First International Digital irock! 300W Car FM Modulator

For the money, this is a nice, inexpensive way to hook your computer to your stereo, or play your MP3 or other portable music player through the car stereo when you're on the road.

On the other hand, if you're a stickler for sound quality (like me), you'll most-likely be disappointed. The signal is not consistent, fading in and out with various hisses and pops. In addition, the device picks up interference from just about everything, including the device it's plugged into, so you really have to fiddle and adjust positions and frequencies to minimize the static. It's not so bad if you're using it around the house, but extremely annoying if you're on the road where the sound quality and interfering signals may change every couple of miles.

I bought this unit to use with an MP3 player. It has four different frequencies to choose from (88.1/88.3/88.5/88.7 MHz) and uses two AAA batteries. It simply plugs into the headphone mini stereo jack with a very short cable and has a simple power on/off button with LED indicator.

I found that for my car stereo to receive the signal from the Irock! it needs to sit within 2-3 feet of the antenna. This requirement leaves me only one choice for placement and that is on the passenger side dash. Unfortunately the placement means that every time I turn a corner the Irock! and my MP3 player slide across, and often off, my dash. If I had a car with the antenna in the back this would have been useless.

The low power of this unit allows even very distant FM channels to interfere with reception and causes me to retune to one of the other channel selections often. Also I expected longer battery life, while I can get up to 6 hours on a set of batteries I find that the power output drops quickly after the first 2 hours and requires new batteries or the 2-3 foot antenna distance drops further.

While usable I would not recommend it to any one traveling where there is a possibility of moderate to strong FM in the units operating frequency range.

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Based on the reviews, I decided to try it and then return it if/when it didn't work. Of course, it didn't work, even with the one unused FM station slot in our area. But before I took it back I decided to take it apart to see what made it (not) tick. Turns out that the thing might work if they'd just made the pigtail a little longer, one of the wires in the cable is an antenna -but it's way too short. So I just soldered some 24 guage wire to the circuit board pad where the antenna attaches, fed it out the door of my car, wound it around the car antenna and stuck a piece of electical tape around it. Viola! Works perfectly, in stereo with no residual noise or static and I can even overpower active stations. And, since I left the plastic button out when I reassembled it I don't have the inadvertant turn-on problem. For a permanent installation I'll probably just run the antenna wire along the car antenna and cover the whole thing with heat-shrink tubing, or I could put an A-B switch in line with the antenna cable and hide it under the dash. If you are uncomfortable with taking the thing apart, you might try just winding a coil of wire around the pig-tail cable and then to your car antenna. Good Luck!

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I've had mine for nearly a year. Use it in the car all the time. My car stereo has a CD player but no cassette deck or auxiliary input. This thing is perfect for use with my MP3 player, cassette player (books on tape), and shortwave radio.

Having 4 available frequencies is good for traveling, when near a local station that's using one of them (they tend to be college stations, with relatively weak signals, so they fade quickly & don't 'bleed' into nearby frequencies). This thing usually overpowers any station, however has a pretty strong signal, although I sometimes have to move it around a bit to get clear reception (due to the car's frame?). Outside of the car, the signal stays strong for at least 50 feet.

I recommend using rechargeable AAA batteries they'll perform well as this device drains fairly quickly. And the on/off button is sensitive, so it turns on when not in use unless you store it carefully in the car. I've wasted a few sets of batteries by tossing the thing in the back seat.

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I wanted to play my iPod tunes in my car. I had a cassette adapter but the quality was not satisfactory. I bought the Irock 300w thinking it would be better as there would not be the mechanical problem of cassette head alignment with the cassette adapter.

It works. The sound comes through the radio on the tuned channel. The quality is not very good. The signal drops occasionally. I found improvement by moving the unit around the vehicle but since my car antenna is in the rear that is where it worked best. It is a little difficult to control the iPod when it is several feet behind you. It is also not convenient to run a cable back there to have the Irock closer to the antenna.

I don't use it. I use the cassette adapter with its own poor sound quality problems.