iPhone FM transmitter problems...

Factual Questions
1

I just got a Griffin™ brand combo charger/FM transmitter/cig mount for my iPhone 4 to use in my Pathfinder and it has the following issues:
[ul]
[li]First, it’s not loud enough. The sound comes from the iPhone’s digital port not its headphone jack (because I ***will not have ***a dongle cable, and besides this shouldn’t matter) but turned all the way up its maybe ⅔ as loud as the stereo is normally (and I like hard rock!)[/li][li]The radio will lock onto the transmitter’s frequency fine at first, but then after a few seconds static always slowly begins to come back. Not a lot but more than enough to be annoying, plus the high frequencies crackle (drum symbols, syllabant S’s etc) and I’m an audiophile so these issues are unacceptable. And choosing a different frequency makes no difference what-so-ever, nor does it matter if there is no regular FM broadcast station interfering to begin with.[/li][li]Not only is it not loud enough but the sound tends to fluctuate inversely, IOW just as a loud part starts to play on the iPhone the car stereo level drops! Again, not acceptable.[/li][/ul]
So does it sound like its actually my factory FM stereo that’s the problem? That it’s overly sensitive to a close proximity but low power signal? Is it maybe constantly trying to ‘auto-tune’ it too much? I wouldn’t have even considered the whole FM input route except my damn 2004(!) Pathfinder does ***not ***have an AUX input jack (even though it does have the premium BOSE 6-disc/FM/cassette stereo package!)

I’m thinking of returning the Griffin mount and getting just a cig plug charging mount/docking port with an output cable and plugging that into a cassette adapter. Clunkier, but I’d still just be able to grab the iPhone from its dock & go (i.e. still no dongle cables).

Except that I thought that those cassette adapter things um, sucked. They did when I was a kid. Have they improved a lot in the last 20+ years? Would they not suffer any of the above problems (high-frequency breakup, insufficient volume etc.)? Plus can anyone recommend an iPhone 4 (w/ thin case) car dock/charger/mount that’s like, really stable and stiff? I hate those goose-neck things.

Any input is appreciated. :confused:

2

Is this one of the ones where you can only pick four frequencies, all at the extreme left of the dial, or can you take your pick? I find the former really don’t work well in any kind of urban areas, which I personally think is the combination of all the other gizmos broadcasting in that area as well as all the countless low power public/college/christian stations that populate those same frequencies. If it is one of those pick any station ones, you can use this handy tool to find a quiet frequency: Frequency

Another thing that can help is if you can somehow disable the outside antenna. My old Honda was great for this since I could reach out the window and retract the antenna which would noticeably improve the FM transmitter reception. If you’ve got a fixed antenna with the little nut at the base, you could try removing it and seeing if that helps. If it’s a power antenna, obviously that’s a little trickier, but you might be able to unplug the power source for the motor easily enough.

As for the cassette adapters, I think the general consensus is that they usually sound better than a non-hardwired FM transmitter, but they’re fiddly and are dependent on the quality of the tape deck itself, which often isn’t that great on these newer stereos where the cassette deck is basically a legacy device.

3

While it can vary usually the cassette adapter is the better choice for sound quality. I was using a cassette adapter until my radio decided that it would always spit it out :mad:, now I am using an FM transmitter and it is a big step down in sound quality. :mad::mad:

I have a 2003 Maxima with in dash 6cd (probably the same or similar to yours). I found a few write ups where guys have converted the tape input into a line in. You do have to pull the radio apart and do some soldering. I am going to try this soon, my biggest concern is ‘tricking’ the tape deck into thinking there is a tape in there - if the tape deck worked I could just use a blank tape or cassette adapter with the wire cut off.

http://my350z.com/forum/audio-and-video/93941-make-a-line-aux-in-for-your-2003-bose-headunit-step-by-step-guide.html

4

I tried a couple of options to hook up my girlfriend’s iPod to her car stereo, which also doesn’t have an aux jack. FM transmitter, cassette adapter, add-on cable to the existing factory stereo – all of them sucked for different reasons.

