ipod fm transmitters? - Calgarypuck Forums - The Unofficial Calgary Flames Fan Community

stuckinchuck · 10-23-2006, 12:43 PM

Anyone have one of these? I was thinking about getting one, but know that the quality of some of these is not up to par. I was thinking about getting the Griffin Roadtrip. Any suggestions?

jroc · 10-23-2006, 12:58 PM

The roadtrip is opne of the better transmitters on the market, as is the Monster icarplay... but i would strongley suggest a direct connection even though it is a bit more costly... the difference is night and day.

J pold · 10-23-2006, 12:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jroc

The roadtrip is opne of the better transmitters on the market, as is the Monster icarplay... but i would strongley suggest a direct connection even though it is a bit more costly... the difference is night and day.

What do you work at future shop or something?

CubicleGeek · 10-23-2006, 01:02 PM

Both the Griffin and the Monster sound the same, but the Monster is more vesatile because of the wire rather than the dock. I have the Griffin and it can be a chore to plug the iPod into certain cars because of where they place the lighter apdater.

But I agree, direct connection is the way to go if you have the disposable income.

drp_69 · 10-23-2006, 01:13 PM

How does the direct coonection work, in a vehicle. I have one for home use but it has RCA-->dock connector, that would not work in the car?

Winsor_Pilates · 10-23-2006, 01:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by drp_69

How does the direct coonection work, in a vehicle. I have one for home use but it has RCA-->dock connector, that would not work in the car?

Depends on your car deck.
Some have an aux input, which is basically the same thing as your headphone jack(output)
Simple cable that is the same on both ends and you're rolling.

I just bought a new car deck that had an aux in when I got my ipod.
The deck itself was only about $130, so it's not too pricey, even though it's more then FM transmitters.

fanforever1986 · 10-23-2006, 01:56 PM

I can't say I was too pleased with my Griffen (sp?) Transmitter i used for awhile. The sound was just that...FM...meaning not digital. Also, I found that in the cities the signal was hardly strong enough to make the listening enjoyable...too many signals in the air i guess. Once I was out in the middle of nowhere it worked alright.

I'm going to buy a dock for the car one of these days....they're brand specific, and the one i looked at for a VW ran about 250. Sounds expensive, but 250/20 a CD is only 20 odd CD purchases that I didn't have to pay for listening to in my car.

jroc · 10-23-2006, 02:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by drp_69

How does the direct coonection work, in a vehicle. I have one for home use but it has RCA-->dock connector, that would not work in the car?

like mentioned, some after market stereos have aux inputs, and also pending on what kind of car you have, you could get a direct connection to you factory stereo where you would be able to skip through tracks using your head unit rather than your ipod, and it would also charge your ipod at the same time. For that you would be looking around $200 and like i said its only gonna work with certain vehicles.

Igottago · 10-23-2006, 03:39 PM

I used to have an FM transmitter..i hated it. Batteries would drain really quickly, and the sound was terrible. I agree its much better to find a way for a direct connection if possible.

photon · 10-23-2006, 04:23 PM

I'm pretty sure my head unit has an RCA in jack, but of course I left it hanging inside when I installed my stereo, and I can't find the wonderful custom tool to remove my HU now (Blaupunkt in a VW).

Devils'Advocate · 10-23-2006, 04:33 PM

I've gone through a fair number of transmitters. This wasn't for the car. I already had headphones with a built in FM reciever, so I wanted wireless headphones without paying the bluetooth pricetag.

Attempt #1: Griffen iTrip. I found that an iPod with an iTrip, music turned up full volume couldn't reach from my chest pocket to the headphones on my head. Yeah. Wicked.

Attempt #2: I ripped apart the iTrip and added a better antenna (just a long piece of wire saudered to the existing antenna). This improved the range to 40 feet. Not bad, but as I moved about the office I had stations cutting in and the sound was bad. I tried changing frequencies, but no matter where I had it, the sound was choppy and there was constant interferance.

Attempt #3: http://www.ccrane.com/images/large/fm-transmitter.jpg
This little baby was expensive ($80), but its antenna is nicely built (much nicer than my long wire dangling everywhere) and very easy to set up. It goes right up against and with the hacking I did to it, possibly crosses over the legal limits for FM transmitting. Yet *STILL* I get interferance, static and sometimes complete drops.

The overall issue is that they cannot legally sell something with a strong enough signal to compensate for all the outside interference. You would need a VERY strong signal to make FM radio sound anything close to resembling a direct connection.

