Soundfly SD WMA/MP3 Player Car Fm Transmitter for SD Card, USB Stick, Mp3 Players (iPod, Zune) Review. Soundfly SD lets you listen to sound files such as MP3 & WMA file stored in portable memory devices like USB flash memory & SD card, etc through your car radio speakers. It supports RDS (Radio Data System), so while listening to music, you can see the song and artist's name displayed on your car stereo. Soundfly SD transmits to all FM frequencies (88.1MHz-107.9MHz) and memorizes up to 7 FM frequencies. It comes with fully functional remote control. You can also transmit music from other Mp3 players such as iPod, Zune etc. Just plug USB or SD card in Sound-Fly & Enjoy music!...
"Why Sound Fly? Who is Satechi?" 2008-06-06
By W. Wilson (Rust Belt of MIchigan, USA)
I ordered this curious thing online to solve one of my most insane driving frustrations, ADVERTISING! Instead of corporate tripe interrupting my peace of mind every few songs, I set my home PC to record choice streams for hours on end all night and save them on my SD card. Who hoo! For less than the cost of a new radio for 3 vehicles, and without the hassle of carting around a bunch of CD's life is good!
The sound fly works like it should, like you'd expect and it's really simple, intuitive. I can play MP3's off my cell phone with the little adapter cable they include. The plug in unit is flexible for easy visibility, though the only drawback might be the red LED display is washed out in bright direct sunlight. I find this a very fair trade off for the ease of visibility at night. I plugged this FM transmitter into my car and could receive the signal in my truck 2 or 3 parking spaces away, *more* than good enough! I do not need Blue Tooth so this is perfect for me. After reading the minimalist instruction sheet, I realized I had to name my music folder 'MP3' and put the files in a subdirectory, then the Sound Fly automatically can search and skip to where I want. I love the Bookmark button on the remote since my files are sometimes 500m or more, it saves where I stopped it and restarts without having to fast forward 2 or 3 hours.
My unit arrived in an astonishingly short 3 days. I had a small inconvenience with the nifty remote control being inoperative, but I must absolutely commend Satechi and their people in San Diego for being VERY VERY prompt, trusting and sincere in their customer service by promptly sending me a working replacement. I got email replies from them within 24 hours or less. I'm sure the bad part situation was one of those darn one in a million things that just happens. I highly recommend that you can trust them to deliver what they offer...a good product and professional service. I should also say the USPS did their job too, they surely could have lost it for us! If you misplace or lose the remote yourself, the unit is still quite functional, though you lose bookmark and fast forward functions.
I'm a happy guy! Thanks. W. Wilson
PS. You might like Somafm or RadioParadise, two of my favourite streams that have NO advertising.
UPDATE March 15 2010
Still working great. Here's a couple things I wish I had been able to know before I bought it. It can accept USB drives, the socket is on the bottom edge, center. The audio cable is a MINI stereo style on the left side near the top and the supplied cable is kinda short so I bought an extension at my local radio rip off store...so I could look at my BlackBerry to select files without bending my face to the dash. If you have the audio cable plugged in, the USB and the SD sources will not play and this *may* cause you to panic and think the unit died...which it hasn't! You HAVE to understand and follow the file folder structure and it's limitations or it won't play. Top folder should be 'MP3' or 'mp3' . I have not used 'soundfly' which is suggested also. There is a VU meter function, when music plays, the display ramps up and down with the beat. It WILL work without the remote, but not as nicely. When fast forwarding/ or reversing it has several speeds, indicated by display maquee style with a bracket which roughly imitates an arrow (A really nice feature) The unit will remember the last song playing when the power is turned off, but it will start at the beginning of the file again. If your file is really really long, you will prefer using the book mark feature to make it start at the same point within the file when it powers up. If you pull out the USB or SD card, it will forget your place and have to initialise again, which I should mention can take like 30seconds with a big card. I used an 8gig SD and it seemed like forever for it to scan and index / initialize. The limit I think is 500 files so anything more than 2gig is kinda overkill in my opinion. I just keep several 1gig cards with different genres of music on them. You can hot pull and insert the SD or USB cards. Switching SD cards while driving is okay and easy to do. The SD card inserts from the right side with a positive spring loaded catch feel, no doors, covers or fumbling. The unit is pretty rugged. The head tilts to accommodate your socket angle / visibility and after all this time of yanking it still holds its place without drooping. My one gripe is that it doesn't fit all lighter sockets tight. I have to do the *fold up a receipt into a little shim and insert it as I plug in the unit to the car* trick. Maybe it was intended for foreign/ etc cars. I drive a Malibu, a Chevy P/U and a Saturn and a F-550 and they all are a loose fit. One road bump and it loses power. One paper shim and it will run all night, playing away looping around to the beginning of the file list again and again. It gets a bit warm, but not hot. Reception is very good. I don't use the presets, I leave it on 87.7mhz. I really like this player...I wish it had bluetooth..., and presume the bigger/ newer one is just as good. The company service was excellent. Buy it new and get the warranty. My remote was replaced promptly (see prev in my review).
