1994-2002 [Subscribe to Daily Digest] |
On iPod friendliness:
The 2001 9/3 and Viggen unfortunately lacks an Aux in port. So the options are:
1. Find some crazy adapter that'll work with the CD player input (I was unable to);
2. Use the Griffin iTrip FM transmitter (the advantage of which is that it can be set to broadcast on any FM station) -- unfortunately, this thing doesn't broadcast very strongly, so if you live in a station-dense community it's not a good solution; people who have tried this in rural areas or areas where there are wide gaps between FM stations on the dial have reported good success...for me, it was not very good, as it could never completely overpower adjacent stations.
3. Use the Belkin FM transmitter (it can only be set to your choice of several different frequencies -- however, it broadcasts much more strongly than the iTrip. For me, though it was better than the iTrip by a MILE, it was still unacceptably unable to overcome adjacent stations).
4. Use a cassette adapter -- the disadvantage here is the that you can hear a whine in the background, the pitch of which goes up and down with engine speed. Also, you have an unsightly wire going across the front of your dash from the cassette player to wherever you have your ipod installed. I should mention that if you ARE going to use this solution, it's best if you can plug the cassette adapter into the line out from your ipod rather than the headphone out. You'll get better sound that way. You can get a wire that plugs into the bottom of your iPod and has a line out jack at the other end at http://www.sik.com. Alternatively, there's a Belkin iPod charger with an amplifier built into the charger. Plugging the cassette adapter into this amplifer gets better results than into the headphone jack of the iPod.
5. Install an Alpine CD player in place of the factory radio in the Saab; the Alpine has an aux in into which you can plug the ipod. Drawback: Costly.
6. FM modulator -- this is what I finally settled upon; it plugs inline in the antenna circuit; that is, you unplug the antenna from the head, and plug the modulator in between the antenna and the head. You then install an unobtrusive switch on the dash which turns the modulator on and off. When the modulator is turned on, and you set your radio to the correct station, you hear the iPod (which is plugged into the modulator using the cable from http://www.sik.com -- you could use the headphone out, but it doesn't sound nearly as good). To listen to the radio, you turn off the modulator. The sound is about as good as a really clean FM broacast, not as good as the CD player, or as it would be if you plugged the iPod into an aux in jack.
I highly recommend the mounting hardware from http://www.proclipusa.com They have hardware to mount almost any GPS, iPod, PDA, phone, etc. (customized for each model) to almost any car (customized for the car). To mount my 3G iPod in my Viggen, I used their holder with tilt swivel (848577)and the Saab 9/3-specific angled mount (852478):
http://www.proclipusa.com/core/framework/scripts/image.asp?path=/media/images/products/852478-4.jpg&width=400&height=400
High quality stuff, good instructions, fit beautifully.
Hope that helps.
posted by 66.77.13...
, Sun, 31 Oct 2004 08:44:03, Mon, 1 Nov 2004 18:10:09, Sun, 31 Oct 2004 10:38:24
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