Customer Reviews

irock! Beamit Wireless Music Adapter (400FM)

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(14)
1 star:		(22)

 

 

Actually, I'd like to give the iRock a rating of 3.5 stars, but settled on 3 stars.

I bought the iRock to go with my 40GB iPod. Overall, I'm quite happy with it. Here are the plusses:

*easy to use/install
*small (takes up only a little space)
*coiled power cord (helps!)
*uses very little power (with the batteries)
*reception is quite good on all 4 settings in a medium/large metro area (Twin Cities, Minnesota) with a lot of radio stations

Here's the minus: I was disappointed in the clarity of sound produced by the iRock. I don't know if the decreased clarity is due to the iRock or my car stereo (an Alpine in my Honda CRV), but the sound produced by the iRock simply isn't as good as the sound I get listening to the iPod with a cheap pair of headphones. If the clarity was a bit better I'd probably give the product 4 to 5 stars.

[I have discovered that I can improve the clarity of sound if I keep the volume on my iPod low and use the car stereo to adjust the volume. The clarity is 'fine,' but isn't great.]

Arg...I bought me this nice little gadget to use with my new iRiver iHP-120 MP3 player. It's small and light and comes with a coiled cigarette lighter power adapter (top selling feature for me). A red led indicates that the unit is on. It can transmit on one of four selectable frequencies. Choose the frequency with the least noise and you're golden. It packs away nicely in my armrest storage or glove compartment.

I found that the quality of the reception depends greatly on the quality of the car stereo picking up the transmission. I find that in my Civic the reception is a little scratchy, but still very listenable. In my wife's Contour, parked next to my Civic, the reception is near perfect.

Here's a hint for those of us without EE degrees interested in boosting the quality of transmission. The antenna is the wire that attaches to the headphone jack of the music player. If you add an additional couple feet with a headphone cord extension, you'll get a stronger signal. Just don't tell the FCC.

I'm using this in my car and it works great. I originally bought a Soundfeeder SF100 to use in my car, and had so many problems with it that I decided to buy the iRock 400 FM. The iRock works much better, I haven't had any problems with it. The reception is good, I never hear any static. The stereo separation and sound quality are good, it's almost full CD quality. And I've never had any problems with the frequency drifting, even when my car has been out in the bitter cold all day and I first turn it on.

The frequency selection is kinda limited on this product (either 88.1, 88.3, 88.5, or 88.7 MHz). But I've found that even if you set it to a frequency that there is a radio station on, if you've got the transmitter close to your antenna (10 feet or so), there are no interference problems.

I would highly recommend this for use in a car.

A small modification to the IROCK 400FM, is needed in order to improve performance. Signal strength is inversely proportional to the square of the distance of the transmitting antenna to the receiving antenna, so the closer are the antennas to each other, signal strength can be considerably improved. The transmitting antenna of the IROCK 400FM is located within the audio cable, and to access this white wire, it is a simple matter of cutting about a 1½ inch slit along the sleeve near the stereo connector. Be careful not to damage the wires within the sleeve, and about one inch of the white wire can be pulled out. Attach about two feet of wire to the end of the white antenna wire so it can be placed in close proximity to the receiving antenna. In most cars, the radio antenna is imbedded within the rear window above the defroster, and the extended IROCK 400FM antenna can be taped right next to the cars radio antenna for optimum reception of IROCK 400FM transmitted signal.
Some electromechanical MP3 players produce high frequency noise which causes annoying hissing sounds in a vehicle application of the IROCK 400FM. This can be eliminated by using a Radio Shack AUDIO SYSTEM GROUND LOOP ISOLATOR (p/n 270-054) between the MP3 player output audio connector, and the input connector for the IROCK 400FM .
These modifications should provide the clear reception expected by the user, and is good alternative to cassette type adapters.