I finally just bought an aftermarket stereo with an aux/iPod input from Crutchfield for around $100 including the installation kit. It was pretty easy to install – just took about an hour or so – and works SO MUCH better than any other option I tried. Completely worth the money.

Can’t help you on the docking port issue, though. We just connect a USB cable from the stereo to the iPod, and put the iPod in a cupholder.

5

Most of the Bose systems (that I have seen) use separate amplifiers and speakers that have a non-standard impedance. An after market stereo is still possible just a bit more difficult than with a more standard head unit.

6

Thanks to everybody’s replies so far!

BOSE stereos are indeed tricky. My last vehicle was a '95 Pathfinder also with a factory BOSE radio/cassette but no CD, so I went the Crutchfield route. I’d installed plenty of stereos in my youth (plus Crutchfield kits are stellar!) so I had no problems with the in-dash part of the install. But then when the sound was ‘funky’ to say the least I learned all about the whole BOSE world. They do indeed have separate amps for their speakers and they’re not the standard ohm rating. And there are eight of them (four big & four little) not just four like regular car systems.

Don’t get me wrong, as an audiophile I know these are not bad things. In fact BOSE is one of the few semi-snooty, high-end companies whose products actually live up to their hype! But these are *very *bad things when you don’t know about them and go about trying to replace their individual components (head unit, speakers etc.)! Since I’d already bought & installed a nice, face-flipping, MP3-burned-onto-CD-playing, steering-wheel-remote-including, unit from Crutchfield I decided to just ditch the rest of the BOSE stuff completely and bought new speakers from Best Buy. I let them install them because even though I had already easily removed all the BOSE mini-amps and could have also easily installed the speakers, I did not want to have to trace down all the crazy, none-standard BOSE speaker wiring! Something that I knew the Best Buy guys could probably do in their sleep (I asked and was right!)

But with my 2004 Pathfinder I just didn’t want to go that route. For one thing, like I said, its 8-speaker, pillar mounted tweeter, BOSE system sounds great! Plus it has a 6-disc in-dash CD changer (sadly not MP3 readable though). My truck’s also new enough that I want the interior to stay OEM, not aftermarket (exactly the opposite of how I used to feel). But, not wanting to sound lazy or anything, after years of having to swap discs in & out of my car’s changer slot and in & out of their CD cases & home rack, like, every single week, I’m sick of it! And when the stereo can hold six discs one of those 12-disc visor holders is just pointless! Finally breaking down and getting an iPhone (I’m a diehard PC guy, but that’s another thread) with enough memory to literally hold my entire CD collection, well that just clinched it.

Where was I (jeez I tend ramble in my posts!)

Anachronism, I like the ‘adding an aux port’ idea. Although my stereo isn’t exactly the same as yours I’m not intimidated by the idea of doing this. I already had my whole unit out once to get the CD repaired (it stutters in cold weather and the fix didn’t exactly work but let’s not digress again!). And I haven’t owned a cassette in, literally, more than two decades (never even bought them at all, audiophile, always home recorded them, strictly onto Type IV Metal tapes - Oops! digressing again!) I’d still have to take the Griffin back as it doesn’t have an output jack or cable. It may also make more sense (certainly easier) to simply buy a (quality) cassette adapter. I think I could handle a cable hanging out of the front. Maybe.

GreasyJack,[ul]
[li]Thanks very much for that cool ‘find an empty FM freq’ site, that’s a keeper[/li][li]The Griffin is a quality unit, it lets you scan (almost) the whole FM band - 88.1 to 107.9 MHz, though why it leaves out the very low & high extremes, places where stations are the most likely NOT to be, makes no sense to me)[/li][li]I was considering trying a short, rubber ‘whip’ antenna as maybe an easy fix[/li][/ul]
You know I’ve had my '04 Pathfinder for almost five years and I have yet, as per above, to ever even try the cassette player and see if it’s any good (or even works at all!) They did choose to put the *BOSE *[sup] ®[/sup] logo itself right on the cassette player’s door, soooooo that could mean, nothing…

7

I second replacing the head unit with something more iPhone-friendly. Not too much more expensive than buying all the accessories that you are looking at, and so much more convenient. This is the one that I bought, available from Amazon. Not the highest of high-end, but it does what I need it to for about $100.

