Monster iCarPlay Wireless FM Transmitter with Auto-Scan for iPod
by Monster
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List Price: Our Price: $30.00 You Save: $69.95 (70%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days 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 Monster iCarPlay Wireless FM Transmitter with Auto-Scan for iPod
Customer Review: Not worth it
Summary: 1 Stars
I have been using this product for a week, and it's going back. A while back I bought a car transmitter from DLO via Sam's. It was excellent but very bulky, and soon the car adapter connections broke, so I returned and exchanged it, and the same thing happened with the new one. It now sits atop my home stereo, where it works perfectly plugged into the wall. It has NEVER EVER given me static.
I am used to playing my iPod through the casette players in my cars, but they give a poor sound, and the casette adapters eventually break, plus I am planning on owning cars in the future when casette players will probably no longer be offered, so I thought I'd give the FM transmitter route another try.
I bought a Griffin, and immediately had static no matter how many frequencies I tried. Power lines, trees, bridges and parking garages made for static. Plus it was rather cheaply made, and I was sure it would get broken easily with regular use, so I returned it and exchanged it for this Monster.
The Monster was very easy to use, and automatically went to 107.9 every time it autoscanned. The problem was that every so often it suddenly STOPPED WORKING and I had LOUD STATIC BLARING when nice music had been playing. I manually programmed the transmitter, and things got better, but then the problem came back. After a few days of trying out different things, I finally figured out what was turning off the transmitter: TRAFFIC SIGNALS!!! I was driving to work this morning and twice while I was waiting at a stoplight the transmitter failed and the static blared when the light turned green. Then when I was stopped another time, my transmitter failed and I was getting an R-rated F-word frenzy from Howard Stern and his guests, apparently from a closeby vehicle.
Another design flaw is that the bulky adapter which attaches to the iPod gets unseated easily when I tried to attach it through the protective case, although no other adapters had this problem, because they weren't as bulky at the insertion site. This would cause easy disconnection with handling or even road vibration, and add to the BLARING STATIC episodes I frequently encountered.
That's it, this thing's going back, and I'm going back to the casette player, or I'll try to hack into the car stereo's AUX input. I figure the next round of cars will have inputs for iPods built into them anyway.
Customer Review: Doesn't work right with the newest generation of iPods including Classic.
Summary: 2 Stars
I just received my order and was excited to use my new FM transmitter. (My old one broke. It was not this brand.) I have an iPod Classic that I got for Christmas. Unfortunately, it doesn't work right. The auto scan just scans up to about the 96 frequency - not the whole gamut. Then it chooses a station, but loses the signal about every minute or two blaring loud static. It has also crashed my iPod a few times to where I just had the apple logo on the screen.
I looked into returning it, but the seller, 6Ave, states that they will not issue a refund at all if the product has been opened. They will exchange for the same item, but that doesn't help me because it's not a defect problem - which I found out later. I decided to call Monster. They said that this product doesn't work with the newer iPods because of the new technology that Apple has put into the iPods. This is not the first time I've heard this. My iPod isn't compatible with so many products out there, including my DVD player that has a dock and is supposed to play iPod videos - but doesn't. The guy at Monster said that a new version of this item - the 250 - will be out in June '08 sometime, and it will work with the newer iPods.
So, I can't really rate the actual product, since it's not compatible with my iPod. The quality seems to be very nice and when the sound did come through, it was decent for an FM transmitter. I will say that I don't think it's fair that the description doesn't state what iPods this unit is compatible with (neither does the packaging!) and then the seller won't issue refunds - hence the lower rating. This has happened a couple of times when dealing with sellers that are not Amazon. I have decided to only buy things when Amazon is the actual seller, because at least their return policy is fair.
Thanks for reading my review!
Customer Review: Didn't work for me
Summary: 1 Stars
Our old iTrip is worthless now and so we're on a mission to get a new fm transmitter before an upcoming long road trip. I have researched these units to the nth degree in the past few days in an attempt to buy one and be done with it. However, I have found that for each unit, there are people that love them and those that have no luck with them. In the end, I found no FM transmitter that shined above the rest. I finally gave up my research and just went to a local store and bought what the salesguy there recommended (quite highly) - this Monster iCarPlay. I liked the name, it looked simple, our car adapter is low and in a weird place so I liked that it didn't dock the ipod. So I was sold. I literally opened it up once I got back to my car to see how it worked. I scanned the directions, plugged it into my car outlet, then into my ipod. I got the 'OK to disconnect' message, but then it wouldn't move beyond that message. It is supposed to go back to your ipod menu and then you can find a channel that works - it kept flashing between the ipod menu and the 'ok to disconnect' message. While it was plugged in, it was literally inoperable. I tried it on my husband's mini when I got home and had the same problem. I've read others having the same problems as well. Not sure if it's an isolated problem or what, but it just didn't work for me. On paper it sounds like a great unit, in reality, it didn't perform for me.
Interestingly, when I returned it, the customer service rep said that the iCarPlay doesn't work at all - that she had a different FM transmitter that would work for me (DLO TransDock) - and while it's better, it's not perfect either. Maybe I should just stick to radio and CDs...
Customer Review: Best of a bad situation
Summary: 5 Stars
This is the best way to use your iPod in your car if you have neither an iPod jack (1st choice) nor a cassette deck (distant 2d choice). The search function is by far the best way to find a station. It picks stations I never would pick "by ear" and they work well - for a while, then the station (or its neighbor) gets stronger and it is necessary to scan again. I use it all over Los Angeles and it is good enough to keep using your iPod. (I had given up on using the iPod in my car until I got this one, even though I had the previous version of the Monster FM transmitter. ) Even if you don't drive much, it can find a better station than you can find by ear. Monster is the best FM or cassette solution, and this is the best Monster product for FM. I have used several over the years.
It could be improved. I wish it beeped when it finished the scan. I wish the scan result stayed on the iPod screen until you click a button. You have to take your eyes off the road to check to see if it is done scanning. But once it finishes scanning, you can just push the center button once to see the station it found. The only way I can scan is to push the center button three times, which works fine. I started making the stations it finds pre-set stations on my car radio... but it finds different ones all the time, so this did not work so well. It is too much fiddling with the buttons and looking from the iPod screen to the radio dial, but it is the best by far of a bad situation.
Customer Review: Works! Sometimes =(
Summary: 2 Stars
I bought one of these from circuit city for $99. I live in St. Pete/Tampa area. The auto station find was not very effective. I found clearer ones by manually searching. When it's connected to your ipod, it definetly slows down the menus. The buttons on the iCarPlay 200 are also very unresponsive. I would press the change station button, nothing happened, then press it again, then it would jump twice. So my advice is have patience when navigating the iCarPlay's menus. Sometimes I could get it to work with an acceptable amount of static, but then the unit would randomly stop working, and i get blasted with noise from my radio being cranked up. You cannot adjust the volume on the iCarPlay, only on your radio. I returned the unit, and I am in the process of getting a pioneer head unit with a built in auxillery input on the front panel. I cannot recommend this unit. It also looks cheap for the price point. It looks like it should cost about $25 dollars. One postive note, it does charge the Ipod fairly quickly. Also in my wifes car, where she a factory stereo the static wasn't quite as annoying. I have amplified tweeters which pick up everything, including static. I also thought that putting the unit closer to the stereo would improve the sound, oddly it doesn't seem to make a difference. You could also look at one of the wired ipod adapters such as the PIONEER CD-IB100 iPod Adapter.