Hi,

I have posted this on another forum but hopefully it will be useful to people here too...

Don't know if this has been covered elsewhere, but here goes...

I wanted to get my iPod playing through the XK's system but didn't want to spend a fortune on it. I tried one of the wired cassette adaptors (Griffin) but I hated having the cable laying around and wasn't very impressed with the sound quality (needed to be turned up to about vol level 20, which introduced a lot of background hiss/buzz). I was looking for a reasonably priced Bluetooth solution as I didn't want to spend huge sums getting the whole system replaced.

I found a little gadget called an ION Bluetooth Cassette Adaptor for sale in the states, so had a look around and found that John Lewis are a UK reseller. I ordered one for £33 and it arrived in about 2 weeks, and I have to say I'm very impressed. It was extremely easy to get it working with my iPod Touch and the volume level required to get comparable sound to the wired system is about 5 or 6, so absolutely no background noise.

I haven't tried it with my phone yet because I already have a BT phone system in the car, but I'm guessing it's easy to pair with a phone which should allow both music and calls via BT. Happy to try this out if anyone wants to know.

http://www.johnlewis.com/ion-bluetoo...apter/p1375109


If you have an older iPod without Bluetooth (iPod Classic etc...) you will also need one of these...

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Gear4-BluS...p2054897.l4275

Another £20 but that gives you full BT music in-car for around £50 including the cassette adaptor, so still a bargain. I haven't tried these though, as the iPod Touch has BT built in.

Paul

 

I found the ION Cassette on Amazon for $28.66 US....I think I may give it a try myself.

Thanks for posting...

 

That looks like a neat solution.
I use a cassette/SD card adapter and remote to do the same thing (Car Telecontrol Tape Cassette SD/MMC MP3 Adapter Player | eBay) - works treat - i suspect the bluetooth adapter would be more flexible as you can control directly from the iPod and of course use it for the 'phone.
Might give it a try. I have decided to go "cold turkey" with purchasing new toys this month though - good for the soul (but boring)

 

This looks interesting. How long do you get out of a charge? Does the adapter auto shut off or do you need to pull it and shut it down manually every time you turn the car off?

 

The adaptor runs 8-10 hours on a charge. You have to turn it on and off yourself - just eject the cassette and flick a small switch on the adaptor.

One small nuisance - the adaptor doesn't give you any warning as to current charge - it goes from working to not working with no warning - a pain if you're mid-call or part way through a long journey while listening to music. I pop mine on charge for an hour every couple of days. I think it takes about 2 hours to fully charge from flat.

 

I've used a ION but went back to the cable adapter, I found the ION bluetooth bandwidth to be lacking, ie the music streamed wasn't near as dynamic as with the cable. Now I've used my phone and BT headsets and wired headsets and see no difference (phone htcM8). I do still use it but in my 02 jeep (dailyDriver) where immersion in sound isn't as important to me.