My wife burns CD’s a lot to listen to in the car, though she has an Ipod. I was thinking about getting her one of those FM transmitters for use on her commute, but a lot of the reviews I read of them take the attitude of, “well, if this is your only option…”
Are they that bad? We live in the middle of Chicago, so this isn’t the middle of Montana or whatever where there aren’t a bazillion stations fighting over the available airwaves. Is she just going to have a lot of issues with interference?
I have one that works just fine and I don’t understand the hatred for them. Yes, there’s a few spots in the world that I have problem receiving because I set it to 107.7FM instead of one of the lower slots that are off the normal dial. But that’s my own fault.
Don’t get me wrong. A direct line-in would be a better choice. But absent that option (as I am at the moment) I find the FM receiver works fine.
I had one and returned it. The best audio I could get from it hmmmmm’d (and I did experiment with the frequency quite a bit). Now I just wear the earpieces while I drive.
This works perfectly well for me. It’s Monster, but that’s actually not terribly overpriced. I get solid sound, though I had to spend some time finding a good station, and occasionally sound bleeds in from other frequencies as I travel. But then, you’re going to get that with any FM transmitter. As it stands, this one’s reliable.
I don’t have an Ipod, but I’ve used similar FM transmitters to hook a discman and a different kind of MP3 player into my car, and I’ll agree that they’re OK but I’d consider them a last resort. In my experience, they’re somewhat prone to interferience, and like you said, there are a lot actual radio stations fighting for those frequencies too. I’m assuming she doesn’t have a tape deck in her car, but if by chance she does, I think an adaptor to fit that would be a much better option.
We tried 2 different ones. One was a random, don’t know the brand type. Simply, absolutely appalling. Second was a Belkin - it was a vast improvement, in that it was just useable. The main problems were noise bleed from nearby stations, and also (I think) the gizmo picking up a noise that was integral to the car - a permanent high-pitched buzz.
FWIW we live in Australia, in Sydney, and the car is a Subaru Forester. The devices are unusable in the city, because of the aforementioned station bleed. The Belkin is just tolerable in the country, but you do need to switch stations as you go through different areas and new stations come in range. From my point of view, they are a waste of space.
We do a lot of 2 to 4 hour drives, and occasional 12 hour ones. Even for those it we found it was not worth the aggravation and constant fiddling, it was easier to use the CD stacker in the car.
What we wound up with (for a different reason) was a satnav system (Garmin 650) that has an MP3 capacity, and it works PERFECTLY - no noise bleed, no buzz. So it isn’t an integral limitation of feeding through the stereo system, but a flaw in the design of the iPod adapters that we tried.
Maybe the iPod brand device might be better than the Belkin?
I’m not really sure why I bought one … I’ve heard them before and wasn’t impressed with the fidelity, but because I’m a gadget masochist, I picked one up anyway to try it out because it plugged directly into the iPod’s data port, rather than the stereo line out. It was a Griffin iTrip. Still wasn’t impressed. They have a remarkable tendency, particularly in metro areas, to be prone to radio interference. Like, all the time. You’ll spend more time jockeying for a signal and figuring out the best spot to put the iPod in inside the car to make it sound any good. It’s a bit like the difference between using a wire hangar to get a TV signal rather than a cable box. I should have known better, being an audiophile and having an aftermarket stereo in my car that I built myself. Ended up getting an auxiliary adapter that integrated with the head unit.
If you’re at all concerned about audio fidelity or a consistent signal, get an integrated peripheral that plugs directly into the vehicle’s head unit with an auxiliary input. Not only do most of them integrate with steering wheel controls, but they keep the iPod charged. Granted, I don’t think most women care about audio fidelity and mostly just want whatever’s easiest to use, but if you get the right adapter for your needs and know how to use a screwdriver, it’ll pay dividends.
I live in the Chicago area, and used an FM tuner with a portable CD player a few years back. Absolutely useless. Don’t bother. If you’re determined to use your iPod and can’t get a compatible stereo hookup, get an iPod-compatible boombox instead.
