wcarter
Jan 15th, 2007, 9:54 pm
Once upon a time, integrating your voice prompts to your Autocom was pretty simple. The Garmin power cable had an audio output mini-jack, and you ran a cable to carry the mono signal to your phone port. The LT's onboard stereo plugged into the music port.
Then Garmin put an MP3 player and optional XM Radio on some of its units. Now you have another stereo input to deal with. I would need Autocom's dual stereo input (about sixty bucks).
So I purchased the Zumo and dug the "portable music input" cable (which I didn't need with the LT) out of my Autocom box. I didn't have the splitter yet, so I unplugged my onboard stereo lead and connected the Zumo to the Autocom music input jack. The sound seemed OK, but as I rode around I realized how spoiled I had become by the LT's speed sensitive volume and the handlebar controls. Controlling the volume with the Zumo buttons was a nuisance by comparison.
Then I remembered my cassette adaptor from my XM Ski Fi car kit. I reconnected my onboard stereo lead, and plugged the cassette adaptor into the Zumo cradle. Whaddya know-now I have speed sensitive volume and my handlebar controls work again. Plus I saved sixty bucks.
There may be a little difference in the sound quality but not much. Now all I have to do is find time for a "Tupperware party" to route the wire from the oddments box to the top of the dashboard.
Then Garmin put an MP3 player and optional XM Radio on some of its units. Now you have another stereo input to deal with. I would need Autocom's dual stereo input (about sixty bucks).
So I purchased the Zumo and dug the "portable music input" cable (which I didn't need with the LT) out of my Autocom box. I didn't have the splitter yet, so I unplugged my onboard stereo lead and connected the Zumo to the Autocom music input jack. The sound seemed OK, but as I rode around I realized how spoiled I had become by the LT's speed sensitive volume and the handlebar controls. Controlling the volume with the Zumo buttons was a nuisance by comparison.
Then I remembered my cassette adaptor from my XM Ski Fi car kit. I reconnected my onboard stereo lead, and plugged the cassette adaptor into the Zumo cradle. Whaddya know-now I have speed sensitive volume and my handlebar controls work again. Plus I saved sixty bucks.
There may be a little difference in the sound quality but not much. Now all I have to do is find time for a "Tupperware party" to route the wire from the oddments box to the top of the dashboard.