I purchased the iRock for use with my iPod and i have been nothing but disappointed.
I live in Chicago and all the 4 frequencies the iRock uses are assigned to radio stations so in the city i rarely get a good signal from the iRock. Except when i go through a tunnel and the existing radio stations are cut out. I can't however spend all my driving time in a tunnel.
I have used it once when i drove out of the city and out of the range of 1 of the radio stations. Even then the sound quality I would describe as a sub par FM station. Especially when i turned on a bass heave rap song, every time the bass hit the sound was drowned in static.
Also I have used in several different cars and i will say that it is very dependant on your car. In my Mercedes, this piece of equipment is completely worthless. In my Cooper S it is tolerable. I got one for my daughter's Civic and it had the best reception. I spoke with a friend who is does electrical engineering and he said different cars have different amounts of shielding based on the thickness of the body panels. Which serve many purposes, such as keeping our road noise. of course it also keeps the signals in and unable to reach the antenna outside the car.
ITs not terrible but its not amazing and i would not recomend it.

It's sounds great for a FM transmitter. Beware I bought 3 of them, each time one of the channels would go out. Usually in less than a week. I liked the sound so much I even made up a splint type thing for the cord. Nothing works. Irock if you read these reviews then answer this. Why would you make the cord so flexible if it was going to cause it to malfunction?
I would pay ten dollars more if the thing would last!

Got the Belkin digital one (not the 4 station preset one) and it doesn't sound as good. BUT IT WORKS FOR MORE THAN A WEEK!!!!

It is plain and simple, I bought two of them, and neither went for more than a month. I have a Belkin now, and it is lasting me for more than a year. Don't waist your money, buy Belkin

I owned this product. I would never recommend it or purchase it again. I ended up throwing it away. Why? The sound quality is weak and terrible. What's the point of listening to music, only to make it sound like it's coming out of an AM transistor radio? Plus, it was clumsy and bulky, and the cig lighter adapter made it even more so.

I ending up buying an AUX adapter for my car's stereo, and I plug my MP3 player into that. The sound is INFINITELY better, and there's no batteries to run out, or cig lighter adapters to mess with.

I bought one of these things so that I could play my MP3's from my computer to all of the radios throughout the house. It works great! I hooked it up to my computer and set win amp to play my 3000 or so MP3's. Turn on the radio in the house or garage and voila!

I found the range to be more than 30 feet. I live on 5 acres and cut my grass with a little Sony headphone radio. I pick up my computer about 50% of the time (about 100 ft away). It's so cool to listen commercial free. I see some people live in NYC having some difficulties. HA! That's why I live out in the country!

Also, it's not truly a stereo unit. I did some experiments and transmitted only one channel, but you could still hear both left and right coming out of the speakers. I contacted the manufacturer and they said there is only an 8 dB separation. This means that if you transmit only the left channel, your radio will play the left channel in both the left and right speakers (only the right speaker will have a slightly lower volume). Most people will not notice this, but if you want true stereo, this isn't it.

I highly recommend. I didn't give it 5 stars because the construction was somewhat flimsy and it's not true stereo.

The iRock works fine for me. I got mine yesterday and put it through its paces -- using a Rio Sport S35 MP3 player and the stock CD/radio in my 2002 Saturn SL1. The first thing I noticed is that if I put the Rio and the iRock together back-to-back in the nook between seats standing on end, so the wire connecting them (as another writer said, this is the antenna) forms a loop in the air, transmission is perfect. Laying the wire flat isn't very effective and is rather fuzzy. (NPR broadcasts at 88.1 and 88.5 in this area, so I chose 88.3 and was impressed that when the iRock is turned on the radio goes totally silent!) The sound is perfectly clear, like I was playing a CD. Yes, the volume of the radio and the device have to be cranked (setting 18 on the Rio, half a turn on the radio) because devices like that were meant for use with lower-ohm-requirement earphones, but it's digital sound so it can handle being raised like that without distortion. YMMV depending on device, of course. I'm very impressed with the product and recommend it.