Al Tech Anydrive FM Transmitter

Mobile MP3 devices are certainly on the rise. There are all kinds of specialized devices available for use in any situation. Today we look at the Anydrive FM Transmitter. The Anydrive is very versatile and has many possible uses.

Description: (from Merconnet’s website)
Plug in this handy device and listen to music on any car or home audio system--it's that simple. No navigating mazes of wires. Simply plug your portable CD or MP3 player via USB into the Anydrive and you're set; or plug in your USB memory device for an even lighter load! The on-board Play, FF/RW, and Volume controls provide easy access to your music, and the 4 dip-switch channel-selector guarantees the cleanest possible FM transmission, so your music will always sound great. But you don't always have to go wireless FM--with the Anydrive, you can quickly and easily direct-connect to virtually any audio system (via cassette adapter; not included) for crystal-clear sound wherever you go.


Features:

Portable
USB port provides quick access to your music
Wireless FM transmission
Direct cable connection via cassette adapter (not included)
Separate Play, FF, RW, and Volume controls
Easy hook-up
DC 12V power connection required

Specifications:
MPEG Audio Decoding: 64Kbps ~ 320Kbps
USB Version: 1.1 / 2.0 Compatible
FM Modulation: (Selective 14 Channels) 87.3 / 87.7 / 87.9 / 88.1 / 88.3 / 88.5 / 88.7 / 106.7 / 106.9 / 107.1 / 107.3 / 107.5 / 107.7 / 107.9MHz


Contents:
Anydrive FM Transmitter
DC Power Cord for your car
Velcro Strips for mounting in your Car


As you can see above, the Anydrive has several buttons. There is a Rewind, Play/Pause, Fast Forward and Volume Up/Down. On the left side are the jacks for input & output along with the power jack.


On the left side is where you are able to connect your USB media. Note the distance from the side of the Anydrive and the USB plug is rather small, so if your USB media is not very slim, you may have difficulties inserting your media. On the right side is where you choose which FM station your Anydrive will transmit your music.


Notice with the 4 dip switches you have a combination of 14 stations for your transmitter to use. Since the Anydrive uses stations at the beginning and end of the FM spectrum, you shouldn’t have any problem finding a good clean station to listen to your music.


Use:

I used the Anydrive in a Toyota Corolla. Shown above the Anydrive is being used with my Sony MicroVault 128 (USB 1.1). This storage media allowed me to listen to some of my favorite songs all while proving to be a compact unit which stored in the center console. I noticed very quickly some things I did not like. The RW & FF buttons are really Previous and Next buttons. They do not allow the music to fast forward or rewind within the same song. Also there is no way to know what song is playing unless you know the song. Also there was no way to pick a specific song you want to play without RW/FF through each song until you find it. The songs play in alphabetical order which can not be changed, unless you change the names of your tracks.


Here I installed my Sony Micro Vault 512 (USB 2). I was able to get my daily playlist loaded on the 512 card with over 87 Songs and 120 Meg of storage remaining. All the buttons on the Anydrive were easy to view thanks to the red light under each button. There was also a blue Data light which blinked when the Anydrive was reading from the storage media.

I also hooked up the Anydrive to my 7 in 1 Media reader and read music off of the following media:

128 Meg Smart Media
64 Meg SD
32 Meg CF

I also have a laptop 2.5” USB Hard Drive Enclosure. This would only work if the partition was 1.8 gig or less. This was nice; however, it's more stuff to carry around, plus the hard drive is not nearly as rugged as flash media.

So how did the Anydrive sound? Well, I was certainly impressed with the sound. It lacked in bass, but anything being transmitted over FM radio never has as full a range of sound as listening to the original CD. However, it sounded good enough for me to get lost in the sound of my favorite tunes.


I also hooked up some non-traditional players. I used the input jack to pump MP3 music into the Anydrive from my IPAC. It did not sound nearly as good as the MP3 music coming from the Anydrive itself, but then again, the IPAC was not designed as a music player. I also hooked up my laptop for the kids to watch a DVD and listen to the sound over the car stereo. This was great! No more cables stretching from one end of the car to the other!

The box touts the ability to play music to a home stereo, but with out an AC adapter (not included) this is impossible. I contacted Merconnect to find out if one was available for sale through them, but one was not. The packaging does have the exact power requirements; thus one can be picked up at Radio Shack or your local electronics store.

Conclusion:

Overall, I really enjoyed the versatility of the Anydrive. You can virtually use it with ANY type of media. The sound is as good as to be expected from an FM transmitter. If there was anything I would change it would be some type of display to show the current song and some way of picking a specific song from your playlist.

I would like to thank Merconnet for providing us this Anydrive FM Transmitter for site review. This product is available from their site here.

Pros:

Mobile

Versatility

Good Sound

Input/Output Jacks

FM Transmitter

Reads any USB Media (under 1.8 gig)

Cons:

AC power adapter not included

No song display

No instant choice of specific song

Added: November 6th 2004
Reviewer: KingKash
Score:
Hits: 8964
Language: english