Customer Reviews

Audiovox FMDA25 FM Direct Audio Relay

5 star:		(65)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I must say I was pleasantly surprised by how well this product works.

I have an 07 Accord so it was a bit of a PITA figuring out how to get to the radio antenna in the dash. If you google around for your car and "remove radio" you will undoubtedly find directions for accessing it. That was the most difficult part and it only took me about 30 minutes from start to finish.

I recently got the Starmate 4 for my car. I had one of the old original Audiovox units from when Sirius was first starting up. It was huge, bulky, I had lost the mount for it, and it got VERY hot when in operation. Almost so hot that you couldn't touch it. Hence I decided to upgrade to a newer model. When I received and installed the Starmate I was surprised to see that the built-in FM modulator was horrible. And when I connected the FM antenna extender it came with, it made the sound WORSE. The static made it almost unlistenable through my radio. I googled around and found that the FCC had stepped in and regulated the amount of power the FM modulators were allowed to emit. So my Audiovox unit was better in that fashion since it was built before the FCC rules were established.

To fix the problem I got this Wired Relay Adapter. Basically you plug your car's antenna into it, then plug the wire into your radio. The other end routes through your dash and goes into your Sirius radio. The reception is 100% clear now. No more static. The downside is that you have to a) remember to turn off the Sirius radio if you want to listen to FM because it kills all of the stations, and b) regardless of whether it is on or off it kills AM reception. I don't often listen to AM and guess I don't have a need now (except for local TV stations).

All in all I am VERY happy with this product. It took a Starmate that sounded worse than an old Audiovox I had, and made it MUCH better in the end. 100% worth the $19.99 for this item if you have the know-how to get into your dash.

Great product. I had major troubles with radio station interference when using the Sirius radio without this product. Once installed it disconnects the external antenna and eliminates the interference problems. When your Sirius radio is turned off, your external antenna works normally.

I highly recommend this product if you can't use a direct connection from your Sirius radio to your car radio.

I bought this because I have my Siruis hooked up to my motorcycle and I do a LOT of riding.
I am the type of rider who takes off not knowing where I am going, only when I need to be home, I am constantly in search of that road I have never been down so I never know where I will end up, and it was a real pain trying to find clear stations that would last for a few hundred miles,let alone the whole day.
I thought I would give this a try and installed it before a run to DC and I was very disappointed it did not work.
I have been working with, and hooking up electronics for over 40 years, so I checked and rechecked ever thing I could think of, and the only thing I could not check was the plug in the cradle that the receiver was in so I put the bike back together and saved it for another time, when I had more time and a different cradle.
Well that time came about a month later.
I hooked up the new cradle, all the wires turned the FM transmitter off in the receiver and NOTHING..no music just static and a big sad face,checked all my connections again and they were good, but I still had nothing.. I just didn't get it, from what I understood, once this was hooked up it would broadcast the music on all channels, why wasn't it working??? so disappointed started to take it apart again, then a little light bulb clicked that said "try this", so I went to the known station in my area that has full power and a good clean signal 93.7, I went back into the menu on the Siruis receiver and turned the FM transmitter ON again and set the transmitter station to 93.7.
With the radio playing some forgotten song( it was actually playing golden earing's radar love)
I powered up the Sirius unit and Viola!! music!! right from the receiver and no more golden earing.
I then re-hooked up the original cradle that is mounted to the bike and viola, music!
Big smiles came after that, it works, and it works great..
So, if you are under the impression that I was, that this unit works across the whole frequency band.
it does not. what it does do, is put a good clean signal to the frequency you choose in the receiver setup.
I have now set mine to my favorite local radio stations frequency, so when I want to listen to the local station I simply turn off my Sirius unit and listen, no more having to change the station, and that is really handy or if I want to listen to satellite, i just power it on and it overpowers all stations broadcasting on that frequency, and gives you a good, clean sound...
I now really like this unit,and it is well worth getting, you will not be disappointed once it is correctly set up.

We travel out of state a lot and did not want to hunt for clear stations to receive my Sirius radio and this product works like advertised. Just tune into the one frequency and voila, clear stearo radio no matter where you are.

The product has good build quality and the installation is very simple. I bought this product without doing full research. My main intention was to use this as an AUX input for my factory stereo. Sad to say it doesn't work with any mp3 player or iPod or phone. The technology that's being used has to do with RF signals. If you are looking to hook up an mp3 player through the rear radio input, what you really need is a FM modulator. A FM modulator will convert the RF signal into a digital signal. I'm giving the product 4 stars for build quality and ease of installation. Though I feel the manufacture should inform the potential buyers that this product is not directly compatible with any mp3 players...

Just installed the Stiletto in my 05 Toyota Corolla. The built in FM Transmitter is very weak. So I installed the FM Relay. Its like night and day. Now I get great static free sound in my car.

When I bought this model as a Christmas gift there was a $20 refund. that $20 paid for this additional FM adapter but it works extremely well. No more static. I highly recommend it.

This piece does what's promised. It provides a consistent, clear signal far better than the built-in transmitter. It eliminates much of the clutter of the cassette-tape adapter and does the job in cars that don't have cassette players.
Installation isn't too tricky for home installation, but so many cars these days have manufacturer-specific antenna inputs and outputs that there's a good chance you'll need adapters. They're more expensive than they should be (about $10 to $30-plus), and the Ford version is a lot harder to find than GM.

I have a Sirius radio and the fm modulator was not powerful enough to overcome the capture effect with nearby broadcast stations. So I researched my radio and found the cable connections were exclusive to subaru (2005) but found the necessary adapters and ordered two adapters and this Audiovox unit. Installation was straight forward the most tedious part was getting to the radio. After getting to that point and installing it. I found the broadcast interference is gone and also the white noise. Happy customer here both with amazon and audiovox.. Id recommend the unit if you dont have an aux in for audio on your stereo which I didnt. BTW there is a good pdf file on the web that covers removing the subaru outback radio which took a while. To save you time do some reseach on your radio and check if the standard connection to your radio is motorola or not. If not you will have to by adapters or make them yourself.

I examined many of these adapters trying to determine what would work best for my XM radio receiver. Most looked about the same and the price varied greatly. Althought this one was less expensive than most, it seemed that it would do what I needed. I installed it in my Acura RSX and have been extremely pleased with its performance. Spots where the signal would previously drop-out are now strong and I don't get any interference from the FM stations, at all. The only downside in that I now have to turn off my XM receiver if I want to listen to standard radio stations, but I think that is to be expected with any of these because when they detect a signal from the XM receiver, they disconnect the car's radio from the car's antenna. This is why I don't get interference from the FM stations anymore. I'm very pleased with this device.