Per my initial cassette adapter I purchased and reviewed, the Maxell P-10 Cassette Adapter for iPod was dispointing in performance, but scored very high in ergonomics as well as fit and finish. Because it looked great and felt solid, but distorted sound signal, I deemed it To Be Seen and Not Heard. Because of the disapointing performance of the Maxell, I returned it and purchased a different brand: the Phillips/Magnavox G2G300 Cassette Adapter. This particular adapter was quite the opposite of Maxell's.

Package
Just like the Maxell P-10, I had to have the person at the counter break out the shears to get the package open. I was going to use it right after purchasing it, but realize that there was no way for me to open it with my bare hands once I left the store. There was no way you can open the package without ruining it. This particular model came with a cigerette lighter DC power adapter as well.

Besides the power adapter and the cassette adapter, you get several power tips and a leaf-let instructions.

Cassette Adapter Features
Just like the Maxell, the wire can be oriented either left, right, or the center. This allows you to adjust it according to how your tape deck was designed. Unlike the Maxell, however, you need a tool to do this. While the Maxell just pops a small portion of the unit to allow you to move the wire around, Phillips decided you need to remove two screws either using a large flat-head screw driver, or a coin. Once you undo the two screws, the top part of the unit comes off, allowing you to move the wire to the desired position.

The look is very utilitarian and functional, without any "coolness" factor like the Maxell. The usual black color is the uniform color that most other adapters of its kind wear. While the manufacturer adorns its logo and model on the "A" side of the adapter, the "B" side has the abridged version of how to use the adapter, as well as the instructions to re-position the wire.

The connector is a standard headphones mini-jack, and is right-angled. Some may find this a feature while others may find it a horror. Most don't care.

Also, unlike the Maxell the contacts for the tape head only allows for side "A" to be heard. Again, it is not a big deal because the mechanism only allows for the tape deck to move in one direction anyways. If you try to "rewind" or play the other side, the reels will not move, causing the tape deck to stop going in that direction and reverse itself (and most modern car tape decks have auto-reverse).

Cigerette Lighter DC Adapter
With a voltage adjustment of 4v to 9v 800ma, it may not charge up your MP3 player's batteries as quick. It may not be even powerful enough to charge them at all. However, it does suffice to be used to at least give most players functionality without depending on their batteries. It will also work with most portable CD players.

Strangely, Phillips decided not to support the most popular voltage rating of them all: 3v. Most CD players take 2 AA batteries at 1.5v each. This makes a total of 3v. The 4v setting may work, but you do run the risk of frying your toy if the manufacturer of said toy do not have a relatively high tolerance of over-volting.

The adapter has one nice feature that most should follow: a compartment for the variety of power tips. This lessens the chance that you may loose one, a couple, or even all of them.

The strange thing is that Phillips did not document the polarity in the leaf-let or anywhere clearly. However, I will tell you now so that you know: if you align the "TIP" marking with the " " marking on the tip itself, the center (hole) is positive, while the outer cylinder is negative. You can reverse this to get reverse polarity if the device you need to power requires it. Becareful with this VERY IMPORTANT DETAIL, or you WILL FRY YOUR DEVICE if your polarity is wrong.

If you are using a power tip that looks more like a mini-jack, the "center" positive contact is actually at the tip (a very small portion of the total contact area), while the rest of the connector is negative.

The storage compartment was very well thought out in design, in my opinion. I have bought many universal AC/DC adapters that uses these changeable tips and have lost every one of them except for the one that was currently in use.

Performance
The cassette adapter performed very well. Though there were hissing noise (just like the Maxell), music that came through was clear and seem to not have any of the frequency spectrum missing. It sounded much more natural than the Maxell, and definately sounded much more hi-fi than RF transmitter adapters.

The hissing noise can be negated without much effect on music/sound quality with your tape deck's Dolby NR setting. If your deck does not have Dolby NR, you can always adjust the treble down enough to reduce background hiss with out affecting the original source's treble frequecy.

All in all, I was happy with the sound quality of the Phillips adapter.

The power adapter worked with my MP3 player, but never seem to fully charge my player's built-in battery even after an hour of driving. However, it seems that it kept the battery fresh enough for use after the trip and outside of any external power source.

Verdict
The fact that this cassette adapter came with a power adapter and costs only $20 ($3 less than the Maxell unit which didn't even come with the power adapter!) is a good deal. The performance of the cassette adapter is ideal, but the power adapter needs a 3v setting, as well as 1000ma of power for those power-hungry/battery-charging MP3 players.

The fact that it even came with a power adapter at a cost lower than the tested Maxell unit I reviewed gives me no qualms in recommending this product for anyone who needs some external tunes for an old car with a tape-deck.

Recommended: Yes

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