Customer Reviews

Belkin TuneBase FM Transmitter for iPod nano 1G, 2G (Black)

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

 

 

I had been using an iRiver transmitter. It was hard to read and lots of the cords made it clumsy to use. This Belkin transmitter plugs into my power adapter and puts my iPod at the perfect height to use while driving. It is very easy to adjust around any controls (heat, fan, etc) and you can still adjust the radio. You can also use the iPod display to adjust the tunebase to the correct radio station. This is the easiest transmitter I've found to use, and it charges the iPod while it plays. I love it!

Everything about the way this thing functioned annoyed me. Fortunately for my mental health, part of it broke off in the lighter after about 10 uses and I was plenty content to throw the rest out the window.

I'll just list some highlights of the stuff I hated because it's been over a year since I used it.

1. There is a huge delay from when you push a button on this thing until it actually does something.

2. Output level is way lower than the normal radio or cd player level so you have to turn the volume up about 50% more than you would for the other sources. If you forget to turn the volume back down before you unplug this POS or search for a new frequency, you get treated to static or the other source at 50% higher volume than you would normally want.

3. On road trips, even in the middle of nowhere, you have to change the frequency no less than every 15 minutes. In cities, it was pretty much unusable if you were driving through and not just local commuting.

This thing works just fine. I have some occasional problems where I have to change the station, but apparently that is a problem with all ipod transmitters (except for the tape adapter, but I dont have a tape player). other wise this is way cheaper than anything you can find in a store, especially an apple store. If you want to play your ipod in your car, and save a couple bucks, you cant beat this!

This item allows you to transmit to your radio while you're charging your iPod battery. It's user-friendly and the flexible goose neck makes it easy to adjust and see what's going on even while driving (add note of caution here).

I'm in Los Angeles where there's more stations than available bandwidth. This makes it hard to find a clear frequency slot. I previously used a Griffin iTrip and was able to use it on three or four station frequencies. I could only find one spot on the radio dial where the Tunebase would work semi-reliably. It's just not quite powerful enough to cut through the background noise in this over-crowded radio market. Users in smaller radio markets will likely have few if any problems.

Best FM transmitter I have used so far with my Ipod sound quality is much better than other brands I have used. Its well worth the steep price tag

This generally works well but does have some static but usually resolves quickly.

I chose the Belkin Tunebase because reviews rated its sound quality as the best of the bunch. I don't dispute that, but it's by no means great. Think typical FM quality minus 25%. Every "S" or high-treble ting is replaced by static. So more like 'FM as your driving out of the station's range' quality. And that's once you scour every frequency, one-by-one for the clearest. I tried this with factory and expensive aftemarket car stereos in a variety of environments and was consistently disappointed. But to clarify, I'm disappointed in the technology as a whole, not just the brand. Belkin's product has a great design and good user interface, but it's a half-cocked solution if sound quality is remotely important to you.

The Belkin TuneBase FM Transmitter for iPod nano 1G, 2G (Black) does NOT work with the first generation iPODs. I found this out the hard way via a technical support call to Belkin after I bought this item as a gift to my wife. I assume the reference to 1G in this listing is a typo.

Belkin TuneBase FM Transmitter for iPod nano 1G, 2G (Black) Very easy to use, however some of the FM channels had some static in the cars where I used it. I liked the wide number of FM stations that could be used. The major problem was that the base of the iPod did not fit the connector at the bottom of the TuneBase. The plastic casing that surrounds the bottom portion of the iPod had to be cut so that the iPod would fit onto the connector. Once that was done, the TuneBase worked as it was designed.

the transmitter didn't work as advertised, perhaps because the FM stations are pretty full in my area, but nonetheless, it didn't work for me.