 "iPod Road Trip" | 2008-08-27 |
| - Reviewed By jay105 |
Every year we take a week-long trip to Wisconsin to visit family. Every year we had packed several traveling "suitcases" of CDs. You know the ones: Case Logic 125 or 250 monsters. Yes, we are both music geeks, but with only partially overlapping tastes.
We both picked up 2Gb iPod nanos in the past two years. No, they don't come nearly close to carrying as many tunes as the CD cases, but one of the problems with CDs in the car is that--if we had to admit it--we really only want to hear a couple of songs off each album, and some stuff really doesn't translate to long car rides.
About a week before we left, I suggested that we bag the traveling library idea and just load playlists on the iPods. Hers for her mix, mine for mine. The only problem was that our car has a pre-MP3 ready CD player. We had tried the transmitter game before and not been happy. I won't slam that brand here; it was a portable and worked for a couple of weeks, but only cost a few dollars. I think it came as a promotion with one of our iPods.
I read and researched transmitter/chargers for iPods on the Internet in general and Amazon in specific. With all of the negative product reviews on pretty much any device, I was hesitant, but felt that the Griffin 4031-RDGC gave us the best shot.
It worked great! We only ever had to switch frequencies up or down 4 times in a week, never had any interference problems to speak of, and our trip always takes us through the entire Chicago metro area, from the south shores of Lake Michigan through the Northwest Tollway corridor up through Rockford and Madison before reaching our destination. I set it on 88.1 for most of the trip, moving to 88.3 now and again.
Now that we're back home, the RDGC has permanently been in the car, and there are no problems with vibration or reception. We're much happier with the music and our CDs are much happier not being slung around the car.Griffin 4031-RDGC RoadTrip FM Transmitter and Car Charger for iPod (Charcoal) |
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 "Do not buy!!!!" | 2008-08-04 |
| - Reviewed By User: A21NIXWDHKC5G2 |
| This thing is the biggest piece of crap i have ever seen. I hear more static than i do of the songs being played. For it to play clearly i would have to be parked and have my arms folded. Seriously if i moved my arm the thing would go completely to static.I would have returned it but i smashed it into a million pieces. I gave it two stars because it worked sometimes but was still crap! There has to be something better out there. Buyer beware. |
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 "Very good product!" | 2008-08-04 |
| - Reviewed By mityms |
After lots of shopping, I decided on this transmitter because of the extension leg for the plug in. I have a 2000 Volks Jetta and if you have one of these, you know that the power plug is really recessed in a hole near the gear shift. The extension leg allowed me to get the transmitter lifted up and out of the way of the shifter. It's close, but it works if I don't wrap my whole fist around the gear shift knob (which is unnecessary anyway in this car). It took me a while to find a station that didn't static out on me completely as I drove around in my mountain community but with some fiddling, I found a solid station.
The only reason I didn't give this product FIVE stars is that the support does seem a bit "wobbly" but I have a big iPod so that makes it top heavy. If you DO take your iPod in and out of the car often, you'll need to do it carefully as it fits really tight in the plastic support provided by the transmitter unit.
Worked for me after lots of searching and a reasonable price, I thought especially with Amazon's free shipping! Hope this review helps you make your decision! |
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| "IPOD" | 2008-07-30 |
| - Reviewed By User: A19WEKLPI2YARA |
| This was a gift to my daughter for her birthday. She is very happy witrh its performance. It is an entertainment help as she drives her car. |
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| "Good if you just want to hear static!" | 2008-07-25 |
| - Reviewed By User: A2061SOF8UXREQ |
| This is a horrible fm transmitter. I used this in my 2005 mazda 3 and I could not get the quality of the music to sound even close to good. It sounded like the radio had poor quality,and the music came in quiet, choppy, and statically. Not a good buy and I definitely would not recommend. |
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| "Very disappointing. Go with the TuneBase..." | 2008-07-21 |
| - Reviewed By gallagwar |
I had a Griffin TuneBase for about 2 years until it broke. It wasn't an electronic malfunction, but the base itself broke down. The static cord broke where it meets the back portion of the base and couldn't hold the iPod upright anymore.
