there's a cradle that plugs into the power socket and then you tune your radio to find the sound. But it's such a pain! The cradle either obstructs the gear lever or the air con dials and is so flimsy it bends over when you press any buttons on the ipod. I'm going to take it back and get VW to fit the proper kit when I take it in to get the stereo software upgraded. It's only £40ish more than the Belkin.
Double hmph... Someone at work is getting a new Golf when the O7 reg comes out. A 1.9 tdi in black just like mine, only she's paying less for hers because hers is a Match. And guess what - it comes with the expensive ipod kit as standard. Someone please tell me that my Sport has something her Match doesn't, or I'll sulk. A lot.
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Car Audio Direct have the new Alpine unit the iDA-x001 for pre-order, It also can do bluetooth. This is the best ipod solution available.
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