Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)The GoGroove Flex Pod is a mixed bag - good, bad and just plain ugly. I'm reviewing it because none of the previous reviews seem to have focussed on its principal strengths AND weaknesses. Everyone seems to love it or hate it. Please note that there seem to be perhaps a dozen gizmos that look just like this one, but this review is about the GoGroove Flex Pod.
The Good: The price is right. $35 is a lot cheaper than my original iTrip for my iPOd (that doesn't work with the iPhone - Thanks Apple!) The gooseneck has not failed in over a month of daily use (despite other reports). It can be placed and/or bent into almost any position, allowing me to get it out of the way of my transmission lever as well as position it for optimum viewing of either the front panel of the iPhone or equally, the top where the FM transmitter frequency is displayed. There is a little knurled knob (that I suspect that some of those who say that the unit fails to hold their iPhone securely have failed to find) that adjusts the tension on the joint about which the iPhone rotates when installed. Tighten it to your preferred stiffness and the iPhone can be positioned securely in almost an infinite number of positions. The frequency can be adjusted to almost anywhere along the FM spectrum (unlike my previous iTrip that had only 10 or 12 preset frequencies) and can be changed by 0.1 mHz increments up or down or by a pushbutton that jumps to previously set frequencies. The FM transmitter is reasonably strong. It works better than my old iTrip did - that is - fewer frequency changes are needed to maintain a static free status. And of course it charges the iPhone perfectly. All that is good.
The Bad (or only fair): The D/A converted output from the dock port seems to have some inherent distortion, depending on the particular tune being played (all my stuff is MP3 compressed at 128 kbps). I suspect this has to do withe the degree of compression used in the original recordings, but has the effect of making some bass parts sound crunchy rather than smooth. When connected via the dock port, the iPhone volume control is disabled (which is a good thing) and you control everything through the car's sound system.
The Ugly: This unit is advertised to also function as a "hands-free" phone device. They give you a little patch cord to connect the headphone out port of the iPhone to an analog input port on the GoGroove. Very clunky. And it doesn't work for @#$^#! If you connect it, the dock port is disabled and ALL the sound (music and phone) is played through this port, controlled by the volume setting on the iPhone and is very obviously not as hi-fi as the low level output from the dock port. And the hands-free patch is so close to useless as to not make any difference. With my Monsoon 200 Watt sound system, I have to turn the volume to max to even hear the other caller through the car speakers even when the iPhone's iPod volume slider is at maximum. They can hear me just fine (i.e., the fault is not the iPhone's), but all I hear is hiss and noise and a little, highly distorted audio. So bad as to be useless.
If you are looking for an inexpensive FM transmitter for an iPhone or iPod. the Gp Groove is OK, or perhaps a bit better. If you are looking for Hi-Fi reproduction, you will probably be disappointed. And if you need hands=free phone capability, you will almost certainly want to return this and get something else.
Click Here to see more reviews about: Flexpod Car Mount System for Apple iPhone 3G and 3GS / iPod Touch 2nd and 3rd Gen - Cutting Edge FM Transmitter and Charger with DC Surge Protection and Stabilized Flex-Neck
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