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Kensington RDS FM Transmitter/Auto Charger for iPod

15 April 2010 iPod Car Charger , , ,

5 Responses to “Kensington RDS FM Transmitter/Auto Charger for iPod”

  1. C. Olson says:
    April 15, 2010 at 8:36 pm

    End broke off in the lighter within a few hours use. Still waiting for a refund via Kensington. Pass on this one. It’s JUNK.
    Rating: 1 / 5

  2. Steven L. Schreiber says:
    April 15, 2010 at 10:18 pm

    I bought it as a gift for my 18 year old daughter and she loves it. says that it works perfectly and is thankful for my thoughtful gift.
    Rating: 5 / 5

  3. J. Blumer says:
    April 15, 2010 at 11:29 pm

    This unit will not fit all lighter sockets. I’ve been unable to get the unit to work at all in my wife’s Saab 9-3. The 33185 version does fit.
    Rating: 2 / 5

  4. Sarah Culp says:
    April 16, 2010 at 1:04 am

    I bought this after my 33199 quit working (after almost two years of use). The first time I plugged this new one into my car and tried it out, I thought it was a pretty nifty update. But as I kept using it, I realized that unlike the old model, this one doesn’t shut off when you unplug it or turn off the car (maybe I’m missing something, but 99% of the time, if you’ve been listening to your iPod using this transmitter in your car, wouldn’t you want it to turn off when you turn the car off and thus can no longer hear it? I certainly do).

    When you do plug it in or turn the car on, it keeps playing whatever song was on when you turned the iPod off, but it displays the Main Menu so if you want to look at the playlist you had been using, you have to re-navigate to it. But first you have to wait a few seconds while it displays the frequency you’re on, which also seems pretty pointless because in most cases I would expect that you want to keep using whatever frequency you were using last. Perhaps more to the point, I do get static at times; it seems to change with the position of the iPod itself.

    Are these the worst tribulations anyone’s ever suffered? Of course not. But they weren’t present in the old model, which is why I’m switching back to that one and I encourage you to do the same until Kensington makes this one function more smoothly and intuitively.
    Rating: 3 / 5

  5. John Karlen IV says:
    April 16, 2010 at 3:54 am

    I gave this transmitter five stars not because I think it is amazing, but because I think it is a good $50 solution to a $300 problem. What you should do is take your car to a stereo shop and have them install a deck that has a line-in signal so you can directly connect your IPod to your car. But I decided to be cheap too.

    I just got a new commuter car. It has stock speakers and a stock head unit with a tape deck (If you have a CD player then just burn CDs on the computer, you’ll be much happier). I wanted to listen to my music but didn’t want to spend the money upgrading such a cheap car that I was planning on running into the ground anyway. Enter the Kensington IPod Transmitter. Lured by the easy fix I purchased it and am very happy I did. On a side note, my car radio doesn’t even have the RDS feature so I can’t tell you how well that part works. I got this unit because the low profile charger/transmitter was the only thing that would fit in my cigarette lighter.

    Before you even consider this product, you need to address two important questions. Do you have any free radio channels in your area (one that is completely void of even a faint signal)? If you live in an area where there are a lot of radio stations then chances are you will be fighting the entire ride for a free frequency and you should look at some option besides an FM transmitter. Second, do you have any aftermarket stereo products in your car (speakers, head unit) or a manufacturer upgraded stereo? If you have spent even a dime on your stereo, then you won’t be happy with the music quality. It plays music well but isn’t entirely distortion free, more noticeably at high volumes. So to why I like it…

    I like that it charges my IPod on the go while playing music thru the radio. This has filled a huge void in my hour long commute to work. The preset buttons are nice to have when I get in an area where a station is using the frequency I normally use. The off button is reassuring to know I am not killing my car battery. The use of the IPod screen to see what radio station you are broadcasting on is nifty to say the least. The part that inserts into the cigarette lighter is low profile enough to fit into the tight space in my car. Transmit power has not been a problem for me. The cord is long enough to give me flexibility on where to keep the IPod in my car. Lots of good things to say about the unit, but it is not all praiseworthy.

    There are things that I don’t like about the unit. First and foremost, when on the freeway I have to crank the stereo up due to road noise. At this higher volume distortion becomes discernible. It isn’t bad, but it is there. The unit seems frail. Nothing is broken yet, but I wouldn’t feel comfortable letting someone else mess with it for fear they would break it. Certainly it isn’t toddler proof. I don’t like that the connector blocks the ear phones. If I want to listen to the radio and a passenger wants to listen to something else on my IPod using headphones then they have to disconnect the unit from the charger to get at the headphone jack. When switching stations it is a very uneasy transition. Let’s say I switch my car radio to 107.7 and then set the transmitter to the same frequency, Well there is a sequence of about 2 seconds from that point where the music is off and on (the unit seems to be thinking and trying to catch up). Last, the cord which gave me such great flexibility seems to be too long. In earnest, it just gets in the way most of the time.

    All in all, I would buy it again knowing what I know now. It is a good unit, and a real easy way to get your IPod playing in your car. Hope that helps.

    Rating: 5 / 5

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