Today i'm going to be having a look at the 'AudiaX Wireless Audio Portable FM Linker', quite a long winded title for such a small device. Anyway, the idea of this product is to allow you to listen to your CD player or MP3 player (or even anything with an audio out!) on a device that does not have those facilities, but has a FM radio. For example, you could use your CD player on it and tune into it in the car, so you could have the music from the CD player coming out the speakers in the car. Lets have a look at the features:

FM Band full channels (88.0-108.0Mhz) available
Channel selection up (1 or 0.1Mhz) and down (0.1Mhz)
LCD Display (shows the current frequency and low battery symbol)
Backlight so you can use it in the dark
Max of 8hrs play on a single AAA battery

At first I didn't think this unit would work very well, because it's so small and doesn't even have an external antenna, but I was very surprised! As long as you tune it into a frequency that isn't used by a radio station or any other broadcast it works perfectly. It does work when you tune it to the same frequency as a radio station too, however not as well. You get the music playing through your car speakers exactly the same as it would sound as if you were listening to the CD, even in stereo.

I carried on testing the unit without problems, but then I realised I had it on the front seat of the car, right next to the headunit, so it needed further testing! I carried on with it on the front seat of my car, but then I got my mates in their car to drive behind me and to tune the device into their headunit, and sure enough it still worked, as clear as crystal. The following car could get quite a distance behind before the signal losing any quality.

The unit is so simple to use, that I think it's pointless to go over how to use it, but i'll do so anyway. You hold down the bottom button to turn the unit on, use the two buttons to change the unit to your desired frequency and then you hold down the bottom button again to turn it off, how much simpler could it be? Then of course you have to plug the jack into your desired source of audio. I found that the unit prefers line-out ports rather than headphone ports where available. If you use a headphone port or similar it is best to keep the volume very low and adjust it on the receiving device instead.

Well, this has been a rather short review, but what else can I say? The unit is so small and simple, it just works. I think it is a very cool product, definatley worth the $28.95 (~£18). The only thing I dislike about the unit is the backlight, it is provided via 2 bulbs behind the screen (yes I had to take it apart ;) which create 2 spots of light on the screen in the dark. LEDs would've been better, with some form of diffuser, but hey, the backlight still does it's job - allowing you to read the screen in the dark, it just looks ugly.

I recommend this unit to anyone who wants to listen to their CDs/MP3s in the car, it is definatley worth the money. They can be purchased from Merconnet.com by clicking here.