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64 of 64 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Best FM adapter yet, but it's still an FM adapter..., March 15, 2004
Of all the ways to plug an iPod into your car stereo, an FM transmitter is the worst, sound-quality-wise. A good line in to your aux input will, without exception, yield better sound. However, if this is too daunting a procedure, or if you lack a standard aux input (or the ability to add one -- my situation), the iCarPlay is an excellent product. I have used the Belkin Tunedock, the Transpod, and the iTrip, and iCarPlay manages to be the best solution among them.Compared to other FM transmitters, the iCarPlay has a number of design advantages: It is powered from your car's DC adapter (a.k.a. the cigarette lighter plug), so you don't have to worry about batteries (as with the Belkin transmitter). Unlike other transmitters which are car-powered, this one also has a pass-through to recharge your iPod while it plays. The iCarPlay and Transpod are the only two products which provide this sort of integration. Controls on the device are simple: A button switches between the available frequencies (which are limited, so if you're in an area where all the low-band FM stations are taken up, you will get very poor quality sound), and a red LED notes which frequency you're on. The LEDs are bright enough to let you (barely) read the station on the device at night. Other than that, you just plug it into your car and into your iPod and control your iPod as normal. Physically, the iCarplay is adequately well made, but for such an expensive product, it feels a little too "plasticy" for my tastes, and seems that it could easily crack if abused. Compared to the flawless and solid plastics of the iTrip, it seems downright chintzy, although certainly no more so than the Belkin adapter. The iCarPlay's longish cable proves to be an advantage, as you can pick up the iPod and change songs, without losing transmission. I wouldn't mind a longer cable, but already, the 3' or so provided sometimes gets tangled up on the shift stick, so I'm not sure that would be ideal. The cable is long enough for most use. Signal strength is excellent, better than any other transmitter I've used, and it can usually overwhelm the transmission of any not-quite-received stations, and even makes a good effort at coming in over a local FM station, although the interference is severe when it does this. There's a certain amount of FM "hiss" when it plays, which seems more pronounced than that of other transmitters (particularly the iTrip which has an amazingly clear transmission, but a comparatively weak signal). The hiss isn't enough to bother me, with my poor factory stereo speakers, and again, if you're really serious about audio quality, you'll use a line in of some sort. Placing the transmitter as far away from the radio as possible (the DC jack in the hatchback of my Subaru -- a good 6'+ away) did not impair the signal quality. In the end, the iCarPlay offers an elegant and practical way to play my iPod in my car. It's priced a little high, but there's only one other device that comes close (the TransPod) and it's even more expensive and, to my mind, less useful. Still, for $70, you can easily add an aux jack to most stereos (except car factory stereos), and for a little more you could buy a low-end head unit with a built-in aux input. But, if you can't stand to take your dashboard apart, this will get the job done and do it with a minimum of fuss.
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