Yes, I know, It's not supposed to do that.

However, what I am trying to establish is my empeg in my Mercedes. And it's going to be a bit of a process to say the least.

In the meantime, I've got a solution that will end up being relatively clean. I'm going to use the cassette deck to input the sound. I believe this will sound better than the FM injectors. I didn't think I could use this before, as there is a door that has to be back up, but then I remembered that I knew how to solder.

So, I'm disassembling one of the cassette adapters, and replacing the thick normal cord with an extremely thin ribbon cable (like the ones used in laptop LCD displays... almost paper thin.) then hacking RCA's onto that. Given the dimensions of the headunit, this will result in about 2 mm worth of visible cable. I'll then run the cable around the headunit to underneath, where the empeg will reside.

The problem is that I can't hack the dash apart just yet. But I want my empeg back in the car!

So, I'm wanting to use the ultimate mounting surface until it's mounted. The Mercedes Leather Passenger Seat. I want to just have the home rca's hooked up to the cassette interface, and power the unit via the AC power jack, only using 12V from the cigarette lighter. I know that the empeg has filters for unclean power on the sled connections, but my question is, does that extend to the AC power input as well? Can it handle being subjected to possibly unclean alternator power instead of wall wart filtered juice?

This is obviously a tempory solution, but I'd rather the temporary NOT involve the sled.

Anyone see any glaring problems with this?

I know that the empeg has filters for unclean power on the sled connections, but my question is, does that extend to the AC power input as well?

I drove 6000 miles from New Hampshire to Alaska with a similar setup -- the home power jack connected directly to my fuse panel -- with no problems of any kind, other than the empeg sliding off the dash and into Tony's lap under heavy acceleration. :-)

I also have a similar setup on my Bikempeg -- the player hooked directly to a 12 volt motorcycle battery on my bicycle, used it all last summer.

So I don't think you'll have any problems powering it from a cigarette lighter adapter.

tanstaafl.

FWIW/IMHO, my experience has always been that cassette adapters sound worse than FM transmitters, probably due to the lack of dynamic range inherent in the cassette format. YMMV.

FWIW/IMHO, my experience has always been that cassette adapters sound worse than FM transmitters, probably due to the lack of dynamic range inherent in the cassette format. YMMV.



Damnit people! I get an idea , and then get a confirmation that it will work (thanks tanstaafl!), and then, no... you don't want to do that..

JK.

I'm curious about your experience however. I played around with two different adapters after reading this post. The first was a kenwood something or another which immediately brought up this post in my mind. It did not sound very good at all.

Then I tried a panasonic adapter that I had laying around with a thicker cable(I'm a packrat.) This one has a switch for normal/metal. Remembering that the metal tapes had a better range, I put it on that mode and took a chance.

It doesn't sound bad at all. Since I've still got a CD changer installed, I did a little same track testing. It's not quite at the same level as the CD over optical connection, but it's really not bad. Without doing a cd/empeg comparision, I don't think I'm going to notice the difference.... Of course, I'm not in the same quality sound system as I previously had anyways, but I can deal with it until I trade the car.

I'm curious if other people have had the same experience with the tape adapter, or if I just chose either a> a bad track to test with, or b> a really rare and good adapter.

Since I haven't torn it apart to change the cable, I'm hoping it's just a good but NOT rare adapter.

Well, most of my experience has been with cheesy adapters. I've never really seen a good one but that doesn't mean they're not out there, and if you're happy with it, just go there. After all, they're your ears, and mine are tuned funny. I am known as an audiophile, but often when people brag to me about how lovely their system sounds, I can't listen to it for more than three seconds without earplugs.

You might try an inexpensive FM transmitter to see if that's better though, before you go to all the trouble of making custom cables and what not. Perhaps some nice board member has one and lives near you?

You might try an inexpensive FM transmitter to see if that's better though, before you go to all the trouble of making custom cables and what not. Perhaps some nice board member has one and lives near you?



There is part of the problem. According to one of the installers I talked with, the Mercedes tuner is NOT in the same location as the headunit. Supposedly, it's in the rear of the car near the antenna connected to the optical bus. Finding and putting an injector in this loop adds more of a headache, especially if it's not going to sound good.

Making the custom cable is actually a heck of a lot easier... It's 3 wires with very distinct and separate soldering points. I'm guessing that it will take about 5 minutes to put it together and working once I get the cable. I've already torn the adapter apart to see what I was in for.

Hell, maybe I'll just get the comand system for my car as well. That would be the coolest solution, I just don't know how much it's going to cost me.... Minimum of a couple grand, I'm sure.

Somebody rear-ended me a couple of weeks ago, so my car is in the shop. The rental car only has a cd and no tape player. I could not live without my Empeg for two weeks, so I hooked up my Ramsey FM25b and my Empeg to the cigerette lighter using an adapter to split the plug into two.

I normally use the Ramsey in my house to transmit music from my PC to the radio's throughout my house, or like last month my family had a get together and I brought my Empeg and Ramsey so we could have some nice music playing on the boombox outside.

I'm using this adapter from radio shack for my Empeg: http://www.radioshack.com/product.asp?catalog%5Fname=CTLG&category%5Fname=CTLG%5F004%5F001%5F002%5F000&product%5Fid=273%2D1816

I'm using a straight through cable for the Ramsey. For more info on the Ramsey go here: http://www.ramseyelectronics.com/cgi-bin/commerce.exe?preadd=action&key=FM25

You should be able to mount the Ramsey in your trunk and then you wouldn't loose your cassette deck and get slightly better sound quality. Plus, if you have somebody following you the could tune to the same frequency and listen to your Empeg at the same time!

I had looked at the Ramsey before, and it's definitely on my list. My biggest question is: It's a kit, right? I CAN solder, and was even ok at it.... a while ago. It's easily been 8 years since I've done much more than quick solder blobs. Hacking a cassette adapter is three blobs of solder, no big deal. Putting together a microprocessor controlled radio transmitter sounds a bit more than I'm looking for.... What is involved in it, and can it be purchased preassembled?

I do like that idea, but I'm a bit concerned there... first hand experience with it is very much welcome.

One of the bigger pluses for it is simply the fact that I can try it without tearing the car apart first!

The Ramsey is indeed a kit. It took me two good evenings to assemble it. Just make sure you have a nice low power soldering iron. I used the 15-watt unit from Radio Shack. You might want to do a search on google for an assembled fm-25b.

If I recall you can purchase it assembled from a third party vendor for $20-30 dollars extra. It is a very good transmitter though and is worth the trouble.

Found one, It's about +$40 assembled. I can deal with that.

1/4 mile range according to the site... HE HE HE....

I think I'll give it a shot next week.

Thanks for the 411.