Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums Branches New England ipod question...

I just bought the itrip fm transmitter thingy for my ipod. It works o.k., but here in the Worcester area, there aren't a lot of dead stations. The company had a list of stations available, but it's not exactly up to date.

Anyone who uses one of these things have a station they've found that works well?

88.3 used to be OK. i had some different brand one, and had minimal satisfaction with the fm transmitting.

in the end i just bought the alpine unit that plays it through my head unit(hooks up directly) because i think it is much more worth it and it gives me no problems, i actually love it
sorry if i didnt help you find stations, but if you have a compatible head unit, id say its a much better idea to directly connect

-Snipey

Funny you mention that, because I did some searching in the audio forums, and I went and looked behind the dash and found a pair of red & white RCA jacks. I'm assuming they're from my head unit. I'm gonna give it a shot. Where did you buy that jack?

well the unit i bought was alpine-specific and only works with semi-new alpines.

depending on your type of head unit there might be one, the unit is upwards of $100 new, but you definetly get what you pay for. i dont know how pioneer and others do it, but the alpine unit lets me sort through my ipod, change songs, play folders, all from the head units controls (all while charging the ipod)

if you're looking for a quick plug-and-play i believe there are rca-to-whatever that headphone jack is called. so you can probably just connect and it will play whatever you select on your ipod. (im not 100% you should probably ask a local (reputable) audio store.)
by the way, if you have an alpine, the unit is called KCA420i (youll see it named in the best buy fliers by the alpine units)

good luck

-Snipey

Thanks for the info. I have a sony head unit, so I'm probably looking for something different, and I noticed the jacks say "eq out," which troubles me. Shouldn't it be something "in"?

This may not be as easy as I thought.

Those RCA jacks would be for output. Most HU's have some preouts for amps and whatnot (I've never modified my stereo beyond the HU, so someone else can clarify this ) .. mine has three sets.

I have an Alpine CDA-9807 that is compatible with the iPod interface, but I was too cheap to spend the $100 on it. Plus, the crappy display on my Alpine (not dot-matrix) would have been harder to navigate the iPod anyway. Instead I just bought a $20 proprietary cable that turned its computer interface jack into a pair of RCA jacks, and took an RCA-to-minijack to hook directly into the iPod. Works fine, and I keep the iPod just under the e-brake so it's easy to thumb around.

If you know the model of your Sony, you can look up on the 'net and see if it has input jacks in the back ... or try the Audio forum on CEG.

It does say "CD Changer Control" on the face, so that's a good sign. I'll do some further investigation. Thanks for the tips.

depends on the sony, my older one has audio input but i think you need to use a bus controller to control the item you attach

now my newer one has an aux in and that you can use by just plugging into it

years were 00 and 04 for the head units

Guess I won't really know until I yank it out of there. It's a CDX-780, from 97 or 98, I think.