Why Ipod Controls Now In The Major 3

ipod ready alpine radios only require a $30 cable. other brands such as sony, pioneer, and JVC only charge $50 for the interface. Kenwood is the most expensive at $100. I dont know about you guys, but I care about controling my music from the radio and charging the mp3 player at once. Alpine has a great ipod interface, and using an ipod is the only way to control and charge your music from the radio. I can throw my ipod in the glove box and listen to whatever I want without touching the ipod. Not all ipod interfaces are made alike. Alpine makes the easiest to use interface, followed by pioneer, then kenwood. The sony ipod interface really sucks, and I haven't tried JVC's, but I would use a JVC radio anyways.

People can complain about ipods all they want, but they have the most aftermarket support. You can get anything to pug into your ipod! the best you can find for other players is a leather case. Yes I hate itunes, but other mp3 players have nowhere near as much support. If it matters any I didnt buy my ipod. It was a christmas gift from my girlfriend.

Originally posted by RandyCSVT:
ipod ready alpine radios only require a $30 cable.

Thats for the 2007 models though correct b/c IIRC the older models such as the 9833 (that I have) you need the $100 unit to run the Ipod off the HU

Originally posted by captainoblivious:

Thought it might be cool, can use my memory stick, hook up the fiance's ipod ... wait ... no ipod without a $100 adapter.

JVC's is actually only $49...

I think IPODS are the best because compatibility and thats the only reason why

That is what makes no sense to me. Why pay $200+ for an ipod when you can buy a memory stick or SD card for 1/3 or less the cost. I can use a 1Gb card for $60 an my current MP3 player and have a lot more versatility than with an IPOD. It's frustrating to be locked in to the Ipod as being the only option.

Originally posted by BrianW:
My choice is for iRiver.

I have had nothing but problems with my iriver 20 gig mp3 player.

Good thing I got the replacement plan from Best Buy.

Originally posted by RandyCSVT:
People can complain about ipods all they want, but they have the most aftermarket support. You can get anything to pug into your ipod!

I do not think people are complaining about the iPod itself, or at least I'm not and I can't speak for everyone. I like the iPod and can even tolerate the iTunes software, it's the price of the accessories that just flat out annoys me. They have some really neat accessories for it and great aftermarket support, but everything related to an iPod is at premium price whether it's worth it or not.

Originally posted by ConcepTrs913:

JVC's is actually only $49...

I was just going by what I saw on crutchfield and also was just using that as an example of how iPod accessories can get overly expensive. If a head unit has a USB port on it, it should not be difficult at all to program the H/U to charge and control the ipod through that, not charge that much extra to buy a controller.

I think the iPod is the H2 of the music/techie set. It's expensive, flashy, and people like to have it to show how hip they are, regardless if they will ever use it to a fraction of its potential.

I have a 650MB MP3 player that cost me $2 and doesn't require any cables or plugs. It's called a CD-RW. :P Oh, and I've got a whole friggin' lot of them, too.

Originally posted by Jeb Hoge:
I have a 650MB MP3 player that cost me $2 and doesn't require any cables or plugs. It's called a CD-RW. Oh, and I've got a whole friggin' lot of them, too.

$2!!!! I think you'te getting hosed! But I agree with you completely.

Originally posted by The Spelling Nazi:

Originally posted by Jeb Hoge:
I have a 650MB MP3 player that cost me $2 and doesn't require any cables or plugs. It's called a CD-RW. Oh, and I've got a whole friggin' lot of them, too.

$2!!!! I think you'te getting hosed! But I agree with you completely.

At the time I got these particular CD-RWs, yeah, the cost was probably about right. But they came in their own jewel cases and I've been using them for a few years.

Plus, I do have a line-in for my Pioneer to feed the audio output from my PDA (I use GPS on it), and sometimes I'll play music from there too.

is the hole in the middle of the CD-RW so you can plug headphones into it and listen when you aren't in your car?

People don't buy ipods just so they can listen to them in the car, I bought mine so I could listen to it when I am outside of my car.

Meh, for the most part, if I'm out of my car then I'm not doing something conducive to listening to music. Most of my music time is spent while in the car. So for me, CDs still work fine.

Not being big on the whole digital music scene I would like to know this: is there a digital player that accepts SD cards?

Originally posted by The Spelling Nazi:
Meh, for the most part, if I'm out of my car then I'm not doing something conducive to listening to music. Most of my music time is spent while in the car. So for me, CDs still work fine.

Not being big on the whole digital music scene I would like to know this: is there a digital player that accepts SD cards?

