Hi, I am looking for the cable to connect ipod and AUX port. I found two cables. One from Radio shack ($5 -6) and the other one is Monster cable ($20). I don't know which one I should get. Is it make any different for the sound? Please give me some advice.

 

i have one from raidio shack along with the ipod ijet, and the sound is pretty good

 

I don't have either one of those cables, but judging from prior experiences, I will always buy monster cables over anything else. I know that for my home theater, the monster cables make a big difference.

 

i have monster cables for my PS2 and it does make a big diffrence

 

i use this.

http://sik.com/ram_din.php

i used to use a regular minijack to minijack but it sounded horrible, and very low. With this is sounds great and it runs independant of the volume on the ipod. Pair that with an iJet and you don't have to take the ipod out of the center console to change the tracks

 

I have the $20 monster cable you're referring to. I haven't heard my iPod in my car with anything else, so I have nothing to compare to, but the sound quality is really good. I'm planning to get an iJet because it seems like a really nice solution.

 

I would avoid the over-hyped, over-priced, over advertised Monster Cable. The $5 cable from radioshack or the $3 cable from Target will work exactly the same. This is a digital signal so it will either work or not work. No need to spend an extra $15 for something that happens to say monster on it. Also - make sure its a stereo cable, not a mono cable.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...type=printable

List of the hundreds that monster cable has sued!
http://ttabvue.uspto.gov/ttabvue/v?q...&pn2=&cop=&cn=

 

Thanks for the advice!!

 

...that i can think MIGHT be better about the monster cable is that the cheaper cable might be susceptible to interferance, where the shielding in the monster cable should filter out anything like that. i really haven't heard of anything like that though i do seem to remember someone on this forum getting a bad radioshack cable that was buzzing or something, but it just turned out to be a faulty cable (it IS radioshack after all!) Technically, i dont think the signal is digital as a stereo cable is an analog device. I could be wrong though. Might as well get the cheap one and see if it works.

 

[QUOTE=umpalumpa] Technically, i dont think the signal is digital as a stereo cable is an analog device. I could be wrong though. QUOTE]

Yea - I think you are correct that it is analog. If thats the case you could pay a little extra for the shielded cable but I am sure the cable from Radio Shack is sheilded too. I am using one from Radio Shack in my Mini Cooper S to go from Ipod Nano to aux input. It works great but the length of it was longer that I wanted so I coiled it up and tucked it inside the dashboard.

Here is one at Target too.
Belkin Mini Stereo 6' Dubbing Cord - F8V203 $13.49
Get top-quality sound on the go with this Belkin mini stereo dubbing cord. Plug one end of the 6' cable into your iPod, docking cradle, portable MP3 system or CD player, and lead the other end to a computer sound card, portable speaker or auxiliary-input car stereo. Superior 24K goldplated contacts ensure maximum conductivity, and the spiral shield construction reduces electromagnetic/radio frequency interference (EMI/RFI). White. Imported. 6L".

http://www.target.com/gp/detail.html...sin=B0004FPZ88

 

Wow the Sik connector might be a better choice than the typical headphone cable. I hate when I accidently increase the volume to full blast of my iPod when I browse through the menu.

 

Do you have a cig. lighter adapter for the firewire cord? If not, how do you keep your iPod charged on long trips (if at all)?

 

The signal is analog, via a standard 3.5mm phono jack.

Personally, I use the Monster Cable and, at least with the Levinson package and a high-grade audio player (iRiver H340, which has a 98dB SNR, significantly cleaner than the iPod), the reduction in distortion is quite noticeable over a generic Radio Shack cable. I'm not sure it would make as much of a difference if you took away any one component in that system, though, and I strongly doubt you could tell much of a difference when the car is skimming down the freeway at 80mph in any case -- the cabin noise will mask all but the most severe distortions.

 

Since most of us just have MP3s (or other compressed, lossy audio formats) on our portable audio players, does it really matter about distortion, signal-to-noise ratios, etc.? I mean, we're already losing sound quality by using compressed audio, the only question is whether we can tell the difference.

 

I encode all of my music as 192k WMAs -- clean enough to tell the difference. I'm not quite obsessive enough to use WMA lossless. =D

But you're absolutely right, for the vast majority of people, this is extreme overkill.