"What a great FM transmitter." 2008-10-02
By C_Meister (New Zealand)
I've had an VR3 FM USB Car Transmitter for two years. It had no remote unlike the Soundfly, but I loved using it. However, there were things that I found most
frustrating when using it and I didn't realise this until after I'd purchased it.
VR3 MP3 Player FM Transmitter frustrations:
1) It wouldn't remember where I last was listening to.
2) I couldn't fast forward nor rewind. Arrgh! You could only skip between tracks. This was frustrating because I have a habit of rewinding to listen to parts of my audio tracks again and again and of course I can't fast forward through averts. It was especially frustrating because of point 1 above as I would always have to start listening from the beginning of a track. Particularly annoying when listening to long tracks.
3) No remote - Please note most FM transmitters don't come with FF or RW functions on the remote's either.
4) It was white and it was ugly.
5) Limited frequency range. A lot of these devices only allow you turn use the upper and lower FM frequency ranges.
6) It takes USB dongles and SD cards but the SD cards are limited to 2GB.
Now for the Soundfly SD:
1) The SoundFly SD remembers exactly where you were last listening to. This is so refreshing as I can just turn off the car and when I next climb back in and start the car, with the SoundFly SD plugged into the car lighter socket, it just starts right of from where I left last. Awesome! Bear in mind I have a new model car less than four years old, but a lot of these devices just die when a car is started and the device has been accidentally left in. I've not had a single problem with using the Soundly this way, and I believe I have no reason to worry about it. You even have a bookmarking facility.
2) I can fast forward and rewind to my hearts content. Even with the remote.
3) The remote is is actually quite handy, especially when driving. You can certainly use the controls on the device itself, but the remote is easier. It's not too difficult to remember the position of the keypad buttons, so using the remote while driving is quite easy. Don't crash.
4) This FM transmitter is black. The device itself is a heck of a lot more attractive than the VR3 I have. It's even smaller.
5) You can tune into all the FM frequency range in single steps, so there's no shortage of places to find a gap in the FM range. The Soundfly can remember up to seven bookmarked spots. As for the strength of the FM transmitter, it's certainly no worse than the VR3. But unlike the VR3 I have a much broader spectrum of FM frequencies to try to find a clear spot. Much better.
6) The device takes USB dongles & SD cards. But this device takes the High Capacity ones up 32GB.
Other points to note. You can also connect your iPod or MP3 player via the supplied cable. You also get a 10A fuse. In case you can't figure out what it's for, and it's not stated in the instructions, the device has a fuse inside the part that pushes into the lighter socket. That should blow before the device does. Handy if you leave the device in all the time. If the device stops working, check the fuse. You unscrew the end. The instructions are clear, but one point of note is that it doesn't show you how to change the fuse.
I'm so happy with this FM transmitter and highly recommend it to anyone who'll listen. The only thing I can think that is lacking with this is Bluetooth. I would love for this device to be able to communicate with my phone or Bluetooth headset (if I had some), or or an MP3 player that had Bluetooth.
"Finally, One that works!" 2008-05-26
By Dogtag (Seattle, Wa USA)
I never thought I'd find one that works as well as this unit.
Very strong FM signal covers up all but the strongest FM stations.
Two different type of bulk storage chips as well as playing MP3 and WMA formats.
excellent sound from external players.
Has the ability to select different folders.
A little cumbersome selecting an appropriate FM frequency as you have to scroll thru the entire band to get to the one you want, but once there, you can enter it into memory. Not a big deal, I guess.
For the price, this unit delivers.
