In sci.electronics.repair, on Sun, 24 Sep 2017 10:29:35 +0000 (UTC),
Bruce Esquibel > wrote:

>In sci.electronics.repair micky > wrote:
>
>> Do any of you know anything good or bad about Grom audio? Do any of you
>> know a competitor you would recommend (instead?)?
>
>No comment on them but a general 2-cent comment.
>
>Keep in mind that most of these "adapters" need power, usually by a
>rechargeable battery built into them and that is the major pain in the ass.
>
>I had a 97 Lincoln that had a non-replaceable radio (amps and other parts of
>it were scattered all over the car), it had a cassette player and 10 disc cd
>changer but since you can get like 1400 mp3's on a cheap 16GB ipod, I wanted
>to use one of those.
>
>They probably are still made (maybe) but there was a cassette to bluetooth
>adapter and it really worked well, provided it was charged up. Battery life
>was only 4-6 hours and it really sucked when 15 minutes into a 2 hour drive
>it starts beeping at you to charge it up. Back to the radio.
>
>I'd really recommend if whatever you are looking at isn't wired into the
>car, forget it.

Yeah it is. I'd forgotten about your answer and Houston Paul's and I
started a new likely-to-be short thread.
>
>My overall recommendation is screw all these adapters and replace the radio.

I looked at other radios but this one has GPS and a map and I know I'll
get bored by it in a while, but not yet, so maybe then I'll replace the
radio.
>
>I don't know what kind of car or truck you have but you should be able to
>find from Crutchfield, a radio, wiring harness that supports the steering
>wheel controls and if needed, the adapter plate (bezel) for $150 or less.
>
>Most of those under $100 radios they sell have at least 1 usb port (the dual
>ones are front/back, the back if you want to run a cable somewhere), usually
>bluetooth and have a aux input.
>
>My point is, it's a little more expensive than it seems you are planning on,
>will take at least an afternoon of work to install but once it's done, you
>just don't have to worry about anything. Provided you remember to bring the
>phone/ipod or usb stick with you, it just works.
>
>I put up with that cassette adapter for 4-5 years and although it was worth
>the $35 or so it just wasn't dependable. I replaced the car earlier this
>year with another used Lincoln, but the at least the radio was more
>standard. I wanted to try that apple carplay and although it ran almost $500
>for everything, I'd never get another car without it.
>
>I'm pushing 60 and the last car radio I installed was back when dashboards
>were still made of steel and although it took me 3 attempts over 3 days to
>get everything to work right (who would of thunk to attach the tripwire for
>the amps to the power antenna lead from the radio)

Not me.

>I'd do it again in a
>heartbeat.

It's easier now because you don't have to lie on your back with your
head under the dash. Things go in and out from the front.

But there are still other things that require one's head under the dash,
and I'm 70 y.o. now. That's not really a problem but they weight I
gained is.

>I stuffed all the wiring via the shift tunnel into the center console thing
>and don't have any wires or plugs exposed. If you go on a short trip and
>don't plug the phone/ipod in, the radio does a search for a bluetooth
>connection automatically and off ya go. Can still switch tracks and control
>volume from the steering wheel and make hands-free phone calls.

A lot of them, all that I saw, keep the SWC (steering wheel controls,
that's the abbreviation they use.) still working. It seems a challenge
to make the SWC, the radio, the adapter, and a cell phone all work
together.

>All those adapters have their place but for long term enjoyment, replace the
>radio.

Some day maybe. But for $10 I bought a Wireless to FM transmitter.
They sell them for as little as $3 but you have to wait until they come
from China. It seems to work pretty well with my little SanDisk Clip. I
glued a kitchen match to it to fill in the space and used a rubber band
to hold them together.

The Clip holds 4Gig and the SD card holds another 4Gig, but you can get
up to 8 plus 32gig. 3Gig holds about 2000 songs (I'm going to use Find
Everything to find and delete the duplicates, which have (1 , (2, or (3
in the title, buit there are about 1100 distinct 50's and 60's songs,
and there are even more on a different station.) I'm going to start on
podcasts science and history podcasts (Science Friday and Back Story) in
a couple days.

I thought the $18 item referred to in the new thread would not fit my
radio, but after a while I decided it should. It should come within a
week. So it's only 18 instead of 200. No bluetooth but no one calls me
anyhow. And I guess the USB jack won't accomplish anything, but the
3.5mm jack should plug straight into the MP3 player, so I won't need the
wireless then.

>-bruce

>