Griffin iTrip Universal FM Transmitter and Charger for

Lowest Price :

:

Model:

: 7259-TRIPUNP

Brand:

: Griffin Technology

Reviewer: farmer 3356| Date:2010-03-06

This company went out of its way to make sure I had a product that worked well.

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Reviewer: A. Carlson| Date:2010-03-05

It works well for me now as a power supply for the ipod but it didn't transmit very clearly to the stereo. It might just be for my specific car... I ended up getting a tape adapter and using this product for the power feature. At least it was inexpensive.

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Reviewer: RommelMR| Date:2010-03-03

Signal and sound quality are OK. I think it is also what you will get with other pricey fm transmitter out there, so this is a great value for money.

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Reviewer: Samantha S. Dixon| Date:2010-03-03

This item did not work. Lots of feedback and I cannot get a clear channel in my area.

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Reviewer: Jeremy R. King| Date:2010-03-02

My wife bought me an iTouch for Christmas and I was excited to be able to plug it into my truck radio with a 1/8" headphone auxiliary cable. That worked great!

The Odyssey was a bit trickier. You see, Honda decided to use the front speakers of the sound system to patch in Navigation (if so equipped) commands when necessary. Essentially, there is a splitter that switches between the radio and Navi for the front speakers. This means that if you install an aftermarket radio, you either have to rig up all kinds of switches and amps, or you lose the Navi audio. In comes the Griffin iTrip.

The iTrip seemed like the perfect solution - just plug it into aux power and the iTouch and tune in the appropriate station on your radio. The first thing I did was adjust the iTrip to international setting as recommended by other reviewers and tune it to 87.9. Turned everything on in the garage and it worked. Sound was kinda fuzzy, but after turning the iTouch volume down to below 70% or so, it got listenable.

The first time out on the road, I was geeked because I could play all kinds of variety for my four children that wasn't available before. Plugged everything in and started up The Chronicles of Narnia radio drama. The first disappointment was a very noticeable whine over the radio that coordinated with engine speed. Don't know if it's a shielding or grounding issue, but this thing whirs the whole time you're driving. I wouldn't call it loud, but you can definitely hear it. OK, though, I could live with that - it's most noticeable in the quiet parts of the content. So after listening to the Narnia introduction and getting started with the story, there was some dialogue and then suddenly, only static. I looked down and the iTrip had gone blank. So I looked for the "On" button - no dice. Finally hit the preset selector button, which turned the unit on, but to the wrong station (it moved to the next preset). Of course, I later figured out to change all the presets to the 87.9 frequency, as other reviewers have mentioned. This turning off behavior happened over and over and over again - very annoying.

So I got home from that trip and did some reading, discovering the auto-off feature of this glorious device. No problem, I thought, I'll just turn up the volume on my iTouch. Tried that the next time out and sound quality was horrid. When I reduce the iTouch volume low enough to produce decent sound on the iTrip, the iTrip constantly turns itself off. It was so bad that the other day on the way to church, my two year old got to where he would chime in with "A-gain???" every time it shut off.

The reason I say the iTrip is useless for me is because I do have that family of six, with four small children. Apart from listening to (sometimes very annoying) kids songs, we mostly listen to either lullaby-type music or audio stories / dramatizations when we're all traveling together. The iTrip honestly just plain stinks for this. Between the audible whine and the unit constantly shutting off, I'd rather just burn CDs.

The reason I say it might work for you is, it only costs $11 right now (which is dirt cheap for something of this functionality and the build quality seems to be decent), and if you listen to loud music the thing won't turn itself off all the time and the music will mostly cover up the whine. Certainly don't expect HD Radio quality, but if you listen to normal to loud volume music all the time, this will get you by for pretty cheap.

Other thoughts:
1. If there were a way to override / defeat the auto-off feature on this, my rating would jump to 4 stars. It does appear to be well made.
2. The wires are a little lengthy for my needs (as stated by other reviewers), but better too long than too short. The transmitter itself is almost right in the middle of the wire run. I personally would prefer it to be closer to the headphone jack end than the power end. But that might be because the aux power outlet in my Odyssey is just above the floor.
3. I live in a pretty rural area, so the only issues I've had with interference were from passing another car which was obviously using a similar device on the same frequency. Then you get a little taste of their music.

Hope this helps with your decision.

Review from Review from Amazon