Playing Music in the Car

Let me preface by saying that up until a month ago, I didn’t understand all the hoo-ha about iPods. I could listen to MP3s on my i760 by loading them on the microSD card, but I hardly ever did it. I’m not much of a headphones person; the only time I really listen to music is when I’m in the car. It was *way* beyond me to figure out how to get music through the stereo, so I never gave it much thought.

Add to that the fact that I never really understood the concept of iPods. Sure, it would be nice to have all my albums in one place, but then you have to figure out how to get them there, how to retrieve them. And that whole iTunes thing was a complete mystery.

Enter the iPhone.

Of course, part of the iPhone’s charm is that it has an iPod built right in. And since I have 16GB to fill up, and you can only install so many .5MB apps on the iPhone without running out of screens, I figured I’d learn what the iPod craze is all about. I’m hooked.

My prior ignorance was caused by my not understanding what playlists do, and that they have power. Once I figured out that I could have an Acoustic playlist, and a Classic Rock playlist, and a Choral playlist, and a Songs I Like to Sing at the Top of My Lungs in the Car playlist, it opened a whole new world for me.

The next logical question was how to play all my fancy new playlists in the car. Problem is that my car is 10 years old, and so is its radio. Hence, no iPod adapter, and no auxiliary input to connect a cable from the iPhone to the car. But there are a few ways one can connect one’s iPhone/iPod to an older car stereo. The most popular are cassette tape adapters and FM transmitters.

Cassette players are the better option, because you don’t have to worry about FM static. It’s also cheap – a decent cassette adapter can be had for $15 or $20. Sadly, my car stereo’s cassette player doesn’t work. Well, it works, but it eats tapes and randomly switches tape sides. So unless you only want to listen to music for 45 seconds, it’s not the best option for me.

FM transmitters are the next option. These are ok, but in a big city with a lot of FM stations to compete with, you sometimes have to dig around for a station with minimal static. I tried a couple of different products. First was the Griffin iTripAuto, which worked fairly well. I found a station that worked consistently along the road I took to work, and it was ok. I ended up returning it because I thought I could do better running a cable from the CD player I’d installed in the trunk when I bought the car.

The cabled solution turned out to be a non-starter because it was next to impossible to run the wire from the trunk to the passenger area without running into a lot of metal.

Since that didn’t work, I went back and tried a different version of Griffin’s iTrip AutoPilot. It was an older version and got lots of good reviews. It worked ok at first, but after a while, it simply stopped working at all. FM transmitter #2 went back to the store.

Next option was a last-ditch bluetooth solution. We got a receiver that plugged into the CD player, and I had a dongle that plugs into the headphone jack of the iPhone. The dongle and the receiver paired, and when it worked, it worked pretty well. But the sound cut out far too much to be useful. So with continued hope for the bluetooth solution, I bought a bluetooth dongle that plugs into the bottom of the iPhone. It is designed for the iPod, but I’d read that it works with iPhones, too. Alas, not mine. My iPhone didn’t even recognize that there was anything plugged into the bottom of it.

So I’m back to the FM transmitter. Since I liked the first Griffin FM transmitter I had, I decided to stick with the brand. This time, though, I splurged for the RoadTrip with SmartScan. This one might be a keeper. It charges the iPhone (required), it worked as well as the first one did (well enough), and as a bonus, it acts as a dock for the iPhone. A flexible neck leads up from the charger to the dock where you put the iPhone. The box comes with adapters for whatever iPhone or iPod you have, including the iPhone 3g. It fits snugly into the adapter, so no worries about the thing flying across the car while you’re driving. It places the iPhone about where the radio is, so it’s easy to see, but also out of the way. And no wires. I am loving no wires.

It looks like this:

I’d love a solution that doesn’t use FM transmission. But if I have to do it, this is probably the best option I could possibly get.

And as an aside, I am starting to love Griffin. RoadTrip joins PowerJolt and the Clarifi case as critical accessories for my iPhone.