Cheap FM transmitter that works okay, not great
Written: Feb 28 '04 (Updated Mar 04 '04)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: cheap FM transmitter if it works for you, small and lightweight
Cons: May not work for you, or output may vary depending on your area, stereo, etc.
The Bottom Line: I can't really recommend this because the music quality can vary depending on a variety of factors. Buy it if you think you can return it.
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| maceyr's Full Review: Irock Wireless Music Adapter 300w |
Cheap radio transmitter that works okay, not great
With most cars now outfitted with AM/FM radio and CD players and CD changers nowadays rather than a cassette with AM/FM radio (now considered passé), there is a need to find a gadget that will allow you to play music from a walkman, mp3 player, etc that is not in CD format. In the old days of the car cassette deck, there was a cd player adapter that you could fit a cassette-shaped adapter into the cassette deck which then you could transmit your CD player's music (or whatever music player you wish to transmit) via the stereo headphone jack. The equivalent for the car CD player is something like the iRock! which transmits the music from your music source to a limited FM radio band which can be picked up by your car's FM radio. In essence, your iRock transmitter broadcasts the music from your music source to the outer FM radio bands, which can be picked up and played on your car's FM radio.
The iRock radio transmitter is a funny looking thing. It's not much of any kind of shape, almost aerodynamic. At the top there's an attached wire that has a 3.5mm stereo jack that you connect into the music source, such as your mp3 player, CD player, PDA handheld, cassette player, etc. When not in use, you can slip the stereo jack into the cable housing located at the back of the unit so that it's out of the way. Also, at the back is a panel that you remove to get to the battery compartment. The iRock transmitter uses 2 AAA batteries. Near the middle is clear transparent piece of plastic that shows the underlying LED red light on the transmitter. The red light will turn on if the transmitter is turned on and off if it's off. Underneath, near the bottom of the transmitter is an oval shaped power button. You merely press on the button to turn the iRock transmitter on or off, and it's quite obvious whether the transmitter is on or off by the light indicator. It's a very simple device. On the right side of the iRock transmitter, there is a frequency selector switch which allows you to set the FM radio band that the music will be transmitted over. You only have a choice of four bands (88.1, 88.3, 88.5, 88.7), all at the edge of the radio spectrum of 88.1 - 88.7 mhz. That's all there is to the iRock transmitter.
To use the device, here's a short and simple procedure. Make sure the iRock transmitter has 2 AAA batteries installed. Remove the iRock stereo jack from the back panel and plug it into your music source (mp3 player, etc). Select the frequency at which you wish to transmit the music over. Press the power button of the iRock transmitter. Tune your stereo to the same frequency you've set on the iRock transmitter. That's it. Very simple to use but it does have its flaws.
First of all, depending on your stereo target, the music you end up listening to on your stereo may sound horrible. The music may end up being mono, full of static and interference and you can hardly hear the music. You may be able to adjust the quality by moving the iRock transmitter to a different area or further away from the stereo target, straightening the wire, or adding fresh batteries. The iRock website recommends a distance of 10-30 feet from the stereo target. On my car stereo, the iRock transmitter seems to work fine. The music was in stereo and sounds reasonably well. But, on different attempts on a home stereo or portable stereo, the end result was less than desired. The music sounded horrible, in mono and with lots of static and hiss. So, like I said, it all depends on the target. Also, I've read somewhere that you may be able to improve the music quality by adding a headphone extension cord. I haven't tried it but it's worth a try.
Second, with the iRock only allowing 4 channels, all at the edge of the FM spectrum, you are quite limited in the number of channels that can be picked up on your stereo. Depending on where you are and especially if you live in a metropolitan area where there's a lot of FM radio stations even near that edge of the FM spectrum, you may not be able to use the iRock.
Third, the iRock was obviously not designed to stand up properly by itself. That is a bit of a nuisance for me because I'd like to be able to stand my iRock device and then adjust my Palm handheld or FM radio accordingly.
Fourth, the raised power button (what a poor design) can easily be accidentally pressed. Many times I've found that whatever I've had on top of the iRock in my bag had accidentally turned it on, and draining the batteries. The manufacturers could easily have addressed it by making the button a bit lowered or indented so that only a direct press on the button would turn the unit on.
Fifth, the device tends to drain the battery quite easily. You would think that such a simple device that has no motors wouldn't use that much battery power, but it does and within 2 hours of driving, you'd need a fresh set of batteries if you want to continue using it. Since the device is such a power hog, you'd think that there should have been some kind of adapter included, most likely, a car adapter since most people use this for their car stereo. Well, at least, the newest iRock 400FM has a 12V DC car adapter, which is much better power source for the device than AAA batteries. If only the 300W came with it.
For a relatively cheap price, the iRock 300W FM radio transmitter works okay. The result, as I've discussed, may vary depending on your stereo, but for my car stereo, it works as advertised. With the newer 400FM out, which has a 12V DV car adapter, I'd suggest trying to get that one instead of the 300W, which only operates on 2 AAA batteries. But, it's pretty much the same unit, except it includes the car adapter. You might want to check out the alternatives instead of shelling out the money on this device since many people have complained about how it doesn't work.
Here are a few alternative FM transmitters that are currently out there:
Digiana wireless FM transmitter
http://www.merconnet.com/products.php?ProductID=80
CCrane FM transmitter
http://www.ccrane.com/fm-transmitter.asp
Arkon's SoundFeeder
http://www.arkon.com/sf.html
SIIG Wireless Audiolink Pro
http://www.siig.com/product.asp?partnum=CE-WALP12&category=Multimedia
Belkin TuneCast II Mobile FM Transmitter
http://catalog.belkin.com/IWCatProductPage.process?Merchant_Id=&Section_Id=201526&pcount=&Product_Id=166893
Griffin iTrip FM transmitter for the iPod
http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebObjects/AppleStore?productLearnMore=T7194LL/A
I have not tried any of these so I can't comment, so please keep in mind that these are just recommendations.
My recommendation is to try out the alternatives instead since this isn't such a great device. It works for me, and I may be one of the very few. Maybe you can try it out and return it if it doesn't work for you. Make sure you check the returns policy of your store before you buy it.
Thanks for taking the time to read my review.
Recommended:
No
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Epinions.com ID:
maceyr
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Location: Canada
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I hardly have time for Epinions anymore but do try to read and rate.
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