Philips USA PH-62050 CD/MP3/MD-To-Cassette Adapter
by PHILIPS USA
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List Price: Our Price: $6.99 You Save: $7.96 (53%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Category: Car Audio or Theater See more product details |
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Customers in the UK,
Buy this product at amazon.co.uk
for British Pounds
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Philips USA PH-62050 CD/MP3/MD-To-Cassette Adapter
Customer Review: Was sent part SAA2051W instead - incudes 12 v adapter
Summary: 3 Stars
It's getting so even shopping just on Amazon is tricky. This adapter is listed by several vendors, but it's also available in a kit with a 12 volt adapter with tips for various devices, including a USB tip you can use with an iPod or iPhone cord. The kit is Philips part SAA2051W. The kit includes the PH-62050 cassette adapter, the 12 volt adapter and 7 different power tips, one of which is a USB power jack.
Amazon actually sent Philips part SAA2051W when I ordered the PH-62050 shown here. The package had a sticker on the back which said "PHIPH62050".
The SAA2051W kit is available for a couple of dollars less than the PH-62050 adapter shown here, by another vendor selling through Amazon. So you can save a few dollars buying the kit instead of just the cassette adapter. See:
http://www.amazon.com/Philips-SAA2051W-17-Universal-Cassette/dp/B000RH2M6G
If the link doesn't work (I think Amazon blocks links in these reviews) do a search for "Philips SAA2051W". The seller is Wholesale Memory, fulfilled by Amazon.
I have not opened the package yet, but the 12 volt adapter looks bulky. It might be that Philips was trying to get rid of these, hence the price for the kit which is less than the cassette adapter alone. For an iPod or iPhone a dedicated 12 volt adapter would be a lot easier to use. The USB tip in theory would provide some flexibility, as you could charge any device which uses USB for charging, as many cellphones now do. The 12 volt adapter has a compartment on the back to store the extra tips, but it doesn't look large enough to store the USB tip and the other 6 tips.
I do wish the manufacturers sold these cassette adapters with a case for the cassette part. I've used old cassette cases and ziplock bags for them. You need something to keep dirt off of the tape head in the cassette when it's not being used. I've never seen one of these come with its own case.
Note: my rating is based on the 12 volt adapter being bulky. I have not yet tried the cassette adapter.
Customer Review: Works surprisingy well
Summary: 5 Stars
There are basically 4 ways to play your iPod in your car:
1) Newer cars (typically 2006+) have an aux input which you connect your iPod to with the right cable. A direction connection like this is the simplest, lowest cost, and best sounding option - but you need a newer car.
2) On most cars without a dedicated aux input, you can hard wire a connection in the back of the head units with kits from several manufacturers (USA Spec for example). This provides sound quality as good as item #1 but can get a little messy as the hardware needs to be mounted (usually under the dash) and can be fairly expensive (approx $200 hardware, $50 to $100 install)
3) You can use a FM modulator with any car that has an FM receiver. This is low cost simple option, but the drawbacks are well known: OK sound quality at best, issues with static and noise from nearby radio channels.
4) For cars that have a cassette tape deck (remember those?!) you can use a cassette adapter like the Phillips here. My older Lexus has a cassette deck and I chose this option before I invest in adding a hard wire connection (#2) as described above. I figured I would least try it for $21 and I am very impressed with the sound quality! I would call it near CD sound quality. There is no hissing or mechanical clicking of the gears in the adapter. I also purchased the Maxell cassette adapter since they used to make the best cassettes back in the day and to my surprise it sounded much worse and had a loud humming noise. So I am keeping the Phillips and returning the Maxell and just ordered another Philips unit as a backup for long trips!
Customer Review: Best one by far
Summary: 5 Stars
Like many others, I've struggled with finding a great - heck, I'd settle for merely decent - way to hook my iPod into my Honda Odyssey. I've got the last one that didn't have a dedicated line in for external devices, so the only way I could wire it directly into my sound system would be to disable the DVD player. Over the years I've tried the radio style devices and a number of different cassette adapters.
The radio devices required too much in the way of constant adjustment and the sound was never very good even on a totally clear channel. All of the cassette adapters I tried always produced a very tinny sound and required me to alter the EQ settings on the iPod to get anything close to usable, and even then it wasn't nearly as good as listening to a regular FM station.
Recently, my 3rd adapter failed. Enter the Philips adapter. Wow. This thing is outstanding. Unlike all of the others, there is zero noise from the cassette deck (with the others you could always hear the mechanical parts turning and clicking in the background) and the sound is an incredibly accurate reproduction of what I have on the iPod. Even better is that it sounds at least as good - and often better - than the sound system has ever sounded.
I'm going to buy a couple more of these: one for my other car and another as a "just in case" adapter. I like this one so much that I'd really hate it if mine broke and I couldn't find a replacement.
I know this one costs a bit more than most of the competitors, but in my opinion, it is worth every cent. Highly recommended.
Customer Review: Phillips Tape Adapter MP3
Summary: 4 Stars
I have owned one of these for about 4 years now and would highly recommend this brand. The sound quality is great when paired with a halfway decent mp3 player. I myself own the Sandisk Sansa 8gb player which works just as good as the ever famous Ipod but at a lesser cost. Anyways back to this tape adapter review. The reason I gave it 4 stars would be because of the stickers on it do bubble up and can get caught into your tape decks moving mechanisms as it did on my 2003 Buick Century tape deck. It rendered the tapedeck useless and whatever tape I put in would just pop right back out because something jammed the deck from taking a tape all the way in. After taking the dash apart and then tearing carefully into the tape deck I never did find the missing piece of the Phillips sticker but was able to work the deck into it's "no tape/tape in" positions and now the deck works great again so I finished removing the stickers completely. This is a great product but shouldn't they know better than to put stickers on a tape knowing that it's possible that sticker can tear off or get pinched into the decks moving parts. I myself after experiencing this problem would recommend to companies making these mp3 adapters to either mold the plastic to show "this side up" or use silk screening but no more stickers. If you buy one of these remove the stickers from it and remember the silver screw side is up. It wasn't fun fixing the Buick's tape deck but I'm grateful it works again. The FM cig adapters are lousy so buy one of these instead.Customer Review: Good mp3 Cassette Adapter for iPhone 3GS
Summary: 5 Stars
Philips USA PH-62050 CD/MP3/MD-To-Cassette Adapter
I wanted a way to play my iPhone through my car's sound system. I initially thought I would buy an FM transmitter, which would transmit my iPhone's music to an FM station on my car radio. But online reviews for FM transmitters indicated that none of them were as good as cassette adapters -- partly because, by law, FM transmitters can not be strong enough to overcome frequent interference, especially in urban areas.
Online reviews suggested that the Philips CD-to-Cassette Adapter was the best of its class. And indeed it worked very well for me. I just slipped it into my car's cassette player, hooked the miniplug into my iPhone 3GS, and I can play the music.
The adapter has the ability to change the location of the wire, in case you have one of the minority of car sound systems that expects the cassette to be inserted the other way around.
While I was waiting for the Philips to ship, I bought a less expensive CD-to-Cassette adapter from Pep Boys. The Pep Boys adapter requires that you crank the volume up very high in order to hear the iPhone's music. One of my sound systems won't even crank up high enough to hear it. This was not a problem for the Philips adapter; it plays at a volume you'd expect if you'd inserted a tape.
I highly recommend this adapter.