"Great FM transmitter" 2009-07-04
By J. Sheetz (Wichita Falls, Tx)
I've tried a half dozen or so FM transmitters over the years and had given up on ever finding one that really sounded good and didn't suffer from static or radio bleed through. Saw an ad for the Soundfly transmitter and read the user reviews. Nearly every reviewer recommended it, so I bought one to try. Sure enough, it lived up to all the favorable reviews. Installation was quick and simple. I've had it on the same frequency since I got it and never had a radio station bleed through or static problem. I've played it mainly with SD cards loaded with my favorite MP3s at anywhere from 96kps to 192kps. The quality of the music sounds at least as good as the best FM radio station and often rivals burned CD quality. I've played the SD cards directly from within the Soundfly player and also through my MP3 player plugged into the input port. I think I prefer the direct method because there seems to be more uniformity to the sound quality from song to song. Playing through the MP3 player allows more volume and somewhat more dynamic bass but I find myself having to make more adjustments to the volume, bass and treble from song to song in order for the bass or volume to not become overwhelming. I leave the Soundfly in the lighter with an SD card in the transmitter and when I turn the car on the transmitter comes on automatically and begins playing my music. When I get back in the car after a stop the music picks up at the start of the last song that was playing when I stopped. I wish I'd known about the Soundfly long ago but at least I've got it now and can enjoy about 400 songs per 2GB card on long drives without having to change CDs often like in the past. I got one of these for my wife's car as well and will probably get more for family Christmas gifts. This is one product that performs like it should and the price is very reasonable.
"Really Neat Device!" 2008-11-12
By A. Rathke
I ordered a Soundfly device and wasn't sure what to expect. When it came, I tried it out and it worked faily well, but it seemed like the transmitter in it wasn't powerful enough. Shortly after the device arrived, I got an email asking me how I liked it. I replied that it worked pretty well, but was somewhat unhappy about the occasional fuzziness. Shortly after that, I got another email saying that they were sending me a different one and it included a pre-paid return label.
So now I tried the new one and it works great! No fuzziness and the music sounds great. I would recommend it to anyone. It is especially good for me since I don't have an iPod and didn't really want one. I just wanted to play MP3's in my car that only has a casette with the radio. This is perfect.
By W. Wilson (Rust Belt of MIchigan, USA)
I ordered this curious thing online to solve one of my most insane driving frustrations, ADVERTISING! Instead of corporate tripe interrupting my peace of mind every few songs, I set my home PC to record choice streams for hours on end all night and save them on my SD card. Who hoo! For less than the cost of a new radio for 3 vehicles, and without the hassle of carting around a bunch of CD's life is good!
The sound fly works like it should, like you'd expect and it's really simple, intuitive. I can play MP3's off my cell phone with the little adapter cable they include. The plug in unit is flexible for easy visibility, though the only drawback might be the red LED display is washed out in bright direct sunlight. I find this a very fair trade off for the ease of visibility at night. I plugged this FM transmitter into my car and could receive the signal in my truck 2 or 3 parking spaces away, *more* than good enough! I do not need Blue Tooth so this is perfect for me. After reading the minimalist instruction sheet, I realized I had to name my music folder 'MP3' and put the files in a subdirectory, then the Sound Fly automatically can search and skip to where I want. I love the Bookmark button on the remote since my files are sometimes 500m or more, it saves where I stopped it and restarts without having to fast forward 2 or 3 hours.
My unit arrived in an astonishingly short 3 days. I had a small inconvenience with the nifty remote control being inoperative, but I must absolutely commend Satechi and their people in San Diego for being VERY VERY prompt, trusting and sincere in their customer service by promptly sending me a working replacement. I got email replies from them within 24 hours or less. I'm sure the bad part situation was one of those darn one in a million things that just happens. I highly recommend that you can trust them to deliver what they offer...a good product and professional service. I should also say the USPS did their job too, they surely could have lost it for us! If you misplace or lose the remote yourself, the unit is still quite functional, though you lose bookmark and fast forward functions.
I'm a happy guy! Thanks. W. Wilson
PS. You might like Somafm or RadioParadise, two of my favourite streams that have NO advertising.
