Hi everyone, as anybody tried a fm transmitter from iphone5 on there mx5 or any other vehicle, do they work are they cheap and nasty, I am thinking of the one,s found on e-bay not a lot of cash to try but am I wasting my time?. Steve
I’ve used one with my ipod for years, it can work well, but I will admit recently its been harder to find clear frequencies to use it in, and gave up with it on the continent last year as no clear airwaves to tune it to. worth a try i reckon, probably depends where in the world you are…
Hi Martin, thanks for the reply, maybe try a different route to get my iphone to play in the car, anybody else got any ideas , would like to play dab radio and my music library from my phone, cheers. Steve
My son got one for an iphone 5 from ebay and it works fine. It cost a shade under £9. If you search using “8 PIN IN-CAR WIRELESS FM TRANSMITTER HANDS FREE FOR IPHONE 5” it brings up the one he bought.
I got something similar for my ipod touch from Sainsburys to use in my MX5 and it works a treat. It plugs in using the 30pin adaptor so I also got a Bluetooth Music Receiver for an ipod Dock Speaker for just under £7 from ebay, now I can use any bluetooth device to play music. Not sure if they do one similar you can plug into an iphone5 transmitter though.
hi Richie, thanks for the reply, i have bought a transmitter of e-bay £7.95 with cradle and it will charge my iphone 5 at the same time,so far it performs ok, it,s just like any other fm frequency i think, looses station a little if i go under a tunnel or were the signal is weak, i have not been very far yet to properly test but i would imagine i would just have to tune both the frequency,s together [iphone & transmitter] to a stronger signal depending where i am in the country, i bit like any fm radio show just re tune i hope, cheers. steve p.s. you can,t remember were to get the bluetooth reciever from?.ta
Hi Steve,
I got the receiver from ebay. If you search “Stereo Audio Bluetooth Music Receiver for iPod iPhone Dock Speaker”
There’s a few to choose from. It uses the 30 pin connector from an ipod or iphone 4 not the small connector for an iPhone 5. Not sure it would work with the iphone transmitter you’ve got without an 8 Pin Female to 30 Pin Male Adapter Dock. A search on ebay brings a selection up for less than a tenner
Thanks Ritchie, will look into it when I get a chance, steve
Steve, I went through several of these FM transmitter units , usually cheap ones off eBay and even from reputable car parts stores but they rarely lasted long. In the end I realised (as we all do eventually) that you get what you pay for so I bit the bullet and paid out more for a Jabra Cruiser 2 unit. It’s about the size of a smartphone and attaches to the sun visor. It can download your contacts from your phone so you can make calls (although I’ve never tried that, just use the phone through bluetooth). I’ve found the transmission and reception to be almost perfect and if the signal drops on a particular frequency it just takes the push of a button to pick a new frequency. When making or receiving calls the volume and sound quality is excellent. However, I have mine in my daily driver rather than the MX5 so don’t know how good it would be with the roof down. The internal battery lasts several days unless you make lots of calls or use it for playing music for extended periods. That said, I have gone a week without charging with moderate use. From memory I think I paid around £50 although it looks like you can now get them for around £30 on ebay. I would certainly recommend them. I’ve had mine for about 3 years and it still works perfectly.
Hi Pete, thanks for the reply, yes i know i should know better, always trying to get quality on the cheap, yes the Jabra looks great and i may well go for it, although i have already bought a cheapo of e-bay so i am going to try it now [on holiday next week] i have got it [i,m sure i,ll regret it] but if it,s rubbish as i suspect i will give the Jabra a try, thanks again… Steve
hi everyone, just purchased a jabra cruiser 2, as recommended by Pete, hopefully it will arrive before we go on tour at the end off this week, i will let you know for those who are interested how it performs, i also bought a cheapy £7.95 off e-bay [before the jabra] will try this as well and see how it goes although does look a bit naff, report back after holls. Steve
Steve, will be interested to see what you think of the Jabra. I’m going to give mine a try in the MX5 to see if it’s any good. the beauty of it is that you can readily switch between cars and is small enough to carry around if you leave the car with the roof down and don’t have space in the glove box or centre console. Certainly handy if going away on trips.
Hi Peter, jabra arrived today ( Thursday) first impressions are it looks a nice tidy compact unit, it was really easy to set up, as I said before going away on Sunday for a tour around Wales for 4 days so will be giving it a good work out to see how it performs, will report when I get back, cheers, Steve
Hi everyone, just an update on the jabra I purchased a few weeks back,I was going to do a report when I came back from a week of touring south west wales, but unfortunately I could not get a signal all the time on my phone so unfair to judge the jabra on this trip. Since I have had the jabra ( cruiser 2) it has behaved superbly, I have used it for streaming from my phone and also as sat nav ( off my phone) , although I was not expecting much it has performed without a hitch , the only time I thought it was crackling a bit much was due to the battery being a bit flat but once I plugged it into the cig lighter socket it was bang on form again, I have used it mainly for music off of my iphone but I am going to update my data so I can stream music which it does I great job off. At the same time I purchased a cheapo off of e- bay ( fm transmitter) , not sure how this performs as my daughter relieved me of it as soon as my jabra arrived.although she says it works ok,ish. Hope this is off some use to anyone, all the best. Steve