FM transmitter

[Chris1750]

Rather than frig around with cables trying to connect my mp3 player to my ancient Blaupunkt radio, I thought I might go 'wireless'.
Has anyone got any experience with the short range FM transmitters that you can buy for this sort of purpose?
I'd appreciate your comments.
Chris

[lgowin]

I bought my wife a Belkin unit a while back and she says it's okay - not great. It works better out in the middle of nowhere where there's fewer radio stations to interfere, but she would occasionally get bleed-over from other signals in town.

I'm not familiar with the Blaus, but my Becker has a plug that goes into the back of the radio. One of these days I'm going to buy the adapter cable from Becker.

Regards,
Lawrence
'71 GTV

[Chris1750]

Thanks - I might buy one and try it out. My radio has a 7-pin DIN cassette interface and I've made up a cable according to a diagram I downloaded from a Belgian radio collectors site but it doesn't do anything, so I'll give the 'wireless' solution a go. Our bandwidth is a bit less congested here in Oz and I may have a better chance of an interference free pickup.
Chris

[Chsmadden]

Assuming your MP3 player is an Apple i-product with the 30-pin dock connector, this a pretty good selection of car audio.

[geh458]

Volume control with the wireless unit is also an issue. Also the fact that they are designed to transmit on a selected few frequencies might also hinder their usefulness. I had a cassette adapter that worked much better than the wireless.

[ossodiseppia]

The farther the transmitter is from the antenae, the worse the reception. If you have a rear mounted antenae, don't waste your money.

[Chsmadden]

In order of audio quality:

1)Hard-wired headphone jack to the radio head unit
2)Cassette adapter
3)FM Transmitter

[Chris1750]

Thanks for all of your help.
As the radio does not have a cassette player, just an interface, my options are a bit limited. I think I'll persist a bit longer with the hard wiring. I've a mate who is a 'radio jock' and they use these short range FM transmitters all the time in their mobile street units with mixed results, so I'll get his opinion too.
I'm not aiming for any great hi-fidelity here, I guess in the end it is just going to be for a bit of noise in the cabin, above and beyond all of the other cabin noise. So long as there is not too much random noise (hiss) and interrupted reception.
Thanks again,
Chris

PS: The mp3 player is a Creative Zen with a standard stereo output jack.

[okiealfaaddict]

I use a Griffin Road Trip and since the quality of the audio is not a big deal to me, I think it is fine. The one I have lets you fine tune the transmitter to almost any frequencey you want, rather than just a few presets.

[90Quad]

I've tried the three methods, and FM transmitters work in a pinch or when you have no alternative, but I'd avoid if possible. If you can get the cassette connector do that. The FM transmitters sorta work. They just aren't very good and you usually get interference, especially when traveling from city to city, and it's harder to find empty channels in some areas.

[vangelislaz]

Once upon a time (mainly in the 80's) there were some exceptional while expensive FM units. Among them the best was from the Pioneer. A really professional unit which supported a multicd , too. In case you find one like this, might be an overkill! In any case, hard wiring is a top.Nothing else can replace the wires. You mentioned about the rear 7pin DIN socket.Whats wrong with it? Might be work fine. Did you check twice the way the insert wires go to the socket? Keep in mind pins 1-7 must considered as seen from the back of the din socket, not from the front!

[Chris1750]

I ended up buying a Cygnett GrooveRide FM transmitter. I know it's second rate, but the sound is actually very good, the frequency lock is excellent and so far, no interference, though where I live there are only about a dozen stations. It is adjustable in 100kHz steps through the broadcast range and has a rechargeable Li-ion battery that charges via USB or the standard 12V car cigarette lighter (don't have one). It also has a host of other nice features.
I'll continue to try to fathom the direct DIN connection as that is the gold standard.
Chris

[vangelislaz]

is this a transmitter for car radios? I tell you this , ;cause I noticed the scan option. Normally, manufacturers of these units follow a spec telling to transmit only in 2 Fm frequencies ( around 90-93Mhz), only selectable via a switch , not via scanning . So, the Fm transm. unit receipts via the car antenna all the fm band , uses some notch attenuation filters only for these 1-2 switchable frequencies while leave all the other unattached and finally send via a coaxial rf cable the RF signal to the car radio's antenna input. Yours must have one antenna input and one output. And of course must have very good metal shield, in case it is for car use. Did you try it in situ? driving the car?

[Chris1750]

The scan buttons should be labelled Up and Down as this is what they actually do - adjust the trasmitted frequency up and down by 100kHz increments between 98MHz and 104MHz. The unit does not actually scan in the true sense of the term.
The cable that you can see in the picture has a standard stereo jack on the end that plugs into the mp3 player.
The antenna is internal and the device transmits on the selected frequency with a range of about 25 meters.
I've tested it in quite a few of my cars ranging from a Bambino Fiat with the radio antenna at the front of the car to a late model Mercedes with the antenna at the back of the car, and the signal is clean and crisp with excellent channel separation. It sounds nicer in the Merc because there is virtually no background automotive noise.
If you cross tune the transmitter with a local station, the local station is somewhat attenuated with the transmitted mp3 signal coming through strongly - this is probably a result of the relative proximity of the mp3 transmitter rather than anything else.
These FM transmitters are legally available at electrical stores throughout Australia. I've a friend who is a morning radio host for a major Australian FM network and he recommended this particular brand as the one that they use in their mobile units.
As I said, it's probably not the final answer, but it's damn close.
Chris

[vangelislaz]

nice to hear the results! Perhaps, it is a very good unit. Used, to go for these units many times in the past and except one-two very good but expensive , the majority was a scrap. Seems , that your area doesn't have a lot of really strong rf signals, making this thing happy! Does it have any auto audio level function?