Coby CA-745 Wireless FM Car Transmitter with Digital Display and DC Car Cigarette Lighter Adapter
by Coby
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List Price: Our Price: $13.65 You Save: $4.34 (24%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Category: Car Audio or Theater See more product details |
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Customers in the UK,
Buy this product at amazon.co.uk
for British Pounds
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Coby CA-745 Wireless FM Car Transmitter with Digital Display and DC Car Cigarette Lighter Adapter
Customer Review: Small in Price and Big in Quality
Summary: 5 Stars
Coby has hit the sweet spot with this transmitter. From the sleek design to the sound quality, this FM transmitter does a lot right for such a low price. I know what you're thinking. "I'd rather get an iTrip or a Monster FM transmitter." I can honestly say that this transmitter has worked better than both. Read on to find out why.
Design: This transmitter has a pretty unique design. It sports a slick black, blue and gray plastic design, with the buttons and digital screen sporting a blue backlight. It only has two real buttons which control the frequency that you want to use. The cable is a non-tangle cable with a gold headphone jack plug to go into your media player of choice. It also gives you what is basically your cigarette lighter back so you may still plug in your cell phone charger or any other device that uses a cigarette lighter. The actual remote/transmitter portion of the device is also on a hinge so you can position the transmitter vertically to your liking.
Ease of Use: The concept of this device is fairly simple. Find a clear frequency on your radio that is not being broadcasted on. Plug in the transmitter to your cigarette lighter, and select the frequency you had picked on your radio. Then, plug in your audio device, set the volume fairly high on the audio device, and adjust your radio's volume. Make your music selection and enjoy! It's that easy.
Sound Quality: The sound quality is surprisingly excellent. It is clear, crisp, and generally static free. This I did not expect, as the price and general lack of knowledge of this product was a bit nerve racking. However, since my first use, all my fears have been brought to rest, as there is usually no static, and when there is, it is barely audible. I have used this transmitter to travel cross country, and the only trouble I would ever have was when the transmitter began to transmit on a frequency a radio station was using. Otherwise, there was never a need to adjust the frequency.
Scores:
Sound Quality: *****
Ease of Use: *****
Design: ****
Total Score (Not an Average)
92/100
Customer Review: This is the one you want!
Summary: 5 Stars
I've gone through a few wireless transmitters and cassette-tape adapters: this Coby CA-745 Wireless FM Car Transmitter with Digital Display and DC Car Cigarette Lighter Adapter is by far superior to anything else I've tried.
I've spent anywhere from 10 to 35 dollars on these other devices. The cassettes work fine for a while, but then they start to squeak and rattle and distract. The other wireless transmitters I've tried are an exercise in frustration - the channels they are tuned to aren't entirely free of other radio chatter -- and my entire commute was spent thumbing the dial, switching the radio station, and sliding settings on the transmitter, all in an attempt to keep up with the book that was flying by. I'd gotten to a point where some days I didn't even bother trying - just switched on the radio instead, and resigned myself to inanity.
Along comes this little baby, and for less than 20 dollars I am in mp3 heaven again (though this will work for your CD player, too). The ability to select my own channel allowed me to find one that allows for a clear signal all the way to and from work, with none of this scrambling to find a new channel that I'd become accustomed to with other players. I've been using this transmitter for about a month now, and have yet to hear even the suggestion of interference. I have clear audio everywhere I go.
The Coby CA-745 plugs into my cigarette lighter, which has eliminated the need for costly and environmentally unfriendly batteries. The top of the unit flips up, so I can still access the lighter if I need to (haven't yet).
The display seems to be unnecessarily large, but it swivels to the position of your choice, and lights up a pretty blue color, so it's workable.
All this, and it's still cheaper than almost anything else you can get. I have already recommended this to all my friends and family. This little unit is audio gold. If you want a wireless transmitter, this is the one you want.
Customer Review: Best FM Transmitter I Have Owned
Summary: 5 Stars
I have owned several FM transmitters for my car, and this is by far the best one I have ever owned. When I read the complaints about this product, I was a little worried that I had made the wrong choice, but after using this for about 2 weeks now, I have no idea why those customers gave such a negative review, so I will address the issues that others have had with it.
Let's face it - it's an FM transmitter. We all know that using a direct AUX input is the best way to listen to an iPod or other mp3 player, however, not all of us are lucky enough to have the jack in our car stereos. So it's never going to be THE best sound quality. I must say that this product gives near CD quality though.
