FM Transmitter in the home?

SanDisk MP3 players Sansa® Clip | Sansa® Clip+
1

I’d like to use my new Sansa Clip+ both in the car and in the home.  I’ve read all the threads about FM transmitters.  A lot of the info is now old or doesn’t address use in the home.  So here I am.

I can use the cigarette lighter to power an FM transmitter to play my clip+ on the car radio.  Any current suggestions for good quality transmitters?  Sounds like most broadcast poor quality.

But,

ideally,

I’d also like to use the same transmitter in my home.  No cigarette lighter, no batteries, and no input jacks.  Does anyone know of a good FM transmitter that will also work in the home via AC wall adapter?  Or one that somehow runs off the power of the clip+? I have outlets and boomboxes in 3 rooms. 

So I’d like to use the clip in the car and in 3 rooms of the house using speakers (and radio).  I see that they now make AC-cigarette lighter adapters…  I appreciate your advice.

nan2dance

2

iRiver makes a nice car cigarette lighter FM adapter.  Can be found at Amazon.com, sometimes at good pricing.  If you wanted to also use that in the house, I guess you could get an AC/DC-cigarette lighter adapter. 

3

I’ve tried a few FM transmitters to play Clip in car and they all had poor performance as soon as the car was in motion. A real waste of time and money.   Finally settled on a Monster Cassette Adapter which works well with my in-car cassette player…

 I’m sure this would work well in-house with any cassette player.

4

I use a MacAlly FM transmitter with my Garmin GPS in my car. While it works the audio quality isn’t the greatest. It came with an adapter to use the transmitter inside the home in addition to plugging into the cig lighter in the car.

5

I appreciate y’all weighing in on this.

Alas, my car has no cassette player.  I picked up one of those for my Dad and he’s very happy.  In the car I have a CD player and a radio.  No other input.

As for the home stereos, the cassette players have doors that need to close in order to play the tapes. They don’t ■■■■ the tape in the way car players do.  I’ve looked at the adapter I got my Dad and there’s no way the doors on my equipment would close with that cord hanging out.  I seriously doubt the cassette adapters would work in a tape player with the door just hanging open.  I could be wrong.  Should I try my Dad’s adapter in my home stereos?

 I really appreciate your comments  .Keep the advice coming!

nan2dance

6

If you’re goinig to play it through a home stereo system or boom box, why don’t you just plug it into the AUX IN jack (on the stereo) from the headphone jack (on the player)? Why do you need all the FM Transmiter/AC cigarette lighter adaptor nonsense?

One cord with a male plug on both ends (albeit probably 2 different sizes) is all that’s needed.

7

yes, sadly the boomboxes in my home don’t have input jacks.  I probably shouldn’t refer to them as stereo equipment.  That’s why I’d like to find a good quality FM transmitter that works both in the car and in the home.  

(One room does have an actual stereo system with many jacks in the back.  There is one set of jacks still free and I will try a cable with the correct ends on it at some point, as you suggest.  It’s hard to get at and I rarely listen to music in that room.)

One might ask what I’m doing with a Sansa in the first place, since this is the audio setup I have and I can’t afford to replace the whole thing.  It was a gift.  A very, very nice gift.  And it’s cool.  I hope to make it work.

Thanks!

nan2dance

8

Thanks to everyone for their input.  I found an iRiver on ebay for under $10.  So far it’s working well, no problems.  Yesterday the AC adapter arrived.  Now I can plug the iRiver into a wall socket for power.  From the center room I can pick up the FM signal on the stereos of the other two rooms so it can play throughout the house.  Sweet!  So,

1.) iRiver is playing my Sansa Clip+ well both at home and in the car, and

2.) there are power adapters out there for cigarette lighter appliances to plug into a normal wall socket. 

Apparently, not all adapters are the same.  I had to read a lot of reviews.  They can be fall-apart cheap.  But also, they don’t always provide enough power for appliances.  The Powerline DC Power Socket I bought had mostly good reviews.

The iRiver is uncomplicated to work.  If I’m going to be driving, I have to set it up beforehand because there is no way you could mess around finding a channel while driving.  I have to lean over to read the display.

I had read here about the lousy audio quality a lot of these FM transmitters produce.  Static, hums, interference, and so on.  The iRiver came with clear, simple instruction to turn the volume on the Sansa up 3/4 volume to optimize sound quality with the least distortion.  I get no distortion. 

Sometimes, if the FM station I chose is borderline to another active station I will start to get interference, but I’ve had no trouble finding interference-free stations where I live.  In the home, I was getting a power hum.  I moved the transmitter to a different wall socket not shared with the stereo and it went away.  In one of the rooms where I can pick up the signal there is a slight low hum I can hear if I crank the volume up real high.  The iRiver lit says it transmits to a radio up to 15 feet away.  The stereo with this low hum is pretty close to being too far away and this may account for the hum.  I’m pretty fussy about my audio.  At normal volume I can barely make out the hum.

So that’s how things went.  Very satisfactory so far.

Thanks again for all your help.  I hope these messages may help someone else looking to enjoy their Sansa Clip+ both in the car and at home. 

Regards,

nan2dance

9

Thanks for reporting back, and great to hear about your success with your setup!  And the iRiver transmitter looks way cool, to boot.   :slight_smile: