Major Disappointment in Today's World of Technology
Written: May 09 '03
Product Rating:
Pros: Fairly well designed unit with sleek looks
Cons: Everything else besides the looks
The Bottom Line: Unless you really don't care about how bad your music sounds, I would avoid this unit at all costs.
sick-n-tired's Full Review: Dr. Bott (0142-IPCK) Case, Cable, Car Kit, Connect...
I purchased the TransPod unit with the intentions of listening to my own personalized radio station in my car. This was going to be accomplished by playing my new iPod through the TransPod. The concept was great...play my iPod through my FM receiver while charging it at the same time. All this and no wires! Well, that's the only part that is great, the concept.
It was nice to be able to mount the iPod from the cigarette lighter adapter so you could see the display, but this was the first problem I ran into. The unit has several extenders so you can clear anything in your car that might be in the way (e.g. the parking break). However, these extenders only allow you to adjust in a vertical motion and not horizontally. I did manage to mount it, but it was still interfering with other operations of the car.
Next, I tuned the FM receiver to a station and adjusted the TransPod to transmit to that station. I will add that this adjustment is no easy task, either. The tuning dial is extremely sensitive. I could hear music through my stereo at normal volume, but barely. I turned the iPod almost all the way up and started to get decent signal strength, but the quality of the music was horrible. It was basically like listening to a 56 kbps MP3 with a great deal of hiss behind it. Totally unacceptable by most people's standards in my opinion.
The last thing I noticed was that sometimes the TransPod would cut out because of natural car movement. It may have been the unit I had specifically, but still another blow to this great concept.
Needless to say, I returned the unit and bought a cassette adapter which sounds amazing.
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