[Rumz]

Ok, here's the deal. Right now I've got the stock stereo on my car-- Bose.

Upside: Got a new head unit today and CDs now play back great (previous Bose head unit's left channel went out on the CD player, grrr... luckily under warranty).

Downside: no line in, and the fact that it's proprietary (damn bose).

I've got a cassette adapter for the odd outing when I want to listen to something other than CD. Not really pleased with how it sounds out of the iPod Mini's headphone out, I order a SiK imp to get a line out from the iPod.

I plug it in and at first the iPod is sounding great-- tons better than through the headphone out. I test various tracks to see how they sound. Some I seem to need to lower the volume of the car stereo a bit. Then I hit a track that is staticy and crappy sounding no matter what, serious distortion. I'm thinking "ok, I need to use Mp3 gain or something on tracks ripped from this cd." Next thing I know pretty much everything is giving me static and nothing sounds good anymore. The only way to NOT get static is to use the headphone out and put the iPods volume real low and the stereo fairly high, which of course, though static free, sounds like crap.

So does the line out of the SiK imp have too much juice for the tape deck? I can't help but wonder if I didn't just FUBAR my tape deck, because CDs still sound perfect, and tracks that first sounded good on the tape deck when I began testing this setup now sound like crap.

Or is the tape adapter a piece of shiz? It's a Sony, which I figured was better than the usual brand x that electronics stores sell.

Any ideas?

 

[jlo mein]

I have a 4G ipod and i use a tape adapter with my stock Toyota tape deck with the adapter going through the line out on my ipod dock. Everything sounds as great as can be for a tape adapter connection. No problems with clarity.

I wanted to get a SiK adapter though so i chould use the car charger and have the ipod on a vent mount. I hope all SiK car adapters aren't like this...

 

[Rumz]

Have you adjusted the gain on your mp3s at all? I'm wondering if I used a file with too high of gain and it's done something to either the adapter or the tape deck... hmm.... I guess the next step is to try the tape adapter on a different vehicle's tape deck. I'm currently mp3gaining my mp3s to 89db.

 

[jlo mein]

i have done no normalizing or upping gain.

 

[wolfen68]

I have used the iriver "lineout" at near max volume on a cassette deck adaptor and it handled it....

 

[leon]

I remember answering an identical question here a while ago... the guy went back to using phones out, and the issue vanished like Jennifer Love Hewitt's recording career. I think.

I'd say the SiK cable is just very loud, it leaves virtually no room for volume control on my headphone amp.

 

[datdude]

The sik adapter works great. It really does sound just as good as a cd player, very smooth and accurate. Only problem is that I had to go through about four different cassette adapters before a found one that played consistent volume levels in the L & R speakers. I settled the Sony.

 

[deltawalkerl]

Does the SiK adapter (without car charger) basically function the same as the iPod dock?