Topic: Listening to JB3/DAT/MD in car

[Karl]

I have a JB3, and would like to listen to it in my car.  I have no tape deck, so that's not an option.  I do have a CD player-AM/FM tuner.  Is there a solution?  What about something that plugs in to the headphone jack that outputs an FM signal?  And I don't want to do headphones, either.  Thx.

[kev B]

Your only option is an FM-transmitter. It broadcasts over a station that is not being used. You can buy these at BestBuy or Circuit City or some other big electonics store. Other than that, I know of no other device.

My work tuck has a 1/8" input, so I use a m > M cable from the JB3 to radio. It does skip a good bit and I have to stop taking to wth me.

[Brian Skalinder]

Is there a solution?  What about something that plugs in to the headphone jack that outputs an FM signal?

Yup, that'll work.

[BCostigan]

Been thinking about picking one of those FM x-mitters for after show listening.

[pfife]

I have a 1/8" input, and I have a cable with that on both ends... and I did do that for after show listening, but the quality of my stereo in my car is sooo crappy, that it drastically exaggerated the bad aspects of the recording.

It was enough to make me not do so anymore.

[ChrisV]

I've never had very much luck with those FM transmitters...but that was a while ago and maybe they've improved since?

Here is what I did for car playback.  Bought a new deck because I needed a new one badly.  But I made sure to get one that has an auxillery audio input(not very many have this).  It was actually one over at Car Toys that was onsale for 50 bucks off a couple months ago.   It had 2 RCA inputs so I mounted a 1/8th inch jack just below it so I can plug into it directly from JB3/minidisc/CD.   There are some out that that have the jack directly on the front which works out even better.   I have no idea why more car decks don't have this feature....it doesn't make sense with all the IPods and such out there.

[pfife]

I've never had very much luck with those FM transmitters...but that was a while ago and maybe they've improved since?

Here is what I did for car playback.  Bought a new deck because I needed a new one badly.  But I made sure to get one that has an auxillery audio input(not very many have this).  It was actually one over at Car Toys that was onsale for 50 bucks off a couple months ago.   It had 2 RCA inputs so I mounted a 1/8th inch jack just below it so I can plug into it directly from JB3/minidisc/CD.   There are some out that that have the jack directly on the front which works out even better.   I have no idea why more car decks don't have this feature....it doesn't make sense with all the IPods and such out there.

WHat would be really sick is if they had digital inputs, and our portable had digital outputs...  since I turned over to digital on my home system, I can really hear significant deterioration when I have to go analog...

[mmmatt]

The Aiwa line has a mini jack on the front panel.  I have the low end Aiwa, and it doesn't sound to bad... sounds MUCH better using the input jack than putting a cd in especially with a 48k file.

Matt

[Chanher]

I have a Panasonic I got off ebay for $109 that has the 1/8 aux input on the front panel. very handy, perfect for at least taking a listen on the way home from a show.

[ChrisV]

WHat would be really sick is if they had digital inputs, and our portable had digital outputs...  since I turned over to digital on my home system, I can really hear significant deterioration when I have to go analog...

Agreed....that would be awesome.   Hopefully sometime in the not too far off future

[pfife]

The Aiwa line has a mini jack on the front panel.  I have the low end Aiwa, and it doesn't sound to bad... sounds MUCH better using the input jack than putting a cd in especially with a 48k file.

Interesting... seems like converting a digital source to analog then back to digital would sound worse than something that remained digital the whole time...  interesting!

I think it always sounds better on the cd than through the input on my car stereo... maybe a placebo effect or something...?

[Karl]

Ok, just went to Best Buy to check the FM transmitter thing--they had two choices, one for $20 and the other for $70.  I bought the $20 one--what a piece of crap.  And $70 seems pricey for one, even if it works.



Any better solutions?

[Ed.]

dood, while you're taking back the $20 piece of crap, go check out the car audio section.  last year i got a jvc indash cd player with cd changer controls, two sets of amp outs, fold down face, and aux in on the front for around $150 including installation (note: i had to fix the install to my liking when i got it home - but the guys at bb did a decent job, but not awesome).  This thing can do everything, i can even change the amount of volume my subs put out.

i think its well worth it in the long run.  plus it reads cd text, so when i back up my cds and keep them in my car it says the cd title, band title, and song title when the cd is playing.  very nice.

[Karl]

thanks ed, but I am extremely happy with my Alpine deck--it does all you say your does plus an extra amp out, crossover controls from the deck interface.  BUT, I also paid quite a bit more for it, and no aux in  

[mmmatt]

The Aiwa line has a mini jack on the front panel.  I have the low end Aiwa, and it doesn't sound to bad... sounds MUCH better using the input jack than putting a cd in especially with a 48k file.

Interesting... seems like converting a digital source to analog then back to digital would sound worse than something that remained digital the whole time...  interesting!

I think it always sounds better on the cd than through the input on my car stereo... maybe a placebo effect or something...?

my aiwa deck has a low end cd section... it is converting to analog as well... you can't hear digital.  The mini jack bypasses all of that and goes straight to the pre on the deck.  I hear a huge difference on the imaging... The da/ad on the jb3 isn't all that bad... much better than a $110 car deck for sure.

Matt
Matt