Does anyone here use cassette adapter with iPod Touch?

[sweenish]

My wife would like to, but I think our cassette adapter is at fault, here.

It's an older iPod Touch, but new enough that it sill has iOS 8. It's three or four years old at this point, and I can't remember the actual generation.

Headphones work fine, bluetooth speaker works fine.

Cassette adapter in the car is a rage inducing nightmare. The slightest nudge will totally change the volume, sound is always messed up. If you're lucky, that's all that happens, but we're not so lucky since voice control constantly self-triggers. I disabled Siri, but Voice Control won't go away.

The iPod itself isn't blameless as it's a complete mess to try and sync with the PC. It hasn't worked properly for a long time, through multiple updates to the iPod and iTunes, multiple factory resets, etc. It also used to work flawlessly with this exact adapter.

My iPod classic and all of our phones play nice with the adapter.

Google searches have shown me that this is not a random isolated incident. It has also shown zero solutions that work or stick.

So, does anyone have any possible insights into this issue? I can already guarantee that iPod was the last Apple product we ever buy. "It just works" has become the biggest joke for them in our house. All that pretty hardware doesn't matter in the least when their software is so absolutely broken.

As a P.S., I don't care if everything is peaches and rainbows for you. I don't want to hear your non-contribution.

 

[ViRGE]

This is entirely a shot in the dark, but what you're describing sounds vaguely like what would happen if the Mic input line was getting triggered, particularly your bit about voice control.

The iPod Touch supports audio out and mic in over a single 3.5mm cable using a 4 pole connector. If for some reason your adapter or iPod had been damaged, it's possible that you're making contact where you shouldn't be.

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-.../s603/4-pin%203.5mm%20headset%20connector.png

Though even if I'm right, I'm not sure how to fix the problem.

 

[sweenish]

This is the most plausible solution I have seen, thank you for bringing this up.

I have cheap-o idea, but I'll have to take a look at the adapter, first.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Yeah, if it works with generic headphones, it should work with the cassette adapter, unless there's something wrong with the adapter.

 

[sweenish]

Just an update, I bought a new cassette adapter, and that seems to have fixed the issue. Upgraded from Best Buy generic to a Sony adapter.

The first adapter was never great, but it was only ever the iPod Touch that it acted up on, not our phones or anything else. Add to that how stupidly difficult it was to get syncing to work properly, let alone the other problems with iTunes, and I'm still done with Apple once our current products bite the dust.

 

[Ichinisan]

This is entirely a shot in the dark, but what you're describing sounds vaguely like what would happen if the Mic input line was getting triggered, particularly your bit about voice control.

The iPod Touch supports audio out and mic in over a single 3.5mm cable using a 4 pole connector. If for some reason your adapter or iPod had been damaged, it's possible that you're making contact where you shouldn't be.

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-.../s603/4-pin%203.5mm%20headset%20connector.png

Though even if I'm right, I'm not sure how to fix the problem.

Yeah.

Make sure the 3.5mm jack is getting *fully* inserted. A protective case on the iPod might be preventing this.

If there's a bit of foreign material in the headphone jack, I'm not sure how you'd get it out...but that could conceivably cause problems like OP describes.

 

[Ichinisan]

Since there doesn't seem to be a ring on the TRS connector dedicated to the control button, which of those conductors does the button modulate? I know the device can detect the button press. Play/Pause, Answer/End, Next/Previous, FF/Rew, voice control...

I know there aren't a lot of non-Apple in-line remotes with the volume control, so Apple must have a proprietary implementation that is difficult for unlicensed accessory makers to implement.

 

[Ichinisan]

Just an update, I bought a new cassette adapter, and that seems to have fixed the issue. Upgraded from Best Buy generic to a Sony adapter.

The first adapter was never great, but it was only ever the iPod Touch that it acted up on, not our phones or anything else. Add to that how stupidly difficult it was to get syncing to work properly, let alone the other problems with iTunes, and I'm still done with Apple once our current products bite the dust.

Use an iPhone with iTunes Match. No syncing necessary. I can tap the icon on a song or album to download it, or just play without downloading to stream from iTunes servers.

 

[sweenish]

We don't own iPhones. I have an iPod Classic and my wife has an iPod Touch. Neither is in a case.

Syncing is necessary for both of us. Adding a for pay service isn't what I would consider as a solution to what is supposed to be a basic function of the device.

 

[Ichinisan]

We don't own iPhones. I have an iPod Classic and my wife has an iPod Touch. Neither is in a case.

Syncing is necessary for both of us. Adding a for pay service isn't what I would consider as a solution to what is supposed to be a basic function of the device.

