I bought the Griffin iTrip, the previous magic bullet for this problem, having been seduced by its coolness. The iTrip also lets you choose any FM station you want, but to select a station you play a “song”–a track that generates inaudible tones, tones that cause the attached iTrip to start broadcasting on a given frequency. So, to use the iTrip, you must first install a raft of “songs”: 89.1, 89.3, etc., etc.
The big problem is that changing stations takes several seconds. So if you have to hunt around the dial for a clear channel, it takes a long time. Do this on a road trip, and you’ll be halfway to Sacramento before you actually get some music.
This Belkin gizmo seems to deal with this problem. Looks like you select the station in an analog fashion, while the iPod is playing. So you get feedback right away on how good your frequency selection is.
But anyway, now I don’t need one. I wound up getting a slightly better car stereo and spending $10 extra for an auxiliary-input cable. I just plug in the iPod and life is good. This option turned out to be surprisingly inexpensive.
As a special bonus, the new CD player plays CDs full of MP3s. So a lot of times I just burn a CD with 10 hours or so of music and leave the iPod at home. Scandalous!
Of course, that only works because I rip my own MP3’s from CDs I own. I do not use this newfangled “iTunes Music Store” that the young heathens are so lathered up about these days.
August 11th, 2004 at 6:40 am
I bought the Griffin iTrip, the previous magic bullet for this problem, having been seduced by its coolness. The iTrip also lets you choose any FM station you want, but to select a station you play a “song”–a track that generates inaudible tones, tones that cause the attached iTrip to start broadcasting on a given frequency. So, to use the iTrip, you must first install a raft of “songs”: 89.1, 89.3, etc., etc.
The big problem is that changing stations takes several seconds. So if you have to hunt around the dial for a clear channel, it takes a long time. Do this on a road trip, and you’ll be halfway to Sacramento before you actually get some music.
This Belkin gizmo seems to deal with this problem. Looks like you select the station in an analog fashion, while the iPod is playing. So you get feedback right away on how good your frequency selection is.
But anyway, now I don’t need one. I wound up getting a slightly better car stereo and spending $10 extra for an auxiliary-input cable. I just plug in the iPod and life is good. This option turned out to be surprisingly inexpensive.
As a special bonus, the new CD player plays CDs full of MP3s. So a lot of times I just burn a CD with 10 hours or so of music and leave the iPod at home. Scandalous!
Of course, that only works because I rip my own MP3’s from CDs I own. I do not use this newfangled “iTunes Music Store” that the young heathens are so lathered up about these days.
August 12th, 2004 at 5:04 pm
You are shameless Belkin-Apple-shill!! Is matter only of signal strength, boost output and no problem.