Product Review: The Roadmaster VRFM9 - MP3 FM Modulator

After reading quite a few bad reviews, I decided to just get it. That was last June, and this is now, my review.

Some of the reviews hold true, but non of them tested them out for 4 months and then gave a review. The Roadmaster VRFM9 - MP3 FM Modulator is a small fm transmitter that plugs into your lighter adapter. You can plug into it various forms of media, such as an jump drive (usb stick), sd card or something that has a headphone jack. It comes with a cord that has 2 male ends on it. one end is to plug into the roadmaster and the other end it to plug into something like your ipod, or portable cd player or anything else that has a normal headphone jack on it. I just use a usb stick.

this thing is compatible with wma and mp3 format. I only use mp3 format, but every once in a while i run into a wma on my computer and want to toss it on there.

Pros:
For those of us that do not have an ipod, or something similar, this is very convenient. You do not have to burn cd's or tapes, if people still have that in a car, to listen to your favorite music. All you have to do is pop out the media, in my case its the usb stick, plug it into your pc and throw on whatever you want to listen to. The size limit is based on what you can afford in terms of size on the usb stick. I got a my 512 stick from work and use that one. I got that one for free, but i also have a 2 Gb one that i got for $40 at comp usa. The size just keep getting bigger and bigger and the prices keep getting lower and lower. So getting new music out of this thing is as easy as click and drag.

Cons:
The sound quality is ok. It does not carry out the bass well at all. I'm into blasting music every once in a while, but i feel pretty embarrassed doing so when using this. The louder the volume, the closer to a tin can sound you get. But if you don't listen to your music loudly, then you should be ok. I managed to make due with it.

As you can see from the pictures, there is a pivot point in the center of the device. It work quite well, for a while that is. These days, if i pick it up to read the display, it just flops right back down. No resistance at all when it falls down. Just like a rock in air. I have managed to deal with this as well. The display is dangerous to read while driving anyway since it is so small (perhaps another con).

and the last con is that something is a bit hokey about it now. Sometimes if i pick it up to go to the next song i get some type of error or something. The song will either start skipping or just start making some bizarre noise. Eventually the noise/skipping stops and the song restarts, but if you just hit the next button it will move on to the next song and be ok.

Sure there are a lot more caviates for this product, but I'm sticking with it. It still works, knock on wood, and it is really easy to put new songs on it. I always hated having to burn a new cd and have a bunch of old cd's lying around collecting dust. Sure i could use cd-rw's, but then i would have to go out and buy them. And i also managed to find this product for $30 at walmart, so i got it for my birthday last june. I'll keep you posted on the deterioration of it over the coming months, but i say buy it for now. Buy this or something similar to it.