bjford

(I tried searching, but didn't find much)

First, my Rx7 came with NO radio, CD player, anything, so I want to hook one up to my car. Now, I don't know much in this area (I know there's a CD player, and I put CDs in it, and sometimes it skips when I hit a bump), so bear with me. I have an MP3 player that holds about 256 MB of songs, and connects via USB. It's a SanDisk. Anyway, I was wondering if there existed some sort of car audio player that was able to hook up to an MP3 player, or more prefferbly if there are CD/MP3 players that actually have some sort of MP3 hookup. I'm cheap, so nothing too fancy.

Thanks for any info you may provide.

zeromage428

there is cd players taht come with aux ports on the back that you can hook up to an Ipod and other mp3 players

maxcooper

First, don't get one of those little wireless radio transmitters that you might find in the "iPod accessories" section. I got a Belkin TuneCast II and it doesn't work well at all. In busy radio markets, there is a lot of static trying to pick up the radio signal. And even at its best, the sound quality is poor. It's pretty much unusable, IMO. Maybe some of the other units are better, or maybe they work better in areas with less radio stations. But I doubt I would be satisfied.

There are "wired transmitters" that are supposed to work much better. I'm a skeptic, but you might find this acceptable if you have someone install it:
http://www.crutchfield.com/S-mX9eNwu...g=234550&avf=N

Some car stereos can play MP3s off a CD. For instance, you use your computer to burn a CD with a bunch of MP3 songs on it, and then you can play that CD in the car. Note that you don't need your SanDisk MP3 player at all in this scenario. The advantage here over normal CDs is that you can fit a lot more MP3s on a CD than you normally get with a regular audio CD. And one CD can even hold 3 times as many songs as your 256MB MP3 player. Plus, it's simple (as long as you can burn a CD or get someone to help you burn a CD) -- no cables or crap to deal with. But your MP3 player may be better if you change the songs you have on it frequently.

Some car stereos have an auxiliary input, which you could connect your MP3 player to. Sometimes this is a little "headphone jack" looking port on the front, but more often it is a pair of RCA connectors in the back. Or you might even need to get a special cable that works with your particular car stereo. Whatever the case, you'd need a cable to connect your MP3 player to the car stereo in this scenario. You might want to find the manual to see if your car stereo has an aux port. Or use http://google.com to search for your car stereo model number - e.g. search for "Craptron VD-100 auxiliary" if you had a Craptron VD-100 car stereo. Or you could just look at and play with the buttons -- maybe get a friend to help if you are lost. Or post the model number of your car stereo here (be very precise to help us help you) and someone can help.

Some car stereos can not only play music off an Apple iPod, but you can actually control the iPod (select songs, etc.) using the stereo controls. Note how this is different from the simple aux port hookup because with the aux port, you must select the song using the controls on the MP3 player. Note that these generally only work with Apple iPod-brand MP3 players, and won't work with your SanDisk player. But if you are open to getting an iPod, this might be good for you. Here's some more info:
http://www.crutchfield.com/S-mX9eNwu.../inthecar.html

If your car stereo can play cassette tapes, you can get a thing that looks like a tape but has a cable attached to it that you can plug into your MP3 player. Then you just put the tape in, and you will hear the sound from your MP3 player.
http://www.crutchfield.com/S-mX9eNwu...sp?g=771&avf=N

-Max