One of the complaints this product received is that it is made cheaply & that it breaks after 1 use. I have bee using it for only 2 weeks, and I do not see any problems. It is sturdy & fits my car outlet without a problem. There is no struggle to plug it in or out & I do not feel like it is going to fall apart anytime soon.
The second most common complaint was of static or having to change frequencies often. I live in NJ and do a lot of traveling throughout the state. In a lot of cases I am near major cities with lots of strong radio signals (Philly & NY). With other transmitters that I have owned, I have had TONS of static & had to change frequencies numerous times during a 1 hour trip. With this product, I have yet to have any static and I have remained on the same station for trips lasting over 2 hours. I have not had to change frequencies once yet! There have even been times where I had perfect reception with my iPod, and when I turned it off there was an active radio station coming through - with ZERO interruption to my iPod!!
Like I said, I have owned several transmitters in the past. I have even paid much more money in hopes for a better quality & nothing has beat this! This is definitely the way to go if you are looking for an FM transmitter!
Customer Review: Excellent voice quality
Summary: 4 Stars
This is my 2nd FM Transmitter. First one (VR) turned out to be cheap and ended with a cut cable. I bought the COBY because my Accord 07 doesn't have MP3 player, AUX Input or cassette player (what a pain). I have been using it for a month now. I set it to 107.9 on the first day and since then I did not need to change it to any other frequency. It works perfectly. I live in Hillsboro, OR and there are at least 20 FM stations available over the entire band. 107.9 itself is one of them, though it is a relatively weak station here. As soon as I plug in the Coby CA745, it completely masks the sound of the FM station. So far absolutely no noise, no static. I use it mainly with an IPOD.
Some reviews mentioned that volume needs to be turned too high for it to work. I didn't see that. On my IPOD, I have volume at 65-75% level and on my car audio, I keep it always set to 10 (which is ~40% level). And that is enough for the audio to be more than clear and loud with car glasses rolled up or down, blower on/off, speed 45-60mph. on Highway, you may need to turn it little higher, I guess.
Positives: No static and works flawlessly, at least in my area. (May need to test it in bigger cities where there are too many radio stations). Comes with an extra 12V Cigar lighter socket. Though I never use that. Can tune frequencies with a granularity of 0.1 (87.7 to 108.0)
Negatives: When I got it, it felt like 'old and used'. Still not sure, if it was, but the looks are little dull and lacks that newness right out of the box. The cable it comes with is probably too long. I wonder why I would use that long cable, unless I am connecting it to a laptop put in the rear seat. Luckily the cable is coiled, so doesn't go all around.
I bought it from amazon for $18. More than worth buying. Much cheaper option than putting a off the market mp3 player or aux input option. and then this option can move to any other car with me.
Customer Review: There are better alternatives
Summary: 1 Stars
This is my second FM transmitter (after having the iriver AFT 100 Mobile FM Transmitter) and I was severely disappointed in it. I was surprised how well-constructed this seemed out of the packaging (nice sturdy-feeling body, a thick coiled cable), but once I plugged it in, the problems began.
First, I found that if you bumped the cable however slightly, it would produce a lot of static or bumping sounds. This cable is EXTREMELY touch sensitive and would make the worst noises if I so much as picked up my MP3 player to change the song. And that's with the transmitter securely plugged into the cigarette adapter, by the way.
Second, the signal of this thing was just terrible. Now I live in an urban area, but there are a TON of empty stations. But even on these stations my MP3 player sounded grainy at best, with white noise constantly in the background. I flipped through every channel trying to find a better alternative, but I had to settle for fuzzy noise in the background.
Third, while I really appreciate transmitters that let you scroll through all FM channels as opposed to giving you two or three options, I was kinda disappointed that the Coby doesn't include quicksave buttons, i.e. programmable stations so you can save your own stations that sound the best. The iriver had this handy feature, but this guy did not, and I found myself missing it.
Overall, I wanted to try a new transmitter (my iriver AFT 100 Mobile FM Transmitter broke a while back) and decided to try this Coby to disappointing results. I will be getting a new iriver; its quality is amazing (mostly because I think it's beyond FCC regulations). The only reason I had to get a new transmitter was because my old iriver broke, but this time I'll be sure to keep the receipt and warranty information.
Avoid this thing, especially if you're in any kind of urban setting at all.