IPod-Perhaps a Question for Barry

[paul67]

Thanks Ron. I am betweex and between as to what I am going to do.

Over and out. Time for New Years's. A few Bailey's then off to sleep.

 

[Ron Miller]

Welcome!! Happy New Year!!!

 

[ChuckG]

WOW, all of this is so far over my head that I feel that I'm reading a foreign language.

My daughter bought me an IPOD for my birthday. I use it in the 63, 69, and even the 00.

I plug it in to the cig lighter adapter, and tune to 88.XX. It plays fine for me using this arrangement. It sounds fine playing through the old "analog tuning" radios in the 63 and 69.

I must have a "tin ear". The IPOD, playing using the FM modulator sounds as good, if not better than the original analog radio playing. Chuck

 

[Ron Miller]

WOW, all of this is so far over my head that I feel that I'm reading a foreign language.

My daughter bought me an IPOD for my birthday. I use it in the 63, 69, and even the 00.

I plug it in to the cig lighter adapter, and tune to 88.XX. It plays fine for me using this arrangement. It sounds fine playing through the old "analog tuning" radios in the 63 and 69.

I must have a "tin ear". The IPOD, playing using the FM modulator sounds as good, if not better than the original analog radio playing. Chuck

Chuck, I think you may be on to something. You and I aren't as young as we once were (I'm 5 years older than you according to your profile), and the music I listen to is mostly early 50's and some 60's rock n roll, along with some country up thru the 50's, 60's and 70's. Few of these were hi-fidelity in my collection to begin with, so being able to hear the singer breathe wasn't possible anyway!:L And especially in a mid-year doing 65 down the highway!

I've got a friend who's is 3 years older than me and has been a recording artist all of his life, since he was 17 years old. He just started wearing hearing aids within the last couple of years. He didn't realize he had any hearing loss before getting the hearing aids, but said it's amazing at the difference in what he can hear now.

Now I'm not suggesting at all that either you or I need hearing aids, but I do believe it is possible (probable, really) that I have lost some of the high frequency hearing ability I once had. That, combined with the music I tend to listen to, might well make the FM transmitter on an I-Pod an acceptable solution to me as well!! My old cassettes sound OK to me, although I know modern CD's are much higher quality. It's just hard to get early high quality recordings of Chuck Berry, Ral Donner, Roy Orbison, Eddie Cochran, Ricky Nelson, Little Richard, Fats Domino, etc., etc., etc. these days!!:L:L

 

[BarryK]

Ron
it's very possible you may find an FM modulator acceptable although it's not for me. Although they son't sound as well as a direct wired connection, the biggest issue I have is the lousy reception of the signal between the FM modulator and the radio. On the other hand, my radio gets two stations on a GOOD day and I know it needs to be rebuilt. If your radion works better than mine you very well may have better luck.
About all you can do is buy one and try it - they aren't that expensive, if i remember about $39 or so?? Worst case is you aren't happy but at least it didn't cost you all that much to try it and possible you will find it acceptable for your use.
If you can actually get a decent signal to the radio without interference you probably will find it just fine.

 

[bossvette]

I have a Rio Nitrous MP3 player and a belkin tunecast (total cost $80) that works fine for me, but then I can't hear very well due to age and working so long in manufacturing one of these days I will step up to a bigger version.

 

[cbernhardt]

OK, while the audio subject is being discussed, I have some old tapes (reel to reel) that I would like to convert to MP3 format. My computer has a Soundmax Integrated Digital Audio card. I assume that I will have to send the output from the tape deck through the sound card to be converted. Will the Apple Itunes program do this or do I need some other softeware?
Charles

 

[BarryK]

Charles, you need to go thru a seperate audio program first to get the soundtracks from the tape into a digital signal in the computer, plus you will want to "clean-up" the sound to eleminate or at least reduce noise such as tape noise, hiss, etc that will most likey be there.
You may not have to actually buy a program, there are various free programs or "lite" versions of programs available for free. I'd start with one of those first and see how they work before spending money on a full-blown extenstive audio program.
Best place to find these programs is:
Versiontracker.com

do a search on Versiontracker under audio, tape, recording, and perhaps other keywords and see what you can come up with.
be sure to make sure you have the proper operating system choosen on the site as they have programs for Windows or Macintosh.
try to find one of the freeware programs.

Once the soundtracks from your reel-to-reel tapes have been transfered to the computer and converted into a proper digital format, than you can use iTunes (a FREE program) or many other applications you can also find on VersionTracker to convert them to MP3 format and than put the songs on your MP3 player

 

[BarryK]

Paul
I want to thank you for starting this thread!
I don't know many things in this world but I do know a few things about cattle, about car audio, and about photography. The cattle because I grew up on a farm, and the last two because those have been two areas that I used to make a living with.

With this thread dealing with car audio (somewhat about car audio anyway) it allows me to finally contribute a bit and give back to the forum even a small amount after all the extensive help and information that the forum has given me over the last almost two years! Feels good to be able to help others for a change instead of always depending on everyone to help me with my questions

 

[Ron Miller]

Barry, I'm gonna disagree with you a little here, I think you've been a contributor long before the discussions on audio. Many of the questions you've asked in the past have led to good information from knowledgable people on the forum and have enlightened a lot of us who may have had some knowledge in that particular area, but who gained a lot more from the ensuing posts. I know for a fact I've learned a lot more from reading not only your threads, but others on the forum as well.

