ICE issues (iPod / aux)

I'd just get a 2nd hand ipod, you can get them for around £50 and it's far easier then faffing around with CD's... :p

Do this - hell, if it's living in the glovebox you could even get one with a knackered screen or something and it'll be worth sod all - it's only acting as a hard drive really. Probably worth a thread in the wanted section in members market - i'm sure a few people have old semi-broken 20,30,40GB iPods they don't need anymore.
 
Do this - hell, if it's living in the glovebox you could even get one with a knackered screen or something and it'll be worth sod all - it's only acting as a hard drive really.

I'm sure I suggested the same thing a day ago :p
 
Do this - hell, if it's living in the glovebox you could even get one with a knackered screen or something and it'll be worth sod all - it's only acting as a hard drive really. Probably worth a thread in the wanted section in members market - i'm sure a few people have old semi-broken 20,30,40GB iPods they don't need anymore.
Being a Becker, you could probably get a 2nd hand iPod for less than the cost of an official cd-changer cable if such a thing exists. I wouldn't be suprised if the cable was £70 or more...

Personally I've never really been an iPod fan as I hate the way itunes works under windows and the sound quality has never really been that good in my limited experience.

However I eventually caved in and got a 2nd hand iPod touch for around £50... While the sound quality isn't as good as my other MP3 player it's handy having wifi as I can download podcasts directly without involving itunes... So what it may lack in sound quality it more than makes up for in convenience IMO.
 
The only reason I own an iPod was because the Alpine X001 came out. You just can't get navigation like that from USB mass storage head units and ive never seen a head unit that fully intergrates with other mp3 players apart from the Sony ones with Walkman players recently. Besides, decent hard disk players are pretty rare, so aside from the iPod classic you can't really find anything to store 60gb of tunes without costing a fortune.

Now the iPod spends more time in my suit pocket than in the car but even my new cheap 90 quid Sony head unit has brilliant navigation - chuck a USB stick at it and it's rubbish.

Sound quality is an interesting point though - most iPod head units don't use the iPods EQ, the tracks are decoded on the head unit so sound quality on the device is irrelevant. The new head unit let's you switch between iPod mode and audio mode - in audio mode you can still navigate from the head unit, but you can navigate from the ipod too. Normally, the iPod screen is locked with an alpine/Sony logo but audio mode changes it so the player is doing all the decoding and eq stuff - means you can give it to your passenger to play with. The interesting thing is it gives you a good way to compare sound quality of a cheap Sony head unit to an iPod - the Sony head unit is noticeably better!

Anyway, 99% of the time, sound quality won't be relevant, I suspect the beckers navigation will be really good so an old 50 quid iPod would be a good investment. If you don't like iTunes there are alternatives
 
I'm just going to re-affirm the option to buy an iPod. It's the exact reason I have a 60GB iPod video (5th gen thing) sat in the car. I bought it for £20, broken off ebay, didn't care that the screen doesn't always work, battery is shot, and that the case is more battered than a local chip-shop fish. The only time it ever comes out of the car is if I need to sync new music to is (perhaps once every quarter).

Don't even know it's there tbh.
 
The only reason I own an iPod was because the Alpine X001 came out. You just can't get navigation like that from USB mass storage head units and ive never seen a head unit that fully intergrates with other mp3 players apart from the Sony ones with Walkman players recently. Besides, decent hard disk players are pretty rare, so aside from the iPod classic you can't really find anything to store 60gb of tunes without costing a fortune.

Now the iPod spends more time in my suit pocket than in the car but even my new cheap 90 quid Sony head unit has brilliant navigation - chuck a USB stick at it and it's rubbish.

Sound quality is an interesting point though - most iPod head units don't use the iPods EQ, the tracks are decoded on the head unit so sound quality on the device is irrelevant. The new head unit let's you switch between iPod mode and audio mode - in audio mode you can still navigate from the head unit, but you can navigate from the ipod too. Normally, the iPod screen is locked with an alpine/Sony logo but audio mode changes it so the player is doing all the decoding and eq stuff - means you can give it to your passenger to play with. The interesting thing is it gives you a good way to compare sound quality of a cheap Sony head unit to an iPod - the Sony head unit is noticeably better!

