brad's Experience - Heap of Trash
Written: Apr 29 '04 (Updated Apr 29 '04)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: relatively, none.
Cons: can't keep the frequency. over-the-air quality of the music is dreadful.
The Bottom Line: Spend your money on an MP3-ready CD car stereo deck. Either that or be content with your traditional CD player, because this isn't a solution.
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| brad's Full Review: Griffin Technology ITRIP FM TRANSMITTER FOR NEW (4... |
Howdy. I've had an iPod (2G - as in, "2nd Generation") for some time and wanted to play my iPod music in my vehicle.
I don't have a solution.
I tried Netalog's piece of junk adapter "TransPod" (wrote a review on this as well - save yourself and just know it'a also a piece of garbage) and I tried this thing. The Netalog Transpod and the Griffin iTrip are the two such transmitting devices I've purchased and used.
I gave it a full go with both products. Several trials and errors. I'll stick with what I know about the iTrip for the purpose of this review.
What's unique about the iTrip is that you can tune to virtually any FM station for a signal. Oh and in case you're reading this and you don't know how this thing works, I'll tell you. The iTrip plugs into the top of your iPod and transmits the music from your iPod over the air on the FM frequency to your car stereo's FM tuner. It's all over the air. No wires.
So anyhow, you can at least pick a precise frequency with the iTrip, whereas with the Netalog Transpod, you have three frequency ranges - low, medium, and high - and that is very limiting. With the iTrip, supposedly, you can really dial in.
The iTrip comes with software that installs on your computer (Mac or Windows). Once the software is on your computer, later when you sync up your iPod, the software is installed onto your iPod with the FM frequencies as a playlist. I forget exactly how it works, but once the frequency playlist is loaded onto your iPod, you can tune it to your car stereo and play your music at the same time (forget how you toggle or switch to a regular playlist for playing your music since the FM frequencies (88.1 - 107.9) are all in one playlist of their own). In any case it works - sort of.
In theory, it works. The question is, how well does it work? It doesn't work very well at all.
For one thing, this transmitter is inherently a piece of garbage because the best quality of music you're going to hear is FM quality. It shouldn't take a high IQ to realize this before you place your order for the iTrip, but in my case, I was desperate for a solution, so I went with it. But just know that you're not going to get great sound, if only because you're getting it over the air.
The greater problem is getting the channels synced up. I don't know about you, but chances are good that you live in a metro area with plenty of radio stations. How many dead spots on the FM dial are there in your area? Probably not many. In order for this to work, you need to use a freed up frequency. I had a hard time finding a frequency that wasn't being used or that wasn't being interfered with by another nearby station. It's a real pain.
What's worse is that as you travel, it's very possible, probably likely, that you'll encounter interference on your tuned frequency. So in other words, you have to keep on fiddling with the darn thing just to keep the frequency clear. It's a major pain and it's really ridiculous.
So the bottom line here is that while this is a solution to a problem that is really unsolvable unless you drive a car built in the 1980s (that has a cassette deck for a cassette adapter), it's a solution with a great many drawbacks that far outweigh any advantages.
It just isn't worth it. You're going to have to find another way to play your music in your car. I recommend buying an MP3-ready CD stereo deck or if you're wealthy, buy a brand new car with an auxilliary audio input. Then you're set. All you have to do is plug the headphones cable into the aux jack and away you go (you have a buy a special cable, but if you're wealthy, does it really matter?).
Stay away from this thing and stay away from any FM transmitter for the iPod. I've bought and used two of them (different brands) and they're worthless.
Yours, brad.
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 35.00
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Epinions.com ID:
brad
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Member: Brad Engelmann
Location: Helen Township, MN
Reviews written: 161
Trusted by: 95 members
About Me:
brad@engelmann.us (email address)
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