As good as it gets for radio - but requires some patience at first
Written: Jan 13 '04
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Flexible station choice, no extra power required, nice design
Cons: Won't sound as good as an aux in or cassette adapter.
The Bottom Line: Best radio device for iPods, great backup for rental cars, etc. Requires some effort to find the best station, but it's flexible, and relatively hassle-free.
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| arshad's Full Review: Griffin Technology ITRIP FM TRANSMITTER FOR NEW (4... |
This is better than other similar device that I've tried, but still can be lacking. I tried the iRock first, which was very frustrating - only four stations to choose from and an odd design which makes it easy to accidentally turn off; meanwhile it's easy to leave it on and drain the battery when you're not using it.
The iTrip addresses all of the concerns I've had with other devices:
It lets you choose *any* station on the dial (it can seem cumbersome at first, but once you choose a good station you're set), it powers on and off with the play/pause of the iPod.
The first two days I had it, I thought it was awful. I found the stations on the dial in San Francisco that seemed to have the least noise from surrounding stations, and tried to tune the iTrip to those - and had very mediocre luck. Then, searching the web, I found that people had submitted a database of stations that work best for the iTrip in different areas - I tried one of those, and voila! It started working much, much better. The counterintuitive part of choosing this station was that while the iTrip was off, I could actually hear another neighboring station seeping into the station I picked - I wouldn't have thought that made a good candidate. But as soon as the iTrip turned on, the radio was magically locked onto it.
The station finder software can be found at: http://www.griffintechnology.com./software/software_itrip.html
Note: I often think I should ignore the manual, but in this instance there was one key piece of usage information that you have to know: to change the station, you select the special iTrip station on your iPod, and when the track starts, the iTrip will blink rapidly. While it's blinking rapidly, you must press stop. By the time it reaches the end of the track it's too late. It's done this way to prevent the iTrip from accidentally switching stations if a random song selection accidentally selects one of the special iTrip tracks. (I know an earlier reviewer suggested that it would accidentally change stations if you left it alone, but that's not true, you have to intervene and press stop at the right time to get it to switch).
I eventually hardwired my car to have a permanent aux in, so I don't use this much, but it's great as a backup in someone else's car, or a rental. I highly recommend getting a stereo with aux input (when I did the comparison, the difference is very, very noticeable, to anyone's ears); but this is a great backup. Just have some patience in finding the right station.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 35
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Epinions.com ID:
arshad
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Member: Arshad Tayyeb
Location: San Francisco, CA
Reviews written: 15
Trusted by: 3 members
About Me:
Tech geek in the digital audio industry
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