3.5mm to FM Transmitter Recommendations?

[Jagosaurus]

So my truck doesn't have a.3.5mm auxiliary jack. I'm looking to play podcast from my phone through my vehicle speakers (no Bluetooth either).

I was looking at products like this:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00DEWBM1 ... SY165_QL70

Recommendations? I've seen some that plug into the charger/ cig lighter as well.

[Hobie-wan]

I bought a cheap rechargable one off ebay and it was garbage. It went from holding a charge for a day to 30 minutes, to not holding at all. This was over a month and when I popped it open the tiny battery had puffed up like a pillow. Yes it was noname brand, but it seems that's pretty much what you're going to find.

I bought another noname one, but this plugs into the cig lighter and gives a USB charge port too. It is working better. The only thing is that both of them put out weak signals, presumably to avoid radio licensing or interference problems. On both I have have to crank the volume on my player all the way up (I don't with headphones) and I also have to turn the radio up pretty high. I suppose this could just be because I've bought cheap ones, but maybe someone else has experience with them and can chime in if the low volume thing is common.

[samsonlonghair]

I'll chime in. I have had similar experience. My car stereo has neither auxiliary input nor bluetoothe. I have bought two of these FM transmitters. One was powered by AAA batteries; the other was powered by cigarette lighter. They both output a weak signal at a low volume. What could you expect from such a low power transmitter? I tried to crank up the volume on my stereo to compensate, but I picked up a good bit of static.

Eventually, I just resigned myself to burning CDs for my car stereo. You can buy a spindle of one hundred blank CDs for twenty-five dollars or less. Assuming your podcast lasts less than eighty minutes, you're set.

[Frag Mortuus]

If you can swing it, you can buy an aftermarket car stereo that can add Bluetooth, USB, and an Aux port to your car for less than $100. After getting a car with Bluetooth, I can't imagine going back. It makes driving and talking safer and I can stream music from my phone to my car, which is great.

http://www.crutchfield.com/p_104752UAB/ ... ml?tp=5684

This may not give you top notch sound quality, but I would venture to say it will be at least as good as your factory system.

Not exactly what you wanted help with, but this would ultimately give you what you want.

[fastbilly1]

I used one of these cheapos for four years:


But after that one broke I bought two more, and those lasted about a month each. So I eventually broke down and bought this:


And it has worked fined every time. It does have issues charging a device and transmitting from it at the same time, but that is easily managed.

[Hobie-wan]

That belkin one is just for iphones though, I don't see that it has a plain old headphone plug.

[fastbilly1]

That belkin one is just for iphones though, I don't see that it has a plain old headphone plug.

My bad, I meant to post this one:

[TSTR]

I've NEVER had any one of these things work to a satisfactory level, and I tried like four different ones back when I had my beloved green station wagon with an outdated stereo.

If you've got a tape deck, rock one of those adapters. If not, just pony up for a new stereo.

[marurun]

I tend to only need these devices for long trips, but the problem is that on long drives radio station availability is all over the place. I suggest you pay for one that is advanced enough to scan for available stations so that when a nearby transmitter starts to bust in on your stuff you can have it automatically find another one, instead of having to manually futz around to find a clear bit of airwaves.

But those scanning ones are usually pricey enough (> $40) you might be better off getting new head unit in our car, unless you have a weird one. I have a weird one (2 DIN, integrated 350 WATT amp), so my only options are all expensive.

[Ziggy]

If you can swing it, you can buy an aftermarket car stereo that can add Bluetooth, USB, and an Aux port to your car for less than $100. After getting a car with Bluetooth, I can't imagine going back. It makes driving and talking safer and I can stream music from my phone to my car, which is great.

http://www.crutchfield.com/p_104752UAB/ ... ml?tp=5684

This may not give you top notch sound quality, but I would venture to say it will be at least as good as your factory system.

Not exactly what you wanted help with, but this would ultimately give you what you want.

Yeah, I would agree. The money you'd have to spend on a quality FM transmitter could be better spent on an after market deck that has the aux input. Even the cheapest decks these days should have a front aux input. It'll also ALWAYS be better quality, since FM can only be so good.