Customer Reviews

Kensington Digital FM Transmitter/Car Charger for iPod

5 star:		(234)
4 star:		(129)
3 star:		(37)
2 star:		(27)
1 star:		(29)

 

 

After I realized that I was gonna have to go the route of the FM transmitter to play my ipod in my car, I did tons of research. I must say that this unit sounds really well, if you configure it right. The first thing you need to to is set your ipod EQ to "treble reducer" or "small speakers". (I have yet to figure out why the EQ affects the sound through the dock/line out, but the volume control doesn't) The high end sounds will break up and annoy the crap out of you if you dont! Then you have to have multiple stations to work with. I find myself switching presets once every couple of car rides depending on where I go in town. I live in Louisville, KY and there are plenty of free stations which work well. While you can scroll down to 87.9 by holding down the right two preset buttons and scrolling, I have found this to be useless where I live. Stations higher in the band are overridden much easier than this one for some reason. Also, as with all fm transmitters, there will be some sound of static hiss as you crank up the volume. I find that this scares lots of people, but it really isn't that bad in the end. Ingeniously, if you turn on the air in your car to the lowest setting, it seems to match the static well and canel it out:) All in all this is a great solution for those with CD player only car stereos. The ipod is charged as you drive and you save hundreds on getting an ipod compatible stereo installed or hardwiring a connection from the back of your car stereo, which you can't even do (that I have seen) with my 2001 honda civic.

I have the Kensington 33185 in one car and the iCarPlay Plus in the other. While the iCarPlay Plus is decent, the Kensington wins out.

First, the Kensington has better reception, which I believe is largely due to it being tunable. You can set it to any station on the FM radio frequency so you get to control which station works best for you in your given area. The iCarPlay Plus has three stations pre-set and they can not be changed, so if those three are being used in your area by high-power FM stations you're out of luck. Luckily, I can use the three pre-sets in my area because there are no high-powered broadcasts on those stations already, but the Kensington still sounds better.

Second, the Kensington's controls are molded into the unit that plugs into the cigarette lighter while the iCarPlay Plus' controls are separate. This is a problem for the iCarPlay Plus because the unit tends to get flung around during sharp turns or lost between the seat and center console during normal use causing the buttons to be pressed and the station it broadcasts on to get changed. It can be very dangerous to try to find the unit again and switch the broadcasting station while driving. Since the Kensington's controls stay in place plugged snuggly into the cigarette lighter, they are always in easy reach and never get accidentally changed.

Third, I protect my iPod with iPod Armor which gives accessibility to the iPod's dock connector at the bottom of the iPod. The slot is plenty big for the standard USB and Fireware connector that Apple ships. However, the iCarPlay Plus' connector, for some unfathomable reason, is nearly twice the size of the standard connector, therefore I have to remove my iPod from the armor every time I want to use the iCarPlay Plus. This is annoying! The Kensington uses the same size connector as Apple which means that I don't have to remove my iPod from its armor so I can just plug in and drive away.

While the iCarPlay Plus is a nice unit that does work quite well, the Kensington 33185 is the overall winner based on sound quality, reception, and thoughtful engineering.

The idea of playing your iPod through your car's FM radio is a good one. And it works well if you are basically staying in one place. You can identify a frequency with no signal, set your transmitter to that, and you're fine.

However, it's very painful to use on long trips, since as you travel you move into areas where your chosen frequency is no longer empty and you begin to hear lots of static. At that point, you have to start looking around for another frequency. In a recent trip (from New England to Pittsburgh), sometimes we were lucky and didn't have to change for an hour and a half. At other times, we wound up searching for new free frequencies every 20 minutes or so. This was annoying with two of us in the car; it would have been near impossible if there was only the driver.

What one of these devices really needs is a "seek" function that works the opposite the way the radio's seek function works. The radio seeks to the next solid station. It would be great if only I could press a button and have it seek to the next clear frequency. Yes, I'd still then have to tune the radio to match, but that's not bad. It's the searching around for a free frequency that's painful.

After reading the reviews about FM transmitters I was concerned that I would be happy with this purchase. As soon as I plugged it in and found a frequency it worked perfectly. Rarely have to change frequencies in the FM crowded NY, NJ, Philadelphia region.

The sound quality is definitely not CD quality but is certainly good enough for car listening.

Highly recommended.

I've been an iPod junkie for as long as I can remember, and for as long as I can remember, I've been trying to get my iPod to work with my stock Bose stereo in my 2002 Nissan Altima. I've been through at least 3 or 4 other FM transmitters, the iTrip, Belkin Tunecast and a couple of generic ones. I live in LA, so anyone from a metropolitan area will agree with me and say they pretty much all sucked. Lots of random interference no matter what "empty" station you think you may have found and lots of "sibilance" where the "s" sounds are pronounced and fuzzy. Very annoying. I finally found a means of direct connecting my iPod to my stock Bose stereo about a year ago and I was incredibly happy with the sound. THen about 2 months ago, my car was broken into and my STOCK stereo was stolen (in addition to other things). After it was replaced by the bodyshop, the newer stock stereo did NOT have the ability for a direct connection, and sadly, VERY sadly, I lost my direct iPod connection. Needless to say, in my desperation, I began looking at reviews at some of the newer FM transmitters, and found an overwhelmingly positive average for this Kensington and decided to give it a shot. As other reviewers here will tell you, I was BLOWN away by the sound quality! (you MUST set the iPods EQ to "Treble Reducer" though, it get's rid of the sibilance completely). Choosing 88.3 as the frequency, there's VERY minimal background static that's almost non-existant once the car is on and in motion. The sound is darn near that of my lost direct connection, and dare I say, BETTER than FM radio! No kidding! I've driven through all of LA with it, and have yet to hear any static interruption. I will agree with some of the other reviewers here in that if you move the connector to the ipod, it will sometimes cause static noise, but it's rare, and ONLY happens if you're fiddling with it. Great great unit. Highly recommended.