I’m in Jacksonville, FL. I use a Belkin unit, and it works fine. It took several tries to find a frequency that worked, but now that I have, it works 95% of the time I’m driving. There are a few spots in the city where it goes out. It is one that allows you to use any frequency you choose, not one of 4 or 5 preprogrammed ones. I think the key is to get a very good quality transmitter with enough power to overcome the station bleed.
I have the Griffin Road Trip, inMinneapolis. I’ve used it in Chicago area too. All you have to do is find a station in your area that is dead. And tune the Griffin to it. It charges while it’s playing too. I’ve used it in several roadtrips, and even a sailboat in the Virgin Islands, and have never had a problem with it. I highly recommend it.
I think that the FM transmitter has an unacceptably high unreliability rate. Hell, I bought a $30 adapter to directly connect to my sleazy shit Sony MP30 receiver (a brand new in dash receiver with a front panel 3.5mm input jack was $79). A direct line is the way to go, if nothing else it is absolutely easy to diagnose. If you don’t have the technology to connect directly to an audio input, then go ahead and buy an FM transmitter.
My buddy and I were driving up to Mammoth on the 395 in his 2005 Toyota 4Runner. I spent a couple of hours scooting the iPod around to try to get decent reception. We never got it to work for any extended amount of time. He had used it successfully for the past year. On the 395, there are only about 2 stations that you can pull in anyhow. I’ve got a master’s degree in electrical engineering, but it won’t help you if the transmitter is sketchy.
I got the same one Bosstone did, the Monster brand one. I have had 0 problems with it, and it works perfectly on channel 90.1 from Lake Erie to south of Columbus.
But, it DOES depend on your area…so don’t be disappointed if it just doesn’t work in Chicago.
I have this FM transmitter for my Sansa MP3 player and it works just fine in the Chicago area. On rare occassions, I find my band getting drowned by some other car’s signal (I assume they’re using a more powerful transmitter for their MP3 player or satellite radio) but it’s easy to switch bands and mine allows me the entire spectrum from 87.7 to 107.9. Usually the high 80’s suffice but sometimes it’s nice to work backwards through the 106-107 range.
My wife has an old iPod transmitter made by Apple which only has three possible stations on a switch. I can’t imagine being stuck with it in the city although she claims to have pretty good luck with it and she’s in the city daily.
I see, on closer reading, that anamnesis said they tried my transmitter and din’t care for it. Don’t know what to say about that – it works fine for me. I suppose we have different levels of what’s acceptable or something.
Jophiel, we just ordered a Sansa mp3 player for my wife, and she expressed interest in having an FM transmitter to listen to audiobooks in the car. I can’t find a picture of the sides of the Sansa unit to see what else may be there in addition to the headphone jack. On your link to the i-trip, it shows only connectors to the power socket and a rectangular plug to an iPod dock. Is there a similar dock on the side of the Sansa player? Otherwise, how do you connect it? And does the i-trip also charge the Sansa player? Thanks.
This is the Sansa version. The Sansa has a port on the bottom much like the iPod does but it’s important to note that the two are not compatible as far as accessories go. So don’t try to cram your Sansa into some dancing iDog or else you’ll do your MP3 player no favors. Buy things that say they’re for Sansa.
But, yes, it plugs right into the data jack and the other end into the lighter. It charges the Sansa as you drive as well.
FYI, the other switches/ports on the player are a memory chip expansion slot, a ‘record’ button for the microphone function (you can turn it off) and a ‘lock’ toggle to keep from pressing buttons accidentally.
It depends a lot on the car. I’ve tried a couple different ones in my old Dodge Caravan and none of them worked well (poor sound quality, lots of noise/static). They all work beautifully in my '83 Mercedes.
A cassette adapter is usually a more reliable method, but some cassette players seem to have trouble with them.
If you live in an area that doesn’t have too much interference and if you get a decent high powered transmitter it might work ok for you. It’s probably a better investment to just get a line in on your radio, I think it costs about $100 depending on where you are. That said, if you do get a transmitter and have problems, a trick I find helps me is to put the external antenna down - that seems to let the radio pick up the transmitter better.