iTrip v2.x, revisited.

What a waste of money. The iTrip has proven to be completely useless in my car. No matter what station I set the radio to, no matter if the iTrip is set to LX or DX, the signal is weak and I can’t hear a thing unless the radio is turned all the way up.

When I left for work this morning a took a couple minutes to set up the iPod to play over the car radio via the iTrip. After several minutes of trying multiple new stations as well as the ones that worked with my first generation iTrip, I had to give up, or I’d spend the morning stuck in traffic.

Before leaving work, Trush and I tested the iPod and iTrip with his car stereo as the iTrip had worked quite well with the van, maybe there’s something wrong with my car stereo. We managed to find one station where the stereo didn’t need to be cranked in order to hear.

As it was getting late, I went to my car, tuned in the station we’d found, and couldn’t hear a thing. Increasing the volume over 80%, I could hear some sound but I wouldn’t want to leave the volume that high. As a test I moved the iPod closer to the antenna, which is in the rear of my car, and the music was clearer, but still not as clear as it was in the van. The difference: the antenna in the van is in the windshield, Trush’s antenna is in the rear but is a shorter car, and mine is right in the back.

The transmitter in the iTrip is not strong enough to make it to my car antenna with any power. Checking around, there have been a number of complaints of the same issue. With this, I will never buy another Griffin product again.