Customer Reviews

Griffin Technology SmartDeck Intelligent Cassette Adapter for iPod

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(37)

 

 

I'll make this short...

1) Noisy
2) Doesn't skip songs as advertised
3) Major disappointment
4) Returned

While adding another "do not, do not, do not buy this thing" is redundant, it should be immediately clear to anyone thinking this device works as advertised that it obviously does not. I purchased this and returned it within two hours after trying it for my commute. While it was attached to my iPod, the backlight stayed on which at first I thought was a weird feature, but then it it would go off for couple seconds and jump right back on. Occaisionally tracks would skip for no apparent reason. Using FF and Rev on my car's cassette deck worked exactly once.

This is a great idea for the iPod, I only wished that Griffin hadn't rushed it out without really testing it.

I loved the idea of it when they announced it late last year, and waited somewhat impatiently for it. FM transmitters don't cut it where I live in the SF Bay area, since there are just too many radio stations. I liked the idea of being able to leave my iPod out of sight and inside my lockable glovebox. I typically use it in shuffle mode, and just skip to the next song if something comes on that I don't like, so that mode would work well with the Smartdeck.
Unfortunately, Griffin didn't execute well on the concept. I tried it in my car and a buddy's car, and had the same experience in both. The problems we found were:
1) When I hit play, it doesn't turn on the iPod. We tried every way we could to trick it into doing that, and it just wouldn't.
2) It doesn't pause the iPod when I hit pause
3) It doesn't either turn the iPod off nor even pause it when I turn the stereo (or the car) off.
4) When I hit fast forward, it seems to behave randomly, independent of the switch position (there's a switch that is supposed to tell the Smartdeck how to interpret FF between skip to the next song vs scan ahead within a song), most often not doing anything, but occasionally jumping to the next song.
5) When I was able to get it to jump to the next song, it delayed long enough to miss the first second or two of the song. That behavior happened when I hit rewind as well.

My Mercedes has a tape deck that requires the door to be shut to function. I was worried when ordering this product that I wouldn't be able to shut the tape deck door, but got it anyway since it was the best solution at the time, allowing me to use my car's steering wheel controls to seek through songs. Although the wire from the cassette to the iPod was too thick to shut, I was able to strip the wire coating way down (and eventualloy all the way off) and shut the tape deck. It still works to this date. Although I would NOT recommend doing this to yours, as it might impair the functionability of the SmartDeck, it did work for me.

Not sure if this'll help anyone, but I was looking for some info like this when buying mine.

-Sam

A great idea, and I love Griffin's iTrip, but when I finally got my SmartDeck yesterday and popped it in expectently, My casette deck fast-forwarded, stopped, fast-forwarded, stopped, and spat it out. Going to Griffin Technology's support page and digging a bit, I found this:

SmartDeck Support

Why isn't it working in my car?

We went to great lengths to make the SmartDeck compatible with as many cassette players as possible, including factory and after market decks. Unfortunately, there are cassette players that will not work with the SmartDeck. If your SmartDeck is not working in your cassette player, please try it in another cassette player before contacting us. If the SmartDeck works in other cassette players, you may have a player that is not compatible.
(...)

So be forewarned. It might be a great product, but in my 2005 Prius, it's just a paperweight.

I pre-ordered this over 9 months ago. Amazingly enough, it arrived yesterday. I was really hoping to have the shuffle controls on my steering wheel. What a huge dissapointment. Aside from the fact that the controls didn't have ANY affect on the IPOD mini 4GB (as in Zero control), the normal operation noise coming from the cassette adapter was louder than any regular cassette I have ever played. The device practically screamed compared to the rest of the noise level in the car.

I will return the SmartDeck, sadly, as it offered great promise but didn't turn out to be so Smart. My next car will have the IPOD integration from the factory, so until then, I'm back to my regular cassette adapter that came with my old XM Car Adapter kit. This unit I think sells for about $10-15 and works well.

i didn't read these reviews before buying this "product". i wish i did. i also have a 2004 Acura TL and tried this thing in the cassette deck. it made that infamous whirring/clicking sound. i gave up after 5 minutes. wrapped it back into it's packaging. i'm returning it tomorrow. don't buy it, don't buy it, don't buy it.

I have been waiting quite a while for this little gadget. Sadly, after all this time waiting, I was disappointed.

I have a 2004 Highlander and an Ipod mini (4gig), this unit did not work in my car at all. It just spins arond in the cassette deck for about 10 seconds, trys to fast-forward, then ejects itself. Very dissapointing.

I find it somewhat misleading that the company clearly states that the device does not work in some vehicles, yet does not publish a known list of cars it works/doesn't work with. Basically leaving it up to the consumer to try it out themselves.

I will think twice about buying any products from this company in the future.

I bought this unit (for use with my PT Cruiser stock sound system); returned it the next day. While the sound quality was better then other similar units, the ability to control the iPod from the cassette deck controls didn't work properly. Worst, yet it worked intermittenly. As if to confirm my problems, the Apple retail store I returned it to, had a stack of returned units for sale on their discounted table. Accedotal yes, but there were five returned units and no new units for sale.

This utterly useless piece of equipment is a testament to the amazingly unrestricted free market of our capitalistic nation. I mite take it back and invest in a $30 pet rock (it would probably play clearer in my trucks tape deck). The voices are more garbled than Bob Dylan underwater. I've tried every possible button and configuration, but nothing gets rid of the poor audio quality, shrieking tape noise or fixes the "none of the promises on the package are true" issue. This product has more broken promises than I had for my ex-girlfriend.