ding chavez

G'day all...

I've got a little quandry..

The wife's chariot is a BA SR Falcon sedan with "premium" audio
Mine is a BF XR6 Falcon ute with standard audio.

Both have what Ford advertise as "Auxillary Audio Plug in"

Now, I have a little 256k mp3 player, and when I plug it into the aux
port, it works as advertised, but the volume level is woeful. With the
mp3 player wound up flas out, the car stereo needs to be increased to
around 50% to get any useable sound out of it... I know it's not the
cars fault, it needs watts in to make watts out...

What have others done to get some sort of MP3 playability happening?
The wifes better off, coz at least she can load up 6 disks; me, I'm
stuck with one...

I was contemplating buying a Pioneer cd/mp3/FM head unit, mount it under
the seat, or on the back of the cabin, and wire that into the aux
input... but it seems like a lot of buggerising around...

Anyone tried the USB flash key to cigarette lighter adaptor thingies?

redneckf150

I think you'll have the same problem with any other method as well. My mp3 player puts out enough to do fine as it is, but output levels vary greatly between manufacturers. You may want to find/build a small headphone amplifier to use between the mp3 player and the car stereo. Be careful that you don't blow the input. Start low and work up as needed; back off if you note any distortion.

Headwise.com (I believe that is it) is a good source for headphone and headphone amplifier information; I believe there is also a link to plans for building one yourself for very little money.

Good Luck!

ding chavez

Many thanks.. I've since discovered Ford Australia sell a "audio booster plug in" which has a small amplifier built into the input. Why they dont pay an extra $10 per radio, and get the manufacturer to make the radio/cd player mp3 capable, is beyond me....

Cheers...

Panadawn

Because then they have to pay exhorbitant licensing fees to the German company (Fraunhoffer, I think) which owns the rights to mp3 technology.