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iPod transmitter for car radio

Over the last several years, I've had two, both very cheap, but they've both finally crapped out. Each just plugged into my iPod, ran on batteries, and transmitted to a chosen "static" channel on the radio. Don't know the brand names. The recent one was black, about the size of half a cigar with a gray stretchy cord. It was cheap ($10) but ate through batteries.

We only use this on long car trips, but need one that is dependable enough that it won't crap out one our into a six-hour roadtrip down the five, with breaks in Portland for decent radio.

Any ideas? Last trip we ran through our small set of CDs in the car, and then had two kinds of music to listen to: New Country and New Western. Not good.

So where do we look? What brands/varieties should we avoid? What's the least we can spend for this, where we don't need it 3 hours a day 5 times a week (during a commute)?

Thanks!

Luckier asked in Geek Week about 1 year ago | Report
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  • Lookalikes_small
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    iRiver and Griffin both make decent ones. Decent has a caveat, of course, as some people can't abide the sound quality of an FM wireless transmitter no matter what, but you're already used to one.

    If you get the iRiver one, be aware of one horrid quirk: while the sound quality tends to be great on it, it shuts itself off if it detects no signal for a few seconds. With any kind of pause between tracks, or quiet stretches of music, that will drive you insane very quickly.

    A wired FM transmitter for satellite radio can be wired into the back of your factory headunit quite easily, and you can use the connector for iPod as well (I sometimes do, although I love my satellite radio). Most shops will only charge about $50 to hook it up for you, and the sound quality is miles beyond wireless FM transmitters.
    http://www.myradiostore.com/p/metra-antennaworks-44-fmmod02.html?cmpid=f0t90e0110p1629c0001

    Geni answered in Geek Week about 1 year ago | Report
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  • Avatar_default
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    One thing to consider if you only use it for this one car and are somewhat handy is an inline FM transmitter like your uncle used to have for the CD changer in his Camaro. For example: http://www.caraudiodeals.com/pyle-plmd2-p-803.html

    There's a bit of installation involved (they plug directly into the back of the radio and are hardwired into the car), but they work way better than the loose transmitters in terms of avoiding static. They'll also probably last the life of the car.

    That said, if the sound quality has been acceptable on your old ones, another one of those is probably the cheapest route. I have no evidence, but I would guess that the ones that plug into the headphone jack and run on AA's are probably going to be more robust than the cheap made-for-ipod ones (although the spendier made for ipod ones are probably better).

    Jack answered in Geek Week about 1 year ago | Report
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  • 101835_photo_99_small
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    Might consider getting a new head unit for your car with an AUX (headphone) jack. You can get them for about a 100 bucks at bestbuy, including installation and you will never have to worry about transmitters and static again.

    Brandon Humphries answered in Geek Week about 1 year ago | Report
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  • Tonks_small
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    I don't have a lot of experience with these, as our cars have had aux-in jacks for a while, but in the past I've used Griffin's products with some success, though they seem a little overpriced these days. I've never had a LOT of success with these things at all—it really seems to depend more on the radio environment I'm in than the hardware—but I wouldn't spend more than about $25 on one, and you should be able to find some models for less.

    My tactic would be to search Amazon and compare reviews and prices.

    http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_2_14?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=fm+transmitter+for+ipod&x=0&y=0&sprefix=fm+transmitter

    http://www.griffintechnology.com/category/fmtransmitters

    Anthony Hecht answered in Geek Week about 1 year ago | Report
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