Maximo FM Transmitter and Car Charger for Sansa MP3 Players
by Maximo
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List Price: Category: Network Media Player See more product details |
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Customers in the UK,
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for British Pounds
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Maximo FM Transmitter and Car Charger for Sansa MP3 Players
Customer Review: Has Worked Flawlessly So Far
Summary: 5 Stars
I have been using this for about a month and a half with my Sansa Fuze. It has worked great. I had previously tried a universal FM transmitter from another company and found that it would not work very well. Even attached a 6' earphone extension to extend the antennae and that worked OK. After that experience, I was very hesitant about buying an FM transmitter specifically for the Sansa (i.e. I could not buy an extension cord if I found I needed a longer antennae like you can with the universal). However, I quickly found that I did not need to worry. I get clear reception in my car and my wife's car 99% of the time, and my wife's car radio is notoriously picky. Since I have set it, I have not needed to change the broadcast station. I have used it around where I frequent and also used it on a short trip to a relative's house and did not experience any significant static, unlike the universal transmitter I mention earlier. I have not taken on a trip back to my home state, yet, which will be the real test. However, for everyday use, it has worked great so far.
As others have said, the sound quality from an FM transmitter is not as good as listening to a CD, but I find it to not be too noticeable of a downgrade. The only time you actually know you are not listening to a CD or even a strong radio station is when a song has some quiet points or silent points, you can hear background static (which you cannot hear when you are listening to most songs) which takes away from the "crispness" of a song and may be an issue with audiobooks (I have not tried, so I don't know). I also find that the volume on the radio has to be turned up, but not so much that you are at the volume limit of the radio, just need to be aware of it when you switch from listening to your Sansa to listening to the radio you need to lower the volume.
I would recommend that Maximo team up this FM transmitter with an MP3 holder that attaches to the windshield and you would have an excellent combo for the Sansa MP3 owner. Also, one feature that I was hoping this transmitter had but does not is to pause the MP3 player when the 12v outlet loses power, the 12v outlet in my car does whenever I turn off the engine. This is more for convenience since I can just hit the "pause" button (and do), but sometimes I forget. I probably would not have thought about that, but my Wife's Zune and Zune FM transmitter work that way. I think this is more of a Sansa issue, and not really the FM transmitter's doing.
Customer Review: Much better than I had expected
Summary: 5 Stars
I bought this knowing that FM transmitters have gotten lots of lousy reviews, and I was fully anticipating that it wouldn't work well. I was wrong.
I've now used this product driving around in Denver and San Francisco/San Jose area, in a 2005 Prius and a 2007 Ford Focus. I've had no problem finding frequencies without any interference at all (three consecutive frequencies with no signal on any of them is ideal -- tune to the one in the middle frequency) in Denver, and the unit has worked flawlessly anywhere in the city.
In San Jose and an area outside about 3-4 miles from the Bay Bridge in S.F., I couldn't find many vacant frequencies that also didn't have a signal on either side of them, but I was still able to tune in many frequencies without anything more than very minor, very intermittent bits of static or bleed-through of another signal. Several times, I pulled the transmitter out of the cigarette lighter, only to find that it had been broadcasting on the same frequency as a fairly strong radio station, but without any noticable interference.
Nearing the Bay Bridge, and within S.F. proper, it was much harder to find a station weak enough for the transmitter to broadcast over. I didn't check over the whole spectrum, but several frequencies that were working fine in the East Bay would get bleed-through inside the city. Given its performance in the suburbs, I'd guess that there were probably still some used frequencies inside the city that the transmitter could nevertheless overpower, but I didn't experiment enough to find out.
The only drawback, but not worth docking it a star, is that the volume of the Sansa is not adjustable once the transmitter is plugged into it; all volume adjustments must come from the radio itself. I haven't checked to see if changing the Sansa volume before plugging it in affects the output level, but for the most part, I can reach an acceptable listening level without cranking the radio volume so high that distortion or speaker noise seeps in.
Customer Review: Good product but many outside influences
Summary: 4 Stars
Overall, this seems to be a good product based on a few months of use. But users need to understand the limitations of this type of device. I routinely use this device in a small city (250K people). In this city, there's several quiet spots on the FM dial. This device needs a quiet station for it to function properly. The quieter the spot on the dial, the better this will work. I routinely set it to one of two stations and can drive anywhere in the city with minimal interference. Before purchasing any product like this, check out your FM car radio and verify that there are spots with no stations and preferably no loud static. If you have a routine, long commute, you might want to check at several points along your route. When I drive my daughter to college, I need to change the station as we approach the destination because my normal quiet spot has an active station there.
The other thing to be aware of is that different cars may have very different properties when using this device. We have two cars. One of them can not use this device within 45 miles of Chicago. The other has been usable through most of chicago except for the skyway and downtown. However there was discernable static throughout much of the city. I don't know why one car works so much better than the other.
I've found this device to be very useful and will continue to use it until I get a direct tap into the radio audio section.
PS. I've been using this with both a Sansa View and Sansa E280 and both work well.
Customer Review: Great Transmitter
Summary: 5 Stars
First off I research everything to death before buying anything...
I bought a Sansa a few months ago - great little unit - perfect for me
I bought the Maximo SAn-360 because I was looking for an FM transmitter - after reading reviews here at Amazon I decided to go with this little model because it was designed specifically for the Sansa models...
I recieved it the NEXT day from Amazon (took advantage of the trial offer of Amazon Prime) and plugged it right in...
WORKED GREAT...
Some of the Pros to this machine -
works directly with the Sansa MP3 and CHARGES while it is playing - something I was looking for as I have a few car trips planned in the next few months...
Works on a VARIETY of stations - you are not linked into certain ones - and it has 3 pre-sets you can use
Great sound...we traveled around this weekend and when we got to our destination and unplugged the unit we found the channel we had it on had some bleed through from another station but that didn't effect the sound from the MP3 player AT ALL
The only thing I did was make sure the sound on the MP3 player was set high before plugging in - once plugged in you can't adjust the sound on the unit - only through your car stereo - if your MP3 player is set low for sound it can effect the sound quality slightly...
I would buy this again in a heartbeat - perfect
Customer Review: Not bad, not bad at all.
Summary: 4 Stars
* First off, let me say I am not an "audiophile", nor am I an MP3 junkie, so keep that in mind. This unit is used in my 1997 Ford Ranger STX with it's original so-so stereo:
* The first one that I ordered didn't work and returned it via Amazon's great return method. It is the best hands down for Amazon stocked (not third party) orders.
* The second unit was received quickly & works very good with a couple of comments. Thankfully it has a very wide frequency range because the lower frequencies have a great deal of interference in the Phoenix area. The single quiet "spot" near the higher end of the spectrum is MUCH better with almost no static. Almost. At higher volumes (think booming Rock 'n Roll) it's there alright, but not too bad. The other thing that I hadn't considered much prior to ordering is that the wire leading to the Sansa is a bit funky as it seems to be pretty much all over the place. In retrospect I wish this unit had a plug-in cradle built into it instead of the long wire. But the wire is probably better for the co-pilot to manage if you have one (I don't). The Sansa volume needs to be set to high & around 70-75% before pluging it into the transmitter. Once plugged in you can't change the Sansa volume and it will sound weak through the car/truck stereo if you have it too low before plugging in.
* Overall a good performer so far.