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Written by Chris Tangora
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Sunday, 17 September 2006 |
Real Mac radio
 We all love our music. We love listening to it on a good stereo and have settled into listening to it on the Mac through a different variety of ways. Apple's Airport Express with Air Tunes allows you to broadcast your Mac to any set of connected stereos, but it comes at a price of an Airport Express for each stereo. Griffen Technology's RocketFM, at $39.99, is slated as an alternative by allowing you to broadcast your Mac's sound over an FM signal to any number of stereo's radio within reach.
The RocketFM USB FM broadcaster looks smooth with a soft blue light that glows through a surrounding thin metal sheet to show you it has power. With the lights out in the room, the blue light gives a beautiful glow to the immediate area. One end of the FM antanea plugs in via an USB 1 port and the other sits in a white and clear holder, taking up minimal desktop space.
The software loads into it's own System Preference pane and allows you to pick what FM band you want to broadcast on. After setting what band to broadcast on, you simply switch the output to USB in the Sound System Preferences. You'll hear your Mac's music and audio alerts come through you home stereo tuner. It's that easy. It has a decent range, and it varies depending the surroundings, much like a normal FM station would if you are driving through a tunnel or driving next to power lines.
In the house I setup the stereo about 12' away through a concrete block wall and was able to get good reception. I then went in the car and drove to the end of the driveway and still got decent reception about 25' away, some crackling starting to come through. As I slowly pulled away I began noticing the FM crackling and within 50' the station was getting drown out by a neighboring religious channel, a big change from my Bob Marely I was testing on.
The only issue I came across with the Griffin RocketFM was with the volume control. The FM broadcasting can only handle so much volume being pumped from it, then the distortion begins and you must adjust your volume settings to find your volume balance. It is described as FM overload in the manual. If you are using iTunes this is easily done by setting up a custom equalizer that fits the stereos you are playing on and adjusting the volume in iTunes.
The other issue with the volume control is with what I would describe as "the fuzz". The device was setup easy enough and it ran quickly out of the box. The fuzz came in after 10 minutes of use. All of a sudden there was a fuzz over all the music, despite what the volume was on either my Mac or my radio. The only way to fix the problem was to pause the music (iTunes) and unpause. This did not keep the problem from coming back. I contacted customer support and asked for their input and was told to reinstall the software, which I did. Ten minutes later I had the fuzz back.
Further research into what causes this fuzz has pointed me toward the output volume of the Mac. If the volume being broadcast is at full strength, then the problem seems to not come up. Once you start changing the volume controls on the device you start running into problems. There is a note in the manual stating for best results to have your system volume and application volume turned to maximum, any adjustments should be made on the receiving stereo or inside the application, not to the system volume. Once this was figured out, I was able to enjoy the RocketFM much more (nothing destroys a Grateful Dead jam like the fuzz). The system tested on was OS X.4.7 and the OS was able to remember what the volume settings were for each output, so when you switch between the RocketFM and your headphones/system speakers you don't have to worry about blowing out your speakers or your ears.
Griffin's RocketFM has a small footprint, smooth design, a subtle blue ambiance light and provides a cost-effective way to broadcast your music throughout the house and to your neighbors. Nothing says block party like your own Mac radio show.
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The Good: Allows broadcast of your Mac to all FM stereo receivers within range.
Simple installation.
The Bad: FM noise and static at far ranges.
The Skinny: This is a fun device that allows you to rock out without paying the price or overhead of Air Tunes.
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