Cassette Adapter or PIE Converter?

[thePunter]

I finally got a 3G 20Gig..

Now i've looked at alot of threads about car installation but i don't know what to do. I have a factory 2001 Explorer stereo/CD/Tape. I tried a friends TuneCast FM Transmitter and it sucks. Was fairly close to dishing out the $75 bones for a PIE Aux Input Converter until I read alot about the quality coming out of the headphone jack was inferior to the quality out of the dock connector. Apparently the best solution for me would be a $75 Converter & $40 Belkin Dock Charger w/ line out. Now that is another $115 on top of the $400 i just spent!

For $15 I can go to Best Buy and buy a cassette adapter and forget all that other crap. Is the quality I'm going to get worth $100 more? Do I just go with the converter and use the headphone jack for 70 bucks? Anyone with experience with ANY of these configs, please help!

[mdobilas]

The answer boils down to, it depends.

If putting out 100+ bucks and digging around the interior of your car isnt worth very very clean sound, then 10 bucks for the cassette adapter should work fine.

Plugging an Ipod directly into your head unit will always give you the cleanest sound, so people who want that will always suggest this option.
The sound coming from a cassette adapter will always be slightly more grainy (some people will argue that it's alot more grainy). If you're running a stock stereo in a stock car, you probably wont hear/care the slight difference.

The other benefit of using direct connections is the cleaner look, but again, this isnt that big of a deal for most people.



So it comes down to 100+ bucks = cleanest sound, better looking installation. Cassette adapter = cheapest route (buy the best adapter you can find), slightly "dirtier" sound, wires hanging off your dash, but you will be up and running in about 1 minute.

[brted]

Go with the cassette adapter out of the headphone jack at about 60% volume (full volume or the line out will give you distortion). It seems like a lot of people who install PIE's don't have a cassette deck in their car. Unless you have a very quiet car and a very loud stereo I don't know how you'll tell the difference with the PIE and it'll save you a lot of money. If you decide you don't like it then you can get the PIE and you've only wasted $15.

[BarracksSi]

Without a tape deck in my 2002 Civic Si, I got myself the PIE adapter and Belkin auto charger with the line output. I can unplug everything & drop it all into the center console in about ten seconds, including a Belkin TuneDock. The only upgrades I could see would be the ICELink (another hundred bucks to change tracks via the stock head? hmm..) or Alpine's upcoming interface (or Pioneer's, for that matter).

Personally, I think the cassette adapter is just plain ugly, and dangling wires are always a bad thing. That's more of an opinion than anything else, though.

[Dstylz]

go wit the cassete adapter. Its cheaper and easier. One connection is all it takes. The Sound Quality is the best it could get. You cant even tell the diffrence if its pluged into the head unit.

[thePunter]

went with the cassette adapter... and I would recommend it to most iPod users... unless you are either a sound engineer or have the money to spend. I spent $7 bucks on a sony adapter as opposed to $77.50 for the PIE converter. I even ripped out my stereo and fixed the wire so it runs right behind the stereo and comes out down by the middle console of my explorer.. Looks great! No wires in my way!