Anyway, 99% of the time, sound quality won't be relevant, I suspect the beckers navigation will be really good so an old 50 quid iPod would be a good investment. If you don't like iTunes there are alternatives
Yep I guess that the audio should be transported digitally to the headunit meaning the sound quality shouldn't be dependant on the DAC and output circuitry in the iPod, so it's not an issue.

When using the headphone output, I have a feeling my iPod is doing some sort of processing to the sound, I need to do some tests to be sure but the dynamics seem to be compressed compared to other sources, but I am using it connected to a pretty revealing amp, I'm sure things like would be less noticeable when hooked up to headphones which is what iPods are intended to be hooked up to... but I'm going off topic now.

One last thing I would say is check what gen/model iPod the Becker is compatible with, a friend of mine thought that any old iPod would work with his Becker HU so bought one of the really old ones. Once he RTFM he then knew what iPod to get.
 
Yep I guess that the audio should be transported digitally to the headunit meaning the sound quality shouldn't be dependant on the DAC and output circuitry in the iPod, so it's not an issue.

When using the headphone output, I have a feeling my iPod is doing some sort of processing to the sound, I need to do some tests to be sure but the dynamics seem to be compressed compared to other sources, but I am using it connected to a pretty revealing amp, I'm sure things like would be less noticeable when hooked up to headphones which is what iPods are intended to be hooked up to... but I'm going off topic now.

One last thing I would say is check what gen/model iPod the Becker is compatible with, a friend of mine thought that any old iPod would work with his Becker HU so bought one of the really old ones. Once he RTFM he then knew what iPod to get.

Get a dock cable that bypasses the internal EQ and amp :)
 
Just bought an iPod Touch 8GB :o

It's only 8GB, but I'll end up using it properly too, for internet and whatnot.
 
Just bought an iPod Touch 8GB :o

It's only 8GB, but I'll end up using it properly too, for internet and whatnot.
Nice choice, even though 8gb doesn't sound like much, it's still more music than you could stuff into a CD changer, plus being able to download (free) podcasts without even having to hook up a USB cable is great also. :)
 
Yeah, I think I rushed it slightly though - doesn't come with any cables and it has 'light scratches on the screen'
It 'only' cost the same as a full tank of fuel in the Volvo so it's not the end of the world.

Although having said that, it's almost £100 to brim the Volvo :o
 
Yeah, I think I rushed it slightly though - doesn't come with any cables and it has 'light scratches on the screen'
It 'only' cost the same as a full tank of fuel in the Volvo so it's not the end of the world.

Although having said that, it's almost £100 to brim the Volvo :o
Mine only came with a USB cable, that's all you need to use it out of the car apart from some headphones...

I bought a spare one of these USB cables for around 50p from ebay, it seems to work just as well as the proper apple cable, so I'd get one of these if I were you, I bought 2 incase I lose one...

Screen scratches aren't the end of the world, in fact mine isn't exactly mint so it's nice not having to worry about keeping it in mint condition, it's hard to tell how bad scratches are from photo's however...
 
I've bought an ipod - usb cable, debating whether to buy a charger or not.
If I go on holiday without my laptop then it'll need charging somewhere, but I'm not really a fan of dodgy chinese power cables.
 
I've bought an ipod - usb cable, debating whether to buy a charger or not.
If I go on holiday without my laptop then it'll need charging somewhere, but I'm not really a fan of dodgy chinese power cables.

Any plug socket to USB adapter will do. Doesn't need to be an apple one.

apple_mb051.jpg

Apple Adapter

2ryk28i.jpg

Belkin Adapter
 
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Crazy, didn't know those existed :o

I'm off to the US next week and don't live in the UK, so I'll just get an Apple world travel kit.
 
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