Does what it claims.. could be better..
Written: Oct 24 '04 (Updated Oct 24 '04)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Compact, ridiculously easy to use
Cons: Battery Life, ergonomics of battery compartment.
The Bottom Line: It works as advertised, but the design could be improved, especially battery life and battery replacement ease..
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| hrlaser's Full Review: Irock Wireless Music Adapter 300w |
I was using a cassette adpater to play my Rio Volt portable CD-based .MP3 player in my car, and got sick of the thin wire hanging out of the cassette well in the dash Stereo all the time, so I decided to try the iRock! Beam-it. Bought one at Radio Shack for $30.00..
The thing works as advertised. I'm driving a full size Ford with the "Premium" Stereo system and it sounds lovely. My main gripe is its use of two AAA batteries.. I don't get anywhere near the 20 hour advertised battery life out of a freshly charged pair of NiMH AAAs in the thing.. maybe half of that.. I'm no elecronics engineer.. maybe it would last longer on a pair if it used AAs instead of AAAs.. I don't know.. It'd be nice if the thing had some kind of warning beep when the batteries are about to poop out.. as it is, the signal just quickly fades and the red LED, which is hard to see in sunlight when the unit is on a car seat, grows dimmer, and finally goes out.. then the selected radio station comes back on, since the iRock! is no longer "broadcasting" to it.. and it's time to change the batteries.. which is not easy to do one-handed, while driving.. see below..
In my car, the radio antenna is embedded in the back window as orange wires, along with the rear window defroster, and I also live in So. Calif. on which the FM band is very crowded.. all four of the iRock!'s available bands are used by radio stations, but by playing around with them, I found one worked better than the other three, so I just leave it set at that one and set a preset for it on the car stereo..
My other gripe with its ergonomics is that swapping out batteries while driving is nearly impossible to do safely unless you have a passenger who can do it or you pull over and stop.. or you're at a long stop signal.. the batteries are held in too tightly in the battery comparment, and fingernailing off its cover, prying at the batteries to get them out, then swapping them out for a fresh pair, and putting the cover back on is not something I'd recommend you try in traffic.. The battery cover should be hinged somewhere, so it doesn't come flying off.
It'd be nice if the cord which is also its antenna was longer too, so it could be perhaps velcroed to the dash, rather than just laying flopped on the car seat..
But like I said, for what it is, despite the battery dance and the short cord it works, and it works pretty well..
I've also brought it inside and used it to "broadcast" .MP3 output from WinAmp to my home hifi system. It works even better in that application, perhaps because my Sony Receiver has a better tuner stage than my car stereo does, I don't know.. the hifi is maybe ten feet from the coffee table on which my laptop sits while I'm typing this, and I'm broadcasting WinAmp through the iRock! to it, and it sounds good to me.. no complaints.. no drift, if there's any hiss, it's negligible..
It certainly sounds 1000x better than the sound I get out of the laptop's tiny stereo speakers..
A car is subject to all kinds of radio frequency interference that a home stereo is not, so that could explain the difference in performance. I suspect most people will buy this unit to use in their cars, and your satisfaction will vary from car to car, depending on how good your car stereo's antenna is, how good its tuner is, what kind of territory you drive in.. how crowded your FM band is; there are a lot of variables. I've used it in a couple of rental cars with satisfaction too..
The only problem with using the iRock! with a home stereo and a computer's sound output is that you end up with three different volume controls.. one on the hifi's receiver, one on WinAmp, or whatever software player you use, and one on the laptop itself.. takes a bit of trial and error to figure out which ones to leave where, and which one(s) to adjust.. but that's not the fault of the iRock! at all, just the combination of too much technology at once :) ..
I'd give the iRock four out of five stars.. it could be better, ergonomically, battery life could be longer, (my biggest gripe with the thing).. but still think I got my money's worth..
To the people who have reviewed the unit and complained that it's not "CD Quality"..
Since the iRock! is an FM transmitter, transmitting to the FM receiver of your choice, you are NEVER going to get "CD Quality" out of it.. this is a limitation of FM radio which is capped by the FCC at either 14khz or 15khz..
No human beings can hear up to 20khz anyway.. but this is not the fault of the iRock!.. it's the FCC.. so you should ignore any comments in reviews that say it's not "CD Quality" .. as that is the nature of FM Radio..
I have not owned or used any competing units that perform the same function, so I have nothing to compare it to..
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
hrlaser
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Reviews written: 2
Trusted by: 1 member
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