Static when using car dock / car adapter

[squeege]

I like to listen to slacker radio in the car. I drive a Prius which has a 3.5 mm jack that I can plug the phone's audio out cable into. The sound quality is very good until I also connect the car power adapter. I then get a lot of static and interference coming through the car audio. .

I also today picked up the car dock which also came with a power cable. However I get the same result listening through the car audio- lots of static and buzzing. Anybody else have this problem and can recommend a solution? Would Rather not have to go without power when using my phone in the car and would like to make full use of the dock.

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[SaturnMan]

Same issue here (although with a Toyota Camry Hybrid). I've done some testing and determined that it's the Toyota aux input that is the problem. If you plug in headphones to your droid when on the charger you'll notice that the static is gone.

One workaround I've found is that I am also using a USA Spec PA-TOY to hook up my iPod in the Camry. The USA Spec also has a aux input. When I use the USA Spec input for my D2G instead of the stock Toyota input, I have much less static (although it's still there - faintly). Definitely listenable though.

Hope this helps.

[squeege]

Thanks for the reply SaturnMan. I tested this morning and came to the same conclusion as you - when connected to power but listening through headphones there was no static. So the issue is with the auxiliary connection as you said. Never would have thought to check that - I just assumed the problem would be the power adapter.

Wonder if there is a better shielded 3.5mm cable I could buy and perhaps that would solve the problem...

Thanks again for the help.

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[fdkatz]

Same situation with my Prius and Droid, but I use one of those low power FM connections. Static when power plugged in, not when it is not. Haven't figured out a fix.

[louy99]

I drive a Mazda and have the same problem

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[squeege]

After doing some more research, I purchased one of these and it is a good solution - the background noise is gone when using the car charger. Would recommend to others having the same problem. Thanks for the comments!

Amazon.com: Kensington Noise Reducing Car Audio AUX Cable for MP3 or SmartPhone: Electronics

[squeege]

As a follow on... the cable works well at eliminating the static and background noise that I had when plugged into car power. The downside though is the filter in the middle of the cable. It is not something I prefer to have bouncing around if/when I have the phone in the car dock. Depending on where your AUX connection is (the Prius is inside a storage box in the console) you may or may not want to use for car dock.