Need decent Fm transmitter for MP3 player?

cheap-n-cheerful

Am looking to buy an FM transmitter so I can listen to my MP3 player in the car. Travel loads every day and need a reliable one with little or no interference. Only have a CD player in car so can't use one of those tape things.

Can anyone recommend a good one please before I die of boredom!!!!

penrhyn

I have a Kensington one for my i-pod, works well, but not the cheapest.

Donnie

If you did not already have an MP3 player: PHILIPS 2GB MP3/WMA Player with FM Transmitter SA2326

isofa

Some of them are truly awful, including some by the normally excellent Belkin... My OH has a Kensington one too, and it works really well, it was expensive, but definitely worth it, I read all the reviews before buying it for her last year!

You get what you pay for

Idiophreak

isofa wrote: »

Some of them are truly awful, including some by the normally excellent Belkin...

Just to second this - I bought a belkin tunecast 2, thinking "it's a big brand, normally make good stuff, it's bound to be better than the cheaper ones". It's just terrible. Really poor signal, loads of breaking up - I wouldn't recommend it.

cowbutt

I bought one of the Aldi ones for about 8 quid. The first one was broken (the controls didn't seem to affect the output broadcast frequency!) but I returned it and got another which seems to work. The signal my Ford 6000CD tuner receives is quite low, though, so I need to turn the volume up to avoid getting too much hiss.

EDIT: It has 6 presets and can output on any FM frequency with a 0.1MHz resolution.

foreversomeday

The only problem with these is that they're not really designed for use in this country. Because we are so small, the amount of local stations "clog up" the airwaves and you have to try really hard to find a frequency which is empty. If you travel around the country a lot, beware - you will need to re-tune all the time!

Perhaps something along the lines of an iPod dock, which attaches directly to your speakers rather than going through the stereo? I take it it is not an iPod, I don't know if they make them for other mp3 players.

isofa

This is the Kensington Universal one we have from Amazon £16, it has three presets you set, so you can retune quickly if you enter an area which is using the frequency previously chosen. It's used with an iPod shuffle and iPod Nano (we went for the universal as the standard Kensington ones didn't work with the shuffle at the time).

The better option as foreversomeday says, if you have an aux-in on your car stereo, is to connect directly. I have a dedicated iPod connector built into my car, but most cars with a fixed dash stereo, don't even seem to have a aux-in, hence the FM transmitter is the best route.

100pints

Home & Bargain have them for £1.99 - I bought one the other day but haven't tried it yet.
Cheap enough to just throw away if it's no good.....

:beer:

cheap-n-cheerful

I do travel around a lot so think I need one without too much interference.

Will do some more research on the Kensington one and see what it looks like.

Ta for all your helpful replies.....

gerardty

Kensington Universal works fine for me.