I just recently purchased an iTrip FM broadcaster for my iPod, and I must say it kicks serious butt. The broadcaster antenna itself is about the size of a small roll of TUMS and affixes widthwise from the headphone jack. It draws power directly from the iPod, so no hauling around AAA batteries. There’s an indent on the left side which leaves enough space to affix the firewire cable for downloading and recharging without having to remove the iTrip. A nice small blue LED light indicates whether its properly connected and tuned. It seems to have a clear line of sight range of about 10 feet, but that drops if something gets in-between the iPod and your radio.
On the software side, each iTrip station is loaded into the “iTrip Stations” playlist and is selected by selecting what station one wants just like a song and then pausing. The iTrip broadcaster LED will then flash as it switches bandwiths and one can then play songs on the selected station. This is probably the hardest bit to learn, and perhaps could’ve been made more intuitive, but on the upside all bands from 87.9 to 107.9 are available for use, thus allowing you to select the clearest band in your area.
The quality of each song depends wildly on the clarity of band chosen (if a powerful FM source is on a nearby band, you’ll be overpowered), the quality of mp3 being played, and volume being played at. At higher volumes, the quality degrades.
Out of all the FM transmitters I’ve used, though, this one is probably the best for size, flexibility, and quality. I’d give it 8/10 stars.
You did read the name of the forum when you walked in, yes? Mundane Pointless Stuff I Must Share. Besides, at least one person found the review useful, which was the point. We are all about sharing knowledge on every topic, after all…
xgxlx, I’m a little surprised at your comment.
Surely you realise that with a wide variety of topics on a board this size, they aren’t likely to all appeal to everyone…
Or did you mean what’s the point of the device itself?
Thanks for the review Priam.
Nice piece of kit. Don’t need it. Wouldn’t use it. Want it;)
Well, if you don’t know what an iPod is, it’s a portable MP3 player. Very small, very high capacity. Most people can fit their entire music collection on it, and have room to spare.
But, there’s no easy way to connect it to, say, a car stereo. If you have a cassette player, I suppose you could use one of those cassette adapters, but if, like me, you have only a CD player, what can you do?
The iTrip is one possible answer, and from what I hear a good one. It’s a tiny device that plugs into the iPod and acts as a short-range FM transmitter. That means that you can tune your car stereo to, say, 90.1 FM, set your iTrip to the same frequency, and play your iPod through your car stereo.
We own an iTrip as well. They work well if you’re driving in area with open radio frequencies. I think it’s a bit dicier in large urban areas.
We used it yesterday actually for my daughter’s birthday party. We set the stero speakers to face into the backyard…I had my iPod outside but next to the window, so everytime I wanted to change the volume or pick a different playlist, I didn’t need to go into the house. Very cool.
