after months of being unemployed and pinching pennies, i'm employed, and an ipod was the first thing on the list. The biggest drawback to them is that you need a good way to get it to your car stereo. luckily my car has the original tape deck and the cd player add-on, so i can use a tape adaptor for now (instead of those crappy RF adapters, which get interference if there is a strong radio station nearby. but using the tape adapter, i still get a fair amount of hiss, which i'd like to eliminate.

 

which brings me to this post. has anybody found a way to add a line-in jack to the factory stereo?

 

the cd player connector has 7 or so pins. 1 is probably power, 1 ground, 2 signal (left & right), 1 signal ground, 1 a control (to tell it when to switch to cd mode). my current thought are that i would need a way to disconnect the cd player, then tell fool the main unit to think the cd player is on and sending signal. i could then run a 3.5mm connector between the ipod and the head unit, giving me a wire path between them, for much better quality.

 

any thoughts?

 

i know there are aftermarket units out there with line inputs on the front, but most of them are pretty cheesy looking and aren't too many choices (jvc and awia, mostly), and i'd like to give this a try first. Thanks...

I have an Archos 20gb MP3, and for my mustang, I put a Kenwood deck in the dash in place of the mach460 head unit. All recent kenwoods that have CD changer capability can use a relatively cheap adapter to hook a rear connect aux in. (search at crutchfield for the adapter) Top quality sound and I've had good luck with Kenwoods over the years.

In my Outback, I'm still using a cassette adapter and it works better than you would think. It's certainly at least as good as the stock subaru system is for fidelity.

My old 90 Legacy had a line in jack and was a great radio.

 

I have also seen some good Clarion decks at Best Buy that had them.

 

Also, Check out XPlay....my friends run the company.

http://www.mediafour.com/products/xplay/

thanks for the tips, but i think i am still going to try and figure out how to modify the stock stereo. i've got an old oscilliscope, so it shouldn't be too difficult to figure out the connections. maybe i'll get a spectactular failure and get to replace it after all!

i'd hate to spend a lot of money for a new head unit, when i will primarially be using it only for the amp - i hardly listen to the radio (only traffic, stern sometimes), and never use the tape deck - but i always have the cd going. with the ipod, i expect that to take over the cd player's duties...

 

i have seen that xplay too, but i'm not too sure. there is a freeware interface floating around, and i've heard some good things about it, but i'll keep xplay in mind...

 

thanks again...

I jsut got an ipod a month ago and I couldnt be happier I'm currently in the same situation, but my CD player is on the way out, so this might not be a problem for much longer!

 

Kevin

I think the AUX/line-in connector was omitted in 1992.

This original post was nearly a year ago, but lots of new Aiwa cd decks have 1/8 inch line in plugs on the faceplate. Just do your research on which Aiwa products don't munch rump roast, and for god's sake, pay for the extended warranty because if it dies in 14 months you are up ****'s creek and have to start all over with another one.