[Ti] Griffin iTrip - Review

Thu Jun 12 21:34:01 PDT 2003

I've had my iTrip about a week, too, and I'm not so elated with mine,
either. But not for all the same reasons. My fidelity is acceptable in my
'66 Electra 225 with it's 40 year-old factory radio.

I'm not sold on the design of the iTrip. Jess stated that the iPod cannot be
charged with the iTrip in place, but this is NOT true. If you insert the
iTrip "parallel" (meaning horizontally across the top) to the iPod, then
Jess is correct. However, the iTrip can be inserted "perpendicular" to the
iPod - this allows firewire port access, as well as access to the lock
switch. 

But: When I insert my iTrip in "parallel" the little plastic fake firewire
plug doesn't sit comfortably, and as a result, the iTrip is little higher on
the FW side as the lock switch side. I removed the firewire port plastic
door on the iPod, and things worked a little better, but it seems that the
plastic fake plug on the iTrip wants to push itself out after awhile.

Now I've noticed that the iTrip has developed a little "play" while inserted
"perpendicularly" - I can wiggle it, and the contacts seems to short out
somewhat. I can still get decent sound out of the earphone port, so I guess
the iTrip has started to give a little.

I use the lock on the iPod a lot, so not having direct access to that switch
is a pain.

When I was using the iRock, I could simply switch it between 1 of 4
stations, and it always played as well as the iTrip. But I wanted a greater
range of stations, and I just didn't like the dangly thing. I also didn't
like having to buy batteries every morning that I forgot to turn the freakin
thing off.

But here's a fun thing to do: since the iTrip/iPod combo is so small, I
smuggled it into my local watering hole where all they play is the lame
local classic rock station. I positioned myself pretty close to the stereo
system. At the right time, I took over with the iTrip, playing a ton of old
Nashville Country from the 50s/60s. I did this twice this week at the same
place, and got busted after a couple of hours on the second night. Funny,
nobody seemed to notice.

Methinks I could've sold a few iPods that night.

Rich Graham

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On 6/12/03 5:17 PM, "Loren Schooley" <loren at flash.net> said something like:

> On 6/12/03 1:41 PM, "Jess Girard" <jess at girardrubber.com> wrote:
> 
> I'd like to mention that 5 miles down the road the stations signal changes
> and bleeds and you dern near wreck trying to synch another channel, which
> works the first time about 20% of the time. In a city, every other FM
> channel is taken up by Clear Channel Communications, with very strong
> bleeds. 
> 
> I found one good use for iTrip. While parked, and jammin' tunes from the car
> with doors or windows open, fidelity is masked because of volume and natural
> acoustic obstruction, and control of the stereo can be made up to 40 feet
> away. 
> 
> Also, the radio or system an iTrip uses must be digital, no analog stereo
> allowed, and small digital radios are dismal, you need to be 3 feet from
> them. 
> 
> iTrip means well, it's cute, I want to like it, but it just isn't industrial
> quality. Or at least mine isn't.
> 
> 
>> Hi Jason:
>> 
>> I have a cassette-player interface, too. In every place I tried (two cars
>> and in my office) the fidelity using the cassette-player interface was
>> superior to that of the iTrip.  A good friend used the term "poor dynamic
>> range" when he listened and I think I agree with him. Again, the signal
>> strength was quite low so maybe that's why it didn't make a better showing.
>> 
>> Here are the lines from my original message concerning fidelity. I've
>> underlined the phrase "the fidelity was poor" but I'm not sure that this
>> list server will pass the underlining.
>> 
>> Since I used that phrase three times in my original message and despite
>> that you're asking about  fidelity, would it be paranoid to wonder whether
>> you're pulling my leg?
>> 
>>> In my car its output was barely sufficient to allow enough signal to
>>> travel from the dashboard to the whip antenna, even with the iPod volume
>>> turned up to the limit. The fidelity was poor.
>>> 
>>> In my wife's car the FM antenna is built into the back window. I was able
>>> to get it to play decently by placing the unit only by placing in on the
>>> back ledge. Of course it couldn't be controlled from the front seat once I
>>> did that so I simply let it play continuously. The fidelity was poor.
>>> 
>>> In my office the iTrip had to touch the antenna of my FM radio to produce
>>> sufficient volume to overcome the RF noise from several nearby computers.
>>> The fidelity was poor.
>> 
>> Jess
>> 
>> 
>> At 01:04 PM 6/12/2003 -0500, you wrote:
>>> Jess ...
>>> 
>>> One quick question regarding your review of the iTrip:  How was the
>>> fidelity?
>>> 
>>> ... Jsn
> 
> 
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