Why do iPod FM transmitters suck while Satellite Radio ones are great?

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jwink3101jwink3101
Posted:
in iPod + iTunes + AppleTV edited January 2014
My dad recently got an S50 Sirius Satellite radio for his Jeep Wrangler. We had it installed and everything and they said the best thing to do was to use the built-in FM transmitter. I was weary of the idea having had issues with an iTrip in the same car. Well, needless to say, it sounds amazing from the S50



The S50 is actually set to a not-so-clear station and still sounds great. I tried my iTrip and it was not anywhere near as good. I tried it in just about every position in the car. No luck.



I asked the people at Best Buy why this was so much better and they said it is more powerful better technology. If this is true, than why aren't there any iPod equivalents to the transmitter in the S50. I am under the impression that all FM transmitters that are good, already run at the highest power legally allowed.



I do not know if the guy at Best Buy is bullshitting me or what but somehow, the S50 does sound amazing.



Note: They used the transmitter and not the modulator. That was my first guess but i was wrong.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 3
    danmacmandanmacman Posts: 773member
    I dont know how "better" the technology is, but the implementation of the technology is probably better. My friend has Sirius as well, and the FM transmitter is somehow directly attached to the antenna in the back of the head unit so no matter what the signal is pretty much always there.
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  • Reply 2 of 3
    jwink3101jwink3101 Posts: 739member
    That is more of a modulator and not a transmitter.
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  • Reply 3 of 3
    shetlineshetline Posts: 4,695member
    The way my '05 Subaru Legacy is set up, replacing the factory head unit is damn near impossible, unless your dedication to car audio trumps the desire for any control at all over heating, ventilation, and air conditioning. Since the factory head unit has no external line-level input -- the only way I consider the "right" way to listen to an iPod in the car -- I was forced to try out FM solutions.



    I tried an iTrip. I tried an AirPlay. I even tried two different brands of FM modulators directly wired into the antenna input of my car radio, and while they sounded better than the wireless FM transmitters I tried, I still wasn't satisfied.



    I finally got desperate, pulled by head unit out of my car, took it all apart, wired it up to run on a test bench, and finally figured out where I could wire in my own line input: http://www.legacygt.com/forums/showthread.php?t=21047



    While I wasn't satisfied until I did away with FM modulation altogether, I know FM should have been able to work out better than the results I was getting. Perhaps the Sirius FM transmitter employs some of the improvements I was hoping for? Some dynamic range limiting, soft clipping and overload protection are a must -- FM simply does not have the dynamic range an iPod can produce, and I don't think that a lot of these FM transmitter/modulator products take the right steps to deal with this dynamic range conflict, the result being the typically unsatisfying results many of us experience.
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