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FM Modulator vs. Car Kit

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Old 12-17-02, 02:15 PM
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lexussc400
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Default FM Modulator vs. Car Kit

Which one do u think is clearer?
Old 12-17-02, 03:29 PM
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pcmw
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Default Re: FM Modulator vs. Car Kit

Originally posted by lexussc400
Which one do u think is clearer?
lexussc400,

What does "car kit" refer to?

That to me can mean almost anything.

If you would like a good answer to any question you should post all the details you can think of about the issue and what your goal is to accomplish. Then people can help. That usually requires more than 1 sentence and a topic.

MW
Old 12-17-02, 04:00 PM
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lexussc400
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the cassette w/ wire that connects to ur headphone in a MD, i'm just wondering which one is clearer
Old 12-17-02, 05:25 PM
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pcmw
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Welp,

Good question...

The FM Modulator relies on the freq response of the tuner. This is usually hampered quite a bit.

The Tape mechanism usually has a better freq response and better output overall but tends to create a bit of tape deck motor noise in the process. The motor noise and persistent hiss can be reduced using the dolby function.

I would have to say the Tape adapter is a better quality if given those two options.

MW
Old 12-18-02, 03:04 PM
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Blackmarket
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I have used both. I find that while watching dvds, the FM modulator is as good as the tape deck and much cooler. No nasty wires and i just velcroed it to the back of my dvd player. It works pretty well.
Old 12-18-02, 04:44 PM
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pcmw
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Blackmarket,

That is probably true. When watching a DVD vs. music you are not requiring a large amount of frequency response. Movies and TV are centered around the vocal frequencies. However, lexussc400 is plugging in a MD player that could have music on it.

MW
Old 12-18-02, 04:49 PM
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Blackmarket
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i c. I still find the fm modulators sound to be good when playin some mp3s but I am not too experienced with audio.

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Old 12-18-02, 05:03 PM
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Tom_ES300
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Originally posted by Blackmarket
i c. I still find the fm modulators sound to be good when playin some mp3s but I am not too experienced with audio.
The sound isn't to bad but those modulators are hard to set up. They overdrive, clip and add some buzz on loud sections of the mp3 or a loud mp3 if you don't have your library normalized (ie, all songs are reset to the same average volume).

Tom
Old 12-20-02, 03:43 AM
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Jmai22
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i always wondered what happen if you drive by another car usuing an fm mod. and same station. will you pick up there music??

i haven't used a fm mod. before but i would recomend this over tape deck. tape deck looks nasty and has a hissing noise.
Old 12-21-02, 03:40 PM
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Will49
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Originally posted by Jmai22
i always wondered what happen if you drive by another car usuing an fm mod. and same station. will you pick up there music??

i haven't used a fm mod. before but i would recomend this over tape deck. tape deck looks nasty and has a hissing noise.
The station can interfere with the FM mod. That's why there is a selector switch to set a different frequency.

I don't agree at all about the tape deck. I installed an MP3 10CD changer in my RX300. At first I used the FM modulator and the quality *sucked*. Lost almost all of the high end (FM can't handle anything over 15kHz anyway), dynamic range was terrible, and lots of foldover ("sss" sounds make singers sound like they have a lisp).

Switched over to a casette adapter and I can tell you the quality is without a doubt 100x better. The casette player on the head unit is pretty quiet anyway, so almost no noise unless you crank it all the way up and listen to something really quiet. I gotta say the dynamic range and frequency range kicks *** compared to FM modulators.

I ran the wire for the casette into the dash so only about 2" of wire is exposed (from the casette opening to the lower edge of the plate.

Last time I was at my Lexus dealer, I showed the sales guy my setup and he said "it rocked". For a while I had both FM and casette hooked up and would do a demo of the difference.... amazing! He converted his XM over to a casette adapter from FM and called me to say it was way way better.

If anyone want's, I can post pics of my setup.
Old 12-22-02, 12:43 AM
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lexussc400
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plz post some pics of your setup
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