Review

Field Test Review –
iRock 400 FM Transmitter

BY BILL CHACHKES

Nov | Dec 04
Issue No.19

irock photo With the digital music craze now in full swing, more people are finding more ways to share their music legally with others. There is even a new magazine from IDG called Playlist, geared for the digital music crowd. Enter the iRock 400. A wireless FM broadcasting device, the iRock claims a 25-30 foot range indoors with static free reception, and a 30-50 foot range outdoors. While I found these statements to be somewhat exaggerated, the iRock did perform solidly in some of our tests .

Our first test was indoors at a stationary reception point — my home stereo system.

The iRock broadcasted some of Robert Cray’s blues to my home system with no static from a still position nearly twenty feet away. When I moved out to twenty-five feet, there was some noticeable static, and at thirty feet, the audio was almost completely garbled. Changing the two Triple A batteries made no difference.

The next test was outdoors on my deck, with my small boom box. This time, we streamed some Eric Clapton music from the digital source to the portable radio. Again, at close range (out to about five feet), the iRock worked quite well, but beyond five to six feet, it began to pick up other FM signals (called signal leak) from local radio stations. The performance was somewhat below the manufacturer’s claims. Moving the radio to another position did no good. Anything past six feet was too full of static to listen to clearly.

The final test was in the car, again streaming from my MP3 player to my car stereo.

This was the main reason that I had bought the device, and while it worked, it left something to be desired sound quality-wise. While the car was moving, the music from my player was almost completely swallowed up by static. When the car stopped, however, the audio was again clear. I thought this could have been caused by alternator noise, but according to my car’s owner’s manual, most cars these days have shielded wiring, which eliminates almost all noise of this type.

So, while the iRock transmitter did fulfill its claims, its level of performance left something to be desired in mobile situations and over distances. While I was slightly disappointed overall, I would still conditionally recommend the iRock for non-mobile broadcasting chores.

The iRock was made to be used with any device sporting a 1/8th-inch stereo output jack, so its use isn’t just limited to the iPod®; it will work with any MP3 player, CD player, or computer with a stereo headphone jack. *