Saturday, November 26, 2005

Auxiliary Interface: Mystery solved

It all starts here :





That's my new MP3 player (Phillips Go Gear Jukebox HDD6330/17) and I'm super excited about it. It took patience, but it's finally mine, and it's a great way to waste some time. It's gorgeous too, isn't it? It has 30GB of storage, which some people have told me I'll never use, but only because they fail to see the extent of my addiction to my tunes. It's just enough!

Between my husband and I we have over 700 cd's, with a good majority ripped, plus I made sure the player was compatible with Napster, so for $15 a month I can put all the music I want on it, without having to pay .99 a track just to hear a new album or the latest hit. Unlike...uhhhhemmm..the ipod.

Anyway, I'm pretty pleased with it. It does have it's quirks, and the product support could be better, but all in all I'm happy with it.

The drama began when I started trying to intagrate it into my car, which is the main reason I wanted it anyway. Before looking deeper into the situation, everywhere I looked it seemed that an FM modulator would be the answer to my quest to listen to my player in my car. So I shelled out $40 dollars for a tuner with a wider range, just to be sure I would get a good signal.(you tune into an empty frequency, plug the adapter into your player, tune it to the same station, and it broadcasts to your radio)

Words cannot express how frustrated I was when I heard what kind of sound it put out. Ugggg. Even on stations that seemed to be totally clear, it was static. Not to mention what a pain in the ass it is to have to constantly play with it and your radio as you travel, just so you can keep a decent sound coming in.

I mean just LOOK at it.. :




This little problem interferes with my jam session's and highly irritates me.

Hence, the second phase of this story-

My search for a loophole! I can't really afford a whole new stereo (I spent enough on the player) and I knew it didn't have RCA input jacks in the back of it because it didn't have any "aux" buttons on the front. So I started to wonder if there were any conversion options out there.

And there was!!

They plug into your cd changer pins on the back of your stereo, and convert the interface into RCA input jacks, so you can plug in any old Y RCA cable that ends with a stereo jack. Thus, once connected, all you have to do is hide the cable and plug it into your headphone jack on your mp3 player...WHICH MAKES A DIRECT CONNECTION FROM YOUR PLAYER TO YOUR SPEAKERS. And yes, I meant to yell that. It's that cool:) unfortunately it's not the easiest converter to find because the fit not only has to be exact, but also compatible with your head unit.


Anyway..I can't go into the whole thing tonight, because I'm wiped out and need to get to bed, but I will brag on the fact that I now know how to take my console apart, disconnect my dash, my stereo, and more. And I'll also mention before I sign off that most men are douche bags.

Just because you don't see a woman walking in your car audio store very often with her stereo cradled in her hands and with a sense of what she needs and wants, doesn't mean that it CAN'T HAPPEN! It might be a rare and unexpected thing, but it doesn't give excuse to unloading your BS on her or for patronizing her like your speaking to a five year old. grr.

Really.

Meanwhile..
look at the fun I'm having :)

There's some unexplainable sweet satisfaction of seeing the mess I've created. Especially when I know it's NOT a mess, and before too long it will be back together and better than ever!


(Before I started) (this is the only picture that isn't mine, I forgot to take an initial picture, but still wanted to show a "before")







Right after I got the console cover off, stereo still connected.



My stereo almost out...



Pure chaos..Or the beginning of it. :)

4 comments:

Glenda said...

Thanks! :) Now as long I can put it all back together, I'll be in business!

(I'm waiting on the part I need)

I'm trying to come up with a good place to mount a cradle for the player too...haven't got far with the idea though. ;)

Anonymous said...

You are awesome! You never stop amasing me with you your abilities. You will get it just right, I have faith in you.

Brandy For Sale. said...

You f'n kick ass Ms. G!!!

I've missed reasing you for a while, and I come back and am delighted to see what you've gotten up to. You're the tops.

DUDE! Look for me in BUST this month- I hope you can find my articles...

Anonymous said...

sounds like fun!!! good job