Opinions: Ipod car radio adapter thingies

[joflier]

Does anyone have/use a radio tuner adapter thingy for their ipod in the car? I bought a $30 Belkin one today, and it's just a lot of static. I'm wondering if there is a better brand, or if the more costly versions have a higher frequency power?

 

[kenny]

I tried to use one here near Los Angeles and I had the same problem.

When I returned it they told me those things work poorly in cities where there are so many radio stations crowding the dial that there is little unused bandwidth for them to use.

I hear they work well far from big cities, but unfortunately that does not stop them from being sold in big cities.

Does your car have a mini-jack for audio?
If so that will probably work better.

 

[pinkstars]

I use one up here in Alaska. It's great, but that does make sense about not working in an actual city. We've used it on road trips down in the lower 48 and it's worked well. I don't know what brand mine is, I'll have to look at that later.

 

[sillyberry]

I recently bought this item off amazon LCD Screen Display,New FM Transmitter/Car charger/Holder/Car Mount For all iPhones (includes iPhone 3Gs), iPods (all generations) + Remote Control. Even with shipping it is super cheap. I'm using it in Chicago.

I've found the sound quality is better than my old Griffin iTrip (which I only replaced because I lost it while traveling), but it is UGLY and CLUNKY and my iPod nano v5 doesn't stay in it securely at all. So I might start over...

 

[shihtzulover]

I had one. It worked fine for me, but I don't live in a big city. Once I got near larger cities, it didn't work as well.

Then I met my FF, and he told me that I could buy an adapter to use through my cassette player (yes, that's what I have, because my car used to be my grandmother's, and she didn't care much about music). Now I use that, and it works great - but I will definitely get the built in ipod thing when I get a new car in the future.

 

[Brown.Eyed.Girl]

I heard some pretty bad things about radio tuners (lots of static, as you reported). I prefer a minijack too. I wish I hadn't gotten rid of mine in my grand move-out throw-things-away week.

 

[shai_lopez611]

My fiance uses an itrip one. It works great, except when we get to downtown its gets crazy. He's had it for a few years. We lost it once, and replaced it with a different one but it didn't work. Luckily we found the old one. We're in the DFW area.

 

[TooPatient]

We use aGrom

It works great. We've got a USB connection and the aux jack for iPods (and more stuff).
No static since it goes through the radio. We're even able to put our music on a usb thumb drive and play it that way.

 

[elrohwen]

I have one that generally works ok in the 88.5-88.9 tuning range. I live near NYC. Granted, I don't use it in NYC proper - only in the suburbs (I generally listen to regular radio if I'm going to drive into NYC). It works far better out in the country, as you'd expect.

My car has a tape player (oh the horror!) and I much prefer my old school adapter that plugs into the tape player. Do they make those for cd players?

 

[sparklyheart]

I use the griffin itrip and haven't had any problems. I live in the DFW area and frequently drive through downtown Dallas and Fort Worth. I have also used it in NYC, Memphis, Little Rock, Austin, and Houston as well without problems.

 

[LGK]

I had a more expensive one because I asked my friends and that was the one that most agreed worked best.

It worked fabulously in my old Focus. (And we are near a big city).

Oddly enough in the RX8 it sucks. Static all the way. I have no clue what the difference is!

 

[joflier]

Unfortunately my car doesn't have an auxillary jack. That's why I'm stuck with the radio tuners. Maybe I'll try the itrip. I live in the Green Bay area. It's not really a BIG city, like Chicago or NYC.......Thanks for the input, all!