This transmitter has worked great for the past two months. I live in Phoenix, AZ and drive a 2004 Acura TL. I pluged the transmitter into my car's power outlet, tuned my radio to a blank FM frequency and set the memory buttons on both my radio and the transmitter to match. I then plugged in my Ipod and got great sound. I did the same thing with a GMC Yukon and also got great results.

Very easy to use, great sound and almost no interference. Twice in two months I did get interference with another FM station but it lasted less than a minute. I also like not having an Ipod holder. I set my Ipod on the console between my front seats so I can pick it up to look at it or make changes.

I am quite satisfied with my purchase.

This was my second attempt at playing my Ipod through the car radio. The first was one of those casette tape things which did not work at all. Once bitten and all that.

Now, two years later and my sister tells me this is the best thing since sliced bread. Tried hers out in my car and it worked like a charm.

I only use this when I drive any distance - around town the radio is fine for me. So I do spend a few moments every hour or so finding a new frequency to bring the sound quality back up to standard. Not too tough, even for a tech-rookie like me.

I like the fact that it charges while you listen - I have used a car charger since I got the Ipod, but this only requires one cord and I get to listen and power-up!

I have not had to make any of the obscure adjustments mentioned in some of the reviews - maybe the quality would be better if I did. Or maybe the high quality sound system that came with my car compensates for those issues. As it is, I plug it in, pick what play list I am in the mood for and head down the road.

I purchased this for my wife who is NOT a gadget person. She has been using it for a month and been very happy with it. As some other reviews have indicated there is some detectible static but it's actually less than most of the live radio stations in our area (SW NH).

I wanted something that was simple to use and did a reasonable job. This has met those requirements well.

I love my ipod and had been intrigued by the FM transmitter/ chargers on the market, but the reviews were ALWAYS bad. So, I convinced myself that a seperate charger and cludgy cassette adapter was my only way to use it in my car (especially in my LARGE metro area).

Well, I gambled on this since I wanted a charger of my own rather than to keep stealing my wifes, and the gamble paid off!

Plugged it in at a stoplight, scrolled through my radio til I found a setting with nothing, scrolled through the device to match that frequency, plugged in the ipod and it was just like I was listening to the CD version of a song I'd been listening to before I got stopped at the light.

This IS THE REAL DEAL. (My wife is going to be SO jealous)

I usually write long winded reviews, but I think I can keep this a little bit breif for the people who are into that kind of thing. Bottom line: THIS PRODUCT DOES WHAT IT IS SUPPOSED TO. It does what it says, it works, I don't know how else to put it. Is it flawless? No- no FM transmitter will be, it's just the limit of the technology that you'll get interference and you need an open channel/station. If you don't want that, then get a wired solution. If you want a product that you can use to play your IPOD on your radio, without wiring it in, then this is the best, most practical solution. You also get the added benefit of being able to take it from car-to-car and it charges your IPOD while you use it. Great deal.

Now for some more detail, if you are into that kind of thing:

Another nice thing about this model, over others, is that if you are concerned about finding an "open" FM station, this little device gives you the ability to "step" through the stations by 0.1 increments. Stations usually only go up by 0.2 increments as they are broadcast on FM anyway, but in short this means that if there is ANY station that is open, you can find it and use it. It will also remember 3 stations for you- so you can set your favorite three if you like. Some other tuners don't have any options for which station you use, and if they do they are limited. This is the most flexible device in this aspect, that I have found.

Some people made comments about the blue light- It isn't all that bright. However, for safety, organization, and convenience, I have utilized a setup which places my FM Transmitter inside of my center console, so I don't really see this light all that much.

Quality- Even with this device encased inside my center console, it works GREAT. The signal is perfect 95% of the time and never needs any adjustment, so I just plug the IPOD in and go. I don't even have to worry about changing stations. I do travel a lot though, and have gone from Cape Cod to Boston to New Hampshire to Connecticut (almost NY) and to RI with this device. If I ever start to get interference (which does happen- especially near the bigger cities), I just scroll through until I find an open station and in less than a minute I am up and running again. I cannot recall a time when I couldn't find a decent signal. Maybe once or twice with some minor interference, similar to listening to a radio station that is in range but getting some interference here and there.

At first I was concerned about putting it in my center console because I couldn't see the display, couldn't easily reach the buttons to change stations, and may get less than optimal reception. As it turns out, I rarely have to change stations at all because the reception is great, so none of this is a problem.

If you want a quality FM Transmitter, you will be happy with this one. I haven't tried any others out there, so you may be happy with another too, but I KNOW this one works. I have bought one for my mom, my girlfriend, and a friend now. 4 total and no complaints. If you have to spend an extra $20 for quality, it'll be worth it.