Some do. I know there's at least one type that you can get that doesn't even have internal memory...you HAVE to have a SD card for it. Personally, I've got a 2GB card I use in my PDA to listen to tunes at work. But I'm like you, I don't have to have music playing in my ears at all time.

Originally posted by Jeb Hoge:

Originally posted by The Spelling Nazi:
Meh, for the most part, if I'm out of my car then I'm not doing something conducive to listening to music. Most of my music time is spent while in the car. So for me, CDs still work fine.

Not being big on the whole digital music scene I would like to know this: is there a digital player that accepts SD cards?

Some do. I know there's at least one type that you can get that doesn't even have internal memory...you HAVE to have a SD card for it. Personally, I've got a 2GB card I use in my PDA to listen to tunes at work. But I'm like you, I don't have to have music playing in my ears at all time.

I have one in my Mystique now. Wonderful sounding JVC. Has the SD slot to play music on many formats, plays MPEGs (I, II, & III) on the tiny wide control screen if I want, transfers background pictures to the screen, etc. Came with software that'll crop movies & pictures to fit the screen. Pretty cool head unit for $120 or so when I bought it new.

All I wanted was the MP3 support, all the rest was gravy & I didn't even know it was capable of it...

Originally posted by Jeb Hoge:
I have a 650MB MP3 player that cost me $2 and doesn't require any cables or plugs. It's called a CD-RW. :P Oh, and I've got a whole friggin' lot of them, too.

I use to think that too but they're just too troublesome versus an SD Card (or a memory stick). They're small in form factor and just much easier to handle. I don't have to worry about it getting scratched. If I want to put it in my MP3 player, I can do that too.

Originally posted by teamSVTour:

Originally posted by RandyCSVT:
ipod ready alpine radios only require a $30 cable.

Thats for the 2007 models though correct b/c IIRC the older models such as the 9833 (that I have) you need the $100 unit to run the Ipod off the HU?

Its all about marketing people, and that is something Apple has gotten right!

I wouldn't mind having a 60GB ipod to put all my music on for my car...

But that's probly the only place I would use it. So really, I'd be better off buying one of those jukebox things with a regular HD in it...

this is why you just get one of these new phones with itunes on them - like the SLVR from cingular. i don't know much about phones that aren't cingular, but i know there are other companies that have mp3 players on their phones.

so mp3 playing car deck + itunes slvr = gravy for me, music when i want it.

to those who say "but that can only have 100 songs on it!" - so what? by the time i've gotten bored with the music on my phone, i've already taken the 5 minutes to transfer other stuff from my computer.

The JVCs that use the SD card and flash drives can run up to 1GB. However, many have the auxillary input in front, which you can use with a $6 1/8" headphone-style jack. Works really great.

Go to: http://mobile.jvc.com/main.jsp for more info on JVC stereos. The touch-screens I had and my DVD player have a 7-band equalizer, which is nice.

In my experience, Kenwoods and Clarions have poor power for really cranking it up. I usually turn mine up between 35 and 50. Sound got poor on the Kenwood around 33, and Clarion up to around 40. 45, don't even think about it, tons of distortion.

JVC, Pioneer, Alpine, and Eclipse are about the only ones I'd stick with.

Past 6 years my stereos have been:
Road Gear (old $100 Wal-Mart CD player)
JVC KD-S600
JVC KD-AR8250
JVC KD-LHX500 touch-screen
Kenwood KDC-X579
Some other JVC CD player
Some Aiwa CD/MP3 player
JVC KD-AR5000 touch-screen (favorite)
Clarion DXZ855MP full-color touch-screen
JVC KD-DV5100 DVD player (current)

Not to mention the others I've installed or just messed around with. Old Pioneer DEH-4000 in my grandma's '90 Camry with stock speakers sounds better than the Kenwood with Clarion components.

even if i had paid the $200 the old 20gig ipod costs, id have seen it well worth it by now. i use it whenever i travel, everynight at my old job(kept me from going crazy) and most importantly i use it in my car everyday
i probably have over $600 worth of cds in my case and by having every cd on my ipod in my glovebox(or in my pocket if i stop somewhere) theres no chance for me to lose all my cds, or to have them in plain view.... one less valuable item for a thief to walk off with

although the head unit i have doesnt control the ipod as easily as the newer ones, its still 10x easier than any mp3 cd ive tried. worst comes to worst i can just unplug the ipod and put it on the playlist/artist i want and plug it back in.

i used to think ipods were a huge waste of $ which is why i hadnt bought one, but after a couple years of use, id definetly had paid if i had to
thanks freeipods.com