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In it's basic state it pretty much sucks but if you search the internet for "Belkin Tunecast II Mods" you can find a very easy modification to add length to the antenna. Once I did that, WORKS GREAT. Static free, sounds great, exactly what I was hoping it would be.
I only needed the part with which you can charge the transmitter in your car and it works fine.
The power adapter is terrible, as well - it doesn't even fit in the outlets of several cars I've tried, and with several others you have to hold it in just the right place or else it falls out. The transmitter works about as well as I would expect a radio-quality broadcast to do.when it actually WORKS. It's supposed to turn on whenever it detects music playing on the attached MP3 player, but I've found that it only does so about half the time with my iPod classic and even less than that with my Shuffle. It also has a weak signal strength and cuts out at random times (I suspect that at times it's been overridden by FM transmitters in other cars next to me while I was on the freeway). It's okay, I guess, but I would just avoid it in the first place and spend a little extra for a transmitter that actually works.
Works great with portable XM radio's with non-XM radio supplied auto's such as my Jaguar which is made in England. Nee a good clean unused FM channel in your area to use.
The item works as it should and I haven't had any trouble with it in the cars I have tried it in. for a 10 count, and then fumbling to play my audio source. (We were fumbling around trying to unplug one mp3 player and plug in another whose volume wasn't turned up enough).
The fatal flaw that makes me hate every day that I have to use this device is that auto-shutoff cannot be disabled. If you absent-mindedly turn on the car before remembering to turn on the device -- again your ear drums will be blasted with horrible static. In our newer model Chrysler van the signal is wonderful -- it seems almost "CD quality", meanwhile in our older model Buick Skylark with a horrible Clarion CD/Radio it has quite a bit of static.
The second fatal flaw is that you cannot get it to turn on by just plugging in the cigarette power adapter but have to additionally hold down two buttons for several seconds. If you turn on the car and fumble around too much with your mp3 player before plugging it in and hitting play, the transmitter will auto-shutoff and BLAST your eardrums with horrible static. Anytime there isn't input to the device, its auto turn-off timer will begin -- and the horrible static blasting my ear drums has almost made me swerve off the road at times.
The third fatal flaw is that the cigarette lighter adapter doesn't just have an on/off switch, why do I have to be aggravated ever single time I get in the car to do a 10 step process of fumbling to plug in the power, holding down the power on buttons (PLURAL). Some people just want to hear music will running for a 5 minute errand and a 2 minute process to get music going is not cool.
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