Five FM iPod Transmitters Reviewed

An anonymous reader writes "If you want to listen to your iPod or other audio player in your car, but you don't have a cassette deck or a swanky I.C.E. system, then the answer is to transmit the music over FM to the car's radio. HEXUS.lifestyle reviews five FM transmitters for the iPod and friends, investigating how well these devices cope with broadcasting music over a 2 meter-or-so radius. Some readers will be aware that it's been less than a year since these became legal in the UK, so the majority of iPodding Brits have only recently discovered that they can tune into their MP3 collection on the road."

Comments

Nice

[scuba_steve_1]

> The five products reviewed all have backlit LCD screens, a radio bandwidth of 88.1 to 107.9MHz and switch off automatically about 60 seconds after the audio signal stops.

Very nice! (seriously)

I bought a unit that did NOT turn off after the audio signal stopped and I frequently forgot to turn it off manually...which resulted in the batteries being dead 90% of the time. Whatever unit that you buy, I suggest looking for one that has this critical feature.

Also, if you live in a populated area, make sure that you get one that has a broadcast frequency is FULLY tunable...not just selectable between a handful of discrete values. I live in DC and you are hard pressed to find an unoccupied slice of frequency.

Belkin

[QBasicer]

I personally have the Belkin one, and I hate it. It has horrible transmission and I have a hard time when it's more then 1 foot away from the antenna. There's been times when I've touched my radio's antenna to the unit, and still got nothing better than the FM station in the next city over.

Re:Belkin

[techsoldaten]

My Belkin unit is next to useless. Something is seriously wrong with it, I will be listening to a clear signal for about 5 minutes before it gets all goofy and I have to change the station. This means my hands are tied up while driving trying to get to a better frequency, and I often actually have to hold the device to get a good signal.

On the other hand, my friend drives a Prius which has a 1/8th inch jack for plugging external devices directly into the radio. He gets a crystal clear signal all the time from his hardwired iPod.

M

Re:Belkin

[dhovis]

My wife used to use an iTrip (one of the ones that you had to tune by playing special audio files on the iPod). When she got a Nano, we got her a Belkin one that came with a car charger. It was awful. It broke pretty quickly, so when I was at an Apple store, I picked up a Monster iCarPlay, which combines a charger with the transmitter. It also has an autoscan feature to find an unoccupied frequency.

I was hesitant about it, because I always hear that Monster products are overpriced. This was pricey (~$100), but it was only $20 more than the other combo units the Apple store had, and I figured I'd just return it if it turned out to suck. The audio quality is much, much better than the iTrip or the Belkin one. Like night and day. The interface is a little fussy, and the autoscan feature is a little hit or miss. It seems to be somewhat polarization sensitive. You'll get a different result if you rotate the transmitter 90 degrees. I found that the best thing to do was to run the autoscan with the transmitter sitting wherever you are going to set the iPod. That way it will at least pick a station it can overpower.

Hardwiring it or using a cassette adaptor would be better, but if you're willing to spend $100, the Monster one is pretty good, if pricey.

Re:Belkin

[felipekk]

Just FYI, touching the radio`s antenna to the unit is NOT the best signal transfer you can get. There is a small radius you need to keep from the transmiting antenna to the receiving antenna that depends on frequency. The higher the frequency, lower the radius.

Not in major cities

[Templar]

I live in NYC. There are no unused frequencies. None. Nada. Zip. Zilch. There were a few before the FCC relaxed rules on small stations a couple of years ago. Now there's nothing left.

I used to use these devices (of all brands), but in the last 2 years or so they have become completely, absolutely, 100% useless in NYC, and I'm sure it's the same in other major cities.

And when I finally broke down and hardwired it, I was amazed at the difference in sound quality, and to this day wonder why I didn't do this years ago.

Re:Not in major cities

[steronz]

Wiring the iPod output directly to the aux inputs on the head unit is by far the best route, but consumers need to do their research before they buy a car and/or an iPod planning on doing this. My wife has a 2005 Corolla with a 6 disc in-dash CD changer, and there is no aux input. I can't replace the head unit because it's all proprietary wiring that is dependent on several other systems. After talking to a few car stereo places, it seems like this is increasingly becoming the norm for auto makers. For us, an FM transmitter was the only feasible option, and not a very good one at that, as we live in DC and it's hard to find a free channel.

Re:Not in major cities

[Lumpy]

First the car audio shops you took your car too were staffed by idiots. Most car stereo installation companies sell boxes to replace the systems your car stereo provides, or has a relocator to put the stock radio inside the dash out of the way.

At least they should have sold you a hard wired FM modulator. They disconnect your antenna, install this box in line and give you a headphone jack and switch, turn the unit on and it blasts your stereo's antenna input with 100mw at 88.5Mhz FM stereo goodness that can not be overridden by the strongest FM station because it disconnects the antenna when turned on. These things are incredibly cheap and common. companies like Scoshe and MEtra, the companies that make 95% of all car stereo install accessories, make them and recommend them. Any car stereo shop that has even 1/10th competent installers would have told you about that option right away.

I strongly suggest finding a competent stereo shop (Note it's the one without the ricer cars in front) and talk to them about getting a good modulator installed. they work fantastic and you dont havet o screw with changing the channel every 5 miles because a station starts coming in stronger.

Modulator or AUX input

[Anonymous Coward]

I tried a few without good results and I live in a rural area. Even on a good channel the sound quality is bad.

Nothing is going to beat a direct AUX input or an FM modulator. Using Pioneer as an example, accessories for the Pioneer p-bus range from $20 to $60 to add RCA inputs on units that don't have a factory AUX input. An FM modulator can be had for under $40. You'll need a power cord for your MP3 player, but the sound quality makes up for it.

