iRiver FM AFT-100 Transmitter

I've had a lot of FM transmitters over the years; some that plug in, most using batteries, but none have been very good. So needless to say I've been reluctant to purchase a new one for my car, to go along with my newly mounted PDA, especially with the big-little external drive filled with MP3’s, and TV shows. (For when I’m stopped, of course)

I took some time too look at a few of them, and decided that a must have feature was digital tuning. The one that I had previously was a good old analog one that I think I got from WAL-MART a number of years ago, and now I won’t set foot into that place, albeit for reasons other than the suck factor of the FM transmitter. Now when I got the old one it was fine, but in the time since, it has developed a symptom typical to many analog transmitters. It has a dial and coil setup, that doesn’t hold the tuning very well, or for very long. Since the digital tuners use a crystal, and circuitry to set the frequency they are far more reliable.

Then it came down to the choice of battery, or plug in. This was probably the easiest decision to make. At first, I figured that a battery powered device was superior because of greater flexibility, and I could use it anywhere; but then I realized that the car was the ONLY place that I would use the thing. I mean, who doesn’t have some other, arguably better, way of playing music in every other place we go? Problem solved; plug-in it is.

And now for the brand, I immediately thought of Belkin as I’ve had many products from them in the past, and they do have a plug-in FM-T, that also can work on batteries, so I could have the best of both worlds. But, then I thought back to my last point, why go half way, and do I really want to spend 85 bucks on a way to listen to my tunes on my car stereo? I’ve heard good things about it but, $$ is always a factor, especially since I saw on the site over at the Best Buy, a plug in one for $50, and it’s from the company that made my great little MP3 player. So great I thought save some cash, and get one more what I need. On my way to get this after a graveyard shift, I got there before the place opened, so I hopped on their open hotspot, and virtually shopped around. They haven’t blocked out the new site address for what was RadioShack here in Canada, now owned by Circuit City. That’s when I stumbled upon this little gem, the iRiver AFT-100, a slick little black unit, with a blue backlit LCD screen, big enough to be read easily, but still not bulky. I’ve also had products from iRiver, and figured I’d give the sexier of the two plug-in units a go.

I’m glad I did, the audio quality is fantastic, and it sounds as good as when I use headphones. The front of the unit is silver and blue, with three preset memory buttons, and two tuning buttons. The tuning range is from 88.1MHz to 107.9MHZ, and with three presets interference is all but a thing of the past. I’ve lived with this for a couple of weeks, and have had no problems, with the obvious exception of losing my power point in my car, but that was remedied by getting a splitter that allows me to also plug in my PDA, for non-stop play.

Now I'm off to grab a “podcast” or two for the way home.

Until next time,

Tim