Rating: Summary: Just got one; Works fine Review: I just bought the 400FM yesterday. I hooked it up to the cigarette lighter with the adapter, plugged in the CD player, chose a frequency and off we went. No problems with reception, or background noise, or anything else I can discern at this point. Perhaps I'm lucky, with a good radio in the car (it's a stock unit in my Dodge Neon; nothin' fancy) but I feel this is easier than the cassette adapter I had for one day before I returned it, because it required two connections from the CD to the dash (one for the power, one for the adapter) and I couldn't move without getting tangled in wires. I recommend this product.
Rating: Summary: Works as promised Review: I live in Minnesota, southern Twin Cities, and drive a Camery, commuting into the metro area. The product works great on 88.1, with no 'bleed in' from surrounding stations. It's not CD quality sound, but it's as good or better than the quality of any FM station. I use it to play MP3s on my iPaq. The option to use either the AAA batteries or the lighter adapter is a great touch. The only thing holding back the last star is I'd like to have seen an 'auto-off' feature to conserve the batteries. Too easy to forget to turn it off. (this isn't a problem if you use the lighter power adapter vs. batteries) Overall a very good product!
Rating: Summary: Buyer Beware! Review: 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.
Rating: Summary: IRock Rocks Review: I use the Irock to listen to books on audio that are on my Ipaq 2215 PDA. I drive a Nissan truck and I don't have any complaints. I've tried all four different station settings and each works fine. I don't live in the city so I probably don't have as many stations to compete with. I haven't had any problems with interference with the exception of when I'm using my power adapter to charge the Ipaq while driving. For some reason it picks up a lot of engine noise when I do this. So I don't do it when I'm listening to a book or MP3's. I highly recommend it.
Rating: Summary: Works nearly perfectly Review: 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.
Rating: Summary: Usable but needs work Review: I've had my iRock for a couple of years, with most of the use at the beginning. The first thing I noticed was the limited range. I performed the same antenna modification that was done by a previous reviewer to get a more solid signal in the van I was using. The reason I knew about the little white antenna wire was because the connector self destructed the second day I used it. I'm a design engineer and not one to abuse electronic equipment. This was just plain flimsy. The outer housing of the connector was one-piece with the cable sleeve. The metalic portion of the connector simply floated inside this "sleeve" and could spin, thus twisting off the tiny wires. It didn't last. I replaced it with a proper connector with appropriate strain relief and all was well. Another caution is that the large and easy to use power switch is a little too easy to use. If you pack it away, toss it in the glove compartment, etc., often you will return to find it turned on and the battery dead. All the above being said, it did work and, after the needed repairs, it did give good service.
Rating: Summary: Doesn't Work in NYC Review: I've tested this thing in the NYC area. It does work, but you get a constant hissing sound, crackling, and sometimes reception fades. Sound quality is worse than FM, and thus defeats the purpose of playing digital media through it. I gave it 2 stars because it is a nice concept, but it doesn't work in practice. Irock, try again.
Rating: Summary: No Flaws & Comes with Car Adapter Review: Its working great with My VW Passat. When I turn it on, its signal is replacing any week signal in the prescribed 4 frequencies. The 4 frequencies can be set, just by a single knob movement, which is a convenient feature. I strongly recommend it, but if the Antenna is back of the car, I don't know how it will work.
Rating: Summary: self destructed basically... Review: Never buy this. It fell apart after a few weeks, the power button got jammed inside and the switch on the side fell in also. Then it stopped getting reception and I don't even use it anymore. It's a piece.
Rating: Summary: Doesn't work Review: Picked this up on sale at Radio Shack over the weekend and was very disappointed at the quality, so I ended up returning it. First of all, the sound quality is TERRIBLE, much worse than your typical FM reception. Second, it didn't work consistently for me, and I was too lazy to try to figure out why -- this kind of thing is supposed to work out of the box. The build quality also seemed quite flimsy so even if it worked for you, it would probably break after a few weeks. If anyone knows of a better quality alternative please post here.
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