OK so many of you may have been on the edge of your seat while waiting for the outcome of the MP3 FM Modulator Thread. For the two of you who didn't catch the thread yet click HERE to get all caught up.
To me the whole idea that I could spend $30 and turn my FM radio into an MP3 player was crazy. Then again, $30 is so cheap that even if it doesn't work I don't have to sell my bike to recover.
I found this modulator on Sunday on Amazon from a guy who, as it turns out, is just starting a profile. It really made me nervous ordering it but as I said before it's $30. Plus I trust Amazon to refund my money in the event this sale didn't work out.
Anyway 6 days later this white box arrives in the mail. Even though it arrived just one day late to be on time for my trip, it was still a very responsive sale. That is, it got here fast enough for my taste.
Looking at it, my immediate thought was "Little, Plastic, Different". I found similar items on Walmart.com but they didn't have the remote. My thinking was if I could conceal the player in the trunk, I could use the remote to control it. Plus it was one less thing I'd have to do when stopping in to eat someplace (or for any other reason to leave the bike unattended).
Well that didn't work out because as it turns out the remote requires a line of sight before it would work. That's okay though because the location of my lighter on my 1500 is perfect for controlling this thing while driving (I'll have to set the cruise is all).
After opening the modulator I ran up to the garage and stuck it in to see if it would play. Right away it didn't work. Because it was a little cool in the garage (10 degrees) I figured it would be something to look into later in the year. Oh wait...gotta turn the key over one more notch. The headlight comes on and so does the MP3 Player. I fumble around with the tuner on the radio and eventually find the right channel.
It sounded really good until I tried to crank the radio up. When it gets up on the higher side the song sounds a little distorted. It's almost as if the player has the volume too loud. That's okay. I think this thing will sound fine out on the highway. There's only one way to find out and that's not going to be today.
The website advertises that the player would work on any flash drive up to 1GB. For those who know me know that I am going to use a 2GB Flash Drive. I copied a few Johnny Cash MP3 files on to the flash disk stuck into into the modulator and off it went. I didn't fill up the flash drive but it did play them. Also it was Johnny Cash. I didn't test it with Abba or anything like that.
Anyway, I'm not going to be listening to MP3 Files in the rain and not cranked all the way up as loud as she'll blow but I think this thing might actually work. I'll be sure and update this BLOG when something changes. I'm not sure how this thing will stand up in the heat and with the vibrations etc. etc.
Overall at this point I'm looking forward to Spring and I'll be using it in the truck for the long ride to work until then. Two things I don't like about it though are:
- Wireless remote requires line of sight (not a big deal in the car but not so good in my case)
- The station selected to be transmitted on is printed so small you'd never be able to safely see it and operate a vehicle. If you have to change the setting you'll either have to pull over and squint like hell, have a co-rider do it or guess by thumbing up and down on the radio's tuner.
UPDATE 2/5/2007
Ok so today I did some running around in the truck with my wife and we tried out the FM Modulator. I loaded some files on to my 2GB Flash Drive and away we went. Right away, in the driveway, I noticed that on the remote there is a volumn control. I was unable to turn the modulator up any higher which means it must of been all the way up. Previously I mentioned that at high volumns, the sound gets distorted. I turned the volumn down on the modulator and the sound got better. I'll have to go back to the bike and retry the sound feature again. I think this will improve the quality of the sound.
The other thing I noticed is that when I restarted the car the player didn't resume playing. I was thinking that it should restart automatically per the Amazon article. Pushing the play button restarts the last song that was playing. I understood that the player should restart at the same point in the song where it left off. I am not sure if this is because of the size of the flash drive, if I misunderstood the ad or it just doesn't work. Having to push play and restarting at the last song is not a big problem (it would be if it started over from the beginning though).
Continue to Part II