It occurred to me, as I sit here in my backyard drinking Coopers Leabrook aged Sparkling Ale and listening to the birds chirp, that I haven't mentioned my experiences with the iTunes device for the iPod.

For those who came in late : It is a FM transmitter for the iPod, available at Next Byte (who had a complete orgy of alcohol at Pontoon Bar in Sydney on Saturday night for their Christmas party) for about $80. Or on the Internet from Griffin for whatever the exchange rate + postage works out to be.

It's not too shabby. The FM frequencies go in increments of 200 Hz, and download to the iPod as a playlist. To change a frequency you select the "mp3" that corresponds and play it. Voila. Frequency changed.

I chose initially a frequency about 400 Hz away from an Austereo station, but was getting static everytime I changed velocity (either harsh acceleration or direction). Eventually I found a gap of about 600 Hz either side and the reception became sweet.

According to the specs, the wow and flutter is 0.02 % at 20 Hz to 18kHz (which is good enough for a car stereo methinks), and the reception on the 8's tuner when the device is placed in the centre console seems quite good.

The upshot is that I can take my approx 60 CDs out of the car and leave maybe a pack of 20. Everything else can come out of the iPod. Mine currently has about 20 GB of mp3s (my CD collection + a bunch of Dj mixes) which equates to maybe 2.5 weeks of continous music.

Recommended if you have an iPod (if not, why not?) and love music (if not, why not?).

I bought one as well, despite having a very poor experience with the Belkin TuneCast FM transmitter. Only had it a couple of days and am trying to find a good frequency, but at least it has a large number of frequencies to test, whereas the Belkin crap has just four. :mad:

I also acquired a nifty holder called the TuneDok (Kev mentioned this earlier, I recall - thanks Kev), which fits really well in the cupholder, allowing the iPod to be held securely and for the cover to close, so it's not visible from outside.

Operating the iPod while driving is a tad hard and thus not to be encouraged, so I am working on a number of driving playlists.

I am also going to try to map FM frequency use at least along the routes I travel, and will hopefully post the most useable frequency(ies) to use at some stage.;)

sounds like a wonderful idea... how much is a iPod now a days.

I have an MP3 player in My RX8 and I think it is good quality. For backup if you get dull for just for the convience - when a friend says I want to hear this song... this song comes sort of thing. But for FM transmission over the MP3 player. MP3 player will be better anytime.

Agree?

Originally posted by takahashi
sounds like a wonderful idea... how much is a iPod now a days.

I have an MP3 player in My RX8 and I think it is good quality. For backup if you get dull for just for the convience - when a friend says I want to hear this song... this song comes sort of thing. But for FM transmission over the MP3 player. MP3 player will be better anytime.

Agree?

Yep, I agree

takahashi, does that mean you have the Mazda MP3 player? If so, is it just a single disk player or can it also work with the 6 CD stacker? Do you get track information on the display?

I have done the iTrip/iPod combo as well and found a pretty nice cradle for the iPod that fits in the center console. It's a cup with a stalk/cradle that holds the iPod. With some adjustment you can actually close the console cleanly. However, you lose the use of the cupholders in the process.

Also, the iTrip is pretty cool.

I've got an iPod that I use with the RX-8. I use the iTrip FM transmitter with it. It is quite good. It is definitely better than listening to 6 CD's all day long.

I've got one of the original iPods (5G capacity). I will hold about 1,000 songs. I use it with iTunes to automatically pull off songs that I have heard and replace them with songs I haven't played.

Everyone should get one.

They range from $529 (10G), $699 (20G), $899 (40G). You can get them at David Jones stores now.

Donald

Next Byte stores also stock them , and they should (after much back ordering) now have iTunes available as well.

*** WARNING ***

OPERATING YOUR RX8 WHILE DRIVING AN IPOD MAY CAUSE YOUR IPOD TO BEHAVE ERATICALLY!!

--dez;