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(More customer reviews)As someone else already noted, there are better methods of listening to your MP3 player in your car, such as through the tape transmitter. For those of us who don't have it, though, this is a sufficiently apt substitute.
First, whoever said that there are 8 presets must be thinking of some other device. You only have 3 presets here, but you define them yourself from the whole FM range, an you can always deviate from them. Hence, this thing has an advantage over, say, the iTrip because you can easily surf between three stations if the one you're listening to now starts getting static.
Second, I find it powerful enough in most situations. I live in Boston, and drive around it often enough. Downtown, most stations will give you a small amount of interference, and that is probably the best you will get. Drive around the suburbs, though, and you can easily find around 3 stations that will play almost as well as your CD player in terms of quality.
The secret to this is to set your iPod volume somewhere around the middle to upper two-thirds of its capacity. If you set it to the maximum, all bass lines will be completely distorted. Set it to the middle, though, and you'll have rather crisp audio, although you will have to compensate for the lost volume by turning up the car radio. Hardly anything to complain about, though.
My two complaints with this device are these:
First, the marked price is far too high. You can find a much cheaper device on eBay, or even in the Amazon marketplace. I paid around $20 for it, plus delivery.
Second, some types of music sound distorted even at medium volumes on a lot of the stations. I have in mind the Waltz of the Snowflakes from the Nutcracker when I write this. Beside it, just about every song I played sounded clean, although sometimes a given station would encounter pockets of interference.
Given that a more powerful transmitter would probably end up messing up the radio reception of neighboring cars, I'm prone to think that this is an inherent problem to all FM transmitters. I think this is one of the better ones, though, because of its preset options, its ability to scan the whole FM range, the fact that it doesn't drain your iPod's battery, and the fact that you can manipulate your iPod volume on it for better performance. The iTrip can't do three of these. You will, of course, have to sit down in your car and look for usable stations manually, .2 by .2, but ultimately, and if you have no other option available, I think you will find this device to do a good job. Just do yourself a favor, and find a cheaper source.
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Monster iCarPlay Wireless Plus FM Transmitter/Charger for iPodWhy shuffle through stacks of CDs and tapes to find the song you want in the car when you can listen to the iPod? The Monster Cable iCarPlay Wireless Plus FM transmitter gives your car stereo great-sounding, wireless access to your entire iPod library, all while charging the portable jukebox to keep the music playing. Simply plug one end of the iCarPlay Wireless Plus into the 12-volt cigarette lighter and the other end into the dock connector on the bottom of your iPod. Once you select matching FM stations on your car stereo and the iCarPlay device, you're ready to roll. Your favorite music will transmit wirelessly to your car stereo using FM frequencies, and because it offers full FM tuning flexibility (excluding 87.7 and 87.9 MHz), you're guaranteed top-quality, interference-free sound. Meanwhile, Monster's Smart Digital Charging technology will rapidly charge your iPod when the power is low, and when its fully charged, the transmitter switches to a trickle charge to optimize the iPod's performance. You'll never have to worry about running out of power when using the iCarPlay. Additional features include three programmable "favorite station" preset buttons, an easy-to-ready LED display, and 24k gold contacts for maximum corrosion resistance and power transfer. The iCarPlay is compatible with all iPods that utilize a dock connector, including the iPod mini.
iPod Compatibility iPod mini, iPod 3G, iPod 4G (Clickwheel), iPod Color, iPod 5G/5.5G Video
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