Review: NewerTech TRAFFICJamz
Thu 8 Feb 07 19:47 | Tags: Hardware, Reviews, iPod
UPDATE (29 Apr 07): Despite what I wrote in this article months ago, I can no longer recommend the NewerTech TRAFFICJamz for reasons outlined in the article entitled "Reconsidering the NewerTech TRAFFICJamz." Do not purchase this product.
Recently, I took a trip from my home in northern California down to southern California for some job tests. This involved driving on good ol' Highway 101 for a good 630 miles, or just under twelve hours each way (allowing for lunches and potty breaks and such). That's a lot of driving time, and I wanted my trustworthy little first-generation iPod nano to keep me company. I had listened to it with headphones while driving before, but I'm not so sure as to the legality of that, and frankly I'd rather avoid getting any traffic tickets at this point in my life. Just playing my CDs in my car's CD player wouldn't work either, as I made the mistake of getting a Kenwood stereo that starts skipping CDs (any CD) after about twenty minutes of play. (I'm guessing that something gets out of alignment as its components heat up or something and it's no longer able to read the disc correctly. Kenwood is a brand I will never purchase again.) So I decided to look into getting one of those FM transmitter devices that transmit the iPod's audio to your car stereo.
NewerTech TRAFFICJamz
iPod fan site iLounge has some reviews of various FM transmitters, but most of them were more expensive than I wanted to pay. I looked through them and decided to check out the Newer Technology RoadTrip!+, a device which could charge my iPod while transmitting its audio at 87.9MHz, a frequency which is not commonly used by stations in the US.
However, as I went to try to buy one, I discovered that Newer had actually discontinued it. (A good thing too, as it turns out the lowest my car radio can tune is 88.1MHz.) They've replaced it with the TRAFFICJamz, which can charge the iPod while playing like the RoadTrip!+, but also includes a screen and a switch for selecting different frequencies for the device to broadcast on. (I believe that this device was first announced at MacWorld Expo 2007.) So I picked one up from Powermax, where it is selling for a scant $29.88, and gave it a try. It got a lot of use during my trip.
Rockin' out my dirty, beat-up Geo Metro
On the whole, I was satisfied with the TRAFFICJamz's performance in terms of sound. I knew I wasn't going to get CD-quality sound out of this thing, but sound quality comparable with a commercial FM radio station would be good enough. The TRAFFICJamz does not reach that level of quality, but it gets close enough. Notably, the sound coming out of the TRAFFICJamz is overly bass-y; low pitched sounds sound disproportionately loud compared to higher sounds. I found that using the "Bass Reducer" equalizer setting on the iPod mitigated this somewhat, as well as fiddling with the bass/treble setting on the stereo itself. (I also tried the "Treble Booster" equalizer setting on the iPod, but that worked too well; all you could hear were the high notes and the low notes, and mid-range sounds were pretty much obliterated.) After this initial tweaking, I found my rock, alternative and dance music (all ripped from my own CDs) very listenable. During the trip, I also listened to a lot of MP3s of the Phil Hendrie Show, a comedic talk show; the TRAFFICJamz did just fine with these mostly voice-only programs.
So the sound is fine, but the device itself leaves something to be desired. It feels cheaply put together. As with other similar devices, it plugs into your car's "cigarette lighter" or similar 9-volt socket. However, the first time I tried removing the TRAFFICJamz from the socket, the tip came apart, leaving pieces in the socket. I managed to retrieve the pieces with a pair of long-nosed pliers and screw everything back together tightly, and this hasn't happened again since then, but it's something that shouldn't have happened in the first place.
The device can be tuned to broadcast on various stations using a little switch on the device. However, this switch often doesn't feel responsive; sometimes when I tried to adjust it, the device didn't seem to respond at all. It seems to be too easy to use the switch in a way which feels like it should be doing something, but actually isn't. Also, the device allows you to store four frequencies and quickly switch between them, but the instructions that came with the packaging were incomplete as to how to do this. Newer's web page for the device gives full instructions (in the section labeled, vaguely, "Improved Convenience"), but that's something that really should have been noted on the device itself.
However, given the low price of the TRAFFICJamz compared to similar devices on the market, I suppose I'm willing to forgive a little shoddy construction and incomplete documentation, especially when it sounds as decent as it does.
Like this article? You should also check out "It's an iPod life."
UPDATE (29 Apr 07): Despite what I wrote in this article months ago, I can no longer recommend the NewerTech TRAFFICJamz for reasons outlined in the article entitled "Reconsidering the NewerTech TRAFFICJamz." Do not purchase this product.
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