Customer Reviews

Kensington 33169 Digital FM Radio and Transmitter for iPods

5 star:		(33)
4 star:		(40)
3 star:		(19)
2 star:		(13)
1 star:		(26)

 

 

This unit does both: receives FM as a radio, and transmits FM to your radio. Just purchased this yesterday, so I don't have good numbers on how long it takes to drain the iPod's battery. I do know that you can get a solid 4 hours at least. This unit does a fantastic job of transmitting my iPod selections to my FM stereo radio. I can take the iPod 30 metres away, around the house, and the music continues without interruption. I've heard that some of the FM transmitter systems didn't have much of a range, and was pleasantly surprised to find that this one is quite good.

For FM reception - you stick your headphones into the unit itself, rather than into the iPod's headphone jack - so I presume that it is just using the iPod as a power source rather than anything particularly intelligent.

Not needing to buy two different units seems like a good idea to me.

The one downside is that there is no way to charge the iPod while the Kensington unit is connected, whereas some of the FM transmitter-only systems can be plugged into car power supplies.

My only complaint(s) with this is that there is no way to charge the iPod and use the transmitter at the same time (this was known at time of purchase) as it tends to drain the battery. The price was right though (got it from my gold box, marked way down).
Other than that, it works great and sends out a strong signal.

Pros: - 1 piece intergration without unsightly cables
- Not CD quality but its not all that bad, maybe FM quality (if you want CD quality you need a car stereo that has direct line in or ipod jack that are in alot new cars now)
- Got it for $26 from Amazon (just click savae for later and watch the price drop, then get it with free shipping)

Cons: - uses ipod battery, should have been made to use like 2AA or something so it wouldnt drain the ipod

For that price its worth a try! Havent found anything else better on the market. Not perfect but what is!!

I got mine with my IPOD and is really interested in playing my tunes through the car stereo instead of using a cassette adapter. But this thing is not consistent and you just don't know when it will or will not work. It sometimes lock into the station 88.1 smoothly, at other times, forget about it --- this can get you frustrated! So you don't want to play with this when you're driving. To use as a receiver is great! so I give it 3 stars.

Excellent product. When using your ipod through your car radio it digitally scans for an open station, (unlike the other one I have that only allowed four choices). Also it doesn't change the reception if the ipod is not exactly pointed to the radio. Listening to the FM radio through the iPOD is o.k., am able to listen to over half of the stations clearly. Overall, I highly recommend this product.

This thing works great. I can pull in the local radio stations with no static, and it transmits to the radio in my car with no static. Excellent product. I use it everyday.

I bought this because it came cheap with my iPod (which I love). I like it and it comes in handy when entertaining at home because I can just hook it up to the iPod, tune the stereo in and listen without having to buy an expensive speaker unit for the iPod.

That's the good news...the bad news is that you can't use this unit if your iPod is in a case (and why own an iPod if you aren't going to put it in a case!!!).

If you are going to use this in your car, GET ANOTHER PRODUCT! You want something in the car that will also charge your iPod battery. This won't do that.

I tried a few other FM transmitter devices, only to return them after disappointing results. Found this one on Amazon and have been impressed from the moment I took it out of the box! You can set it to transmit on any FM frequency and it has four presets to lock and load the best reception. Now I can listen to my iPod with ease while commuting from the north end all the through to the south end of Minneapolis.

I bought this as a Deal of the Day item and didn't pay very much for it. I still sent it back because its FM transmission to the car radio was so bad. I tried every FM channel on my car radio and still got an unacceptable level of static and noise -- and I don't really get hung up about sound quality. Never tried it as an FM receiver. I only wanted it to play my ipod songs and podcasts on the car radio. Even at half price this was not worth it.

I ordered this product a few weeks ago and it works great. It's powered by the iPod itself and produces a good signal for your car (or home) stereo to receive. It can be challenging (especially in a big metro area like Denver) to find an FM frequency without interference from broadcast stations. I found one, and it generally works well, although there is some minor interference from power lines.

It also works well for receiving FM in the gym I go to. I've had no issues listening to them.

My wife likes it enough that I just ordered a second one for her. It's not a perfect product (hence 4-stars), but it's very functional and comes at a great price.