Can I have a truly portable portable iPod to move between cars?
November 4, 2010 9:06 AM   Subscribe

Is wiring an iPod into classis car stereos in a portable way possible?

My father in law restores classic cars. He has a 57 chevy, 57 corvette, and 57 thunderbird. He's not a stickler for details and just has them in running shape.

Right now, he has one stereo (from an 88 accord) that he just moves between them and shoves on the floor. The tape deck on it is going out.

I'd like to get it so that he can just take an iPod between the cars and plug it in somehow and play music that way. Is this something possible to do without a lot of involvement? It doesn't have to be great sound. Each of the cars already has speakers, but he only has one stereo right now. I also have a portal headroom total bithead amp that I could lend to the effort (http://www.headphone.com/headphone-amps/headroom-total-bithead.php).

Does even seem feasible that he could carry the iPod + bithead between cars, plug into some wiring harness or something that makes the bithead drive the car speakers and start listening? Or am I dreaming?

Thanks!
posted by cmm to Technology (5 answers total)
 
That headphone.com site keeps locking up my browser so I can't read the specs, but I don't think that an amp that runs on 4 AAA batteries will have enough power to run car speakers. You could do this with a more powerful amp, making the wiring harness for each car. It may be more cost effective to get a cheap car stereo with an aux input for the iPod.
posted by rfs at 9:28 AM on November 4, 2010


What about using an FM transmitter? No wiring, totally portable. If two of the cars don't have radios he'd have to add them, but at least he could get the cheapest ones out there.
posted by IanMorr at 9:37 AM on November 4, 2010


Response by poster: None of the cars has a stereo in it. He just has the accord stereo that he moves around.

I was hoping for something more elegant than that so he wouldn't have a loose deck shuffling around on the floor while he drives around. These are old cars and so a modern deck won't fit into the dash. I was hoping for something portable that could be plugged into a wiring harness that comes down under the dash easily.

The headphone.com site doesn't give power output that I could find for that amp. It just says "can power any headphones you have except for electrostatic headphones".
posted by cmm at 10:10 AM on November 4, 2010


Would a few new "RetroSound" dual shaft-style radios be in the budget?

http://www.crutchfield.com/shopsearch/retrosound.html
posted by de void at 11:31 AM on November 4, 2010


Put the car stereo in a wooden box with a handle, and get connectors for 12V, ground, and the speakers.

Another possibility would be a shower radio. I bought one from Woot a year or so ago that opens up and allows you to connect an MP3 player (kept safe inside) instead of using the radio. It runs off of 4 AA batteries and is totally self-contained. I use it to listen to music while working outside. I can't find a picture of the one I got, but it was pretty cheap, and doesn't sound that bad. It wouldn't work for the Woodward Dream Cruise, though !
posted by rfs at 12:24 PM on November 4, 2010


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