Cassette adaptor - terrible sound

[mark754]

I just got a Belkin cassette adaptor for use in my car and it sounds like crap - distorted throughout all frequencies, especially lower frequencies. The car's sound system is a good one (stock Lexus) and it sounds fine on it's own.

With the iPod playing through the cassette, it doesn't even sound as good as the factory radio. I know that this is not the best means of connecting the iPod in a car, and my expectations are not that high...but I think I may have a defective cassette adaptor or something. I never play the tape, so it's unlikely the heads need to be cleaned.

What kind of sound are you guys who also use the cassette getting?

[jessica.]

I actually get decent sound from mine. Better than the FM transmitter.
Playing my ipod through the cassette and the belkin amplifer doesn't sound bad to me. But then again I have never had a super high quality unit in my cars.

[ewong_kaizen]

I have an Aux in on an Alpine 78xx head unit.
No amp
Infinity Reference 5" and 3" up front and some 4" panels in back.
Not a bass hit setup for sure, but clean sound at moderate levels.

I hooked my iPod up via the head phone output....

YUCK.

I re ripped the few CDs that were on the iPod in the so called "apple lossless" format. Better, but not by a noticible amount.

I used the docking port's line out INSTEAD of the headphone out. Much better.

Bear in mind that in order to do data acompression - something's gotta give - and that something is your SOUND QUALITY.

When listening to a $$$ CD colletion on a $600 phot iPod with some $10 headphones - its sounds fine.
When listening though a 5 cent op amp chip (what's probably on the iPod's headphone circuit) thought a $$$ stereo setup... it probably leaves ALOT to be desired.

IMHO Sony's ATRAC (aka Minidisc) does sound compression much better - but to use it you have to deal with a awful interface - super slow ripping speeds (and you thought the iPod was slow..) etc... :(

One option (which I havnet been able to do since the wife's been using the PC) is to re-rip the CD's in FULL WAV format.... Ive confirmed that the headphone out is junk - now how bad are the D/A converters?

Try using the docking station line out and re- ripping one or two tracks in Apple Lossless and even Full Wav...

If it still sounds awful - get a listen back to back (Cd vs iPod) on a system that has a LINE in setup (or better yet an Ice-Link) and see if its worthwile to upgrade your Lexus to a line in (or Ice-Link) setup.

IMHO - the loss of sound quality is annoying, but the ability to tak a zillion disk collectiononthe road is worth the trade off..


Now the question is how to manage a zillion disk collection (didnt like Anapod, looking at ephPod and alot of custom VB code....
(I want to store MULTIPLE formats (WAV, Apl lossless, AAC, ATRAC etc and burn mixes(with differnt file formats) down to the iPod depending on what Im doing....)