Kensington Universal FM Transmitter for MP3 Players (Black)

I have had this Kensington FM transmitter for about 2 months and in my hands it has very acceptable sound and not alot of static.

Unfortunately it has one fatal design flaw that makes listening to classical, jazz and any other type of music with any quiet passages VERY FRUSTRATING. During the quiet parts the unit will shut itself off causing my car audio to emit a ear piercing screech when it loses the signal. I haven't measured it but it seems like as little a 10-15 seconds of quiet causes this behavior.

This makes this unit useless for classical music and quite a bit of jazz and other similar styles. If you listen to quiet music, avoid at all costs. If you don't it is the best transmitter I have tried.

Sirandar

I am reviewing this product primarily in reply to the reviewer who complained that this transmitter regularly turned off during quiet musical passages. When I originally read the review, I was concerned about this but also took it as a good sign that the transmitter automatically shut itself off when the car isn't running which was a complaint I read in a review of a competing product. I could not find any mention of an automatic turn off in the albeit sparse instruction manual. I have had the transmitter for a couple of months now and have to report that I have not had that problem with it in my Buick Riviera. I have listened to jazz, rock and audio books using the transmitter and have not had it turn off on me while playing. The unit then turns off when the engine and electrical system are turned off. I did notice though that with a borrowed Chrysler minivan it stays on after the engine is off and the key removed so that is something to consider. As for performance, I agree with...Read more

I bought this to provide audio playback in my vehicle for my new Sony Ericsson W580i. I had previously used a Griffin iTrip with an iPod 3G 20GB to broadcast tunes to my car; the interface was horrible and the transmitter was underpowered. Not a good product to use. My sister uses a Kensington transmitter for her iPod Nano (the Kensington FM transmitter with the iPod dock connector) and it seems to work very nicely.

PROS:
I like the tuner and the preset buttons...much better idea than other tuner mechanisms in competing products. Cord is adequately long. Transmit power is very nice; I've used it in my vehicle and my wife's vehicle, and it can seem to drown out almost any strong FM signal. As a result, I don't find myself needing to use the tuner or the presets as often as I would have thought.

CONS:
This thing cuts out when it doesn't detect a significant signal within 10 seconds (a threshold which is regrettably not user-modifiable)...Read more