ipod player

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richardh10

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Thanks to help from other forumites, I feel my level of knowledge concerning boat electrics has progressed from knowing nothing to my present level of knowing 'a bit'.

Obviously I now need a challenge to test my newly aquired knowledge, so have decided to add an ipod player and speakers to the admittedly basic circuit I have.

The question is which one. Any suggestions welcome, bearing in mind that it is only for music, and I suppose that it needs to be removable, as it may end up being the most valuable piece of equipment on board!
 
If you don't know which iPod you want, why do you want an iPod. There are a multitude of music players on the market and a multitude of digital music formats. But the most common format is mp3, and you don't need an iPod to play mp3s.
 
My apologies. I've got an ipod, but it's the player arrangement I haven't got. The one I've got at home doesn't look like it would be suitable for a marine environment
 
Not sure what sort of boat you have, and what you mean by marine environment, but the most popular solution is a bog standard car stereo with aux or USB socket for you to plug your ipod into.

Go to Halfords and pick one that suits your budget.
 
I have a good old fashioned car stereo fitted aboard, which is simple and handy for BBC and local radio, and I have a cheap mp3 player from Maplin which has a cassette adapter. The player takes SD cards, so I just copy loads of mp3s to SD at home, and slot them in. I guess you could do the same with your iPod and tuck it in a locker out of harm's way.
 
SolentBoy said:
Not sure what sort of boat you have, and what you mean by marine environment, but the most popular solution is a bog standard car stereo with aux or USB socket for you to plug your ipod into.

Go to Halfords and pick one that suits your budget.
Click to expand...

I'd get one with bluetooth too. You can add a small transmitter onto the ipod, or play from your phone (if its b/t!). B/T has its limitations, but adding b/t on the cd player is only a few quid more.
I ve got limited experience with the sd card players, but the folder set up seems lousy;phones is probbaly the way to go !
 
SolentBoy said:
Not sure what sort of boat you have, and what you mean by marine environment, but the most popular solution is a bog standard car stereo with aux or USB socket for you to plug your ipod into.

Go to Halfords and pick one that suits your budget.
Click to expand...

I really fancy one of these...

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=190440415853&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

...have already added it to my winter jobs list - runs on 12v and small and neat... a couple of speakers will finish the job off - then just plug your iPOD into the provided socket....
 
I have a fusion ip600 and unlike aluijten I'm not so happy with it.

I'm deeply unhappy with the user interface. For people who want to play playlists or random songs it might be fine, but I like to play an album. Once. without repeating it. The fusion products can't do this: Choose to play an album and it will endlessly loop until you select something else. No this isn't a setting I've missed. In fairness I gather this is a problem with Alpine and other similar ipod players. Another feature I don't like is that it starts playing the last thing you were listening to when you turn it on, even if you had stopped it before turning the unit off. Potentially unfortunate if you were listening to Motorhead on the cockpit speakers whilst sailing a mile away from anyone else.

I've resorted to plugging a laptop into the aux socket and then using itunes. For added geek points I use the ipod as a remote control.

Worst of all is Fusion's customer service is worse than non-existent. They have a form to fill in to contact them which they don't reply to. They have no uk number, and I'm told by one UK retailer that they never answer their international numbers (this is second hand info though).

No complaints about sound quality on the fusion, just user interface sucks and the awful customer service prevents me from buying speakers or anything else from them. The ipod is held securely in the unit, but the downside is you can accidentally forget it when you leave the boat.
 
elton said:
I have a good old fashioned car stereo fitted aboard, which is simple and handy for BBC and local radio, and I have a cheap mp3 player from Maplin which has a cassette adapter. The player takes SD cards, so I just copy loads of mp3s to SD at home, and slot them in. I guess you could do the same with your iPod and tuck it in a locker out of harm's way.
Click to expand...

The cassette adapters are horrible, very lossy and so hissy that everything sounds like a cheap AM radio broadcast. Don't say it's the adapter or the player, I have had many variants of each and none sound good at all.
 
DogWatch said:
The cassette adapters are horrible, very lossy and so hissy that everything sounds like a cheap AM radio broadcast. Don't say it's the adapter or the player, I have had many variants of each and none sound good at all.
Click to expand...
I have one of these from Maplin and it sounds perfectly fine. I don't see how it could sound hissy, because tape hiss is caused by the granularity of the magnetic recording material on the tape. And it's not likely to sound like an AM radio, because there's no modulation or demodulation involved in the signal transfer to the tape head.
 
We use a Creative D100 (just google it!), with an iphone or any MP3 player/bluetooth music device.

It works from AA batteries (about 14hrs constant play) and mains, has Bluetooth and an aux input if you dont want to buy a transmitter for your ipod.

Best thing is it doesnt drain boats power, very portable for beach, bbq`s etc and is neighbour annoyingly loud..!

For £40ish I am very happy with it..
 
laika said:
I'm deeply unhappy with the user interface. For people who want to play playlists or random songs it might be fine, but I like to play an album. Once. without repeating it. The fusion products can't do this: Choose to play an album and it will endlessly loop until you select something else. No this isn't a setting I've missed. In fairness I gather this is a problem with Alpine and other similar ipod players. Another feature I don't like is that it starts playing the last thing you were listening to when you turn it on, even if you had stopped it before turning the unit off. Potentially unfortunate if you were listening to Motorhead on the cockpit speakers whilst sailing a mile away from anyone else.
Click to expand...

Funny,

I've got the 200 series and was able to find the setting that makes the player repeat an album (= default setting). Go (while playing the iPod): button 'Menu' => Preferences' => 'Repeat' => set to 'Off' . So in my case the system plays an album only once.
The fact it starts playing where you left of is a matter of personal preference. I like it. But then again I don't like Motorhead :-)
It may be that your iPod needs a software update though.

It's also one of the few players that has a good speed in browsing through your collection. Most systems are too slow for comfort especially when your library is big. It's also very similar to the way the iPod itself operates. For me the benchmark is always whether my girlfriend can operate it without endless training. She can.

So maybe the operating software on your unit is different, but for me it's working excellent. The system with zones is also convenient if you want to utilize speakers in the cockpit. This way you can have different sound levels in different parts of the boat.
 
Fantasie 19 said:
I really fancy one of these...

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=190440415853&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT
Click to expand...

I have something similar (I think they're all the same circuit in different boxes). Worked very well to begin with, but has since died. Not sure why, but I wonder whether it couldn't cope with the 14.5v I see with the engine running.

I like the "simple amplifier" concept though, as opposed to a big garish (usually) car unit on show. The only control I need is an on/off/volume knob, and an iPhone connector that both carries the sound and charges the phone. This gets part-way there, but it involves two plugs to the iphone, which is messy, and it's also rather expensive.

Pete
 
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