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I’ve had an IPhone for a few years and have collected a library of ITunes M4P titles. When my existing car stereo died recently, I figured it might be time to consider a stereo designed specifically for the IPhone.  With the IPhones popularity, it would make sense for car stereo vendors to support it. I ended up looking at Alpine’s X305.

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If you have an IPhone 3G and are thinking about a car stereo designed to work with the IPhone 3G you may want to read CNET reviews for the Alpine X305.  See the link on CNET. However, be careful if you believe the Alpine X305 can leveridge your ITunes music library. My experience has been problematic. I’ve found the IPhone 3G and the X305 don’t play well together. In short, the iPhone 3G connects with Alpine’s X305 and displays names of songs along with album cover art, however no audio output is generated.

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July 18th: Well, I’ve confirmed, the IPhone 3G won’t work with Alpine’s X305.  As noted above, song names and album art display on the X305, but no audio output is generated. The radio works okay which is nice, but it’s not why I bought the X305.

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Further experimenting using plain old MP3 files on a memory stick determined these do work okay with the X305. The IPhone produces no audio output, but MP3 files on a memory stick produce acceptable audio.  Since plain old MP3’s on a USB memory stick work okay, I believe the problem may be the connector for the IPhone; but I’m not certain about this.

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For a moment, I considered taking the Alpine unit (along with my car) back to Cartoys.  I bought an extended warrenty from Cartoys for the X305. It could have been interesting to see if the Cartoys extended warrenty is worth the cost. However, that path would require more of my time which is limited, and since MP3’s seem to work okay with the X305, I decided not to take the ”return the unit” path. With MP3s, the Alpine does what I bought it for. It plays audio from an extensive digital library. Also, the optional telephone handsfree unit does work nicely. Incoming calls are picked up by pressing a button on the X305. Outgoing calls present a dialog where the X305 can be selected and phone sound quality is good.

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I have to say I’m disappointed with Alpine for marketing the X305 as IPhone compatible. Integration is not seamless. What should average folks do after an installer has torn up a car’s dashboard, installed the Alpine unit, and only then to learn the X305 doesn’t play nice with the IPhone? Options are limited are that point.

Scheduled for next week is a drive from San Fransisco to Las Vegas followed by three day’s on Lake Meade on a houseboat.  A rented Toyota RAV 4 will be picked-up in San Fransisco and lots music will be needed for the two day drive through Yosemite and Death Valley. 

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My iPhone has lots of downloaded music so an FM transmitter is a logical choice to provide entertanment during the trip. The local Apple store sells several of transmitters from different vendors which plug into the car’s cigarette lighter. Two particular transmitters come with a rigid, but flexible stem to position the iPhone for the driver. Both units, from Belkin and Griffen sold for the same price, $89 USD.

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For this trip, I went with Belkin instead of Griffen because; 1) Belkin claims to scan automatically for unused FM radio frequencies, and 2) I bought a Griffen in January and wasn’t super impressed with sound quality.

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Belkins home page provides this nifty picture of the installed transmitter and here’s a picture of the unit as purchased from Apple.

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The road trip from San Fransisco to Vegas will be a good chance to evaluate Belkin’s TuneBase.  More to come.

June 22nd

Good Points:

• Automatically finds unused FM frequencies
• The rigid stem.  It holds the iPhone in position for the driver to use iPod or other features such as google maps. With a Toyota RAV4 SUV, a 1 to 3 cigarette lighter expander from Radio Shack positioned the iPhone higher and provided additional 12 volt sockets.

Bad Points:

• Auto-frequency finder can be annoying while driving through mountainous areas or other areas where radio signal come and go.
• Audio quality is not quite as good as a CD or listening via a direct, wired connection. The FM transmission and reception process cuts into frequency response and dynamic range.
• On a Toyota RAV4, opening the driver side door killed the FM connection.  The radio needed to be retuned once the driver side door was closed.

Conclusion

The Belkin TuneBase has good points.  It’s rigid stem which plugs into the cigaratte lighter is flexible and serves as a convenent iPhone holder positioning the phone for more than just listening to music, like for instance, checking Google maps; or getting the weather. The iPhone recharges while connected with TuneBase meaning you can turn off Auto-Lock from the General Settings menu. If you plug your iPhone into the cigaratte lighter for recharging during long trips, you may as well plug the phone into the TuneBase. 

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TuneBase was useful on a rented a houseboat in Nevada, near Las Vegas because the boat was equipped with an FM radio and a cigarette lighter. Plugging the TuneBase into the the cigarette lighter gave access to iPhone music which was piped over built-in shipboard speakers.  That was cool.  

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On the other hand, audio quality is a problem and Belkin is not alone in this. Any system, like those from Belkin and Griffen, that convert from iTunes digital format to FM and back to audio probably lose some amount of audio frequency and dynamic range in the process. You’ll get better audio quality by burning iTunes playlists onto an audio CD. 

Griffen ITrip Auto 

The Griffen iTrip Auto is an FM transmitter that plays IPhone and IPod audio on your car’s FM radio.

iTrip Auto’s package lists compatible devices. The compatiblity list contains only iPods, but a picture on the front shows iTrip connected to an iPhone.  The Apple salesperson said ITrip would work with IPods or IPhones so I bought it for my IPhone. The Apple sales associate warned to be sure the device is not connected while starting the car.

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One end of ITrip plugs into the cigarette lighter. The other end plugs into the IPhone (or IPod). After starting the car and connecting the IPhone, a message displays on the IPhone saying the iTrip is not designed for use with an IPhone (disappointing!) and offers to turn on Airplane Mode to reduce interference (why?). Ignoring this message, the next step is to set the transmit frequency. The unit comes with three preset frequencies and  the idea is to pick a frequency not used by a local radio station. The default frequency is 106.9 which, in Seattle, is occupied so I ended up on 94.5.

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With everything connected and tuned, the IPhone’s IPod really does play music through the car’s stereo. Audio quality is good enough (for me at least), however, the iTrip does produce some static when driving under overhead utility lines.  Maybe the transmitter isn’t strong enough to overcome radiation emitted by some utility lines.

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Because it needs to be unplugged before stopping or starting the car, the iTrip is  inconvenient for short city trips. This hardware accessory is better suited for longer trips with few radio stations, few sources of static interference, and minimal pit stops.