I have one that I bought from a street vendor for $25 and I love it. It’s white and plugs in to the cigarette lighter, and it has a little cord with a plug that goes in to the iPod data port. It’s got adjustable foam-padded sides that hold the iPod while you’re driving. I’ll see if I can find a picture online later. It works like a charm.
ETA: picture
I have this one and am completely unhappy with it. It may just be my car, but even in areas with few stations, I get constant hum and static. If you can get a direct connect cable, I’d recommend doing that instead.
I have the iTrip and I wouldn’t recommend it. The connection to my iPod has to be just so for it to work. It falls out frequently. There’s always background hum no matter how clear the chosen station is. For some reason I can never get decent volume on audio books or podcasts without cranking up the car stereo, which magnifies the background interference. Then when the stupid thing falls out, the super loud static makes me jump out of my skin. Finally, the thing is a battery hog.
I’ve never had issues with mine falling out (again, not using the iPod one though) but the battery thing had me perplexed. The Sansa one operates off the car battery and actually charges my MP3 player while I drive. Does the iPod one work off of the iPod’s battery?
Ah, you’ve refreshed my memory: mine was also an iTrip. It hmmmm’d so bad because to hear the thing at all you had to turn up the car stereo nearly all the way. Hummmmm. I was worried that another station would bleed in at that ear-bleed volume and scare me out of my wits in traffic.
I’ve been using a Belkin FM transmitter for about a year using a portable CD player with MP3 compatibility. It’s not perfect but it’s suited me just fine since I don’t really want to pour money into a new head unit for my car. The old one works just fine; it’s just too old to be MP3-compatible. The FM transmitter’s only weakness is that quieter passages don’t come through clearly, but most of my music is loud anyway, so this isn’t usually a problem for me. Such a device may not be suited for classical music for this reason. I encounter minor interference every now and then, usually when driving under high-voltage power lines, but other than that, no problems.
This site is a good place to look for vacant FM frequencies in your locale or locales where you may be traveling into. It has links for Canada and other locations outside the U.S., too.
I have the same one. I live in north NJ deep in the heart of metro-NYC suburbs, and there isn’t a single unused frequency up here, so the transmitter is useless. On long car trips south, it begins to work in south NJ around the Delaware Memorial Bridge. We use it in my wife’s car, but in mine I got fed up and replaced the stereo/head unit for about $139. Now I just go line-in to the face of the stereo.
I’ve had mixed luck. I got the version of the Griffin iTrip that includes the charger. The sound quality is not the greatest, but if you can find a decent station it’s as good as FM radio. Memphis’ airwaves are pretty crowded, but after lots of experimentation I’ve got three stations I can use.
It’s the third one I have bought. The first one was a different brand and it after about 3 months. The second one was stolen out of my car. I would much, much, much rather get the line in, but the kit I saw still cost so much that even with buying three FM transmitters I’ve still come out ahead.
The word is: don’t.
I’ve tried three different brands/models over the years, none of them work. I finally broke down and ran a wire through my glove box to the AUX input on the back of my head unit. Works beautifully!
–FCOD
[quote=squeegee]
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.[/qutoe]
That can be dangerous, since you’re less likely to hear screeching brakes, honking horns, etc. I sure as hell wouldn’t do it in Chicago (where the OP lives), the capital of red-light running.
You would think so, but I’ve gotten much better sound out of an FM transmitter than a tape adaptor. Seeing the other responses, I guess mileage varies.
Hated it. Returned it.
Bah. I’m listening to podcasts (you know – speech) and can hear the world around me quite well.
It’s always struck me as silly that headphones would be considered an impediment to hearing your surroundings, but cranking Metallica/whatever on a 100-watt set of car speakers isn’t.
Have one for my car – was fine when I lived in rural Virginia but now that I live in NYC its positively useless. You need to find a blank spot on the dial that doesn’t have anything coming (just static). Flat out impossible within 3 hours drive of where I live (as soon as you leave NYC signal behind, you have CT, NJ and Upstate signal competing. A Signal that comes in badly is just as bad as one that comes in clearly so… yeah I haven’t used it since I moved here.
Dangerous, and illegal in CA per Vehicle Code section 27400
I guess you could get away with wearing just one earbud…
I have a friend who has a Belkin, and it seems to work fine. Myself, I use a cassette adapter and am happy with it. They’re generally cheaper, too.
Got a $10 Panasonic piece-a-shit that only has 4 frequencies - 88.1 thru 88.7. Not much good in the NYC metroplex where there is some station or another interfering on every frequency. One more vote for the cassette adapter.
Just because it’s a law, doesn’t mean it’s not a silly law.
We have one, too. Only had to change frequencies twice on a trip from DC to Mass, once near Philly and once near NYC. Even with the crowded airwaves of NYC, we had no problem with interference after that.
For out of town trips, these things really are best if there’s a passenger in the vehicle to make adjustments.
I have the Griffin iTrip for my iPod. I used the website linked earlier to find a vacant station, and between the two choices, I usually have a pretty good match. The model I have has a couple presets, so it’s very easy to switch between stations when there happens to be interference on one. So far, I have not been stuck with a station that was unlistenable, and at the very worst, it’s the same quality as the radio broadcasts. Very little static or interference, but I’ve noticed that I have to turn the volume on my car stereo WAY up in order to hear comfortably. I’m happy with the purchase and I use this accessory a lot. The only problem I have is that the price dropped about $15 a week after I bought it. 
On an aside, I can’t believe anyone would drive with headphones on. This is absolutely not a silly law, it’s an impediment to safe driving. Playing the stereo up too loud is too, both should be illegal. Several times I’ve seen a fire truck or ambulance blocked during an emergency situation because the driver ahead of them was head-banging/numpin some phat beats and not able to hear the sirens or horns.
Mine gets a lot of fuzziness in the signal even when I get a blank station. I only keep it now as a way to charge the iPod on car trips.
