Griffin iTrip FM Transmitter and Auto Charger for Sansa

For over 2 years I have been using the cassette player in my car with the standard cassette adapter to play my mp3 player through my car stereo. I often wondered if I was getting the best sound quality out of my music and flirted with the idea of getting one of these FM transmitters. I was scared off by the limitations with open FM frequencies in urban areas that I have seen mentioned in other reviews and the price for the good name brand ones at local retailers was prohibitive.When the tape player in my car unexpectedly died and I could no longer use the cassette adapter, I had no choice but to look for an FM transmitter. I wasn't about to try replace the stereo in my aging vehicle and plus its tied to a disk changer that I still enjoy. I found a great price on the Griffin iTrip on Amazon, way cheaper than any retailers or other sites online. When it arrived I was thrilled at the prospect of being able to once again have access to my huge library of music on my mp3 player and I even thought I might gain the benefit of improved sound quality.Boy was I wrong. Even when I locked in to a clear transmission (more on that later) I was shocked that the output volume was not very dynamic, the volume control on my sansa was rendered useless and I could only control the volume on the car stereo. I had to crank it up a lot higher than with my previous primitive cassette adapter. The sound quality was also a bit thin, very noticeable when listening to music with some good low end.Once I started driving it got worse. I would hear static in the music every couple of miles, at some points it was unbearable. I figured I needed to select another station. I am in a metropolitan area so that was a challenge, there were basically 2 frequencies I could use. At different points during my hour long commute one or the other would work better than the other. I read the instructions on switching the mode to mono to potentially get better results, but any improvement was marginal.At times the music would be overwhelmed with static and I'd just get frustrated and turn off the music altogether. Other times I'd make it through the drive with just a little bit of static here and there, but I never had an uninterrupted drive as I was used to with the cassette adapter. I couldn't believe that this is how people actually listen to their music. When I was researching I searched and searched but it seems these adapters are the only thing out there unless you have a car stereo with a direct input jack.With all the advances in technology I am shocked and appalled that this is the best that they can come up with to listen to music in the car. Fiddling with a transmitter to get better reception is also a sure fire way to get into an accident.If you have a choice, I highly recommend finding a different alternative, unless you are in an area where there are not a ton of stations on the FM dial.Oh and to top it off, at times when I plug the fm transmitter in since it doubles as a charger, my sansa would freeze and its never done that before. I have to hold down the power button and wait for it to turn off and unplug the adapter and try again to get it to work. Not sure if its a problem with the player but as mentioned this has never happened before. Love the sansa, hate the FM transmitter.

Griffin iTrip FM Transmitter and Auto Charger for SansaThis unit is durable and can take some rough handling, and charges while you drive just fine, which I have found very useful. However, as some people note about units like this one (and not just this one alone), the sound you get will not be the greatest. I got one of these for my brother and he returned his, because he couldn't take the degradation of his sound from his Sansa Fuze player to the FM sound this sort of unit puts out through the radio.I can see exactly where he's coming from. This is not the solution for an audio purist. It's probably not the solution, if you're talking about playing rather than charging, for people in more recent cars that let you plug MP3 players directly into your sound system, because that will give you so much better sound than you'll get through this FM sound device. (By the way, FM radio sounds better than this.)However, if you have an older car that does not let you plug directly into the sound system from your MP3 player and you still want to hear your tunes or audiobooks directly from your MP3 player without the hassle of handling a lot of CD's, beggars can't be choosers. Just be prepared for what you get -- decent but not great sound. If you have a CD player, especially one that plays MP3's, and insist on great sound, forget using this as anything but a charger. But if you want to just plug in your player and have your 8 or 16 gigs or whatever available without any CD shuffling, here's your decent but imperfect answer.

I like what this product allows me to do with my Sansa E280. Overall, it works very well for me because I have a clean radio station in my area to tune into. The sound quality is good enough for me because I drive a Jeep Wrangler with a soft-top, which means lots of road noise to compete with. However, I have yet to try it in another vehicle.The first Griffin transmitter I received didn't work (though I made sure to do the firmware update on my player mandated by the product before I used it), so I returned it and Amazon promptly sent me a replacement without any hassle.One question (possibly issue) I have with the transmitter is when I start my Jeep with the Sansa hooked up and already turned on, it turns my Sansa off and it remains off for maybe 30 seconds or so before it allows me to turn it back on. I don't know if it is an issue with a surge in the power port on my Jeep at the point of ignition, or if it is some protective device built into the player, or if it is just a problem with the transmitter. It doesn't have any permanent side effects that I've discovered so far, so I'm assuming it's not a major problem anyways--just a minor annoyance.Overall, I'm very thankful for this product (though I would like to find a good transmitter with remote control capabilities).