Review: Scosche FMMOD01 vs Audiovox FMM100A

[morrias]

Ok,

 

Tonight I got my metra antenna adapters in and have been anxious to try out an FM modulator for my iPod. I went to wal-mart and picked up the Scosche FMMOD01 modulator for about $25. Pretty basic package, it comes with a RCA to 3.5mm stereo adapter, a black rocker switch and the modulator box.

 

Exterior:

Wires are pretty long, which is nice. The antenna wires are very thin, and the construction looks solid enough.

There is a gain adjustment on the bottom half.

 

Sound results:

Good bass, good highs.

There is a high pitched hiss that gets worse depending on volume and the gain setting. The gain setting was a nice tough, but when I had the gain where I wanted it, the high pitched hiss drove me nuts. Note I am very sensitive to high pitched sounds (that's why I hate certain tv's, titanium tweeters, etc).

 

So after that, I decided to run to circuit city and buy the Audiovox modulator for $50. It comes in a plastic bag, which is nice should you have to return it unlike the blister-packed scosche.

 

Audiovox FMM100A

Exterior:

It's a longer heavier box than the scoches, with much thicker cabling. Ugly silver on/off switch. NO gain setting. It comes with a long RCA cable and a short cable with some sort of filter on it (probably attenuation for louder sources).

 

Sound Results:

Excellent highs and bass response. At high volumes there is the white noise sound, but no annoying high pitched whine. Much happier with the sound coming from this modulator.

 

As always, it would seem that you get what you pay for. I'm going to finish mounting it up, and enjoy having the iPod. Sure it's not cd-quality, and at volumes over 20 on the stock deck you get white noise between tracks or low volume, but it's all we have at the moment. As soon as the line-in circuitry is designed by other members on this board, I'm going for it. This is VERY acceptable until then. It definately beats out all the FM transmitters I've tried (Newer Tech roadtrip, Kensington).

 

Hope this helps some buyers on the fence deciding what to buy. Looks like I'll be doing the return thing at walmart tommorrow

[Ken S]

Thanks for sharing that info. Were you able to get enough input volume on the Audivox without the gain adjustment? Are you feeding in audio from the dock connector on your iPod?

 

Ken

[morrias]

I've tried both headphone and line out on the dock with good results. The line out is a bit clearer!

[welby]

I'm picking up my LGT tonight and am most likely going to buy the Scosche unit. I was going to get it at Crutchfield until you said they carry them at Wal-Mart. Thanks for the heads up!

 

I'm likely going to take the suction mounted Sirius tuner out of my wife's car and use it in the Legacy and put my JVC DVD receiver and Sirius tuner in hers. That way I won't have to buy anything else and pay a $15 activation fee to Sirius. Running wireless through FM sounds like ass, so I'm hoping this is a little better. If I want to use my Zen M30 player, I'll just unplug the Sirius. CD's are so dirt cheap that I'll just burn some for the changer. I'd probably only take the MP3 player on longer trips.

 

I'm sure it's not an optimal solution, but I'm tired of messing with stereo systems. I'm just going to get a good pair of coaxials for the front doors and use a LOC to hook up my current Kenwood amp and 15" RF sub (The thing's from 1993! It just will not die, lol! . I'll just build a new, smaller box for it. I don't care if it's an optimally sized box at this point in my life. I'm sure I'll live, lol.

 

If I can get it all squared away for under $100, that's good enough. I have a 3 year girl to worry about now, the tossing money out the window on stereo equipment days are over !