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: Excellent Transmission for the Coby-745
Summary: 5 Stars
The Coby-745 is in my opinion, the all-around best buy in the wireless FM car transmitter market. At $17.99 on Amazon, it is roughly half the price of most of it's competitors, but what's amazing is that it provides additional features! The cap on the built in car charger flips off to reveal a spot for another charging plug (like for a cell phone for example). The springs hold the device in tightly while in use and the charger unit is hinged to the transmitter, providing for a 360 degree+ rotation of the unit. The light up screen in blue shows the full frequency channels you can select from with the lighted dial, in increments of 0.1 MHz.
This unit doesn't just look pretty and have nice features, it also performs extremely well. On a 40 minute commute through back roads, highway and city, the unit didn't lose signal once and I heard ZERO interference, yes, that's right, none! Compare that to other reviews.
Downsides? All the downsides are common to most other transmitters: it doesn't have an on/off button, so you have to unplug the unit if you want it to stop drawing power. To get the sound just right, you have to crank the treble on your car stereo a tad (although this just may be a personal preference). And, you have to crank the volume on your mp3 player and/or stereo (and remember to turn the volumes back down when you use your stereo or mp3 player without the transmitter or else risk blowing out your eardrums). There was some static noise when handling the unit initially although I found this went away quickly as the static charge (coming from the user) dispersed.
The sound quality amazes me- very near CD quality sound- and I was very pleased there was no interference- in the 40 minutes driving, I never had to switch channels. As long as it holds up, I don't plan on switching transmitters anytime soon either. The Coby-745 rocks.
Customer Review: Very good product
Summary: 5 Stars
I've never owned an FM converter before now. I've also never heard a single good thing about them from folks who do own one. I picked this up based on all the good reviews it got here. I'm sure an audiophile would have a field day canning this device. But for those of us who don't want to spend megabucks on an outrageous car stereo, read on....
It works very well. When I first tried it out, my car was parked without the engine running. I heard a little hiss coming and going, and I was wondering if it would be a problem. The next few days, I never heard the hiss at all. I >think< when you first turn it on, it may need a short period of time for the output frequency to settle down. That may be the hiss I was hearing. Regardless, I drive all over during work, and I never noticed it at all. I always thought my stock radio in my car was pretty good. But connecting the MP3 via this device makes my radio sing like an opera singer. My mp3 plays much better than the CD player in the car, and this device passes the extra quality right through. Very happy with that. Also, as stated by others, if you only have one cigarette lighter port, don't worry. This unit allows you to "piggyback" another device by plugging it into this. So you can still use your GPS, or charge your cellphone. How slick is that?
Tips:
1) When you're setting it up, tune your FM radio around and find the quietest place on the dial. Then set this device for that frequency. If it sounds poorly, try other frequencies.
2) If what you're connecting to has a built in equalizer, either turn it off, or turn off the one in your car radio. You could end up with terrible sound after you've gone through 2 equalizers. Keep that in mind if your sound is bad.
Customer Review: Great sound, but defective cable
Summary: 4 Stars
I bought the Coby car FM transmitter so I could play my iPod in a car that had no iPod jacks and no cassette player (and thus I could not use a fake cassette adapter). The channel selection uses convenient up/down buttons and a digital display. It remembers the frequency while removed from power. The power connection springs are just the right tension so it goes in and stays put, but is not too difficult to insert or remove. The sound quality is excellent. The is no sound level control, but an iPod can easily be set to drive it so the sound is about the same level as other FM channels, and then you can adjust the sound level with the radio's volume control.
Alas, the unit I got had a defective cable. Any bit of flexing near the plug would make loud swishing noises (not clicking). I could have returned it, but being electronically savvy, I cut of the last 3 inches or so off the cable and soldered on a new connector. That fixed the problem and now it works perfectly.
I carefully dissected the cut off piece of cable and the original plug and saw no obvious bare spots or broken wires. However, the cable contains an unused blue wire that was just cut off. Perhaps the conductors at the cut off end were intermittently making and breaking contact with some conductor at the back end of the plug.
The sound is really good, and Amazon has good return policies. So I suggest you buy this device and immediately check for the cable problem I had. If you encounter it, immediately return the unit while you still have all the materials at hand.
Customer Review: Great product for a good price
Summary: 5 Stars
My first experience with car radio transmitters was when my family would go on trips and we had an analog transmitter with a dial tuner. I think we went through like 3 of those. The three things I remember most about them was that we could listen to CDs over the car radio (skips included), the tuner could, sometimes, slip off of the frequency the radio was tuned to, and because it was, basically, a primitive radio transmitter, it required that we play it on a clear frequency, which meant that we would have to re-tune it like every hour or so. But, it was fantastic. When I got my first car, the first thing I thought was I could use a car transmitter for playing music off of my MP3 player. I used my parent's transmitter until I decided to buy one of my own. I went for a digital one because I knew a digital transmitter had a better chance of staying on frequency and the strength of the signal would be stronger. This Coby transmitter was worth every penny. It stays on frequency, the signal is plenty strong (Note: The only time I had a volume problem was when i was playing soft songs.), and the bonus is I can plug another device into the built-in car adapter. There is a warning not to expose it to prolonged heat. The only reason I bring that up is because I live in Texas and we have long, hot summers. As such, I'll leave it up to a product tester to see how much heat and for how long this product can survive.
PS - This is an FM transmitter, as in no AM. Also, the band range is limited to between 85 and 108 (rough estimate).
Customer Review: Don't waste your money
Summary: 1 Stars
I bought this FM transmitter to use with my Sandisk Sansa e260. The product arrived in fine condition, and a day earlier than the expected arrival date. I liked the idea that I didn't lose access to the 12V power port on my dash, so I could still plug in my Sirius Satellite Radio received along with the FM transmitter.
The coby CA-745 was great....for 1 day. After that, I notice a load, rumbling static sound every time I picked up my Sansa to change songs/albums. At first, I thought there was a problem with my MP3 player, but after experimentation, it turns out it was the cable that leads from the Coby FM transmitter to my Sansa's output jack. For the first 2 or 3 days, it was annoying but semi-tolerable, I just remembered to turn down the volume on my radio whenever I wanted to pick up the Sansa to change albums (so I wouldn't blow my speakers with the thunderous static).
Unfortunately, the problem intensified to the point where it is now totally useless. The slightest jarring of this cable (from road bumps, to turning the car, to brushing against it with your leg) results in even louder noise, totally obscuring the music playing. In doing some subsequent searches for possible solutions, it seems this is a common problem. Unfortunately for me, I was foolish and didn't keep the original box, nor did I keep my paperwork from Amazon, so I have no way to return it. Spend a little more money, and get one of the higher end FM transmitters, in my opinion