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Griffin Technology iTrip FM Audio Transmitter for 3G Apple iPods (dockable iPod)

Griffin Technology iTrip FM Audio Transmitter for 3G Apple iPods (dockable iPod)

List Price: $42.99
Your Price: $37.54
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: pleasantly suprised
Review: I've seen a lot of bad reviews about this product but I'd have to say that it doesn't deserve it. The itrip has decent reception--about as well as any other FM station--especially when you have a car charger or some other way of supplying power to the ipod, the signal seems to be even clearer. It can be a little bit tricky to set the station in the first place (so obviously don't plan on doing it while youre driving) but once you've set it it's fine. I live about 15 min outside of DC, and i don't have any problems finding a signal. Itrip gives you PLENTY of stations to choose from. And best of all--you can use the itrip to play your ipod on other stereos, not just in your car like some other ipod transmitters. Since i don't have a cassette deck in my car, this is the best combination of quality and cost that lets me play my ipod in my car. Worth the money (mine was cheaper than amazon--www.everythingipod.com)

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Update: things better now.
Review: Griffin has updated their software for the iTrip. The website is user-friendly and the install is very simple. The device works somewhat better now, though a lot will depend upon how you use it. In a car, if the unit is very far from the antenna (not the radio) or if you have heavily tinted or thick window glass, it won't be good enough for clear stereophonic differentiation.

My earlier review:
The design looks nice and it fits well into the 2nd gen iPod, but the functionality is not too good. With PC based machines, the software does not work and the documentation is useless. A call to their tech support folks did solve that problem, but what you're left with is a transmitter whose quality rivals that of an AM radio. Not cool.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Works great with my iPod mini!
Review: Very clear on the defalt station as well as many others, but as it seems from some of the reviews, ultra-urban areas may have difficulty finding useable stations. I was pretty amazed, Tiny but powerful. The best advice for me was on a previous review that said to turn the volume of your ipod down and then adjust the volume on your stereo up if the bass comes in funky ('cuz it did at first). You might just have to play around with it to get the best sound, but for me there was little to no distortion in the silent parts and the songs seem to have the same fullness as if coming from an actual FM station.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Works fine for me....
Review: I got this as the tape player in my car was broken so it would not accept those cassette adapters. I was nervous seeing the reviews, but I thought I'd give it a go as the car and work are the only place I listen to my ipod -- two place with only radio access.

I am in upstate NY with not HUGE amounts of radio and I use the default 87.9 with no problems at all. It depends on where I set it -- but it seems to work fine sitting on the dashboard. In fact! It DOES work fine on the dashboard. Every once and a while I get a bit of static -- but not so that it bothers me.

IT's not perfect, but it is, in my opinion, a very good product.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Well, it works, sort of anyway
Review: This thing is a real disapointment. Yes, it does work but badly. Even after finding a free frequency (not easy here in the north east) the transmition and reception are marginal at best. No where near close to quality sound. I plugged in the cassette adapter from my old cd walkman and the ipod sounded fabulous that way in the car. Thankfully I didn't dump tons of money into it.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Not the greatest design especially for urban use
Review: I have had this product for approximately two weeks and have used it in both an urban environment and also in long distance travel and as far as I am concerned it is a dud. If you happen to be lucky enough to find a station where there is no interference from another signal, the itrip does indeed work. I have encountered this for at most a half an hour on a three hour journey. What generlly happens is that other stations will interfere with the station that you are listening on as you are driving. The sound quality decreases and then becomes unlistenable. In and around Boston where I am from, I have yet to find a good station. It would be great if Griffin would put up a list of channels in various regions that are good for broadcasting on. I still have hope that I can find a station to listen on without interference, but my hopes are diminishing.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: iTrip
Review: I think once you download the city finder from griffin it's real easy to get excellent reception. I had a hard time at first getting it to work well, but after looking at the city finder it was much better with the recomended stations for your area.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Works for me!
Review: I read many reviews about the iTrip and other FM transmitters. After concluding that this might be the best one, I bought one today. I tried it out and was pleasantly surprised that it worked like a charm! I did some pre-scouting on my radio and found a suitable channel. To my delight it worked on the first try. There is a small amount of noise on the quietest parts of the music but this is covered up when the engine is turned on. Since I don't expect audiophile quality in my car I am very satisfied with the performance of this unit. After reading so many hit or miss reviews, I am glad that it works for me but I realize that it may not work at all for others. For the record I have a 98 Jetta with a 5-year old Alpine CD player. I would recommend this product to anyone with reasonable expectations for an FM transmitter and with the capability to return the unit if it doesn't work for them.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Good idea, subpar sound quality, even in ideal conditions.
Review: I bought this item because it is well designed and makes use of the iPod in a car very simple and elegant. When I first used it, however, I was very disappointed. I searched all over the bandwidth for a relatively open station, which was hard to begin with. Mind you, Raleigh isn't the biggest city in the country by any stretch of the imagination, so imagine using this in a denser city.

Once I tuned the iTrip to the appropriate station, which was easy to do, the sound from the iPod came through relatively clear, but not near CD-quality at all - there was always some underlying hiss. Once I started driving, any hint of an overriding station would cause interference. Also, if I moved the iPod around at all, the radio would lose reception of it quite remarkably.

In short, I found it much more useful to wire the iPod directly to the head unit - the sound is much clearer and there's nothing to worry about with losing reception as you drive around. This can be done several ways:

1 - Buy a head unit with a pre-amp (aux) input, in the the front or the rear of the head unit. These are becoming incresingly more common and inexpensive, and allow for great sound and ease of use. I use one now, and it's fantastic.

2 - If your head unit has a CD Changer control and you don't use a CD changer, get an adapter (from Blitzsafe or other manufacturer) that allows you to plug any aux audio source into your CD changer port on your head unit. These are cheaper than buying a whole new head unit, but may require a little more effort to install. With some adjustments (mostly volume adjustments on the iPod and head unit), the sound quality will be perfect.

3 - Install an RF modulator that connects in-line with the antenna to the existing head unit. This provides a hard-wired solution for playing your iPod through the radio, and has excellent sound. These are also cheaper than buying a whole new head unit and also require a little more effort to install, and may carry a slight degradation of sound quality. This degradation is trivial though, and the sound will be much better than anything like the iTrip.

4 - If you have a cassette player, just use one of those cassette adapters with a plug on the end. Not the prettiest solution, but they work fine, are easy to use, and are very inexpensive.

Conclusion - don't waste your time on the iTrip or any products like it, unless sound quality is not your priority, and/or you live in a very sparsely populated area.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Don't Bother.
Review: If you live in an area with a lot of radio stations, you will not get good reception. The selection of stations is good, and it couldn't be easier to load, but the clarity suffers if there are no range of stations to use.


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