An FM Transmitting Monster

Nik (apparently) - 01:00pm Apr 18, 2005 PST
via email

I'm a long time owner of a Monster iCarPlay. I bought it when I
upgraded my iPod and my iTrip no longer worked. I haven't been entirely
pleased with it, either, particularly given its high price.

<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=08060>

My problems with it were all based on how it takes its signal from the
dock connector.

iTunes lets you set different volumes and equalizer settings for all
your tracks in order to normalize songs recorded at different volumes.
This can be done manually (or using iVolume for a more automated but
intelligent way of setting sound volume) or by using the "sound check"
feature on the iPod.

While this works like a champ out of the headphone jack, and works with
SOME devices which get their sound from the dock connection, the
Monster iCarPlay is not one of them. As a result, the volume of each
track I played was inconsistent, leaving some tracks inaudible.

The iCarPlay also seems to have next to nothing in the way of a
pre-amp, so the base sound level coming out of it was quite low. To
compensate for this, I'd have to turn my car stereo up to a volume of
about 24 (whereas it's usually at 12-15 for normal radio stations).
This would increase the volume of the static (the iCarPlay doesn't have
the strongest signal of anything I've used) at the same time, so the
overall effect was muddy terrible sound with a lot of clipping from the
increased volume.

I asked an Apple Genius about all of this the other weekend, and he
told me that it's up to the manufacturer to incorporate the EQ/volume
signals from the dock into their device. He wasn't able to tell me
which devices supported this, either.

As much as I've enjoyed the convenience of a simple device that charges
and transmits in the car, I've finally had to ditch it and just bought
an iTrip for my current iPod after about one and a half years with the
iCarPlay. I've still got the iCarPlay in my car and I'm using it just
as a charger, but the iTrip gives a stronger signal and respects my
volume and EQ adjustments.

--Nik