~ Cruisin with my Monster ~
Written: Feb 12 '07 (Updated Feb 12 '07)
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: Easy to use, great solution to having all your favorite music at your fingertips
Cons: It has no clip to attach, so_bumping_it_and_changing_the_station_is_easy_to_do.
The Bottom Line: If you are looking for a good quality FM Transmitter, then I would say that the Monster iCarPlay FM Transmitter is the way to go!!!
|
|
|
| ldusold's Full Review: Monster Cable Products Monster Cable ~ iPod Wirele... |
I recently purchased an iPod for the simple reason of wanting to be able to play my music in the car. I have a Sony Bean MP3 player, but things like that are pretty much useless for these sound docking stations and FM Transmitters. I can't even begin to tell you the number of times I wished that I could just plug my mp3 player into my car, and use that. There is nothing more annoying than having to search through cd's and change the cd's while driving. Not to mention the hazard that it can cause, because you are not paying close attention to your driving. Anyone who knows me, knows that I can't drive anywhere without having music playing, and I LOVE to Sing along. I guess I've always been that way. In the past I have compiled several cd's with all of my favorite songs, but either way, I still had to change cd's often. Now I don't have to. Using my iPod and the iCar Wireless Plus FM Transmitter I can listen to anything that my iPod has on it, over the radio.
Set Up
Set up was a snap. I simply plugged the outlet into my cars cigarette lighter, and plugged the other end into my iPod, and selected the lowest station by setting my cars FM radio to 88.1 and the small transmitter to the same station, in less than 30 seconds I was listening to my iPod over my cars radio. WOW - I was a happy camper. Of course when I first decided to try this out, my car was parked in the garage. So my first thought was "Oh, this is no CD quality" I could hear a little bit of fuzz in the background. But hey, I was able to listen to my music. The test would be to use it while actually driving around. This is what I found!
The Sound Quality
The quality of the wireless transmitter is clear when driving, and the music is a tad bit better than your average radio station. As I mentioned before, when I first hooked it up in my car, I was parked in the garage, and the quality wasn't so hot. This was mostly noticeable when songs became quieter or during the pause in between songs. The true test came afterwards when I was out and about, and driving around, I noticed that the slight "Shhhh" noise decreased. You don't notice it as much because of either the normal road noise or maybe because there may be better reception than what I could pick up in my garage. Over all I was and am very satisfied with the sound quality.
Losing FM Reception
There are definitely some places that can cause you to lose some reception. But you would have that even when listening to the radio. You have to remember that this is an FM TRANSMITTER. Therefore your music is coming over the FM radio. Maybe you drive under some heavy electrical wires, or something, this can cause you to lose reception just briefly. But if you are used to listening to a radio, then this won't phase you in the least. If you run into a spot where you lose reception completely, you're in luck, because this Monster FM transmitter has a 3 preset station option, as well as the ability to scroll and look for whatever station that might be quiet. Your options are amazing. You can use any station on the FM dial except for 87.7 and 87.9. The iCar wireless FM Transmitter is easy to use, and doesn't require a lot of concentration, therefore you are not preoccupied for more than a second or two while driving your car. I recently ran into a patch where I lost reception for about 3 minutes, and NO station would work, but I knew that area to have problems no matter what you were doing. I was back up and running on my original station without a problem, I just needed to pass that area.
One thing that I noticed while traveling on the highway was that I ran into a few SUV's along the way that seemed to cause interference. Slight static, but I decided to do a little testing. If I dropped back, the static went away, if I got closer to that vehicle it got worse, when I passed it, I had no problems after that. I had this happen twice, and believe it or not, both times it was a Jeep Liberty. I don't know if it was just a freak thing, or if they were running something inside that was causing the interference or what, but I thought it was ironic that both times it was a Jeep Liberty. Not saying it's THOSE vehicles, because it could have been anything, they could have just coincidentally been running something inside there that caused a slight interference. Small amount of static, nothing too annoying though. Yes, leave it to me to decide to "Test" things while driving. *wink*
I purchased my Monster iCar wireless FM Transmitter from Best Buy, and was told that it was one of the best on the market. So far, from what I can tell, I am very happy with it.
I do have only one complaint, and that is that I feel that the back of it should have a clip or something on it. Right now it just rests somewhere in my car, but if you bump it you are very likely to accidently switch the station. It's a quick fix, you simply press the button that has your preset station on it, and your music is playing again. But I think what I'm going to do to fix this little problem is to put some velcro on the back of it, so it can stick to my dash or something. I have my iPod hanging from my rearview mirror and the FM Transmitter just hands down from that. It works out VERY WELL. This way when changing songs, I'm not really taking my eyes off of the road to much, I am not looking down, and I can still see what's going on around me. This has been an excellent solution to my cd switching problems.
© Lynda Nielsen - 2007
Recommended:
Yes
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
ldusold
|
 - Top 500 |
|
Member: Lynda Nielsen
Location: Upstate New York
Reviews written: 353
Trusted by: 117 members
About Me:
"If love is the answer, could you please rephrase the question?"
--Lily Tomlin
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.