I dunno. $2/month is worth it to me so I never ever have to sync and I can access my entire library from any device, even the content I haven't downloaded to that device. Also get commercial-free iTunes Radio. I think iTunes Match is the same price as Pandora alone...but you get to access your full library on all devices (which is much more valuable to me). When you do something like that with a smartphone, you won't want to go back to an iPod and bother synching. Seems like such a bother.

 

[sweenish]

You're still trying to sell me on a service that would do zero good on the devices we use? Or maybe you could enlighten me on how iTunes Match works on an iPod Classic, or on an iPod Touch while we're driving with no signal? Maybe I should just jack up my data allotment and tether the iPod to my phone?

I don't pay for any music streaming services. I don't care for radio services. I know what I want to listen to, and I listen to that. I don't want to be in the mood for one artist, hear one of their songs, and then never hear them again for an hour. I am able to discover music on my own without those services. I use Play Music in that I can upload SOME of my tracks and playlists and stream them wherever I can get a signal for free. Our phones run Android; they will never be iPhones.

And to top it all off, the problem (with the iPod Touch in the car) has been solved. You even quoted that post. Syncing is still a basic feature, and Apple is incapable of getting it right for us. The fact that you are fine ignoring it does not make it a non-issue. They are not a software company, and it just keeps showing. There's no convincing me that Apple products will be worth purchasing after our devices die. Especially not by trying to sell me on a service that does neither of our devices any good.

We're not going back to an iPod, period. The last thing on our minds is giving Apple more money.

 

[Ichinisan]

You're still trying to sell me on a service that would do zero good on the devices we use? Or maybe you could enlighten me on how iTunes Match works on an iPod Classic, or on an iPod Touch while we're driving with no signal? Maybe I should just jack up my data allotment and tether the iPod to my phone?

I don't pay for any music streaming services. I don't care for radio services. I know what I want to listen to, and I listen to that. I don't want to be in the mood for one artist, hear one of their songs, and then never hear them again for an hour. I am able to discover music on my own without those services. I use Play Music in that I can upload SOME of my tracks and playlists and stream them wherever I can get a signal for free. Our phones run Android; they will never be iPhones.

And to top it all off, the problem (with the iPod Touch in the car) has been solved. You even quoted that post. Syncing is still a basic feature, and Apple is incapable of getting it right for us. The fact that you are fine ignoring it does not make it a non-issue. They are not a software company, and it just keeps showing. There's no convincing me that Apple products will be worth purchasing after our devices die. Especially not by trying to sell me on a service that does neither of our devices any good.

We're not going back to an iPod, period. The last thing on our minds is giving Apple more money.

I've moved on to pointing out what I see as a continued frustration. Dedicated music players don't serve much purpose anymore, so using one and having to sync manually will always be a hassle compared to other options. Good luck choosing another dedicated music player.

 

[sweenish]

Except that they play music at a higher quality than any streaming service, and won't buffer. When a task is important enough, you always use a great uni-tasker instead of an okay multi-tasker.

Syncing is a frustration because with Apple and my wife's iPod Touch, it's just broke. Syncing in and of itself is not so bad. It's infrequent and is no hassle when it works as it should.

I've already got some candidates lined up for replacements. But since Apple is a hardware company, I'll probably have to re-evaluate those choices, as I see our iPods kicking for a couple more years.

Depending on phone storage capacities in a couple years, I may switch to holding tracks on my phone instead. Lollipop introduced bit streaming over USB, so I would be able to leverage a car's much more powerful DAC in that case. Still hard to beat 160 GB and a full week's battery life of an iPod Classic.

 

[Ichinisan]

Except that they play music at a higher quality than any streaming service, and won't buffer. When a task is important enough, you always use a great uni-tasker instead of an okay multi-tasker.

Syncing is a frustration because with Apple and my wife's iPod Touch, it's just broke. Syncing in and of itself is not so bad. It's infrequent and is no hassle when it works as it should.

I've already got some candidates lined up for replacements. But since Apple is a hardware company, I'll probably have to re-evaluate those choices, as I see our iPods kicking for a couple more years.

Depending on phone storage capacities in a couple years, I may switch to holding tracks on my phone instead. Lollipop introduced bit streaming over USB, so I would be able to leverage a car's much more powerful DAC in that case. Still hard to beat 160 GB and a full week's battery life of an iPod Classic.

Some Bluetooth devices can take raw AAC over Bluetooth. I think that typically results in higher quality than A2DP without AAC or aptX. You always have the headphone jack option, but that requires physically connecting and disconnecting whenever you get in the car. Leaving an MP3 player or phone in the car was never an option for me. Around here, it gets HOT and that's how you ruin lithium ion battery quickly. Just a single hot day would significantly impact the lifetime of even the highest-quality gadgets.

