Review: iTrip Universal by Griffin Technology

I have yet to spring for a new car stereo unit that will enable me to plug and play music from my iPhone/iPod. Since I only have a CD player and not a cassette deck (does anyone have cassette decks anymore?) I cannot simply get one of those old school cassette adapters with the wire that plugs into my iPod’s headphone jack. Thats where the iTrip Universal by Griffin Technologies comes in. 

I have used a number of of FM radio adapters like the iTrip in the past, but Griffin has done a great job at improving upon previous approaches. The iTrip is not only for iPods. Any device with a 3.5 mm headphone jack will do, including a laptop. Everything about it is kept simple and convenient. The entire unit is a little thicker than your average USB flash drive and with good reason. The iTrip is made to plug directly into any USB port for recharging. Gone are the days that you had to occupy your single precious cigarette lighter adapter in order to power your FM adapter. With a GPS and phone charger around that one plug already has to do double duty. The backlit display is easy to read and displays the relative amount of battery life you have left on the unit along with the current frequency its using. With a simple push of the + or – you can scan through 88.1 MHz – 107.9 MHz at .2 MHz increments. The iTrip also lets you set up to 3 preset stations so you can find the open frequencies and keep them handy.

As I said previously, I’ve used a couple units like this in the past and the iTrip sounds just as good as you will get from any FM adapter I’ve messed with so far. At $39.99 the iTrip is priced to be the perfect companion to any MP3 player.

Pros:

• Large backlit display
• Rechargeable Lithium-Ion battery gives you hours of music between charges
• Works with any device with a 3.5 mm headphone jack
• Compact design