FM Transmitters (which one)

[TomiboyC]

As above i am looking for an fm transmitter for an ipod classic. Based on a bit of searching i have narrowed it down to a choice of two :- Griffin road trip with smart scan or a Belkin tunebase II, has anyone any experience of these or could they recommend any others?

[vxvirgin]

I've got 2 Griffins (and a classic) - the iTrip and the iTrip Auto Universal.

The iTrip (make sure you get the current one, not the 2006 model) is neatest. It plugs into the dock connector, so its an unamplified signal, but it is only good for an ipod. It takes power from the ipod, or you power it, and the ipod, using a USB lead which connects into the iTrip itself. Its really nano sized but comes with a small adapter plate to make it fir a classic neatly. It has a wide freq range. Quality is good, if you can find a clear frequency but is dependent on positioning in the car. Mine sometimes stops transmitting - there is a power save built in which cuts transmission after a period of silence but mine was doing it even on tracks with unbroken sound.

The iTrip auto universal appears to have similar FM functionality but slightly better quality ie the signal seems stronger. Plugs in to headphone socket so will work with any mp3 player, also you can play with volume at the ipod and/or at the radio. It is less neat though as you need to plug it in to the car and then use a second usb cable (plugged into the itrop's cig lighter plug) to charge the ipod. Lots more cabling required and will not work without car power.

Both suffer from FM interference and few available freqs in this country. I am trying an FM modulator next. If that works well my itrip will be available.

[dv8]

i have a fea bay one, it works fine aslong as its no greater than 2-3m away after that its does get a little crackly. only cost £6 worht a look and take x1 AAA batt.

[Stevel]

Got the Belkin one. Rubbish TBH.

[andy1103]

I have a Kensington transmitter (white one) £24.99 from Amazon. Works very well and charges iPod too. Don't notice any difference between ipod or CD. Traffic here not very dense so only occasionally have to change channels due to interference. 4.5/5

[vxvirgin]

This one?

It's got some pretty good reviews.

PS: and a couple of duff ones I've just realised!

[jonesy_ni]

I thought they were all rubbish!

Might have to get one

[andy1103]

That's the one. It definitely works!

[FiscusFish]

Had an iTrip for a couple of weeks. Complete waste of money. You'd get a decent signal for about 5 minutes then a radio station would break in and you'd have to retune.

I live in London so obviously there's precious little free air space but even in the countryside it wasn't great...

Dension Ice-Link all the way now.

[flyjedi]

I'm not sure on the exact model, but before I got a proper iPod kit, I used one of these:

Don't get it! While it works fine in every other car I've been in, for some reason it just doest quite have enough range to get to the aerial connectors or whatever on the Vectra. If it's not a Vetcra though, great little FM adapter

The tunebase is good because you can use it on anything else.