'Track-day' audio solution?!

[sawood12]

ORIGINAL: bennyboy

Ben - I've not seen one but you could rig something up with an amp between the pre-out output of the iPod and the speakers. It could all be hidden out of view and free up your head unit ISO slot for some nice gauges!

Now that sounds interesting! I really didn't think I needed an amp though- so those Ipod docks with the speakers have an inbuilt amp do they?

Don't know about iPod docks but your iPod would struggle to drive your car speakers. If you take the pre-out from the iPod into a small ish stereo in-car amp then that should work. The tricky bit is adapting an iPod plug (the one that goes into the bottom of the iPod) to isolate the pre-out pins. Another alternative would be to find an amp that can take a high level source input from the earphone jack.

Ibnteresting point on the Bose cubes regarding build quality. I was surprised to find the had spring loaded clips for the speaker cable instead of proper posts. However the results are good for home cinema in a medium to large lounge. I personally don't play music through my satelites, I have a pair of floorstanding speakers for that - much to the wife's dismay!

 

[lali]

I use Bose NC headphones if i'm doing a long trip in the 968, otherwise its earplugs all the way. I have them pluged into my phone and I clip the mic to the harnesses and hey presto I'm hands free and listensing to music all the way to the ring.

The Bose ones were less than a pitance when i got them from the states and i didnt bother looking/trying anything else... but I have worn them several times for the full 8 hour drive from home to the ring and I have to say they are fantastically comfortable and dont interfere with my glasses arms. As for how much noise they remove.. its not like 'silent' it just removes the road wind and constant din from the back of the car, you can still hear all of the important noises, just a bit a quieter.

Ditch the stereo... hardwire a phone charger instead!

 

[sawood12]

Regarding the legality situation i'm not sure. However I know that there are intercom systems for motorbikists that can also hook into your iPod and the music is interrupted when you talk to your pillion, so that is virtually the same thing. Also it is not illegal for people who are deaf to drive a car so I guess you should be OK.

 

[Fen]

If you want line-out from an iPod Belkin make a charger that plugs in a ciggy lighter socket and connects to the dock port of the iPod where the body of the charger has a 3.5mm jack socket that provides line-out. I have 2 of them, but they don't work with the iPhone [][][]

 

[Fen]

You will be proud of me, Peter. I tried the BlackBox headphones and compared them back-to-back with Sennheiser ones, and bought the Sennhesiers. There was no comparison. I went for PXC350s - they didn't have the 450 in stock, but I'm not sure I'm missing much I'd use and I prefer the black to silver.

 

[Peter Empson]

Cheers Fen, that's really useful to know.

 

[Fen]

I did some fairly unscientific testing this morning as I was driving to work today.

In my Mini, which is not the quietest car around although no worse than many road cars, if I put the headphones on they attenuate everything, but they knock out the road/induction/supercharger/exhaust noise almost completely and the sound of the radio much less. The upshot is that I could hear the radio more clearly with the headphones on even though it was quieter (I didn't adjust the volume). It was like being able to turn down the volume as you probably would if you stopped and turned the engine off. Note I was listening to the NZ equivalent of Today on Radio 4, so it was just talk; music I suspect would be even more marked.