Kensington Universal FM Transmitter for MP3 Players (Black)

• Compatible with all MP3 players
• Stream your MP3 playlists through any available FM radio frequency
• Three station presets for instant tuning
• No need for batteries; powered by your car power outlet
• ClearFM technology delivers superior sound

I have had this Kensington FM transmitter for about 2 months and in my hands it has very acceptable sound and not alot of static.

Unfortunately it has one fatal design flaw that makes listening to classical, jazz and any other type of music with any quiet passages VERY FRUSTRATING. During the quiet parts the unit will shut itself off causing my car audio to emit a ear piercing screech when it loses the signal. I haven't measured it but it seems like as little a 10-15 seconds of quiet causes this behavior.

This makes this unit useless for classical music and quite a bit of jazz and other similar styles. If you listen to quiet music, avoid at all costs. If you don't it is the best transmitter I have tried.

Sirandar

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I am reviewing this product primarily in reply to the reviewer who complained that this transmitter regularly turned off during quiet musical passages. When I originally read the review, I was concerned about this but also took it as a good sign that the transmitter automatically shut itself off when the car isn't running which was a complaint I read in a review of a competing product. I could not find any mention of an automatic turn off in the albeit sparse instruction manual. I have had the transmitter for a couple of months now and have to report that I have not had that problem with it in my Buick Riviera. I have listened to jazz, rock and audio books using the transmitter and have not had it turn off on me while playing. The unit then turns off when the engine and electrical system are turned off. I did notice though that with a borrowed Chrysler minivan it stays on after the engine is off and the key removed so that is something to consider. As for performance, I agree with virtually every other reviewer, in rural areas it works very well. In more urban areas with few open fm frequencies, it is more difficult to maintain a signal that isn't interfered with by nearby stations.

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I bought this to provide audio playback in my vehicle for my new Sony Ericsson W580i. I had previously used a Griffin iTrip with an iPod 3G 20GB to broadcast tunes to my car; the interface was horrible and the transmitter was underpowered. Not a good product to use. My sister uses a Kensington transmitter for her iPod Nano (the Kensington FM transmitter with the iPod dock connector) and it seems to work very nicely.

PROS:

I like the tuner and the preset buttons...much better idea than other tuner mechanisms in competing products. Cord is adequately long. Transmit power is very nice; I've used it in my vehicle and my wife's vehicle, and it can seem to drown out almost any strong FM signal. As a result, I don't find myself needing to use the tuner or the presets as often as I would have thought.

CONS:

This thing cuts out when it doesn't detect a significant signal within 10 seconds (a threshold which is regrettably not user-modifiable). That means if the transitions between songs are soft, or a song is not adequately normalized, the transmitter powers itself down. The only way I've found to turn it back in is to unplug/replug it into the outlet. This was VERY distracting on a car trip, whether I was the driver or the passenger. I had the volume set to about 75-80% of max, but it didn't seem to matter; every few songs, it died on me. HORRIBLE. If I raised the volume above 75%, I got the expected audio distortion (which is identical to what I received when using the Griffin iTrip) but the tuner didn't turn itself off as often. So the user has to play an elaborate game with volume to prevent this feature from interrupting your music, or you have to be lucky enough to have an audio source that can normalize its output.

It also has some kind of Arielle signal processing chip inside to theoretically make the sound better. From what I could tell, it sounded as if the audio was continually being adjusted (treble slightly up and down, stereo widening in and out) depending on the frequency balance of the music. This would be similar to buying a digital camera that applied too much color compensation and noise smoothing; I expected a faithful facsimile of the original audio, not a frequency-tweaked estimate.

I would never recommend this product to anyone...it is a shame that the actual FM transmitter is such high quality, but the "features" get in the way. Also such a shame that Kensington is a relatively high-end choice in iPod/MP3 accessories...definitely not the case for this device.

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If you want to hear stellar quality coming from your mp3 player and hear it play on your car speakers, you aren't going to get it with an FM transmitter device. You need a more direct connection (in other words get a new stereo that has the appropriate inputs for your mp3 player).

That being said, this device is the best FM transmitter for MP3 Players out there. I've previously owned the iTrip and that was pretty good, but this Kensington product is even better. Find the right station to use (find one with the most static, this will produce the clearest sound), and crank the volume on your mp3 player to about 2/3. Kensington is more powerful than the other fm transmitters out there so you won't have to crank up your radio stereo much.

I haven't run into a problem with it shutting off in the middle of playing a song as others have reported, but I do tend to listen to loud energy music so that may be a factor. However, I did notice that it did not turn itself off when I turned my ignition off. That could just be with my car though because I have a car that keeps the headlights on for like 30 seconds after you turn off the ignition.

Its shape is not as big as the pictures make you think, but it does feel loose in my cigarette lighter (I think that's just my car though). I prefer this hardware design to the iTrip's because there is just the plug and a wire, as opposed to plug, wire, controller, wire.

If you just want mp3s on your current stereo NOW, and don't care about perfect quality, buy this brand. If quality is really important to you, find a direct connection.

I read the other reviews about this product prior to purchasing and was amused by the widely varying degrees of satisfaction that other people had with this product.

This is one of the best purchases I have made in a while. Quite simply; it works!!!!Without reading the instructions, I literally pluged it in, set the car radio to an open station, tuned the transmitter to that station, plugged it into my MPS player's headphone jack and have been listening problem-free ever since.

Buy it, you won't regret it.