Whole House FM Transmitter 3.0

After problems with a buzzing sound from another FM transmitter, we were thinking all hope was lost for broadcasting the music for our Christmas Light display. In a last ditch effort, I decided to order this unit. Nice clean music broadcast over the radio waves! This unit worked really great and ran all through the Christmas season. It's really a quality unit and is not very large. Plus, it will run off USB power. Very happy with purchase!

My last review was a bit harsh because the antenna could not be attached to the device. As I later learned the antenna had left handed threads and not the traditional right handed. It would be helpful if a tag was attached to the antenna to make this clear because with bad vision it is hard to find that out from the documentation. I am going to reorder and give it another shot and will edit this review accordingly. I did set this up to operate with one of my extra iPods and for the most part the transmitter works very well. But as others have said the AGC appears to be non effective. It is easy to have occasional songs that are louder than others to over modulate the device. So in iTunes I normalized all my music and on those occasional songs that are still loud, I set the audio level for the loudest music and the rest, well they may be a bit light but it doesn't clip. This is very important because you wil hear raspy sound if the unit is over modulated. This is not due to weak signal. Another thought is to Google FM radio stations in your area and try to select a frequency where these are no strong local transmitters. Example is I am operating on 107.3 with the nearest transmitter about 20 miles away and over 300 khz away. Operating on 107.3 my nearest transmitter is about 20 miles away on 107.1. This is important because FM radios can be "captured" by a strong adjacent transmitter so selection of a frequency is important. Since this is Part 15 compliant remember not to use wire antenna supplied. The FCC is relentless when it comes to pirate stations and if you use this with the supplied antenna you will be compliant. My purpose is to broadcast my ipod throughout the apartment which it does nicely. Hum on transmit? Nope! Remember to think about power source, In my case it is powered from a powered USB hub. But do keep the audio lead away from the antenna because even though this is very low power it is RF and that can cause some peculiar audio porblems.

This was an easy and cheap way to send music all through my house. Now I can walk through the house with the same music (usually a baseball game) on all the various stereos, alarm clocks, etc. in the house with no lag between them. Compared to setting up $100 per unit AirPlay or other receivers, this has been great. I even got out my old walkman for listening in the back yard and it's fine. The quality is not "hiss free CD quality" but it sure beats running wires to each room, or a herd of $40 apps to send sound from your computer to your phones and old iPods. We already know how to do that - it's called radio. I do wish it were legal to use the longer antenna. Oh well. It took about 15 minutes to adjust the sound output from my computer to the right level. The sound is quite passable. Some radio receivers are really awful. My alarm clock (iHome) is actually excellent, but my cheap-o iPod/FM receiver is terrible, and it has ultra-fine-tuning FM ability, which might be the problem. My ancient Sony AM/FM alarm clock with analog tuning is great. My Sony digital walkman is decent. It seems that a wider receive range from an analog tuner picks up better, but the digitals are passable even then. You do still get noise from other devices, typical of FM. In my bathroom I have to put the radio up a little higher to get around a noise spot. This isn't the fault of the transmitter, and is quite easy to deal with. Pricing a higher fidelity (near CD quality, wired-in, whatever) solution tends to run very expensive very quickly - either needing to buy multiple small units and speakers for various rooms, or a new stereo with wires run to multiple separate rooms, with speakers. Sending audio directly from a computer to an iOS/Android device runs around 4-40 dollars per device, and still, no power, no speakers. They may offer more control, higher quality sound, and so on, but I was not after a whole-house single audio system. I just wanted to be able to hear the same game in the garage as in the kitchen and office. With one purchase I was able to do that, and no apps, no wiring, no drywall repairs, and far less maintenance.