8

iPhone 4 Ram Mount.

That is for a naked phone, they have other holders for phones with covers. They also have an almost infinite combination of mounts/arms/holders for anything else you might dream of.

9

Well I took the Griffin back. I’ve been looking & looking and so far the best I’ve found is the Belkin TuneBase FM for iPhone Its similar to the Griffin but it includes a line out for a cassette adapter (or line in if I had one).

Reviews of it are mixed, some like it others hate it. My concern is how long and how flexible is the goose neck from the lighter plug. I would really prefer a solid one with knob tighten-able angles but I can’t find one of those that has an iPhone dock (that includes both power and music out). The only photos of it I can find anywhere online all show it having a very short thick cable, which is good, but I can’t be sure if that’s really how it comes.

I was also excited when I found this one from Kensington as it too is both power and audio out thru the dock, and because it doesn’t have an FM thing its cheaper. But too cheaper. It looks poorly made and has a lot of bad reviews. Plus it doesn’t say it’ll work with an iPhone 4.

Anyone had any of these?

10

Something to keep in mind on the cigarette adapters is that with the weight of the phone and the length of the arm it exerts quite a bit of torque to the electrical socket. So much so that it dislodged the one in my wifes car in a way that it now rotates freely.

The best that I have used is a cassette adapter. The FM ones don’t work as most head units have fairly decent shielding and the antenna cables is also shielded so its futile. Another option is to get an inline FM adapter. An inline FM adapter basically does the FM transmitter thing but the transmitter is placed inline with the antenna cable leading to the stereo. This works really well and is only second to a new head unit.

Here is one on Amazon. There are a few others that cost more but this has a good amount of reviews.

Oh, whew, I can make an edit!!! This one looks like it will connect to your iPhone and charge it at the same time. I think I’ll buy it for the wife.

11

What’s a FM transmitter in the context of an iPhone? As a deaf kid of the 80’s/90’s, when I think FM, I think of those godawful body worn FM devices (with a sexy S&M harness) that piped in the teacher’s voice.

12

The idea behind the FM transmitters is that it plugs into the iPhone (or iPod or really any music player) and turns it into an itty-bitty low-power FM radio station which you can then tune your car radio into. Since until very recently most car stereos didn’t have audio-in jacks or tape decks (to use the old cassette adapters), FM transmitters are the only way to listen to your music device in your car radio.

They’re probably similar in function to the old thing you’re thinking of except the source is your iPod instead of the teacher mic and you use the car radio to tune it in instead of the doodad in your ear (I had a friend in college who used one and seemed to share your opinion of them.) The car FM transmitters actually generally work pretty well, although their range is extremely short and they have some problems in areas with a lot of competing radio signals.

13

Latest Update:

For those still reading I decided to try a cassette adapter. Wow! It works great! Loud, clear, no static, 100% improvement over the FM one! Now I just have to find a decent iPhone 4 (w/bumper) mount/charger/line out.

One minor question: Dolby NR was only encoded onto audio tape recordings, right? It became obsolete with CDs? My deck has a Dolby NR on/off setting and it doesn’t seem to make the slightest difference. Theoretically, if I transferred something from an audiotape (that has DNR) onto my PC, you know, by playing a tape deck connected to the PC’s audio line in (don’t laugh, I’ve had to do it with rare, not on CD stuff!) would the DNR signal then go with it? And if I put it on my iPhone and played it thru my adapter would this be the a time (and the *only *time) that it would matter?