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Satechi FM Transmitter and Car Charger for Sansa e 250, e260, e270, e280,Fuze and Sansa View by Satechi
Digital Photo Product DetailsManufacturer: Satechi Edition: Electronics Publisher: Satechi Studio: Satechi Music Label: Satechi
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Satechi FM Transmitter and Car Charger for Sansa e 250, e260, e270, e280,Fuze and Sansa ViewCustomer Review: Surprisingly good sound quality Summary: 5 Stars
Short summary: this is a great product.
Longer discussion: I bought this because (a) I was sick of having to carry 20 CDs with me on trips, many of which would be damaged in the process; (b) because our CD player in the car was skipping like crazy recently; and (c) because we were planning on driving from PA to Florida (and back again) with two kids for the first time. I had bought an el cheapo fm transmitter but it was _awful_, so I decided to take a risk on a more expensive device, figuring that perhaps my previous bad experience was a "you get what you pay for" example.
The Satechi device shipped promptly and arrived quickly. I didn't bring any CDs on this trip -- just the Satechi transmitter and my wife's Sansa Fuze (also a Sansa View that we had just purchased for our daughter -- it works with both).
One small negative: our car (a Pontiac Vibe) has a standard transmission, and the stick shift is close to the cigarette lighter outlet. It was tricky to figure out a way to insert the Satechi in a way the didn't interfere with shifting into first, but I eventually managed to rotate and tilt it so that I could shift comfortably. One other small negative: it is difficult to read the display of the Sansa, but that's not surprising because it's meant to be held close to your eyes when using. My workaround there -- I pull out the Satechi with the MP3 player mounted and bring it close to my face if I need to search for things while driving. (An even better approach: select "Play All" so that I don't have to do any searching for music.)
Now for the positives: the device works _extremely_ well. I set the station to 87.7 and never had to change the setting for the entire trip from PA down to Florida and back again. The sound quality was surprisingly good. I was expecting AM-quality sound, and found instead that the sound really _was_ CD quality. In fact, my wife thinks that the MP3 player and the Satechi/radio combination sounds _better_ than the CD. ("It's like the CD, except that this sounds like it's in stereo.") Of course, part of this might be due to the crappy quality of our car's CD player, but the fact remains that the MP3 player with the Satechi sounded VERY good. I actually look forward to driving now because I enjoy listening to the music in the car.
The controls on the Satechi are very straightforward and are easy to use. The clamps are very clever and are easy to use, and the MP3 player styas very securely in the device. And whereas I had some challenges getting things to fit without blocking the stick shift, the advantage is that everything is there in one place. I found that without looking, I could rest my hand on the stick shift and lean my fingers over to control the Sansa Fuze.
By the way, at one point in the trip, my daughter's Sansa View ran out of battery power (we had been driving for 9 hours already). Easy solution: we simply traded MP3 players -- she used my wife's Fuze (which had been charging all day with the Satechi), and we plugged her View into the Satechi -- worked fine.
One other thing: different MP3 tracks seem to be different in terms of volume and such, so I have found that I will occasionally change the equalizer and volume settings on the radio when switching between one album and another. Not a problem at all.
Bottom line: this is a very good product. I highly recommend it.
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