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[mrklaw]

Its for the wife's car. Needs to be cheap. She'll only use it occasionally, mostly to distract the kids on long trips.

Do I:

a) fit a £20 tape unit and use a tape adapter to connect the iPod or mp3/CD walkman (we don't have any tapes)
b) don't replace the head unit, just get some battery powered speakers for the passenger seat and connect the mp3/CD walkman or ipod.
b) fit a £50 CD unit and burn lots of CDs to take with her in the glovebox
c) fit a £80 mp3 CD unit and burn her fewere compliations for the glovebox.

I'm kind of leaning towards (b), with the benefit that they can be used when not in the car (eg in the kitchen). For that I'm thinking either the Creative travelsound, or the logic 3 I-station.

 

[Brofist]

you know you're not hurting when the cheap solution involves an iPod :lol

 

[tedtropy]

Speaking of inexpensive car audio setups, I had a friend in high school that had, quite possibly, the cheapest sound setup OF ALL TIME [/Diane Mizota]. He took a pair of cheapo PC speakers, duct taped them to the side of his headrest, and connected those hi-fidelty badboys to a Wal-Mart portable CD player that was velcroed to his dash. The thing didn't even have skip protection. A little part of me died upon seeing this. The rest of me died upon hearing it.

 

[MrAngryFace]

Go for a cd deck thing. Last year in AZ I tried to go the cheap route. Those tape deck adapters wear out way too fast.

A decent deck wont run you much and most places will install them for free

 

[mrklaw]

Go for a cd deck thing. Last year in AZ I tried to go the cheap route. Those tape deck adapters wear out way too fast.

A decent deck wont run you much and most places will install them for free

Thing is, she doesn't listen to music on short trips to local friends, maybe only once a week for 30 minutes at a time. I've already bought an mp3 CD player but it broke down just out of warranty, and I'm not sure about spending what would be around £100 including installation...

 

[buck naked]

If you already have a portable music player, I've always thought a cheap solution would be to install an amp and connect it up to the car's stock speakers, then sit the amp in the hole where the head unit used to be, and run a headphone adapter cable into the amp.

When hopping into the car, you'd plug up the portable player and go =) A DC power adapter wouldn't hurt either.

If the wiring work is awkward, this obviously would cost more than to just buy a CD head unit...

 

[MrAngryFace]

Well the reason my deck adapter died was because I was driving 70 miles a day and listening to cds the whole time. Light use, it might be a practical solution

 

[Pochacco]

In high school, my friend's car had a busted tape stereo.
I would use my MD player, hang my clip-on earphones on his rear-view mirror, and crank up the volume. Man that was ghetto.

We were so pissed, after doing this for several months, to discover that his tape stereo was, in fact, not busted and actually worked (we used a tape adapter after that).

If it's an ooollld car, I would suggest maybe just doing the tape deck thing. External, battery-powered speakers is way too much trouble - and would cost you money on batteries.
If it's a decent car, just get a new deck. It doesn't need to be MP3 CD playable - so long as it has AUX input.

 

[mrklaw]

In high school, my friend's car had a busted tape stereo.
I would use my MD player, hang my clip-on earphones on his rear-view mirror, and crank up the volume. Man that was ghetto.

We were so pissed, after doing this for several months, to discover that his tape stereo was, in fact, not busted and actually worked (we used a tape adapter after that).

If it's an ooollld car, I would suggest maybe just doing the tape deck thing. External, battery-powered speakers is way too much trouble - and would cost you money on batteries.
If it's a decent car, just get a new deck. It doesn't need to be MP3 CD playable - so long as it has AUX input.

Its a 98 Clio. just a town runabout for the wife. Doesn't do long distance - thats what my car is for.

AUX input head units are rare in the UK and expensive (at least front AUX ones)

Think I'll do the tape thing. I can just leave the adapter stuck in there with the wire dangling out.

 

[tedtropy]

Its a 98 Clio. just a town runabout for the wife. Doesn't do long distance - thats what my car is for.

AUX input head units are rare in the UK and expensive (at least front AUX ones)

Think I'll do the tape thing. I can just leave the adapter stuck in there with the wire dangling out.

Even most cheap CD head units will have an AUX input in the back of the deck. What I did when I was using my MP3 player for awhile was to just connect to that (it uses standard stereo RCA cables) and run a long enough cable from the back, under my center console, under the seat, and just left a little bit of cable and the stereo headphone connector sticking out the crack of my passenger seat. It hid the cable and it's going to sound better than any tape adapter and certainly look less ghetto. Plus, the cable costs nothing. Just an idea.

 

[jobber]

Bring a laptop full of mp3s and about 4 batteries

 

[Jill Sandwich]

One of these?

 

[Pochacco]

Even most cheap CD head units will have an AUX input in the back of the deck. What I did when I was using my MP3 player for awhile was to just connect to that (it uses standard stereo RCA cables) and run a long enough cable from the back, under my center console, under the seat, and just left a little bit of cable and the stereo headphone connector sticking out the crack of my passenger seat. It hid the cable and it's going to sound better than any tape adapter and certainly look less ghetto. Plus, the cable costs nothing. Just an idea.

This is pretty much what I did.
My CD deck was super cheap too. When I bought it, I didn't even know it had an AUX input in the back.

The tape deck idea isn't bad though.