Crumpler

Has anybody messed around with the newer in car Bluetooth FM transmitters?
Not a true audiophile, but curious what the sound quality will be?

The price of admission is way low, so I have one being shipped to me.
The concept for those that don't know, including me up to five minuets ago, is that it plugs into a 12V port and will then broadcast on an FM frequency of choice on the dash stereo unit.

I have a pretty old Alpine CD unit in the dash, and was looking for easy USB input upgrade.
I got one of the Bluetooth units that have a stalk and input pad on top ... it reminded me of the old Blaupunkt equalizer units, lol.

Alan

Where does the bluetooth come in if its an FM Transmitter?

A bluetooth connection to the FM transmitter seems a bit nutty - you could just have a bluetooth to a D->A to an Aux input and only one wireless step.

Plug in FM transmitters are usually poor audio quality - would be surprised if that had changed much - pls report what you find and more details

Alan

Crumpler

Found a you tube link:

Alan

OK Looks to be better quality than I would expect - esp. for $20.

So seems it has a mini SD card slot and I assume an Aux in Jack.

You are doing a double wireless hop BT -> Unit and Unit -> FM. but at least one hop is all digital

I decided to buy one to try it out - my son has an old VW Golf that doesn't have an Aux in - he might like it.

Thanks for the pointer - will update later.

Alan

Alan

Well got the unit in no time (Amazon Prime!).

My son's verdict is that is is pretty cool.

Some noise but not much and otherwise works nicely as described - he hasn't tested the MicroSD card yet but the aux 3.5mm in works fine. His VW Golf doesn't turn off the power outlet with the ignition (neither do most 928s) so he has to unplug it when he parks.

Generally all good - he's happy especially as it just showed up! $0 for him - and only $20 for me.

Alan

Alex Verg

Am I understand correctly that if in the built-in radio there are no outputs for connecting music from my iPod, then I can broadcast it to the speakers of the car through such FM transmitter via bluetooth or 3.5 jack? I do not quite understand how the FM transmitter will connect to the speakers, it needs an extra cords?

jwyatt8171

FM Transmitter, you would tune your radio on the car to the set FM station the transmitter is sending the audio to.

SOURCE (BLUETOOTH,IPOD, ANY AUDIO SOURCE)----->FM TRANSMITTER DEVICE---fm signal--->CAR STEREO------->Amplifier-----> Speakers

Alex Verg

Oh, so that's how it works, thanks a lot, it somehow seemed to me that any additional cables would be needed anyway)

Crumpler

After all my initial excitement, I found the sound quality lacking.
I used it a few times and just couldn't get past the background noise/ hiss.
I don't know, maybe I'm more of a audiophile then I thought?

It is a good charger though

DKWalser

The weak link in this type of adapter is its dependence on your car radio's FM reception. If your radio doesn't pick up local radio stations without distortion, this type of adapter won't work for you. Even if your radio has decent FM reception, this type of adapter still might not work all that well if you live in a crowded radio market. In that situation, unless your radio does a very good job of only picking up one frequency at a time, the stronger radio station signals on nearby frequencies are apt to "bleed over" into the adapter's much weaker signal.

That doesn't mean this type of adapter won't work. Many users are happy with theirs. There's just a lot that can go wrong with them that have nothing to do with the quality of the adapter. If your radio has a cassette player, a cassette adapter (if you can find one) may be a better option.

Alan

I think this type is better than a cassette adapter, cassette adapters are not really great quality either and are dying breed (well mainly the head units that can use them are very vintage at this point).

Certainly LA or even Phoenix will have more challenges with packed station rosters than somewhere in the middle of the plains. But the key criteria here are how good the receiver is AND how good the transmitter is - how stable on its frequency and also how many options it provides across the whole spectrum. Even in a busy area there are some holes - but many transmitters offer so few channels you can't take advantage of the less packed spectrum ends.

With this one you can and it seems to transmit well without drift.

There can be a small amount of background noise, but the trade off is good flexibility, charging (if you want) navigation controls and good mute/pause functionality. Its really a nicer product than you'd expect for $20. I was a skeptic but was convinced.

Alan

Alan

You do need to get the right balance between head unit volume and phone volume and unit volume. Generally you want the phone as loud as it will go without distortion and the volume on the unit as high as it will go without distortion - then control the system volume on the head-unit. This keeps the noise down to a minimum. Some spectrum areas may be noisier then others also.

Alan

marknsf

Location relative to the antenna is very important for these low power FM transmitters. I've tried a few and if they are close enough to the antenna they can do a sort of work. Close to the radio usually doesn't help as the antenna feed line is shielded.

Sound quality wise they were never really satisfactory so I recently replaced my headend with a built-in Bluetooth unit, results are much much better. Bluetooth radios can be inexpensive but few have an acceptable look for a 928.

If the phone and radio are up to recent Bluetooth standards, sound quality will be close to that of a wired connection. I doubt you could tell the difference in a moving 928.

There are also car amps with built-in Bluetooth that would let you keep your original radio but unless your comfortable with the wiring and potential signal level issues probably not an option.

Mark

Alan

{deleted}

Alan

How about this:








Unfortunately you can't buy one that looks quite like this - and you probably can't even buy them anymore (discontinued)

Alan