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Griffin Technology iTrip FM Audio Transmitter for The following report compares gadgets using the SERCount Rating (base on the result count from the search engine). |
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POPULAR HAT - 2005-03-05 06:25:00 | © Copyright 2004 - www.hat.net () | sitemap | top |
Once I tuned the iTrip to the appropriate station, which was easy to do, the sound from the iPod came through relatively clear, but not near CD-quality at all - there was always some underlying hiss. Once I started driving, any hint of an overriding station would cause interference. Also, if I moved the iPod around at all, the radio would lose reception of it quite remarkably.
In short, I found it much more useful to wire the iPod directly to the head unit - the sound is much clearer and there's nothing to worry about with losing reception as you drive around. This can be done several ways:
1 - Buy a head unit with a pre-amp (aux) input, in the the front or the rear of the head unit. These are becoming incresingly more common and inexpensive, and allow for great sound and ease of use. I use one now, and it's fantastic.
2 - If your head unit has a CD Changer control and you don't use a CD changer, get an adapter (from Blitzsafe or other manufacturer) that allows you to plug any aux audio source into your CD changer port on your head unit. These are cheaper than buying a whole new head unit, but may require a little more effort to install. With some adjustments (mostly volume adjustments on the iPod and head unit), the sound quality will be perfect.
3 - Install an RF modulator that connects in-line with the antenna to the existing head unit. This provides a hard-wired solution for playing your iPod through the radio, and has excellent sound. These are also cheaper than buying a whole new head unit and also require a little more effort to install, and may carry a slight degradation of sound quality. This degradation is trivial though, and the sound will be much better than anything like the iTrip.
4 - If you have a cassette player, just use one of those cassette adapters with a plug on the end. Not the prettiest solution, but they work fine, are easy to use, and are very inexpensive.
Conclusion - don't waste your time on the iTrip or any products like it, unless sound quality is not your priority, and/or you live in a very sparsely populated area.