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Rating: 
Summary: Excellent FM Transmitter
Review: Before I write my review, I want to say that this is my first review here on Amazon.com. Well I guess I must be way out of the loop here as I just discovered this type of a device, a way of connecting audio devices to your car without the need for the conventional cassette car adapter. I've been looking at these things for a few days now and decided that I was going to go with the Belkin TuneCast II Mobile FM Transmitter from Best Buy. I go there only to find they didn't have any, so I decided I'd get this one instead, which surprisingly, (at least not at the time of this review), wasn't listed on their web site, So before I left I bought along my Sony Walkman with a few tapes I love listening to so that I could test this thing out when I got it. As the instructions say, insert the RadioPlay in to your cigarette lighter, connect the mini headphone jack in to your portable device, select the FM station you want the sound to come through, select the same FM channel on your RadioPlay and your good to go. Living here in Maine, USA there are no stations on 88.1, (I checked before I bought this and you should too). There is an 88.3 which is clear as a bell but there is nothing coming in on 88.1, so I chose this as my default station, (I didn't test the others). Turning the sound all the way up on my Walkman I was able to hear it coming through the speakers, and boy is it cool! Using my CD player I was able to adjust the bass, treble and volume accordingly to get the best sound, and it's very good. Some people complain you hear static noise coming from the speakers, while this is true, (it doesn't block this), it plays over the top of it and unless your playing a ballad or listening to speech, this won't be a problem, the static noise was quiet anyway, so for me it wasn't a big deal. The sound highly depends on your car stereo setup, the clarity of the recording and I'm sure your audio device would have something to do with it. I do have an MP3 player but I didn't test this, I would probably say that if your MP3s are at 320Kbps, 44Kz Stereo, you could probably get it sounding at 128Kbps with a little less clarity. If you could get CD sound or close to it, you'll just hear a bit of static in the background, (particially with songs that don't have many instruments or as I said ealier, ballads / speech). On the packaging, it doesn't state what the range is, so I'm not sure if for example, the person driving behind you could pick it up, they might be able to, but it probably wouldn't be all that clear, no big deal. Overall, this thing rocks, I can't wait to test this out with some other tapes and my MP3 player, absolutely well worth it!
Rating: 
Summary: I remember when "Monster" stood for quality
Review: Ever since Monster decided to mass-market everything that they possibly could, their quality has been steadily declining. This product doesn't even live up to what I expect from a budget brand.
The transmission strength seems very low, it seems very hard for the car's radio to lock onto the signal. Even after managing to get the car's stereo to tune in properly, there is considerable hiss and distortion. In addition to that, the sound level is very low, so you need to crank your car stereo volume way up, which only amplifies the background hiss and distortions more.
I replaced with with a Belkin Tunecast II. The signal from it is clearer (almost as clear as a regular broadcast radio station), stronger, and louder. All around a better device.
Rating: 
Summary: The car's antenna seems to matter here.
Review: I rented a couple of cars with standard whip antenna and it seemed to work ok - thought there was more background hiss than I would like though. Moreso than a cassette adapter.
My crown victoria, with antennain the windshield gives poor reception, compared to off-air radio. Since I listen to classical music (quiet passages) it's a bit tedious.
Aalso the restriction on number of tunable channels is less-than-desirable. In urban areas all the pre-sets may be taken.
If I paid about $25 forthe thing I'd say it was a reasonable deal, but not worth the $50 CompUSA price.
Sales guy recommended it - next time I'm buying where there's no restocking fee!
Rating: 
Summary: Not as good as I'd hoped!
Review: I'm a Monster Cable fan from their early days. I decided to try this item for my new 2005 Subaru Legacy because I'm not ready to take apart the center console to get to the radio to install a permanent hardwired FM modulator.
Prior to trying this unit, I bought an I-Rock clone unit called Si-Link that only runs on 2 AAA batteries. That $20 unit worked better for me than this unit did.
Here's how I determined which unit I was happier with:
Match the frequencies on both the modulator and the radio. Plug in the source unit (an MP3 player in my case) but leave it off. Turn the radio volume up all the way and move the unit around until noise is eliminated as much as possible. Repeat with other unit but be sure to test only one unit at a time.
I never could get the Monster Cable unit as quiet as the Si-Link unit. There was a noticeable difference with the Monster Cable unit never seeming to really lock in to the desired frequency. A slight hiss is to be expected, but this unit was noisier and less "stable" it seemed.
I also noticed a tendancy for the audio to have more low frequncy bias than the Si-Link. The Si-Link sounded cleaner even though I suspect that the Left and Right channels are reversed.
Regrettably, I'm disappointed in the Monster Cable unit.
Tonight I'm trying an XM Universal Audio Adaptor and found that it's doing fairly well. $30 for the XM unit and about 15 minutes to modify it for use WITHOUT an XM receiver. (Involves soldering a wire between two points on the circuit board.)
It's nearly as quiet as the Si-Link but is powered by the Cigarette lighter. I might have found the unit I'll stick with for a while!
Rating:
Summary: Monsterosity
Review: Now that my faithful old car cassette receiver won't stop reversing tape direction, I haven't been able to use a cassette adapter for my mp3 player. So I tried this Monster FM Transmitter, and I'm sorry to say the sound is nowhere near as good as the cassette adapter. The frequency response is good, but unfortunately there's beaucoup de noise and harmonic distortion as well. Loud rock music doesn't suffer too badly, but if you're a lover of classical music or acoustic jazz, I doubt you'll find this rig very listenable. For a company known for its high-end cable products, Monster also seems to have very poor customer support, if my experience is any indication. I am still awaiting a reply to my email asking how to improve the unit's reception to minimize distortion. Does any company make a car CD receiver with a stereo miniplug input for mp3 players? That would be ideal! Otherwise, if you have a cassette receiver, get a cassette adapter; if you have a CD receiver... well, the Monster won't make you very happy...
Rating:
Summary: VERY quiet signal, lots of interference
Review: This thing is really, really lame. The signal is extremely, extremely quiet. I have to turn up my stereo twice as high as normal to get the music 2/3rds as loud, with a bunch of static (on every station I try) to boot. If I'm using this thing, and I switch to a normal radio station or my CD player without turning the volume back down first, I have no doubt that my speakers would be blown. Monster Cable is supposed to be high quality (although waaaaaaaay overpriced); this item is just another knock in my declining perception of the company.
This is the second FM transmitter I've tried with my iPod, and they've both sucked. I'm pretty much convinced that I have to either get a tape adapter (which means getting a new car stereo that has a tape deck...) or find an iPod-integration solution like what's available on BMW's (which also means getting a new car stereo...) if I want to get decent sound from my iPod to my car stereo.
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