Transmitters

MP3 players Sansa Fuze
1

I have a 2 gig fuze (blk) and a 2 gig sd card. In the car I use a sony fm transmitter to listen to my fuze. In my company car I have an Aux jack so its fine. But in my car with the Fm transmitter I have to either max out my fuze’s volume output and turn my radio up slightly or max out my speakers and leave my fuze volume at about 50%. Is there a recommended transmitter? Is there a setting to be changed? What do you all use?

Thanks a head of time

2

I use one by Accurian that I picked up at Radio Shack for about $20.  I just love it, but they don’t seem to carry it anymore.

3

I have been using the Maximo FM transmitter for Sansa products with my Fuze for about a week, so take this with a grain of salt, but I have found it to work very well in my area.  I was using a Griffin iTrip universal with my Sony mp3 player and even with a 6’ headphone extension cord (it uses the headphone connection as the transmitting antennae) I could not get consistantly good reception, whereas with the Maximo, I have not needed to change the frequency since I set it and I get static free reception 99.5% of the time.  I will have a better feeling for it once I get a chance to travel around other places than my local area.   

The sound quality of the music, like most reviewers of FM transmitters have said, is not up to FM radio quality, however, I find it good enough for most things. 

4

I have the same as MyDD.

For $20 it’s OK but no big performer.

Inconvenient to change the transmitter station preset while driving; it’s a very tiny switch.

Don’t know why the thing needs batteries AS WELL AS plugging into the 12v cig lighter for power.

Really attenuates the bass frequencies.  I need to use Custom EQ on the Fuze and boost the bottom end.  Or boost the bass on the car stereo quite substantially.

Need to run the Fuze with volume up about all the way.

On the highway, in average rural and suburban areas in NH and VT and MA…the frequencies for best performance keep changing.  Just when you get the radio and the transmitter set to a good frequency, about 10 minutes later it starts fading out.  And then you need to fish around and find another station…and set both the radio and the transmitter again.

It’s pretty much just a PITA unless you are on a long trip.  I haven’t used mine in a long time.

If you have a casette player in your stereo you’d be better off getting the tape adapter with a line-input and using that instead of an FM transmitter.

5

what stations to use to transmit thru the radio

6

I have a Chevy Venture, and adding an aftermarket stereo to that unit is extremely expensive.  So I just bit the bullet and got a hardwired FM Modulator from my local car stereo store. 

An FM Modulator (vice transmitter) actually patches into your antenna lead directly and feeds the signal down the antenna lead.  This allows for a very clean signal (no signal loss) to come through your car stereo.  While the quality is not the same as a cassette adapter, it is close, and miles above any “wireless” solution.

It took me all of 15 minutes to connect it.  It even came with a toggle switch so that you can toggle the FM modulator on and off. 

No more hunting for clear stations…Nothing.  I just set the “Sansa” station to preset number 6 and plug the 3.5 mm plug into the sansa and it works great.

It even came with Ferrite Choked RCA cabling so that when my Sansa is plugged into the 12V outlet, it does not pass the hum through the stereo.

If you can’t easily replace your car stereo with one that has an aux jack, and don’t have a cassette deck in the car, this is the definite way to go. 

I have not ever had any problems since using this.

7

@p_opus wrote:

I have a Chevy Venture, and adding an aftermarket stereo to that unit is extremely expensive.  So I just bit the bullet and got a hardwired FM Modulator from my local car stereo store. 

 

An FM Modulator (vice transmitter) actually patches into your antenna lead directly and feeds the signal down the antenna lead.  This allows for a very clean signal (no signal loss) to come through your car stereo.  While the quality is not the same as a cassette adapter, it is close, and miles above any “wireless” solution.

 

It took me all of 15 minutes to connect it.  It even came with a toggle switch so that you can toggle the FM modulator on and off. 

 

No more hunting for clear stations…Nothing.  I just set the “Sansa” station to preset number 6 and plug the 3.5 mm plug into the sansa and it works great.

 

It even came with Ferrite Choked RCA cabling so that when my Sansa is plugged into the 12V outlet, it does not pass the hum through the stereo.

 

If you can’t easily replace your car stereo with one that has an aux jack, and don’t have a cassette deck in the car, this is the definite way to go. 

 

I have not ever had any problems since using this.

What does somthin like that cost?

8

Mine was between $50 and $75 bucks.

You want something like this:

http://www.amazon.com/Scosche-Audio-FM-Modulator-Universal/dp/B0007THIDQ

I had to buy the RCA to 3.5mm cable myself, so that will add about 10 bucks to the cost.  Also since my Chevy doesn’t use the standard antenna leads, I had to convert that too.  (I hate chevy)

If you have any knowledge of car stereo installation it’s a breeze.  Simply shunt this unit inbetween the antenna lead wire and the antenna jack on the back of your car stereo.  Hook it up to a 12V source in the car, and You’re good to go.  I suggest you tie the hot lead to a lead that is only powered when the car is either in acc or on, or otherwise you might inadvertantly discharge your battery if it’s hooked to an always on source.

Once it’s installed, you set the stereo to whatever channel you preset on the modulator, and you will feed the Sansa beautifully.  Just like the wireless ones, though, you need to turn the Sansa’s volume at max to get a good clean signal.  The “on/off” switch is used to turn off the modulator when you are actually using the car radio as this unit will usually black out a good portion of signal surrounding the “preset” and when it’s on, AM reception is completely gone.

This is still not the best solution.  If my Chevy had a cheap way to add a third party stereo I would have done it, but the harness for my car stereo is outrageously expensive.  So, this is a good alternative.  Plus, with a factory installed stereo in my van, I escape the notice of many would be stereo theives.