I rarely listen to the radio anymore, about as much as I can endure is some public radio during the morning commute, and I have not listened to a music station in eons. So since I have been enjoying my iPod Shuffle, I’ve been curious about options to use it as a player in my vehicle.
The Shuffle did work well in the VW Beetle with one of those cassette tape player attachments, but the only problem is that a few months ago, my wife and swapped vehicles, just for some variety sake, so now I have the mid 1990s Nissan Pickup (so unattractive with its hood of primer color I will not post flickr photos) which has a CD player but no cassette deck.
Having heard mixed reviews of the FM transmitter devices (audio output plugged into them is sent to an unused station on your car radio), I was excited to read glowing reviews of the DLO TransPod which provides a dock for the shuffle and pops into a cigarette lighter for power. It is supposed to have excellent sound.
I’ll likely give it a try… hmm, with this purchase, the cost of Shuffle accessories of the sports case, SOny earbuds, and the TransPod exceed the cost of the iPod!
This could be the last time I ever listen to anyone’s commercial radio broadcast.
I used to use the iTrip with my iPod, but agree the sound quality was not that great. Instead I hardwired my iPod to my car stereo (2004 Mini Cooper S) using an auxillary jack and cable- higher than CD quality, and I also never listen to the radio any more. I had the dealer do it for me because I’m wiring challenged, but you can purchase kits online to do it yourself (I forget which site exactly but I just Googled “hardwire iPod to car stereo” and found a lot of sites) for about half the price. It should work with the shuffle as well- the cable just plugs in to the headphone jack.
Yes, it would be worth wiring for a Cooper, but I have a 1994 dingy truck with 130k miles on it 😉
Sign of the times: a major motivator for me to trade my VW Beetle for my Honda Element was the AUX jack that comes standard in the EX model. I can plug my iPod directly into my sound system via the headphone jack. There are some big knobs on my dash, I think they control a radio and a CD player, but I never touch them.