The easy way to get your iPod or MP3 player playing through your car speakers (Belkin Mobile Cassette Adapter)

Member Name: yackers1

Product:	Belkin Mobile Cassette Adapter
Date:	05/12/08 (354 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Cheap and cheerful, easy to set up, no professional installation required

Disadvantages: Cheap and nasty, poor sound quality, doesn't charge iPod

Since all of my music is now in MP3 format and contained on my I-Pod I wanted to be able to listen to my I-Pod in my car through the car speakers and not through headphones.

There are fully integrated package solutions available, such as the Denison Ice, but these are very expensive to buy and require specialist installation adding to the expense. I also noted that this solution is permanent and does not allow it to be changed between cars, this in my opinion, is a major disadvantage.

I remembered the in-car solutions for personal CD players that consisted of a cradle to hold the CD player, often made out of a bit of flexi steel with a platform on top of it and Velcro stuck to that. To get the CD playing through the car speakers there was a cassette tape with a wire attached that was plugged in to the CD player headphone socket.

Since my car had a tape player I though that the above would be a great solution.

There are numerous cassette tapes with the headphone wire available on the market and these vary greatly in quality and in price. A cheap version can be had for as little as a pound from Ebay but this is a cheap Chinese piece of crap with really poor quality. Alternatively you could spend over £10 on a 'branded' item that is much better quality.

Going for a cheap version would prove false economy since I would only end up buying a more expensive branded product, so I purchased the Belkin tape solution in the first instance.

****Compatibility****

The Belkin cassette adaptor works with all I-Pods, regardless of the type, be it nano, shuffle, classic or touch. It can also be used with all other MP3 players, including those that a basically a flash drive.

In fact, this product is compatible with all music players with a headphone socket.

****Installation****

Simply plug the cassette adaptor in to the headphone socket of the I-Pod and put the cassette in the cassette player of the radio. Turn on the I-Pod, select the track and hey presto, it is now being played through the car speakers.

There is no tuning, no messing around and no faffing about. It is really simple.

****Sound and quality****

The quality of the sound is dependent upon the quality of the radio unit and speaker set up in your vehicle, to a certain extent. It should be noted that the best you can expect is that of a cassette tape, which by today's standards is pretty useless.

You can hear the whine of the tape as the cassette spins which is annoying especially at lower volume levels.

****Price and availability****

The Belkin cassette adaptor cost £12.10 from ebuyer.com, although it is available from many other places. Before buying I would recommend carrying out an internet search as you could probably find a good deal.

****Conclusion****

Whilst reasonably cheap this product, in my opinion, is not worth buying as it does not represent value for money.

The I-Pod has great sound quality, even through its headphones, and by plugging it in to a cassette adaptor it reduces the quality of sound right down to that of the tape cassettes I used to buy back in the 1980s. It is a real shame.

Now I am used to the quality of CDs, MP3' etc a cassette tape just doesn't cut it.

When using this product you need to find the most suitable volume levels. Too quiet and you can hear the tape churning round and round in the radio unit. Too loud and the quality is so poor that there is loads of distortion. If you find the sweet spot, which can take a bit of trial and error, then it is ok.

I would not recommend this type of solution to anyone. The FM transmitters do not cost that much more and appear to work a lot better.

Summary: How not to get your iPod playing through car speakers

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