Music on a budget, would you upgrade your car stereo, or buy an iPod?

[crazydreaming]

If you are tired of reading "What should I buy posts", you can stop reading now... For everyone else, I'd appreciate some opinions!

Music is very important to me. I'm a musician myself, and listen to a lot and a large variety of music. I can be a bit of an audiphile, but can't afford to yet .

Basically, I have a '01 Chevy Blazer, it doesn't have a CD player and I'm looking for a better music setup than what I currently have. My current setup is: I made a line in by hooking up one of those sony aftermarket 10 disc changers that tie into the antennae. I plug a regular portable CD player into the line in because the changer stopped reading CD's. Though, my first question is, is it really a line in if it is using the antennae connection on the stock head unit? Sound quality is rather poor, but manageable. Is the iTrip quality going to be comparable to my current setup?

I was originally considering an aftermarket MP3 capable head unit, but not sure if I want to remove the stock look. Also concerned about security, my car is always parked on campus parking lots.

iPod iPod iPod! I have been iPodless for a while now, and really miss it. I've been using my Motorola E815 a little bit as an MP3, but is not a good setup at all. It also can't hook into my car setup without getting some sort of funny audio adapter, the motorola headphone jack is wierd. Headphone quality stinks. Now that I'm back in college, I'm really missing my iPod for studying/homework.

What should I do? New iPod, refurb 60GB, 30GB, or replace/modify my car stereo setup?

I would love one of the new 80GB iPods, but I'm not sure if I can really justify it with my tight budget. I like the idea of having all my music and most of my movies on one device, plus being able to backup my entire powerbook (80GB) hard drive onto my iPod would be great. I really need a large external HD for what I do, but an 80GB should be plenty for now. I'm not sure if it's really worth the $50 difference from the old 5th gen to the new one... thoughts? If I went the iPod route, my car setup would have to stay the way it is, I would just hook the iPod up through the crummy line in setup I have. Sure, my dream setup would be a nice integrated iPod interface, but, again, $$ is the issue.

Well, I'm going to get back to the massive amount of math homework I should be doing instead of cranking out a paper on iPods and such , Why are Apple announcements so distracting!

 

[Ugg]

With the price of gas, the first thing you should do is sell your Blazer. The savings in the first couple of months would allow you to buy an 80 gig. If that is not an option and you prefer to spend money on gas rather than music, then the best option is the refurb.

 

[generik]

Is it a tape player? I've seen these casette tape adapters where you connect one end of the tape thingamajid to the iPod and insert the tape into the player.. and bingo, iPod quality sound through your casette player...

 

[crazydreaming]

With the price of gas, the first thing you should do is sell your Blazer. The savings in the first couple of months would allow you to buy an 80 gig. If that is not an option and you prefer to spend money on gas rather than music, then the best option is the refurb.

haha, tried that, but I don't really drive that much where the savings would even be worth it. Do the math, a vehicle that get's 30 mpg compared to one that gets 20, doesn't really have THAT much savings unless you drive a ton of miles, which I don't. For me it's worth it to have 4x4 as I need it to get up the canyons to do all the skiing i do.

So it's not worth the $50 in your opinion for the new models?

 

[crazydreaming]

Is it a tape player? I've seen these casette tape adapters where you connect one end of the tape thingamajid to the iPod and insert the tape into the player.. and bingo, iPod quality sound through your casette player...

I use to have that setup, but had enough of the bad sound quality. However, that reminds me of the Griffin Smart Deck cassette adapter. Any experiences with audio quality? That would make for a cheap solution.

 

[crazydreaming]

I use to have that setup, but had enough of the bad sound quality. However, that reminds me of the Griffin Smart Deck cassette adapter. Any experiences with audio quality? That would make for a cheap solution.

After doing some research on the smart deck, looks like a good option, better quality than FM adapter, but not as good as line in or CD, but I like.

 

[crazydreaming]

I think that the refurb iPods dropping today answered my question. I have a feeling that they won't stick around too long at that price. $229 for the 60GB, that's only $50 more than the $30. I'm pulling the trigger.

 

[iSaint]

I always go for the better sounding car stereo first. Especially since you can burn and play MP3 CDs these days, and car decks are so inexpensive. New speakers, a little more power, and the deck will make you happier in the short run. Make sure it has an iPod input for down the road when you do get one.

EDIT: a cassette adapter will sound a little better than FM, but no where near the digital quality of an iPod or an MP3 CD through a higher quality system.

Even though your Blazer is older, you're in college. Keep it awhile.