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Would a FM Transmitter or Cassette Adapter be better for an ipod?

im thinking fm adapter if it's decent. casettes ahve that hissimng sound ayt louder volumes while fm not as much?
 
I tried a Belken FM transmitter with my Creative for a while because my car at the time was AM/FM/CD only.

I thought it sucked. I travel a lot, and even the 14+ hours of battery life that I got out of the Belkin resulted in me bringing along a small economy pack of batteries to make sure I never ran out.

The signal wasn't that great no matter where I was. The closer I got to a major city or otherwise populated area, the more I found myself sitting there scanning for usable frequencies, which is a pain because you have to set it broadcast frequency on the transmitter, then tune in the radio to see if it works. At least out in the boonies I could stay with one frequency for a good half hour or so before I needed to change. I'm sure this wouldn't be as much of a problem if you're not driving around so much, so you can find a good frequency and stick with it on a daily basis.

Once I 'downgraded' to my current car, I had the ability to use a casette adapter again, and I'm happy that I can. The adapter is a very simple and powerful solution, IMO. I'm fortunate enough to have a small cubby in my dash just below the unit that my MP3 player slides into perfectly with the side facing out for easy track control. I have the cord to the casette adapter coiled up in there next to the MP3 player, and aside from that single wire snaking from the cubby to the casette player, you can't really tell there's anything there.

No batteries, no frequency hunting, cheap (I bought a bundle kit for $5 I think at Wal-Mart), and very effective. No gripes about quality from me.
 
Those Griffin FM tuners and other similar suck, any that plugs into the dock connector is generally bad. If you really want an FM transmitter get one that plugs into the headphone jack then ur accessory power plug. Like this.
 
Originally posted by: villageidiot111
Those Griffin FM tuners and other similar suck, any that plugs into the dock connector is generally bad. If you really want an FM transmitter get one that plugs into the headphone jack then ur accessory power plug. Like this.
Click to expand...

So, should I get that or the sony Cassette one?
 
Cassette adapter...especially in large metropolitan areas where it's a pain in the @ss to find a free station that lasts more than 20 miles. I only use my Griffin for when I'm at someone's place and want to play stuff of the iPod via their receivers/stereos without dragging along a bunch of cables.
 
Would this be a permanent install in the car? If so, then an in-line FM modulator would work. Normally used to hook up CD changers, it plugs between your deck and the antenna so the signal feeds directly into your deck and usually overrides any local stations on that freq.
Plus, no batteries.

Scoche inline FM modulator

The cassette tape adapter have lower freq response than the FM modulators. Depending on the quality of the audio source (MP3), you may or may not notice a diff.
 
If you don't mind tearing apart and working with the stereo hookup, I'd definately say go with an fm modulator that connects directly into the antenna line. You can even get them without a switch. I had hooked one up myself and the sound was fantastic. In my next vehicle, I just made sure the stereo I purchased had rear rca inputs, so no need for a modulator. Hence I actually have the fm modulator sitting unused next to me in the room here...
 
I have the Griffin roadmate FM transmitter for my ipod and it works great. You just have to find the right channel so there's no interference.
 
Originally posted by: mwmorph
im thinking fm adapter if it's decent. casettes ahve that hissimng sound ayt louder volumes while fm not as much?
Click to expand...

That hissing sound is part of the tape, not a byproduct of the pickup head, so you don't get hiss from a cassette adapter.

I'd say just go get a $5 cassette adapter. The problem is that, like other people are saying, the really convenient FM transmitters are a little hit-or-miss, and getting something better is more expensive and requires more work.

I mean, actually investing any money into this project seems silly... If you were actually going to spend more than $15, you should probably just put it towards a new head unit with a line-in and/or its own MP3 capability.
 
Originally posted by: villageidiot111
Those Griffin FM tuners and other similar suck, any that plugs into the dock connector is generally bad. If you really want an FM transmitter get one that plugs into the headphone jack then ur accessory power plug. Like this.
Click to expand...

how is this? any good...cause its so much cheaper that the other ones out there
 
This thread is great.

I just got an iPod and wanted some info on FM transmitters. Griffin just came out with the iTrip Auto and I was really interested.

But from what some say, these devices have issues. I was going to check out Crutchfields to see what options are available but taking my car radio system off seems hard, I don't want to mess it up if i ever resell the car.





 
I used to have an XM SkyFi2 - the cassette adapter worked FAR better than the FM transmitter in it. I use a cassette adapter with my iPod.

I had a Sony one that came with my discman that I bought like 10 years ago, it was hands down the best cassette adapter I've used. I could have the volume on the iPod maxed out and it wouldn't crack or pop in my truck's tape player. The wire broke, so I picked up another (non-sony brand) and it's OK, but I have to adjust the volume on my iPod down for some songs.

I initally bought a Monster cassette adapter specifically for the iPod, it was $20 at BB. It was TRASH. It would fast-forward constantly in my truck's tape deck (~5yr old Sony head unit), if I turned the volume way up I could hear the iPod, but the loud "whirring" sound of the tape deck fast-forwarding was super annoying. It wouldn't even play in the tape deck of a 2002 Impala - it just ejected with a "Check Tape" messege. I returned it to BestBuy.

So, the moral of the story is, buy a Sony Cassette Adapter and be done with it. They're like $8 on Amazon. Stay the hell away from the Monster brand cassette adapters (actually, staying the hell away from anything Monster brand is just good practice)
 
i had a belkin transmitter with the car lighter power adapter, not a big fan, interference no matter what station you have it on. But it works for what it is, definitly not worth the $50 price tag. I have a pioneer head unit and i found they have a cable that goes from the back to the headunit to 2 rca cables, went to radio shack got a headphone jack to 2 rca converter. Works great and so much clearer than my fm transmitter and it came out to $20!
 
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