First Time in Korea ! ALL IN ONE iDeck (Cassette Adapter+Cradle+Charging Kit)

1. How do you listen to your iPod in the car ?

In my case, since I changed my genuine audio system to a non-genuine audio system which has an AUX jack and an iPod jack, I now can connect it to the iPod jack for listening~

Nowadays, I can see some new cars equipped with iPod jack and AUX jack ~

Also I see some cars in the market for a while have no CD player at all ~

Some have a radio and cassette deck only. (These will be the most cases, right ?)

It is very hard to listen to the iPod through these old audio systems~

In most cases, you will need a cassette adapter to listen to the music~

A venture company named Sinjimoru(http://www.sinjimoru.com) has announced its iPod soluton for car’s cassette deck.

The name is ~~ iDeck~

This product is a combination of a charger unit, a cradle and a cassette adpater all together.

Let’s take a look.

This product has a sophisticated box design.

With its transparent box material, you can see the basic cradle well enough~

The relatively messy part - cigar jack adapter and other components are inside the white box on the left.

I feel a little bit of difference in design from iPod’s simple one ~

I think they’d be better have a simpler box design. (To sense some iPod feel...)

2. Unwrapped the plastic box.

Rather simpler ? ^^

I can catch the whole product at one glance~ You may not need the user guide to start with. Quite simple.

3. These are the components of iDeck.

They provide various adpaters to be used for various iPod series products.

They say it supports all the iPod’s announced after 2006.

5. Let’s take a look at the main body.

The first impression is...What strikes me is it’s simple and clean~

6. This is the cradle part for iPod.

This holds the iPod quite securely~ It looks you can use it safely in the car.

7. When I lift up the main body~ the cassette part on the rear is connected with the cardle part by a thin plastic which is designed to allow you to move it easily.

8. On the left side of the cradle, you will find an AUX jack~

You can enjoy the sound from various equipments other than iPod.

It seems to me you can even connect it to a navigation system. ^^

9. This picture shows an iPod Touch 2nd generation inserted in iDeck.

I had to borrow an iPod and a car from one of my collegues for the test since I sold my iPod.

10. Now, I will try to install it into the cassette deck.

The picture below shows the insertion into the deck~

First, I forced it into the deck and it was rejected after it is inserted to a certain point. ㅡ.ㅡ;;

Hey, what’s wrong ?

11. The reason is … here in the picture below. ^^;;

First, I thought I have to push the cassette part only into the deck and when I did it, the cradle part went wrong like the below picture... haha.

12. OK. I took iDeck out and installed it again right this time.

You have to grab the tape and the cradle part together and puth them into

the deck in a parallel direction.

You will see what went wrong clearly form the picture below ~ ^^

It provides the charge fuction as well~ You can charge it while you listen to the music.

Wrong way of insertion !! XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

For some iPod’s, there may be a gap from the cradle. If this happens, you will be OK if you attach a silicon pad to it provided together.

All right. Then we are ready to compare.

Cassette adapter VS iDeck

Here is a won10,000 cassette adapter and iDeck.

18. The top one is a USD10$ cassette adapter and the bottom one is iDeck.

You will see a slight difference in their heads~ Are there any difference in sound quality, too ? ^^

I connected with a common cassette adapter.

This picture shows a comparison between installed cassette adapter and installed iDeck.

When I connect my iPod with iDeck, wow. It’s fabulous ! ^^;;

The cradling position is just good for easy handling, too.

But, the angle is too steep near to the upright position ~

(When you bend it back, it still stands upright. Wow !)

21. I compared the two products with the same music.

The common opinion from people in the car was ~

They say when you listen to the music through iDeck, you will feel the base part is rather soft and sounds are not separated. When you listen to the music through a common cassette adapter, you will feel the base part gets stronger and the sound is a little bit clearer.

The overall feeling you will get when you listen through iDeck is the sound is rather softer ? ^^

Maybe this slight difference comes from their different heads.

But, all of them like the sound from the common cassette adapter better ~

Even though its sound quality is surely better than the product with FM bands...

It look to me that the users of iPod series are some kind of mania ~

The sound quality will count a lot to them, too.

Speaking of iDeck, this is certainly the best product to cradle an iPod, charge it and listen to the music.

But, the product life is expected to be rather short.

Since most cars announced recently provide an iPod and AUX option~ its marketability looks a little bit weak.

I can hardly see newly published music recorded in the tapes, most of them are published in CD’s or DVD’s.

If they change their way of thinking from the current product, they can develop a product for USB memory based MP3 player instead of iPod series products.

I like to give a high mark on the idea for this all-in-one product to cradle in the car deck, charge and play and for the quality of the product...

But I have a bit of worry about the marketability of the product.

So, this is the end of my review.

This posting of review is made as a venture company supporter.

Please note this review may be very subjective.