Belkin TuneBase FM for iPhone
Scheduled for next week is a drive from San Fransisco to Las Vegas followed by three day’s on Lake Meade on a houseboat. A rented Toyota RAV 4 will be picked-up in San Fransisco and lots music will be needed for the two day drive through Yosemite and Death Valley.
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My iPhone has lots of downloaded music so an FM transmitter is a logical choice to provide entertanment during the trip. The local Apple store sells several of transmitters from different vendors which plug into the car’s cigarette lighter. Two particular transmitters come with a rigid, but flexible stem to position the iPhone for the driver. Both units, from Belkin and Griffen sold for the same price, $89 USD.
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For this trip, I went with Belkin instead of Griffen because; 1) Belkin claims to scan automatically for unused FM radio frequencies, and 2) I bought a Griffen in January and wasn’t super impressed with sound quality.
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Belkins home page provides this nifty picture of the installed transmitter and here’s a picture of the unit as purchased from Apple.
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The road trip from San Fransisco to Vegas will be a good chance to evaluate Belkin’s TuneBase. More to come.
June 22nd
Good Points:
- Automatically finds unused FM frequencies
- The rigid stem. It holds the iPhone in position for the driver to use iPod or other features such as google maps. With a Toyota RAV4 SUV, a 1 to 3 cigarette lighter expander from Radio Shack positioned the iPhone higher and provided additional 12 volt sockets.
Bad Points:
- Auto-frequency finder can be annoying while driving through mountainous areas or other areas where radio signal come and go.
- Audio quality is not quite as good as a CD or listening via a direct, wired connection. The FM transmission and reception process cuts into frequency response and dynamic range.
- On a Toyota RAV4, opening the driver side door killed the FM connection. The radio needed to be retuned once the driver side door was closed.
Conclusion
The Belkin TuneBase has good points. It’s rigid stem which plugs into the cigaratte lighter is flexible and serves as a convenent iPhone holder positioning the phone for more than just listening to music, like for instance, checking Google maps; or getting the weather. The iPhone recharges while connected with TuneBase meaning you can turn off Auto-Lock from the General Settings menu. If you plug your iPhone into the cigaratte lighter for recharging during long trips, you may as well plug the phone into the TuneBase.
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TuneBase was useful on a rented a houseboat in Nevada, near Las Vegas because the boat was equipped with an FM radio and a cigarette lighter. Plugging the TuneBase into the the cigarette lighter gave access to iPhone music which was piped over built-in shipboard speakers. That was cool.
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On the other hand, audio quality is a problem and Belkin is not alone in this. Any system, like those from Belkin and Griffen, that convert from iTunes digital format to FM and back to audio probably lose some amount of audio frequency and dynamic range in the process. You’ll get better audio quality by burning iTunes playlists onto an audio CD.
