FM transmitter for car

[bcwilliams]

Any recommendations for a transmitter product that works well playing Walkman S through the FM car radio? My radio does not have an Aux-in, but does have a cassette as well as a cigarette lighter. Thanks for any suggestions. Bruce.

[Just Some Guy]

Dude, use the cassette deck. Get one of these:



And get better sound quality.

There's no point in putting a choke in-between the device and your speakers. Going to FM sounds likes shit, and even the best FM transmitter still has to deal with interference and signal loss. Using a cassette adapter, you have neither of those issues.

[bcwilliams]

Thanks very much...

[WalkGood]

Originally Posted by bcwilliams

Any recommendations for a transmitter product ...

The one's I've tried suck in any city, works ok outside the city but do yourself a favor and don't waste money on one like I did a few years back. After a few uses I dumped it.

[seventyeightrpm]

new registered guy here, but had to chime in... wireless modulators are a waste of money. I spent $99 on a RediRad-FM for my daily wheels and haven't looked back. Great performance (ZERO broadcast interference), great service from the company. RediRad-FM for newer cars (according to the company) Hope it helps!!!

[paulr]

Adding to the others who say that FM modulators suck, especially around cities.

Also though, I'd have to say using a handheld player while driving also sucks (distracting and dangerous to operate) even with a wired connection. I carefully picked out an mp3/cd player with a front panel aux input (back when that wasn't such a common feature) to be able to play from a portable, but I ended up only using the aux input once or twice, because of the distraction and cable clutter of using an external player. I mae another post about this in another thread recently too.

Your best bet is an in-dash player with an SD card slot or USB input. Those are not expensive these days, and lots of players have them. It's certainly what I'd do if buying today. As it is, a few burnt cd-r's (700MB of mp3's per disc) in the glovebox is enough for my purposes, so I haven't bothered to upgrade. A burned cd holds about a dozen albums worth of mp3's, which for me is plenty to keep from getting bored while driving. You also want a fairly large player with a big display or large-font theme if you use a portable, so you don't have to look at it too closely.

There are some in-dash players now with built-in ipod docks, which might be an ok solution (this being ABI notwithstanding). That means (I hope) that you use the in-dash player controls to operate the player. If you really have to use a portable with an aux input, a dash mount (dx.com has lots of cheap ones) seems like a really good idea. I haven't tried one myself yet though.