Get your iPod to your car stereo cheaply
Written: Jan 05 '07
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Superior to other transmitters, cheap alternative to installing audio equipment
Cons: will not fit in all cars, densely populated areas will have reception trouble
The Bottom Line: This a fairly basic product to use that does it's job well, however you absolutely need to make sure it will fit in your car.
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| dandino's Full Review: Belkin TuneBase FM Car / Plane Charger, FM Transmi... |
My wife and I commute together on a 30-45 minute ride back and forth. CD’s are such a pain, and we can’t mix between our different styles of music. This was the perfect solution. We picked this one because several of her friends also had a radio tuner, however this one was the only model that anyone could get to work reliably. There are so many cars out there that are new enough to have CD players, but only the newest cars of line-in ports.
The Basics
This unit will first plug into any cigarette lighter in your car. Since there are many different configurations in cars, this is on a flexible post that will hold in any position needed to face the driver or passenger. It comes with various plastic components so that you can use any of the hard drive based iPods. Nanos will require a different model. There are 4 preset radio frequencies that you can program to broadcast on. There are also two seek buttons. This is probably the hardest part, finding some empty air space for you to broadcast on. Operation is pretty basic, plug in your iPod and hit play. While it plays your tunes, it charges your pod. Your ipod screen will tell you what pre-programmed station you are on and what frequency it is.
Reception
You will never get CD quality sound. There will be static, but its about as much as you would get from any other radio station. There are various things that will affect your reception:
-Is your antenna in the front or back of your car?
-Do you live in a densely populated area? It was very difficult to find any dead air space in NYC.
-How much time are you willing to spend coasting through every frequency at multiple locations to get the perfect reception? We have 1 for Long Island’s south shore, one for the north, and a third for when we go upstate.
Convenience
This will depend on what you have your iPod sitting in right now. Do you have it in a case that is a pain to get it out of? You need to have your iPod naked to fit into this. You may also want to check the orientation of your cigarette lighters. This thing would not have worked in my car (1998 Taurus) because the cigarette lighter is in the ash tray and I keep the armrest open for a cup holder, which prevents the ash tray from opening. I don’t know how Ford expected anyone to smoke and drink coffee while driving, but I digress.
Overall
From the grumblings of her friends at work with their radio transmitters, this one appears to be the best. But before you go and buy it, you need to make sure of two major things… Is your iPod easily strippable? Is your cigarette lighter accessible enough? The ease and convenience of a tape deck based link between your mp3 player and car radio is of hugely higher sound quality (as I have with my Zune). So this product is solely for those who don’t have a tape deck or a line-in. I would, however, consider this to be a superior product than a CD changer, as the musical library will be immensely larger and there will be no bulky changer in your car.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
dandino
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Location: Long Island, NY
Reviews written: 49
Trusted by: 7 members
About Me:
I like tools and electronic gizmos.
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