ipod as head unit source

I am looking to use an Ipod as the only source for mobile audio. I saw an install in a magazine once where this was done. Sound quality is paramount. Also being able to charge it. I have used Secret audio SST III with greta results but would love to have just a docking station flushed into center console. For sound quality i belive the 30 pin connection should be used to connect to amp or integration unit as I have read. Thanks

so....what is your question? how to connect everything? what equipment to use? you want a custom dash mount? All you really need is a good amplifier, for sound quality and price i would suggest ALPINE. and an RCA line-out from your ipod ton the said amp. connect the speakers to the amp and PRESTO! ipod as main unit.

I am familiar with 3.5mm jack to rca input into amplifier. Adaptors for that purpose I have read have poor sound quality. I have read line out( 30 pin) connection is better. I am looking for suggestions on what docking unit( cables and all) could give me charging into, and volume out of ipod into the rca of amplifier. I haven't met anyone who has actually done this. I have heard of some interfaces that use bluetooth... for maybe an itouch application? Still another piece of equipment to buy.

If sound quality is, in fact, "paramount", (but if you are not using lossless, then you are relegated to compressed files, and paramount sound quality is already defenestrated... mp3 and SQ simply cannot exist in the same sentence) then you're going to need a D/A converter. If you don't use such an animal, then you will be left with using the analog output from the iPod, no matter WHERE you connect, be it the 3.5mm jack, or the analog output from the bottom. They both use the same analog stage inside the portable device. As i am an idiot has pointed out, you will, in this case, need some sort of external volume control; the analog output from the 30 pin connection is a fixed output. Due to this fact, you MIGHT get a marginally better analog signal to start, because it's not going through the digital volume control. I know it'd be cool to be able to just set your iPod in a pocket in the dash and go, though! Depending on the effort you want to put into it, you can do just that, but external componentry will add a TON of work! If it were me, I'd go with an external D/A with a really high-quality analog output stage (think: old-school Nakamichi, and eBay) and a passive volume control.It all reminds me of something that Molière once said to Guy de Maupassant at a café in Vienna: "That's nice. You should write it down."

haemphyst. i had not considered the compressed nature of the files. wow. i guess i will have to rethink the application. i have been using the deck as described earlier in my post with great results. it has rf remote so it can be hidden anywhere just one more thing to buy, but necessary i guess. i question the rca volume controls i have seen. might as well send the files through the deck right?

mp3= COMPRESSED FILES nuf said.