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Sonic Impact Wireless FM Music Adapter

Sonic Impact Wireless FM Music Adapter

List Price: $17.99
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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Awful In Every Way
Review: -- The audio quality is nowhere near good enough.<br />-- The modulation (sound level) is low no matter what you feed it; it will distort before it ever gets up to a decent level.<br />-- The left channel is approximately 80% lower than the right.<br />-- What there is of the left channel lacks mids and highs.<br />-- The right channel lacks lows.<br />-- There might be phase issues.<br />-- Signal level was weak and noisy from only 2-3 feet away.<br />-- After testing with multiple sources, the SI-Link was completely unacceptable for any intended use with any source.<br />-- Return policy does not allow returns for simply not liking the product; even if you were permitted to return it, you would be unable to return it in "like-new, sellable" condition because opening it destroys the packaging.<br />-- Sonic Impact has no warranty whatsoever on the product, the package, or the company website.<br /><br />Undoubtedly the most wasteful purchase I have ever made. Buy only if you're comfortable running the same amount of cash through a shredder.<br />Choose another way or another product!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Improving Sonic Impact performance
Review: A small modification to the Sonic Impact 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 Sonic Impact 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 Sonic Impact antenna can be taped right next to the cars radio antenna for optimum reception of Sonic Impact transmitted signal.
Some electromechanical MP3 players produce high frequency noise which causes annoying hissing sounds in a vehicle application of the Sonic Impact. 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 Sonic Impact.
These modifications should provide the clear reception expected be the user, and is good alternative to cassette type adapters.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Works well for me
Review: I have the Sonic Impact and it works great for me. I have used both in my car and at home (I have a Tivoli radio, too which I love). It works well for me even though there are stations in the 88.1 - 88.7 range. It simply overpowers the stations. One thing that you must do is keep the volume on your MP3 player up as loud as you can without distorting the signal. On my Rio player that is almost to the maximum level. If you don't turn it up, it won't transmit a good signal to any radio.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Didn't work for me but it might for you
Review: I use a cassette adapter with my MP3 player in the car, but was hoping to have something I could use in the house that would let me keep the MP3 player close by for skipping songs, pausing, picking albums, and changing the volume. Wiring the MP3 directly into the stereo I had to get up any time I wanted to do those things.

This unit is small, inexpensive, widely available and doesn't add a tangle of additional cords. It is powered by 2 AAA batteries that are not included and does not have a jack for a DC adapter. It is suspiciously similar looking to the iRock 300w, certainly just a rebranded twin (in fact the Belkin Tunecast may be repackaged version of this unit as well).

On the way home from the store it actually worked pretty well in the car even though in Atlanta a reasonably powerful college station sits at 88.5, right in the middle of its four possible settings (88.1, 88.3, 88.5, and 88.7). I noticed a little static at 88.1 and when I turned the unit off I could hear a scratchy NPR station (maybe in Columbus?). I got some more interference in an isolated spot on the drive home, but for the most part it sounded good.

But at home I tried the device with two different home stereo units and couldn't get a clear signal on either even though I was less than ten feet away. In both cases 88.5 seemed to be to blame. One of those stereos has an external FM antenna and one doesn't. I tried again with my Tivoli radio and it got a scratchy signal due to 88.5 as well.

So it doesn't work for me and I will have to send it back. It is worth trying in your area and maybe you'll get better results. I think it might work better if I was just further from downtown. Other units have a wider selection of frequencies they can play on and that might have helped on this one as well.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: not good
Review: The range it transmits is good, reach 10+ meters.<br />But mine has a little problem, the left channel doesn't work and I have to exchange the item...<br /><br />With the only working right channel, the sound quality is very good.


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