In a thread titled iPod playback several posters shared their experience FM transmitters that let you play back your iPod on your car stereo. I thought perhaps a thread with a more specific title might garner more responses.
I just got an iPod for my combined birthday-and-anniversary gift (Happy dance! O, most happy, happy dance!) and I sure think it’d be super to be able to play my whole music collection on long trips.
Is it better to get something designed specifically for the iPod, or would one that just works from a headphone jack deliver similar quality?
The iTrip looks nice. It lets you tune to any frequency, a Good feature mentioned in the other thread. It’d be even cooler if it came bundled with a car charger.
You need to tune it to a specific frequency that is not being used on the radio otherwise, you’ll hear the broadcast for that frequency in the background.
Now, that’s fine if you have it for your home stereo, but if you bring it in your car, the unused frequency at home isn’t going to be an unused frequency as you travel.
And, it’s still not exactly fine with an unused frequency. I still get static in the background even when it’s an unused frequency.
Now, maybe this iTrip thing has a better method for selecting frequencies than my XM thing, so you can just scroll through till you find one that sounds good.
Also, the sound quality is further reduced through the transmitter. Don’t be suprised if your iPod music, which is already compressed, and then goes through some other compression to be broadcast in FM sounds real poor when it finally gets through the speakers.
Get one if you want one, but just beware that it seems a lot cooler in theory than practice, so try to figure their return policy.
I bought one (a Belkin I think) for my MP3 player and can’t say a single thing good about it. Volume was non-existent, I got interference no matter what frequency I tried and it tended to fade in and out at random. Maybe I got a lemon but it was pretty much useless to me. I agree with Trunk; great idea in theory but not-so-good in practice.
Maybe Apple’s unit is better but I would certainly see if I could try it before buying one, or make sure you can return it if it isn’t satisfactory.
I got a casette tape adapter instead and am much happer. And it is nice to realize that I could drive cross-country and never hear the same song twice.
Maybe I’m just less discriminating than some, but I have no major complaints about my iTrip. The benefits of being able to use my iPod as the primary music source in the car vs the alternatives of CD or radio completely outweight the drawbacks of the FM transmitter issues.
Yes, I get static. I live in Boston so pretty much any given station has some traffic on it at all times, plus large metal structures like bridges tend to increase the background level. Yes, the volume is lower than the CD player gives. But the static I get is minimal, usually relegated to certain crowded areas of the city and also usually not a constant irritation. And the volume is certainly acceptable. I rarely have to turn the volume on my car stereo up more than half way, and that’s even with my windows down driving at 60 mph.
I don’t have a cassette deck in my car or a line-in on my stereo, so for the moment FM is what I ahve available to me as an option. It’s not perfect. But for a solution that lets me use my iPod in the car over needing to carry a case of CDs with me, I’ll take the imperfections.
I have a cassette adapter that I used all the time with my Minidisc player, but I then got a car with a CD player, so that doesn’t work any more (and I just brought my CDs instead of using the Mini player.)
I probably wouldn’t buy a Belkin anything because we have a Belkin wireless basestation that sucks rocks. We did troubleshooting with their tech support several times, but couldn’t fix the problem (it needs to be rebooted daily) and they wouldn’t even consider replacing the unit.
I have a Belkin Tunecast II FM transmitter to use with my Iriver IHP-120. It works well, the only complaint I have is that it’s not terribly loud. I need to turn my stereo up to hear the Iriver broadcast, and then if I go to another radio station it’s REALLY LOUD. That’s a fairly minor inconvenience, though.
I put a post with much the same question in GQ yesterday afternoon, except with a somewhat heavier consideration of wired solutions like an FM Modulator. I’m thinking that once I do buy a solution myself, it will be an FM Mod. The price is just about the same as the wireless transmitters (if you can install it yourself), but because (a)it’s hardwired and (b)activating it overrides the antenna operation, there shouldn’t be nearly as much problem with static/interference/conflicts/etc. (I hope).
Like I mentioned in the other thread, I have a CenDyne GruvX, which is also available under several other manufacturer’s names.
When I first tried it I was underwhelmed, and felt like I had just been ripped off. I tossed the thing on the dashboard and the reception improved immensely. After some experimentation, I was able to to find a spot just to the right of my radio that worked the best in my car. I then stuck some velcro there so I can secure the transmitter while I’m driving.
I like it a lot more than the tape adapter. The tape adapter makes everything sound like, well, a cassette tape, all muddy and distorted. The FM transmitter sounds a lot better. Not as good as the CD changer, but much better than the tape adapter.
I do have to turn up the volume on the car radio. It also doesn’t work well at all if plugged into the in-line iPod remote. It needs to be plugged directly into the top of the ipod.
Mine easily overwhelms weaker stations. Last Thanksgiving, on a road trip from Silicon Valley to southern Orange county, I had to change channels all of two times.
I could see transmitters not working well in certain cars if there’s no good place to put them, or the radio is shielded internally, or if turning up the volume results in too much distortion, but mine works well for me.
The iTrip is great if you don’t need to change the station, or you have someone with you to change it. Otherwise it is inconvenient and unsafe. You have to play a special track on the iPod and pause it at just the right time. Impossible while driving, and you have to interrupt your music.
I have a Creative Nomad that has all my music on it. I bought a nice Pioneer deck that had a CD changer connection on the back. You can buy an adapter that lets you use that connection as an Aux input and it only costs like 20 bucks. I bought that and ran a Y connector out from behind my dash and thru my ashtray. This lets me jack my Nomad directly into the deck and I get great volume and clarity using that solution. I store the cable in the ashtray when it’s not in use and you would never know its there. I also bought a converter that I hard wired into the power system to recharge the Nomad. I stick this in the ashtray too. So when I want to use the Nomad I:
Open the ashtray.
Pull out the power and Y connection
Plug them into the Nomad
Turn my deck to Aux Input
Listen to tunes.
Much easier than any other solution IMHO. I love the setup. The Nomad has a 98dB SNR from the headphone jack which makes it more than adequite for playing thru the stereo at high volume.
