Griffin RoadTrip FM Transmitter with SmartScan Review
July 16, 2009 Iphone 3 party accessories
I was looking for a new cradle and FM transmitter for my iPhone to use in my Audi A6. I already have a belkin tunebase for my wife’s PT Cruiser which works great in her car. For some reason when I tried in my car it did not work so well, I had a hard time getting good clear sound no matter what station I tuned it to. So I started looking for a different brand for my car and came a cross a deal I could not pass up. It was a Griffin Roadtrip model 4040-RDTRPB for 14.99 on Amazon.com. Ordered it on thursday had it by tues and only paid 4.99 for shipping.
This Griffin roadtrip 4040-RDTRPB was not made for the iPhone but it works just fine, charges and all. You do get the message about having to turn on airport mode but i just say no and it works fine . It comes with 7 different inserts for different ipods I just picked one that seemed to work the best. Right now my iPhone has the best skins ever on it but it will work with any very thin case or case that the bottom comes off like the incase slider. The docks arm plugs easily in the cigaret-lighter and stays very secure even around corners at high speed. The fm transmitter works really good with my Audi A6’s Bose Sound system and if you have stereo with AUX in this Road-Trip has AUX out. Which the belkin I have did not work well on any frequency in my Audi but work fine with my Pt Cruiser. The smart scan on the griffin worked the first time and found a perfect station to use and I have been using the same station for over a week now. If you have problems finding a frequency here is a tip I found. It has to be turned on to European mode to reach 87.7 – 87.9 since for some reason Griffin thinks that they are not allowed to use these frequencies (they are). Heres how On the FM transmitter box, push the middle button (Function) and then press and hold the “Mode” button (the right one) for approximately 10 seconds. When you let go you will see a menu for “Us” “Eu” “Ja”, select the middle button, “Eu”. Let the device sit for a few seconds until it goes back to the main screen, then tune your radio and the transmitter to 87.7 – 87.9! Now you can use the device on the frequencies that will rarely give you interference. For the price I don’t think you will find a better fm transmitter with a cradle and that gets clear reception. What also makes the roadtrip a better choice over the belkin is that when you sync your iPhone with itunes it will update your play count where the belkin for some reason would never update the play count. While this may not seem like a big deal it was for me since I have a lot of smart playlist that remove songs once played and put new songs in their place. For me the roadtrip is a better choice and for 20.00 including shipping I would say it is the best $20 I have spent on my Iphone.
Comments (1)
Even better select the JA mode instead of US or EU. If you select EU you can’t use Pandora, AOL radio, or the NPR app because of EU regulations, which Japan does not have. Also the Japanese frequencies go much lower than the US.