Get a FREE fully-working copy of Steganos Security Suite 7 (worth £49.99) when you sign up to the Practical PC Newsletter. Review: iStuff iCast AutoScan FM Transmitter
Iain Laskey tries a new MP3 player add on with a rather neat feature.
| Product | iCast AutoScan FM Transmitter |
|---|---|
| Company | iStuff |
| Web | www.iworld.co.uk |
| Price | £29.99 |
| We like | Good bass, overall sound pleasing, free-frequency finding function potentially useful. |
| We don't like | Must use PSU in car |
| Rating | 8/10 |
| Requirements |
The market for iPod/MP3 player FM transmitters has grown rapidly since the change in UK law that allowed for low powered FM transmitters although it has to be said, it didn't exactly stop people selling or buying them before.
With so many different models around, it is becoming increasingly hard for manufacturers to differentiate themselves in the marketplace. iStuff think they have an ace up their sleeve though with their latest model, the iCast AutoScan FM Transmitter - it finds the best channels for your area automatically, negating the need for all that fiddly trial and error that such devices are prone to.
The iCast AutoScan FM Transmitter looks pretty smart in black and silver with an attractive shape and compact size and comes complete with a car power connector or you can use it standalone using an AAA battery - also supplied. It connects to your music source via the headphone jack meaning it will work with any MP3 player despite all the iPod style naming for the product.
There are 4 small buttons along the top. One is power on/off, the middle two allow you to adjust the frequency but the interesting one is the fourth. Press and hold this for a couple of seconds and the unit starts to scan the entire FM waveband from 88.1MHz to 107.9MHz looking for gaps in existing radio stations where it would be able to produce the best output. After a minute or so it is done and the 4 channels that will work best in your locale are stored in memories so you can quickly select between them as you move about.
Testing on the Move
I first tried it in a Ford Focus with an iPod. Initial impressions were less than favourable. It found four channels OK but setting the car's radio to them produced a buzzy and muffled sound on two of the four it found. As a double check, I then tried it in a Fiat Multipla which produced similar muffled and bland sounding output. Worse still, it picked out two frequencies which when I tuned to them on the car radio already had stations there. Clearly something was amiss. A quick email exchange with the company's PR people revealed the problem "You did use the power adaptor didn't you?". Well, no, I'd just used it in battery mode. I connected it up to the car power adaptor and it was suddenly a whole new beast.
With the car's adaptor connected, it started to show its true colours. There was still a little bit of muffle in the mid-range of certain types of music but nothing too nasty. The bass was nicely extended - certainly better than all similar devices I've tried. The car's tuner was able to lock on solidly and after a good hour's driving around, I never had to re tune or adjust anything. It did still benefit from a little treble boosting but overall it was a nicely balanced sound that was pleasing to the ear.
I then tried it to listen to some podcasts on a portable radio and even on battery, the results were extremely good with no hint of the previous problems when using it in a car on battery - absolutely clear with no hint of hiss, background breakthrough or distortion. Obviously the speaker in such a radio is pretty small but the sound was absolutely fine with no hint of the mid-range woolliness noted in the initial car tests so it is safe to assume that that aspect could well be in part caused by the car radio's own foibles.
As a final test, I tried it on a train with someone listening in using an FM radio equipped mobile phone and again it performed well allowing us to annoy the other passengers as we chuckled along to the DiggNation podcast.
Other nice touch is the automatic power down if no signal is detected from your MP3 player for a minute or so which helps to give the device a claimed 18 hour lifespan on a single battery.
Conclusion
After an initially disappointing start, the iCast AutoScan FM Transmitter proved itself to be a worthy contender and turned in a fine performance. Compared to many of its peers it also looked the part and at £29.99 it can be considered a safe purchase, especially given its unique selling point of finding the free frequencies for you. For anyone who has found themselves fumbling randomly with an FM transmitter and radio, trying to find a frequency for their MP3 player to play on, this will be the big draw and hopefully reduce the number of accidents or near misses as people pay more attention to their MP3 player than the road. For this alone, the iCast AutoScan FM Transmitter is a winner.
