First off I realize I should have "Done it the right way first" ... but after buying the 30G I didn't have much $$ left over to do it the "right way". Anyway here goes...

First my stereo setup. It's dated I know but it works very well and sound quality is pretty gosh darn good IMHO

* Eclipse 5506 CD player
* Eclipse 12 Disk changer
* MB Quart 5.25 Component set
* JL Audio 10" IB4 Freeair subwoofers
* Two Rockford Fosgate Punch 120a Amps

[for more info and pics goto http://linux.wku.edu/~harriaw/neon.html#stereo ]

Fiasco #1
Bought the Belkin FM transmitter. Sound quality was much worse than I expected. I think part of this is due to my car not being equipped with an antenna/radio from the factory and having a cheap antenna installed sometime before I purchased the car. I had to hold the Belkin up in order to get a halfway acceptable signal. Not an easy thing to do with a 5 speed and manual steering. Haven't tested it on another car though.

Fiasco #2
With my head unit not having an internal amp, the sound signal goes through 8V pre-out RCA's to my amps(one amp for mid/hi and one for subs). After a trip to Radio Shack and an assortment of RCA Y-adapters ( two 1F-2F adapters and four 1F-2M adapters to be exact) managed to hack something together. The pictures on the below page should pretty much explain it...if not just let me know.

http://linux.wku.edu/~harriaw/ipod/ipod/ipod.html

I wasn't expecting fantastic quality but I wasn't expecting what I got.
For starters there was way too much bass. Put on the "Bass Reducer" EQ on the iPod and it helped...but not much.

I noticed that playing a CD with iPod turned on essentially cut my volume in half. Makes sense but didn't cross my mind (maybe somebody has a technical explanation that's better than my guess) that both the iPod and CD rca signal is shared equally?

Also with iPod disconnected, I recieved a noticable amount of "hiss" when an `s` sound was made on moderate to higher volumes. This was tested on numerous storebought CD's such as Norah Jones, Peter Cincotti, Beatles-Sgt Peppers, and Pink Floyd-Division Bell. I attribute this to the quality(or lack thereof) of some or all of the Radio Shack Adapters(the 1F-2M were gold plated, the 1F-2F was not). I tested the mini-RCA cord from iPod to the amp and was as good as 192kbs can sound... and no `hiss`.

I think my only remaining options are
1) Buy a CD Player with audio input which I'm not wanting to do
2) Buy an in dash EQ with audio input, which is probably what I'm going to do.

Comments/Questions/Flames welcome

aa