Using it for days without charging was never a concern for me. With my previous phones, I would charge while driving. Now, I only do that occasionally. The battery in my iPhone 6 Plus is good enough that I usually don't want to bother connecting the charger. I keep charge cables at work and at home and only charge every other night. Auto-lock is disabled and I leave the screen on all the time with auto brightness. I can activate Siri from the Bluetooth kit. I can answer a call and I don't have to worry about muting music. The music resumes automatically when the call ends. I can use Siri to play whatever artist / track / album I want...or just ask her to "play all music, shuffled." Music volume lowers automatically when I'm getting a GPS navigation prompt. Everything is just...better.

When I get in the car, I just set my phone on the Mountek nGroove Snap magnetic mount. There's a metal card sandwiched in my phone's slim TPU case (Incipio NGP).

My music is all ripped lossless. Several hundred full albums. iTunes match works fine with downloaded and outright pirated music too. You definitely don't have to stream. With a WiFi connection, you can selectively download any song or album from your whole library with a single tap. Streaming from iTunes match is 256kbps. Even if you do stream, it isn't that big of a data hog.

If 256k isn't good enough then, yeah, you'll still have to sync the old way.

There are just too many advantages to having the phone do everything. I'm never going back to a dedicated player

 

[sweenish]

That's nice that you're okay with your thing.

There's no convincing me to switch my entire phone ecosystem and add a for-pay service to fix a problem that's already been taken care of for $13. I honestly don't know why you keep trying.

That's nice that you can selectively download tracks. I can hold 160 GB of whatever I want. So you were at least right on thing. I definitely don't have to stream. Why should I get rid of my iPod that's still working, get a new phone when I have a Nexus 5, and subscribe to a new service? Just, why?

Again, it's great that it's working for you. I don't care. Our use cases are not similar enough that your recommendation can do anything for me. And my initial problem has been solved.

 

[Ichinisan]

You use navigation on your Nexus 5? Voice assistant?

 

[sweenish]

I'm just going to assume you're trolling at this point. The problem has been solved a good while ago, and for MUCH cheaper than anything you've suggested.

I'm not buying an iPhone, and I'm not subscribing to a for-pay music service. Stop trying to convince me to do that. My tastes are not your tastes. My preferences are not yours. My methods are not yours, and neither of ours could be considered "the best" when applied to others.

The fact that you are being as ardent as you are does nothing but reinforce the "cult of Apple" and "sheeple" stereotypes. I will be utilizing the ignore feature that this forum provides, so feel free to keep trying to convince me. I won't see it.

 

[Ichinisan]

I'm not promoting anything at this point. Definitely not Apple. Your Nexus 5 is a great device. In that device, I believe you have a better solution than a dedicated player. I'm trying to understand the preference for a dedicated player.

I get that you want to leave the player in the car most of the time. It's very bad for the device, but whatever...

I get that you don't want to deal with Bluetooth or connecting / disconnecting a 3.5mm headphone jack connection.

I had hoped it might be helpful to mention how features like navigation work and handsfree calling just work better when your phone handles the music and lowers the volume automatically when it's appropriate. Your voice assistant can also play music by artist / album / song name / genre...

The magnetic car mount thing works with any phone and any phone case. It's not an Apple thing.

Just throwing ideas out there. You're free to shoot them down. I'm just trying to understand...

 

[CZroe]

He's been talking about the merits of using your Nexus 5 instead of a dedicated player but you have been too busy "resisting Apple" to listen and are painting all of his replies in that context.

I originally bought that nGrove snap on his picture for my Samsung Galaxy Note 3 with 32GB + 128GB microSD, so I certainly did not need to stream either and it certainly was not being mentioned to promote some Apple agenda. His iPhone 6 Plus is 128GB, so it's not to far off from your 160GB dedicated player or my 160GB total storage Note 3 setup. He's trying to tell you that a Bluetooth car kit for your Nexus 5 may make sense, assuming you don't already have integrated Bluetooth in your car stereo, especially because it plays nice with your music when it comes to calls, navigation, and voice assistant functions. He's also saying that heat is a reason NOT to leave a dedicated device in the car. Do you understand now?

My suggestion: Continue using your Nexus 5 and get the Kinivo BTC450 car kit the next time it goes on sale if your car has no Bluetooth. Mine works great and I never have to fiddle with my phone to control it (has AVRCP controls). Avoid the Belkin kit like the plague!