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

Mr_Microphone.mp3

[dbcad7]

Hey, good looking, I'll be back to pick you up later !

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.

Non iPod transmitters...

[alyawn]

I like that they at least threw a bone to us non-iPod-ers. But still, it's becoming increasingly more difficult to find accessories for non-iPod mp3 players. I thought the idea of everything uses a standard headphone jack would be good enough. But, I was wrong.

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.

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.

Yeah...

[Vituperator]

Personally, I've never had a good experience with an FM transmitter. I bought a Griffin iTrip for about forty dollars, and it wouldn't work unless it was on the corner of the dashboard next to the antenna. It chewed through my iPod's batteries, and even when the radio could pick its signal up the sound quality was mediocre at best.

Then my friend gave me another transmitter that worked better than the iTrip, but after a while it broke and the sound only came out of one speaker in my car.

Now I just burn CDs. They aren't as convenient as an iPod, but they sure do make everything easier (not to mention cheaper).

Listening to neighboring cars

[dpbsmith]

I occasionally find it amusing to tune my car radio to FM 87.9, which (in the U. S.) is the default setting for most of these FM transmitter gadgets. I commute on Route 128 in Massachusetts so there is plenty of company, and more often than not there is an audible signal on 87.9.

Mostly it seems to be people listening to Howard Stern on Sirius Satellite Radio, but you also get a sampling of other satellite stations and (most likely) iPods.

The signal will usually be audible for the better part of a minute. Oddly enough, I've never managed to identify the car doing the transmission. You'd think you could tell from the positions of the cars around you and the strength of the signal, but I can't.

I discovered this because I have an iPod FM transmitter, set for 87.9 myself (after much experimentation I was never able to find any less-used channel).

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.

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.

having trouble finding a vacant frequency?

[night_flyer]

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

plan you trip with some presets!