Anyways, I was about 85% satisfied with that product, and saw the RoadTrip and read good reviews on it. I saw that it looked sturdier and a little more user-friendly. I don't know what I was thinking.
While it is indeed sturdier and more user-friendly (the LED screen is a big plus, and it's easier to navigate between frequencies), those are about the only good things I can say about it. The reception is absolutely atrocious no matter what FM station I tune to. Where my TuneBase had only occasional interference when I would drive by a radio tower or police station (anywhere that was transmitting radio waves), the RoadTrip has near-constant interference, sometimes to the point where the music is inaudible. When I say constant, I mean *constant*. Even when it gets "good" reception, you can hear a slight buzz in the back. The TuneBase did not have this problem.
In addition to the interference, the overall quality of the audio is inferior. On the TuneBase, you can adjust some of the levels of the dock. You can't do this with the RoadTrip (at least not to the best of my knowledge). What results is again, near inaudible music. I can only hear the music at the higher reaches of my stereo's volume (note: I'm not driving around some 1992 Honda with stock speakers. I have a 2006 Altima with a Bose 7-speaker system). As someone who really loves to blast his music with his windows down, this is a deal-breaker for me.
Foolishly, of course, I threw out the receipt and packaging before I realized what an awful product this is, so I'm left to contact Griffin about trying to trade in my RoadTrip and my old TuneBase for a replacement TuneBase.
Avoid at all costs. |
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| "Road Trip Does The Trick (almost)" | 2008-07-06 |
| - Reviewed By User: A1OINMM7RWY62Y |
| This is the second unit I have purchased; I have one for each of my vehicles and one in black and one in white. It is very simple to use and with all the attachments it holds any version of Ipod, I believe. The only negative to this unit and I guess any of the radio transmitter units is the signal change as you are driving. You will have to check for better frequencies as you are moving down the highway. Other than a direct plug in or hardwire to your system this is a good alternative. |
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| "Very Weak Signal" | 2008-07-04 |
| - Reviewed By mlgoodson |
First off, I really wanted to like this device. It was everything I wanted. It has a tunable FM transmitter across the FM spectrum; charges, it has a cradle. I also don't know what to rate it. For me its a one star, but if you had a different car or lived in a less radio dense area it could be five.
I ended up returning it simply because the signal was too weak. I tried every free frequency I could find on a trip to Sacramento and in order to hear the iPod on any of them, I had to have it and the radio on full volume, which 1) causes a great deal of noise and distortion and 2) when you start picking up a radio station on that frequency blasts you out of your car.
I suspect this has to do with how my my vehicle (Ford Ranger) is built and where the antenna is relative to the lighter plug is. Bottom line is it simply wasn't usable for me. Some people said if you plugged in the head phones they acted as an antenna for the transmitter. I didn't find this to be the case. Ultimately I returned it and haven't gotten anything to replace it yet. |
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| "Great product -- great price" | 2008-06-20 |
| - Reviewed By User: A9VL0EBKGN8VP |
| I bought this little gizmo for my husband who had just gotten an ipod nano. We are completely illiterate when it comes to ipods and such. This arrived and we were trying it out about 5 minutes after ripping open the packaging. Super easy to install, easy to use and the sound quality only depends on how good the original track on the ipod is. Can't think of anything bad to say, although I did go to the Griffin website to make sure that this would fit his generation ipod, that was helpful too. |
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| "Not for city use" | 2008-06-20 |
| - Reviewed By User: ACXO63U0GGSKN |
| I am from the Philadelphia area and do not have a FM station without some interference. When using the best station I can find for use with the transmitter makes my ipod come in like a bad radio station. |
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