I purchased the FM transmitter to play my music on my tablet. The provided antenna (FCC compliant) exceeds the 200 feet advertised. I was receiving my station almost 2 MILES away with the legal included antenna. Not sure if the atmospheric conditions allowed for this. (EDIT: The atmospheric conditions have no effect on this as I have tested it many times in poor conditions, decent conditions for radio and the distances for this are the same.) Admitted I live in a second story apartment building and have it up high. I was able to hear it on the other side of town. If you're using the legal equipment provided but it still exceeds the FCC distance of 200 feet, is it still legal? This antenna and transmitter may possibly have to be reviewed again by the FCC because it CAN cover an entire small city 2 miles across in every direction. This antenna exceeds their advertised 150 feet. There are TWO power settings on the unit. On lower power the signal covers my entire apartment complex, probably 300 feet or so. On the higher power settings the signal is line of sight and can be heard up to a mile away from the transmitter. You can access the higher power by holding both the CYCLE button and MUTE at once. I love testing this unit out and it's reach is superb. Legal? No. But it's fun to play around with if you're not afraid of the FCC. I have learned that you have to turn the volume down a few notches so that it doesn't sound over modulated but the sound is pretty clear. If you're using a laptop to play music you can equalize the sound and make your music sound really good. The plug that came with it is sort of cheaply made but you can use any plug with it as long as it's the right voltage and power. I am thinking of buying another one just to play around with. My one and only complaint about this unit. It starts at 88.0 and most radios go to 87.5. It would be nice to have my station that low on the dial for better testing as there are no stations on 87.5 in my area.

Bought this to use at a meeting, it turns on and when set to a frequency seems to sound like it connects by clicks but no sound is sent. Also, the 2.5 mm mic input is not common, and if using a 3.5 mm mic, it doesn’t pickup. Certainly not worth the money as it hasn’t even transmitted a muffle. Would not recommend.

Bought and set this up for my uncle. He moved into a house with a whole-home intercom system and wanted a way to stream music to it from his computer. The system had an AUX input on it but the wires went down into the wall from the head unit to places unknown. But I recommended this for him and he was sold. It sits with his computer upstairs and the intercom radio picks it up just fine. He can listen to his music in any room of the house with ease.

Update 2019.01.31: To sound its best, this unit (or any transmitter) requires a signal processor between the source and the transmitter or a decent built in defeatable automatic gain control. I think if it had AGC, folks would stop complaining “it’s not nearly as loud as the other stations” and “it sounds awful if you turn it up.” I recently landed a Behringer MDX8000 Combinator, a low budget ** broadcast audio processor from the 1990s. When properly processed, music sounds really good from this transmitter: it's not as loud and fat as a that of a commercial station, but it's amazingly close. Be prepared to spend a good deal of time studying broadcast audio compression and tweaking the settings to your taste. A Behringer DSP9024 - much cheaper and commonly available on the used market - can also do a good job, but (IMHO) they are absolutely beastly to configure. Another option is some sort of standalone AGC (many units are available cheap on the used market), but I have not tested them. Is it crazy to spend $500 for a compressor feeding a $125 transmitter? Maybe…but I use it a lot, and it made a HUGE improvement. ** low budget compared to the thousands commercial broadcasters spend on an Optimod or equivalent. Update 2016.03.02: I called the vendor and found out there is ==>; NO AGC <== in version 3.0. It was mentioned in the early instructions by mistake, and has been removed from the current instructions. It still remains a super unit in my opinion (especially for the cost), but you should use a compressor / limiter. This makes setup somewhat complex since tightly monitoring the actual modulation percentage is tricky without sophisticated equipment. Original Review: I live in the suburbs, so I was able to find a frequency with no adjacent channels. Your mileage may vary depending on your location. What I use it for: This is a personal FM station such that I can wear heavy hearing protection style headphones equipped with an FM radio. I use it while using loud equipment (i.e. cutting the grass) or when I wish to listen to music (or watch a movie) the rest of my family doesn't appreciate. What I like: FCC approved as type 15 compliant. Has license info on transmitter. Good to know if you worry about getting busted for running an unlicensed station. Decent sound for an inexpensive transmitter. Reasonably easy to set up (but you must be careful not to over-modulate). Decent range. With the antenna perhaps 10 feet above the ground, it is reliably reaching 150 feet. Has selectable pre-emph curves, so you can use 75 microseconds in the US or 50 in Europe. Most cheap transmitters use 50 microseconds, which sounds very dull on US radios. Comes with both legal and illegal antennas; I assume the illegal one has better range (I haven't tried it since I am satisfied with the current range) if you don't mind risking getting busted. You can turn on Hi Power Mode (again, you will not be FCC type 15 compliant; fine if you don't worry about getting busted.) To do this, you hold the cycle button and mute and it goes into high power mode, shown by a lightning bolt on display. I have not tested this since I don't need extra power. What I don't like: Per my oscilloscope, built in AGC that is supposed to avoid over-modulation does not work. Front panel meter shows volume, not modulation. This is misleading at best. Per the instructions, the power supply is not standard even though it looks like the same one as my Droid smart phone. They warn you not to use this supply on other items or any other supply with the phone. I assume they are telling the truth so I have not tested this. Left handed antenna connector, making it difficult to fabricate your own (illegal) antenna. It only goes down as far as 88.0 and not 87.9; unfortunate since it is wide open in many areas. What I have no opinion on: I have only used this as a home transmitter. It sits on a shelf and is remotely powered on and off. I have not dropped it (yet) nor worn it on my belt nor tried it in the car. Recommendations: Get a cheap audio compressor to put in front of this thing. If set up properly, your compressor will bring up the quiet passages (assuming this is your objective: true audiophiles will shudder, but then they wouldn't use a cheap transmitter and wireless headphones either) while keeping the unit from over-modulating. I'm using a Behringer MDX2100 I picked up on Ebay for about $25. To really set it up properly, you'll need an FM band spectrum analyser (good luck borrowing one of those!) or an oscilloscope connected to an FM tuner that has scope outputs (I used a McIntosh MR-78 tuner) so you can measure the modulation. You can do it by ear (instructions are in the transmitter manual), but it's much less precise. Minus one star for the poor AGC and misleading volume display.