Your also not limited to just an iPod. I can hook up my Nomad or notebook and I have the setup our 3 vehicles. works great.

Re:Modulator or AUX input

[hruzaden]

The modulator goes in the antenna lead between the antenna and the radio. When the modulator is powered on it cuts off the antenna signal and introduces your signal into the radio on a set frequency.

So it's still going the FM route only it's cutting off all other incoming signals.

Re:Bikes aren't for everyone

[rastom]

At least 10 (out of 50) of my colleagues, like me, live within 3 miles of our office (actually it's about 1 mile for me so I walk when I'm not delivering the children by bike to school), and many of them use their bikes. We either walk back from the shop with our groceries, or they're in the trailer with the baby. The 4 year old goes on a seat on the back of my bike, and the 6 year old cycles himself. But that's not uncommon in Cambridge (UK) - it's almost definitely cheaper to live in town than to live out of town and run 2 cars.

Living so close does mean there's not much time to listen to an iPod. We also don't have any FM receivers in the house any more - they're all digital only (my Nokia N70 has an FM receiver module, but that's where I store my portable music anyway!).

Re:AM transmitter?

[richard.cs]

The main reason that these don't normally support AM is probably just that the sound quality is lower and it will only deliver mono audio. AM transmitters are usually simpler (and hence cheaper) to make so there has to be some kind of good reason behind it. It could also be that it's more difficult to construct an effective AM transmitting ariel in such a compact device.

having trouble finding a vacant frequency?

[night_flyer]

http://www.radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/vacant

plan you trip with some presets!

Re:AM transmitter?

[Ogi_UnixNut]

sound quality is lower and it will only deliver mono audio

Not exactly true. You can get AM Stereo. Its just that FM took off before AM Stereo became widespread. But it's a standard: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C-QUAM

I don't know about quality, as I never used AM Stereo. But some people claim AM stereo gives better stereo separation than FM. Plus at a distance of 1m I don't think interference will be a huge problem (AM actually sounds quite good when you don't have interference. Its just that AM is more prone to interference than FM).

Re:Non iPod transmitters...

[Animaether]

more-or-less.. yes. You need a license from Apple to even build a device that has the iPod connector. That's the part you stick in the iPod. That's not to mention the part you'd use for peripherals to connect -to-; the jack inside the iPod. afaik - Apple doesn't license that at all.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=ipod+connecto r+license

One word: Alpine

[Overzeetop]

I know, I know, this is about FM transmitters. Give them up and go spend a couple bills on one of the new low end Alpine head units.

Like this one (9883, $200) or this one (9885, $300) and then drop in their dedicated $30 ipod adapter. That's what - $230...about 40 pounds, nowadays, right? (I kid! and no, I don't know how to put the symbol in slashcode)

Best audio connection, browsing by all the ways you can browse the iPod text interface, and song info on the screen. I'm certain the UK versions are similar (Alpine shows the same adapter for Alpine-Europe). Yes, it's more money than a cheap FM transmitter , but the difference is pretty phenominal, and there's no worries about getting tramped on by a commercial station or someone else's adapter. And no looking down, fiddling with the ipod on the passenger seat (you can ignroe the road while you look at the head unit ;-)

I actually purchased the head unit first, then the ipod to go with it. For $70 I picked up an old gen 4, 20 gig ipod off ebay. Scratched, battery only takes about 1/2 a charge, but who cares - it's in the glove box with all my tunes (Thanks to foobar and Nero AAC) and powered off the head unit. Cheaper than a disc changer - and much more useful. I never really figured to get an iPod, but for the application, it turns out to be a good item at the right price.

Re:Listening to neighboring cars

[fermion]

What seems perverse that the signals from other cars' transmitters are not only strong enough to hear when my transmitter is off, they are strong enough to produce annoying an audible interference when my own transmitter, inside the car, is on. You'd think a transmitter two feet from the radio would totally overpower that must be at least forty feet away with two car body's worth of shielding in between, but no.

Here are a couple things I believe are relevant. You car is an electrically noisy place, especially the front of the car. This is why, I believe, most modern cars have antennas at the back of the car, away from the electrically noisy engine. The radio is at the front of the car, and encased in a metal grounded cage, most often refereed to a faraday cage. This keeps the electrically noisy engine, and other signals, out of the car. In any case, the FM transmitter has an antenna on it, the length of which is likely around 1 wave length of the 100 MHZ wave, as do all the cars around you. Each of the waves must leave the car, make it to the antenna, so that radio can decode and play the wave. It may be that there are three or more cars around you may have transmitting antennas nearly as close to your receiving antennas, especially if the transmitting antenna is laid across the dashboard rather facing toward the back.

Scosche WIRED FM modulator

[Majestros]

I just found the following product to use as an auxiliary jack for my car without buying a new deck.

http://www.crutchfield.com/S-yd5TEirUa9W/cgi-bin/p rodview.asp?i=142FMMOD01/

The device wires in series with your car's antenna (a male and a female plug on the device) so that it doesn't have to send the signal wirelessly. Also, when the device is turned on it blocks the antenna for a large band of frequencies around the transmission frequency so there is NO interference. I'm having some slight gain problems, but it works so much better than those wireless transmitters. You need to wire it in to your car's 12 V and ground but I just picked up a cigarette lighter plug with power switch from Radio Shack and wired it to the device. As such, I ended up having to do no hardware modifications to the car, just get behind the deck to hook up the antenna jacks.