AIRPLAY BOOST: External antenna improves quality of signal and of sound
Jim Jamieson
Province
Published: Sunday, April 01, 2007
What is it? XtremeMac AirPlay Boost
Price: $57
Why you need it: You want the flexibility of listening to your iPod on your home stereo and in your car but don’t want to have to hard-wire it.
Why you don’t: You’ve tried the FM-broadcasting solution before, and the quality isn’t quite up to your audiophile standards.
Our rating: 5 mice
There is nothing new about streaming iPod tunes via an FM transmitter.
These little add-on devices have been around for a few years, as a huge third-party accessory industry grew up around the skyrocketing popularity of Apple’s music player.
But the general knock has been the inconsistent quality of the signal — in conditions that vary widely from in the home to a moving automobile.
With this in mind, XtremeMac recently launched the AirPlay Boost — an FM transmitter that addresses broadcast issues by virtue of an external antenna that provides a stronger signal for iPod-to-stereo transmission.
We ran the AirPlay Boost through its paces at home as well as in the car and found it easy to operate. We were also impressed with the quality of the music — which to our tin ears sounded no different from a wired source.
The tiny device connects to the iPod dock’s connector port (and includes a pass-through so you can connect a charger).
You simply tune the transmitter and an FM stereo to the same empty frequency and hit your iPod’s play button.
Unlike most of these devices, the AirPlay Boost uses the iPod’s screen for navigation — although you don’t need to do much. It includes three programmable station pre-sets and operates in stereo and mono modes.
The product line includes models for the video iPod and the Nano 2G. Available online at the www.xtrememac.com website for $49.95 US or locally at Mac Station.
© The Vancouver Province 2007