You could get this thing:
http://www.mp3yourcar.com/

But for that kind of dough you could get a whole new radio with an AUX port.

ken0042 · 10-23-2006, 04:44 PM

The biggest issue I have with my satellite radio's FM transmitter was trying to find a clear frequency. There are a number of FM stations, and I would also find I would get some bleed through whenever I passed too close to a Shaw distribution box. Then of course I still get some interference when I drive beside somebody on a similar frequency to me.

I went with a cassette adapter (fortunately my car came with CD and cassette) and the more direct input makes a worlk of difference. I imagine it would be similar with an iPod.

JiriHrdina · 10-23-2006, 04:46 PM

Well I bought a FM transmitter a couple weeks ago and I've been pretty dissapointed in the sound quality. Can anyone recommend a clear spot on the dial to use. Right now I'm down at the bottom of the dial. 90.5 I think. But if there's a better spot - would love to know.

photon · 10-23-2006, 09:00 PM

I got a Belkin one (one of the few that wasn't iPod only), and it's a piece of crap. At least the sound quality is, very staticy and horrible frequency response. Tried various frequencies, no change.

I'll return it tomorrow. I guess I'll have to try to get the direct hookup.

underGRADFlame · 10-23-2006, 09:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by photon

I'm pretty sure my head unit has an RCA in jack, but of course I left it hanging inside when I installed my stereo, and I can't find the wonderful custom tool to remove my HU now (Blaupunkt in a VW).

alittle off topic here, but photon, you strike me as the type that drives a jetta, but removed the "jetta" chrome on the back and replaced it with a "jedi" chrome. Tell me I'm wrong

In regaurds to the FM transmiter, I picked one up on friday, drove a company vechical to deadmonton and back, which I can't even remember which kind it was, but It worked okay, but I wasn't expecting much, Its so much better to have it hard wired to your system.

Winsor_Pilates · 10-23-2006, 11:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by photon

I'm pretty sure my head unit has an RCA in jack, but of course I left it hanging inside when I installed my stereo, and I can't find the wonderful custom tool to remove my HU now (Blaupunkt in a VW).

Make sure you're not confusing you sub outputs as RCA ins. They look very similar and are on the back of almost all decks.

Mango · 10-24-2006, 12:02 AM

89.9 seems to work the best for me. I've used the Griffin iTrip, but for some reason, I get better reception from a Maxell transmitter. It was much cheaper as well, but runs on 3 AAA batteries and goes through them very quickly.

photon · 10-24-2006, 12:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by underGRADFlame

alittle off topic here, but photon, you strike me as the type that drives a jetta, but removed the "jetta" chrome on the back and replaced it with a "jedi" chrome. Tell me I'm wrong

In regaurds to the FM transmiter, I picked one up on friday, drove a company vechical to deadmonton and back, which I can't even remember which kind it was, but It worked okay, but I wasn't expecting much, Its so much better to have it hard wired to your system.

Heh.. close, just substitue Jetta with Passat

Quote:

Originally Posted by Winsor_Pilates

Make sure you're not confusing you sub outputs as RCA ins. They look very similar and are on the back of almost all decks.

Yup, I recall those as well, but this one has two external line in inputs, one for the CD changer and another for an additional line in. I recall because there was an extra adapter needed, but I don't know if I have it (and if I don't, getting it might be difficult.

EDIT: Cool, found the manual for my head unit, shows the pinouts!

Pagal4321 · 10-24-2006, 12:44 AM

Alright, well I looked into these FM transmitters for about 2 months before I bought my iPod and my transmitter at the same time.

The one I got was the Kensington FM Transmitter
http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPL...lm=TD145LL%2FA

That's the one, except my screen is blue and not orange. This little baby works WONDERS. Now it is EXPENSIVE AS HELL, but I have had 0 problems with it right now. I get pretty damn clear sound for an FM transmitter and the only time it wasn't clear was when they randomly put a radio station on 88.1.
I currently have it set to 88.5 and get a clear signal.
On top of the FM transmitting, it charges you iPod pretty quickly actually. And that comes in handy for roadtrips as your iPod will never run out of juice.
I have left this in the car during some pretty cold and hot times and it hasn't affected it at all.

The only thing I don't like about it, is that I don't constantly like charging my iPod while listening to it in the car...but that's just me being picky. One more small thing is the cord is really stiff and tends to get caught in knots alot.

So hopefully that helps....
To anyone looking for an FM transmitter, I HIGHLY reccomend this model right here. I've heard nothing but horro stories about griffin or any of the other models such as Belkin.