Afternoon all,

It struck me after some thoughts on upgrading to a CD player from my standard cacky cassette HU , that I'd be better off with an Mp3 unit and a cassette adapter, has anyone already gone this route and also is there a way of integrating the thing into the space underneath the standard cassete unit?

Also does anyone know if the standard cassette hu has a CD autochanger socket as i've also read it's possible to conect an Ipod nano this way and have it charge off the connector??

Cheers for any input/advice

Matt

PS. This applies to a 53reg Fabia Comfort!

I know there is something can hook with your MP3 player, and that thing transmit radio signal (FM/AM i guess) which you can use the car radio to play it back. Very clever, but I have never tried.

There are a few gizmo's out there that do this, they tend to use an obscure FM frequency so as not to interfere with the likes of Radio 1 etc.

Heres a Belkin one that should be fairly good:

http://www.ithings.co.uk/item--Belkin-Tunecast-II--HDD1006.html

Tape adpters are crap. Ideally use autochanger aux converter if your HU supports it or an in-line FM modulator.

OR...................

If you hava a HU with an aux in connection you can use one of these:

http://www.caraudiodirect.co.uk/product_info.php?products_id=3691&cadid=d3fe77cccf0aa92c069a79581e2edd85

Does the same job as the FM adaptor but is a wired connection instead, this will work if you have a pair of RCA input leads on the back of the unit, if not, go for the FM option.

Both of these items will work with any genereic MP3 player with a 3.5mm headphone jack on it as well as any walkman, discman or mini disc player.

Bit like having your own private radio station

Also does anyone know if the standard cassette hu has a CD autochanger socket as i've also read it's possible to conect an Ipod nano this way and have it charge off the connector??

If you wanted to do a bit of fabrication and wiring, you could easily connect up an iPod dock to a power source in the car, which would let you charge the nano through the dock. Then you could run the line-out of the dock into the HU via a cassette adapter so all you need to do is drop the nano in the dock and it can charge and play. Your biggest problem will be making it all look nice in the car.

Then the autochanger lead is free for you to drop a CD changer in the car for those trips back from town after buying a new CD that isn't on your iPod yet.

The only trouble is, cassettes sound crap and you will drop the sound quality to cassette levels as the signal is sent thorugh the pick up head in the cassette deck.

And the same may be true of an FM modulator. Try and keep it hard wired if possible IMO.

AUX in RCA leads are the best option IF your HU supports it.

Does anyone know if the standard 202 cassette HU supports Aux in?

Cheers

Actually I'm wondering if it may be better just to get a CD HU that can read MP3 CD's, can anyone recommend a decent unit or does anyone know of a unit that comes with a usb port or something?

http://www.caraudiodirect.co.uk/product_info.php?products_id=4168&cadid=f75f2fba75fc94743d8c76f1911274f2

This one has an AUX input in the front for an Ipod or MP3 connection and it can play MP3 /WMA files on a CD.

This is the list of HU's available so have a nose through them till you find one you like:

http://www.caraudiodirect.co.uk/index.php?cPath=2&sort=5d&page=4&cadid=f75f2fba75fc94743d8c76f1911274f2

As a head unit I don't know how good it is but it's just the sort of thing you are after.