THSCC Forums

This is not entirely car related... Can anyone recommend an FM transmitter for home use?

Currently, when I'm home I only listen to music on my family room stereo. I've been using Airport Express with iTunes and have to admit, the sound quality is phenomenal for over-the-air music. The problem is, the Airport Express plugs into just that one stereo, but I'm setting up an exercise room and would like to be able to tune in to my music there.

I'd like to find something that I can plug into my iPod or, ideally, my computer's audio out jack and broadcast good quality sound to any FM tuner in the house. I've tried two or three different types of FM transmitters in my car and the only one that produced (barely) acceptable sound quality for music works only when plugged into a cigarette lighter.

Anyone transmitting music at home? Is there a home FM transmitter that makes decent quality sound possible?

BTW, I'm not interested in anything expensive. If the only options are over $150 I might as well get another Airport Express.

Thanks.

_________________
Marek Rozanski

mdroz@me.com
919-648-2433

Its not nearly as pretty and elegant as something from Roku (http://www.rokulabs.com/) or a Squeezebox (http://www.slimdevices.com/) but it works and its cheap.


$43 from the manufacturer's store
http://www.kimawireless.com/products.html

Heartland America is a craptacular catalog company but $20 is hard to argue with.
http://www.heartlandamerica.com/browse/ ... PIN=26364&

I think I heard that Mike Whitney has something like this. I'm intrested because I want to do this in our next house.


Hey Mike, what say ye?

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Todd Breakey
STS 42 - 1992 Sunburst Miata
Dammit!
"You souldn't play leap frog with a porcupine. You might get hurt." - Eliza

I say ... I have one of these:

http://www.ccrane.com/radios/fm-transmi ... itter.aspx

And I did the "remove the sticker and dial up the potentiometer" hack:

http://www.xmfan.com/viewtopic.php?t=32 ... sc&start=0

As someone else said, it turns an OK FM trans into a GOOD FM transmitter. I'd still like more power and the ability to use an external FM antenna, but it does fine with coverage across our 3200 sq ft house, even though the transmitter is in an upstairs corner room.

I run iTunes continuously on a spare server and broadcast a playlist through the house. Listen in the family room, bathroom, garage, office, etc. When I want to tweak the playlist I just grab a laptop and RDC to my "Broadcast" computer upstairs. It and the transmitter live in a closet.

They club FM trans has higher range and a nice external antenna connector. It's a Ramsey FM-25 and is considerably more expensive but still legal per FCC rules.

Anyone else have other good options?

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Mike Whitney
whit32@gmail.com, 919-454-5445
V10, V8, V8t, I6, I6, V6, F4t, I4, I4, I4, I4, I2, 1, 1

$69.95 is definitely in my price range, and it sounds like the broadcast range is good enough for my needs. The cool thing is, since iTunes communicates with Airport Express over the network, I can still use Airport Express in the family room, where sound quality really matters, and at the same time pipe the music out through the FM transmitter to other parts of the house.

I did the RDC thing with a dedicated Windows box running iTunes round the clock for a while, too, but I've consolidated servers recently and somehow ended up with a Windows-free household. I'm running iTunes on my primary desktop and on my laptop, accessing the same MP3 files, which sit on my file server.

I usually run iTunes on my desktop and control it from my laptop using NetTunes. (If there's a Windows equivalent I'd highly recommend it.) Since I got my new laptop a few weeks ago, though, I've found having a physical remote control and a full screen media center app with iPod-like elegance very convenient.

_________________
Marek Rozanski

mdroz@me.com
919-648-2433