And, I do appreciate your comments and knowledge on the audio aspects as well, I have some knowledge here but again not as much as you and many others on the forum, I'm sure.

 

[BarryK]

thanks Ron
I try to throw out a little info when I can but 99% of the time that I'm able to answer something it's just because I've seem the question previously on here and remembered someone elses answer that was given.

At least in a thread like this I can finally offer some information that I actually know myself to contribute

 

[ChuckG]

Ron
it's very possible you may find an FM modulator acceptable although it's not for me. Although they son't sound as well as a direct wired connection, the biggest issue I have is the lousy reception of the signal between the FM modulator and the radio. On the other hand, my radio gets two stations on a GOOD day and I know it needs to be rebuilt.

That may be the problem, Barry. I get a TON of both AM and FM stations on the old analog radios. Both have been rebuilt.

The 69 is FM stereo too. Even that works, although poorly by today's standards. The 2 speakers in the kick panels don't do a whole lot.

Dave Frazee who USED TO BE here in Maryland has rebuilt mine. He moved to Florida. Still does radios. His biz is Classic Auto Radio Service, aka CARS. Chuck

 

[BarryK]

thanks Chuck
yep, I know that really could be a large reason that mine doesn't work well. I'm still not a fan of FM modulators but than again because of my audio background my "standards" are quite a bit higher than most other people.
Not to brag but i've designed and been involved in the installation of some of the top car audio systems in the country (well, top systems at the time a number of years ago although they wouldn't begin to compare to some of the latest top competition systems today).
Based on that level of system that I'm used to my ears are always looking for "flaws" in anything I listen to so of course FM modulators fail the "test" with me even under the best of circumstances.
sorry if I let my own personal level of standards color my opinions or judgment on other peoples usages of this product. Like I said, if you get good reception of the signal from the FM modulator it very well may be acceptable to many, many people even if it's not acceptable to me.


BTW, it's kinda fun to "spend" other peoples money and design $30,000, $50,000, $75,000 audio systems in cars!
it's especially interesting when you end up designing and installing a system around $30,000-$40,000 in a car that only cost $15-$20,000.
(keep in mind these price levels were from about 10 years ago!)

 

[paul67]

Barry,
I just need a work-around from the miserable CA unit. Another four or so months to think until spring. Thanks for your advice! I think I know where I am going.

 

[BarryK]

hope I was able to help a little Paul.

Happy new Year!!

 

[bossvette]

Yea Barry your ears are also 20-25 years younger then most of us
I can remember when I had cars with Stereos that were worth more then the car, but now I usually listen at a lower volume and can't hear well enough to be a critic.

It used to be when deer hunting I would hear the deer approaching long before I see them, now I usually wake from a "nap" and there it is standing in front of me.

 

[BarryK]

Craig, I don't know about being that much younger than MOST of the people here, some, yes, but probably not most.

BTW, when I designed up systems I designed for sound quality, not volume. Yes, they usually had the ability to go very loud when the customer wanted but unlike many people and many audion shops that simply think louder = better my goals were more difficult. I was always trying to achieve the best sound quality possible in terms of staging & imaging and proper tonal balance across the frequency spectrum.
I rarely play musuc overly loud and even at "only" 40 years of age I find myself at traffic lights cussing the young kids that pull up next to me with their horrible sounding stereos blasting away.
I guess I used to listen to mine that same way going back 20 years or so but I think I've turned into my parents and want to tell those youngsters to turn their crap music down.
The ironic thing I learned years ago is that the worst stereo someone has the more they think they need to turn it up to enjoy the music. The better the stereo system is the more content you are to listen to it at a "normal" volume simply because the balanced sound and the imaging of the system is so satisfying there is no need to push the system loud.

 

[67HEAVEN]

.....at "only" 40 years of age I find myself at traffic lights cussing the young kids that pull up next to me with their horrible sounding stereos blasting away.

I feel the same way, but have to remind myself what the people in the car next to mine, at the stop light, are probably thinking. otfl

I've actually had the kids with the vibrating cars turn them down when I slide up along side.

One of these coming spring days, Z28Canuck and I are gonna pull off my side tubes and go looking for boombox cars just so's we can pull up beside them at a light and blow their stereo into the weeds. That's called gettin' yer ya-yas out. Think I won't do it? That's cause you don't know me.

 

[BarryK]

Bob
I have no doubt you will do it and both you and Doug will be laughing so hard you will drown out your open headers!


reminds of of last year at Carlisle (see, I can saw last year now )
Where I was parked in the '63-'67 registry parking area I had the aftermarket exhaust system display area of Mid America directly behind my car. For three days I had to listem to their demo cars start up and rev to show off how the aftermarket exhaust systems sounded. They have 4 or 5 cars, all C4's and C5's with different systems on them. Even revved up high they didn't sound very impressive compared to our C2's with side pipes. In fact, Subfixer's wife was sitting at our tent at one point and she commented that those demo cars sounded like "Baby Vettes" compared to ours.
After the first day I decided to mess with the sales guys from Mid-America and whenever they would start to rev up one of their cars I'd hop in mine and fire it up and let the side pipes scream. I know there was no way anyone was hearing the exhaust of a C5 over my little 327 with the side pipes screaming.
If you were there and did the same thing Mid america would have folded up their tent and just moved!