Can I connect my mp3 player to my car without a car stereo?

Question

I.e. use the car's wiring it uses to connect with the stereo, but instead I want to bypass the stereo, as it got stolen... is there a possibility?

Answer 1

Not that I know of.

Your car speakers would have to have an input jack of their own, and that's not something you're going to have. Unless you can find something that connects to the wiring of your speakers (that little white square that plugged into the back of your stereo) and that has something like a headphone jack on the other end, but I doubt you will.

Best bet is to just buy another stereo.

Answer 2

The main reason it wont work is because your car speakers need some sort of amplification. If you were able to solder all the correct connections (ie. a headphone jack to 2 or 4 car speakers), your mp3 player does not output enough wattage (power) to run the speakers at your desired volume. Even a crappy $30 stereo from walmart (as suggested above) will output 50W per channel, if not 50W per speaker. This is usually more than enough for common person.

The output on your mp3 player is in the range of 5 - 30 watts; which is barely enough to run 1 normal car speaker (but enough to blow some cheap headphones!!).

I would follow what has already been suggested and pick up an FM transmitter that will broadcast through a cheap stereo. FM Transmitters can also be purchased at Walmart. I've seen them at the Apple store for upwards of $100, but everything is usually more expensive there.

So, can you hook up an mp3 player directly to car speakers? Theoretically, if you are really good at wiring, you can do it - but you wont have enough power output from your mp3 player to make it worth your while.

Hope that helps!

JRG

Answer 3

Just buy a cheap stereo for about $30 at WalMart and use an FM transmitter to listen to your MP3 player.