|
Hardware Review
|
»Arkon Sound Feeder
"Great Sound Clarity, worth the price, very few problems."
 |
FM Transmitters are nothing new; they’ve been
around for years. Since their introduction, sound quality has only
gotten better. Arkon’s new Sound Feeder device is a testament to this.
Playing anything, whether it is a PSP, an IPod, or any other mp3 player
in the car sounds great. There are some setbacks, however, so read on
to find out more.
In design, Arkon’s Sound Feeder resembles an
egg. It’s flatter than an egg though, and is a little larger. Take a
rubber egg, and mash it down until it’s about an inch thick, and that’s
about the size of the sound feeder. Around the Sound Feeder is the
standard headphone plug. It wraps conveniently around the egg, and the
jack fits snugly into a little opening on one end. The one side has two
sliders, and once the left side is turned on, a little green light
glows to signal that it’s on.
The Sound Feeder has 8 channels it
can transmit. (88.1, 88.3, 88.5, 88.7, 107.1, 107.3, 107.5, 107.7)
These channels are pretty convenient because they’re at the end and
beginning of the spectrum, and easy to navigate to, especially on my
radio where it loses the station you leave it at and starts at 88.1.
Chicago has radio stations at some of the channels that the Sound
Feeder transmits, and I haven’t found a perfect station for everywhere
I’m at, but playing around with it will eventually get you a perfectly
clear station.
The Arkon Sound Feeder takes 2-AAA batteries to
operate. Arkon claims 15 hours of continuous use. I haven’t used it
continuously, but I’ve had the same AAA rechargeable batteries in it
for about 3 months. I don’t use it every day, but I use it often enough
to validate Arkon’s battery life claims.
The best setup for the
transmitter is to have your PSP at about ½ volume, and your car stereo
louder. When your PSP’s volume is too high, the sound becomes fuzzy and
the bass sounds terrible.
At home, I found that the Arkon Sound
Feeder works great just using it with my home stereo. The sound quality
is excellent when positioned right next to the unit, and maintains
perfect clarity for about 20ft, before you start to hear signs of
fading.
Now let me go into my own tests that I’ve performed with
the Sound Feeder. The first was in a large-sized van. The antenna was
located in the front of the van, and the PSP was positioned in an Arkon
mount in the front dash. I had no problems with the sound quality, and
it sounded great coming through the car speakers. In my second test, I
had the PSP mounted to the front windshield of a mid-sized station
wagon. However, the antenna was located in the back, wrapped around the
window. The music coming out of my car’s speakers was less than
perfect, and had some fuzzes interference coming in and out no matter
what station I was on. The Sound Feeder has a great radius when not
moving in a car, but it doesn’t like having the antenna in the back of
the car–so if you have that setup too, be warned. Front-mounted
antennas don’t have as much to worry about.
At $30, there are
probably cheaper alternatives out there. My friend got one for about
$20 at Radioshack. While it does the job, I can easily say that Arkon
Sound Feeder does a better job from my own use. If you’re looking to
buy an Arkon mount, pick up a Sound Feeder too. It rests around nearly
every mount they have.
Article by: Knives
Posted on: Dec. 6th, 2005 |
|
|
| |
|
