iPod and radio transmitter.

Anyone here ever use the radio transmitter that's available for the
iPod?
Just wondering how well it works in the car..

dimitri

--
Dimitri Holman
SGI Evangelist at Large.
[email protected]_dot_com

/dev/null - The Bit Motel, bits check in but they don't check out.

 

There are a few different models. I've tried the iRock and now use the
iTrip. The iRock is limited to four adjacent frequencies. And if all
four are tied up, you're out of luck. There's at least one spot along
Interstate 5 north of Los Angeles where I had to give up on my iPod.

The iTrip uses a software tuner. You play a special sound file and it
tunes to a specific frequency. And it draws its power from the iPod, so
you don't need to worry about batteries. It works very well in isolated
areas and not quite so well in metro areas where there are lots of radio
stations and lots of interference. But given a car without a cassette
player, it's definitely good enough.

Just to give you an idea of its use, I took a trip this weekend from
Mountain View, California (heart of Silicon Valley) to Reno, Nevada and
Lake Tahoe, about five hours away. I had to change frequencies twice
each way. One frequency got me out of the SF Bay Area and about half
way to Sacramento. A second covered all the way to Reno, where I had to
switch to a third. The frequency I found for Reno didn't work well
around Lake Tahoe (a little more than half an hour's drive away), but
the Sacramento frequency did. So I kept that one until I was back in
Reno, and then switched back on my way home.

 

I have the iTrip and I not very impressed with it. Frequency response
only goes to 15,000 Hertz. I can hear the loss of highs even in my car.
Joe

--
Joseph R. Passante, CIH, CHO
Industrial Hygiene Manager
Environmental Health and Radiation Safety Office
University of Pennsylvania
215-746-6550 (O)
215-898-0140 (F)
215-651-0554 (M)

 

Joseph Passante:

*****

Another delusional "audiophile." No musical instrument produces a
fundamental higher than 5,000 Hz. Yet you claim to notice the absence
of the vanishingly weak third harmonic of 5,000 Hz -- and in a car, no
less! Care to demonstrate your singular sense of hearing in a blindfold
test?

As for iPod transmitters, I've tried several. They generally work
poorly in just about any metropolitan area.

Davoud

 

I have found that a parked car can be a wonderful anechoic chamber.

Oh, he was actually driving around?
Nevermind.

 

Joseph Passante:

OK, I saw it, and the highest fundamental listed for any instrument was
8 kHz from a pipe organ (that should probably have read "from a few
pipe organs.") Not that you would be able to hear even that very well
in a running automobile--unless the sound was uncomfortably loud. And
there's not a chance in hell that you would hear the 16 kHz second
harmonic.

Cor, I wish you lived close so that I watch you embarrass yourself in a
blindfold test -- as I have seen so many self-styled audiophiles
embarrass themselves. My favorite was the home-made plywood boom box
with an FM/cassette unit from an '87 Honda and a pair of "3-way" car
speakers. Most audiophiles are afraid of a blindfold test (as are most
wine and cheese snobs, e.g.), but most were good natured when they
picked the boom box as the best system -- compared to Crown, McIntosh,
AR, Bose, you-name-it. It was mid-range "presence" that did it, of
course.

I have a cassette adapter in my Miata -- use it with my iPod and with
my XM radio. The frequency response is plenty good for your ears and
mine in an automobile, and certainly more than enough for a sports car
with a nice baritone exhaust note and lots of wind noise.

Davoud

 

Ah, the pleasures of reductionism, the bliss of ignorance, the
boundless pride of mediocrity, the pious worshipping at the alter of
an imaginary "science" of subjective experience. And as if that
weren't enough, anecdote as evidence!

My only question is, why isn't this guy running Windows?

 

I guess even The Windows OS has some pride.

 

Hugh Wolf:

Jeez! Where have you been!? You missed it when I was flamed as a
Windows troll here recently. I have seven Macs, including two
PowerBooks and a brand-new iMac -- and one Windows laptop that I need
to run astronomy software that is unlikely to become available for the
Mac.

I was flamed then for the same reason that you are flaming me now --
people invariably blame the messenger when they don't like the message.

Oh, and lest the message get lost, it is that Mr. Passante can't hear
vanishingly weak 15 kHz harmonics while driving or riding in his car,
regardless of the quality of its sound system.

Davoud

 

Well, clearly that marks you as a Windows troll. duh. :/

 

Thanks for all of the responses. My query comes from a dilemma I'm
having. I have a desire to listen to MP3's in my car and have been
looking at the phatbox (http://www.phatnoise.com) which is basically an
On STEROIDS hard drive based MP3 player that will plug into many cars
that are pre-wired for a CD-Changer. However, I travel a bit for work
and would just love to have an iPod. Could even plug the ipod into the
home stereo..

I think I'll pick up an iPod as it seems to be the most versatile of the
bunch.. Even though the radio-transmitter side of things is limited to
15KHz ;+) And yes, the car is a sports car with a deep grumble (I've
never considered myself much of an audiophile, more of a musicphile ;+)

Thanks again. And to the mac/windows warriors deep in the religeous
spat. We all know UNIX is and probably always will be king. And I
welcome all the MAC heads into the Magic Garden called UNIX.. :+p Just
kidding..

dimitri

--
Dimitri Holman
SGI Evangelist at Large.
[email protected]_dot_com

/dev/null - The Bit Motel, bits check in but they don't check out.