I got this transmitter to work with my Lightorama light show for the holidays. This was my first year doing a light show and after looking at some different options (including bluetooth/wireless speakers, etc) I decided to go with the FM transmitter. My reasons being that if the music offended any of my neighbors, I could easily switch completely to the radio for people to enjoy the show and also because I already had a boom box to transmit to and had no real other use for wireless speaks. Additionally, the boom box was left outside (under the eave) so there was a chance it would get splashed if it rained... no big deal for a 10 year old boom box that cost $20... much bigger deal for a $100+ wireless speaker. So, the unit was easy to set up... pretty much ready right out of the box. Plugged it into my computer, picked an open station, and was able to easily transmit from the living room of our house out to the boom box on the front porch. Our cars could pick it up about around a block to a block and a half away which was more than adequate. The quality of the sound was awesome in my car and really not too bad on the old boom box. The unit came with various adapters to use in a car, plugged into the wall or usb for the computer. Also came with audio cables and antennae. I was very happy with how easy this was to use and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it.

Having never used an FM transmitter before, I had no idea what it would be like to set up. No trouble at all, as it turned out. Unpack, plug into electrical outlet, plug a sound source into the "line in" jack, turn on, choose a frequency and you are all set. Only difficulty might be finding a frequency that is not used in your area, but the signal from the Whole House transmitter is so strong it seems to overpower any radio station that might be on that frequency. Over all, very easy to set up and use.

Works great! Able to get all radios in my home with it, even in the basement. Have it connected to my Sirius boom box in the microphone outlet, the only spot available on that unit. Used the mon instead of the stereo and it works great. To increase the volume, I just increase the volume on my boom box and then increase the volume on each radio. That way you can get great volume for listening.

Signal range was about 50-60’ in a wide open clear area. Anything beyond that signal dropped very quickly. Great product If you only need 50’ range.

Besides taking 2 weeks longer to be delivered than advertised the transmitter puts out a relatively weak signal so the sound is not great.