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Subject: RE: Re: FM transmitters - any suggestions ?

RE: Re: FM transmitters - any suggestions ?

From: Justin <jaf60_at_it.canterbury.ac.nz>
Date: Tue, 07 Jan 2003 14:19:30 -0800

I've got the iRock, and I've also built a kit. My impression of the
situation:
Several years ago, a company released an IC (I forget the name) that was
pretty much a stereo-FM-transmitter-on-a-chip. It made stereo FM
accessible and cheap for the first time, and was a big success - kits
were based on it, products made from it.
It is no longer in production, but various clones, imitators, and
next-gen chips are.
The problem with all of these chips, is the way they split the channels
to transmit in stereo - it results in weird harmonics. I don't know much
about sound, but neither transmitter I've used sounded very good, and
anything based on the same sort of chip (ie pretty much everything on
the market) will not be much better, and could be worse.

So one way to look at it, is that they're probably all crap, so just buy
a cheap one and don't expect good sound.
Another way is that there will be some good ones out there, probably
expensive, possibly only in kit form, that do stereo well, and it will
take some time and effort and research to find them (and build them).

I use the irock in a car. It doesn't sound too good, but it works.
As has beenb noted, the button placement is badly designed, so it often
accidentally gets turned on when bumped, draining the batteries.
Otherwise, battery life on these things is immense. One AA should drive
an FM transmitter for over a month. But the iRock has a power-on LED
which probably drains more power than the entire transmitter part...

>actually, i'd like to know if anyone has any experience with any specific
>devices... and if there are some models that i should stay away from or that
>i should go buy immediately.
Received on 2003-01-07

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