iPod compatible home stereo????

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Jun 21, 2001
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Time for a new receiver/cd player/tuner, etc. Got an iPod recently and really like the idea of being able to just plug it into a good high performance stereo system and play away.

I've already seen the AC powered speakers that can be purchased for iPods. Am looking more for a home entertainment type system, that the iPod can be plugged into.

Thanks for the ideas and help ahead of time.
 
rt014 said:
Time for a new receiver/cd player/tuner, etc. Got an iPod recently and really like the idea of being able to just plug it into a good high performance stereo system and play away.

I've already seen the AC powered speakers that can be purchased for iPods. Am looking more for a home entertainment type system, that the iPod can be plugged into.

Thanks for the ideas and help ahead of time.

Just go to Radio Shack..the attachment fits in the aux. jack on any stereo and the adapter is $5 I use mine on our home stereo all the time..

BTW I also have the stand alone speakers. These are awesome the sound is great. and it also charges the ipod when plugged in..the speakers on battery last about 20 hours on 4 AA batteries..its the best...
 
Don't expect anything amazing. MP3 is intended primarily for listening with cheap headphones.
 
Gollnick said:
Don't expect anything amazing. MP3 is intended primarily for listening with cheap headphones.

Actually a high quality ripped and encoded mp3 comes very close to CD quality. I bet a lot of people can't even differentiate between the 2. Of course you'd have to rip it at over the normal 128kbps.

Use EAC and Lame to do that.
 
Get an iTrip FM transmitter with software, then tune the iPod to an FM receiver on the selected frequency, and you will hear your music exactly as recorded. (including HD start up noise)

More than acceptable quality for car and casual listening at home.
 
Not to open the can of worms again, but MP3 compresses music by saying that it is acceptable to remove certain things from it. In most cases it is not really noticed by the vast majority of people using a cheap portable device. As you lower the compression ratio you get better and better quality music. If you are planning to transfer the music from CD's you can even change the type of file it is put in to some losless type that will give the best sound on a regular stereo system.

All that said I just love my iPod. I don't know how else I would be able to carry so much music around with me so that I can listen to whatever I feel like whenever I feel like it. Sure the quality isn't the best, but I feel that it is more than made up for in convinience.
 
I run my home stereo like this:
Airport Express Base Station plugs straight into the AUX jack. From anywhere in the house my laptop transmits anything in iTunes direct to the base station to play through the stereo. MP3 quality, but I rip at a high setting, so it doesn't bug me. I'm not listening to music in a sound studio, so I don't care about the quality as long as it's listenable. It's a really nice way of doing it if you have a Mac but no iPOd like me. You can also network 10 computers with that base station, so it's nice for general home networking at the same time. Plus WEP security.
 
Thanks for the ideas everyone....will probably go the route of the Radioshack jack for the time being.
 
i beleive monster cable makes a cable that does this

unless you are low on cash i would go with the bose sound dock, i dont have it but i know someone that has and it is great. i do have a wave radio system. and it has wonderfull sound.
 
If you encode at full 320kbps, even on a high end system you're unlikely to be able to tell the difference between the mp3 and the original album. I have extremely good ears for this sort of thing, and once in a while I can hear some artifacts of mp3 at that level (usually in percussion, especially with cymbals), but that's rare, and only if I'm really listening. Anything below, and the difference becomes increasingly obvious. 256 is OK if you're just casually listening to it or using it for ambient sound. Most people never even notice or can't tell the difference. Most use 128kbps mp3s and are none the wiser (128 sounds like ass to me though).

As said above, Radio Shack is the easiest answer. Either a headphone plug to stereo jacks, or if your receiver has an input jack, just a headphone-headphone cord. It might need a mini-jack (1/8" I believe) to larger jack (1/4"?), but they have those cords, or if they don't, they have conversion plugs that'll do the trick. In any case, it's a >$10 fix.
 
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