UPDATE March 15 2010
Still working great. Here's a couple things I wish I had been able to know before I bought it. It can accept USB drives, the socket is on the bottom edge, center. The audio cable is a MINI stereo style on the left side near the top and the supplied cable is kinda short so I bought an extension at my local radio rip off store...so I could look at my BlackBerry to select files without bending my face to the dash. If you have the audio cable plugged in, the USB and the SD sources will not play and this *may* cause you to panic and think the unit died...which it hasn't! You HAVE to understand and follow the file folder structure and it's limitations or it won't play. Top folder should be 'MP3' or 'mp3' . I have not used 'soundfly' which is suggested also. There is a VU meter function, when music plays, the display ramps up and down with the beat. It WILL work without the remote, but not as nicely. When fast forwarding/ or reversing it has several speeds, indicated by display maquee style with a bracket which roughly imitates an arrow (A really nice feature) The unit will remember the last song playing when the power is turned off, but it will start at the beginning of the file again. If your file is really really long, you will prefer using the book mark feature to make it start at the same point within the file when it powers up. If you pull out the USB or SD card, it will forget your place and have to initialise again, which I should mention can take like 30seconds with a big card. I used an 8gig SD and it seemed like forever for it to scan and index / initialize. The limit I think is 500 files so anything more than 2gig is kinda overkill in my opinion. I just keep several 1gig cards with different genres of music on them. You can hot pull and insert the SD or USB cards. Switching SD cards while driving is okay and easy to do. The SD card inserts from the right side with a positive spring loaded catch feel, no doors, covers or fumbling. The unit is pretty rugged. The head tilts to accommodate your socket angle / visibility and after all this time of yanking it still holds its place without drooping. My one gripe is that it doesn't fit all lighter sockets tight. I have to do the *fold up a receipt into a little shim and insert it as I plug in the unit to the car* trick. Maybe it was intended for foreign/ etc cars. I drive a Malibu, a Chevy P/U and a Saturn and a F-550 and they all are a loose fit. One road bump and it loses power. One paper shim and it will run all night, playing away looping around to the beginning of the file list again and again. It gets a bit warm, but not hot. Reception is very good. I don't use the presets, I leave it on 87.7mhz. I really like this player...I wish it had bluetooth..., and presume the bigger/ newer one is just as good. The company service was excellent. Buy it new and get the warranty. My remote was replaced promptly (see prev in my review).
By C_Meister (New Zealand)
I've had an VR3 FM USB Car Transmitter for two years. It had no remote unlike the Soundfly, but I loved using it. However, there were things that I found most
frustrating when using it and I didn't realise this until after I'd purchased it.
VR3 MP3 Player FM Transmitter frustrations:
1) It wouldn't remember where I last was listening to.
2) I couldn't fast forward nor rewind. Arrgh! You could only skip between tracks. This was frustrating because I have a habit of rewinding to listen to parts of my audio tracks again and again and of course I can't fast forward through averts. It was especially frustrating because of point 1 above as I would always have to start listening from the beginning of a track. Particularly annoying when listening to long tracks.
3) No remote - Please note most FM transmitters don't come with FF or RW functions on the remote's either.
4) It was white and it was ugly.
5) Limited frequency range. A lot of these devices only allow you turn use the upper and lower FM frequency ranges.
6) It takes USB dongles and SD cards but the SD cards are limited to 2GB.
Now for the Soundfly SD:
1) The SoundFly SD remembers exactly where you were last listening to. This is so refreshing as I can just turn off the car and when I next climb back in and start the car, with the SoundFly SD plugged into the car lighter socket, it just starts right of from where I left last. Awesome! Bear in mind I have a new model car less than four years old, but a lot of these devices just die when a car is started and the device has been accidentally left in. I've not had a single problem with using the Soundly this way, and I believe I have no reason to worry about it. You even have a bookmarking facility.
2) I can fast forward and rewind to my hearts content. Even with the remote.
3) The remote is is actually quite handy, especially when driving. You can certainly use the controls on the device itself, but the remote is easier. It's not too difficult to remember the position of the keypad buttons, so using the remote while driving is quite easy. Don't crash.
4) This FM transmitter is black. The device itself is a heck of a lot more attractive than the VR3 I have. It's even smaller.
5) You can tune into all the FM frequency range in single steps, so there's no shortage of places to find a gap in the FM range. The Soundfly can remember up to seven bookmarked spots. As for the strength of the FM transmitter, it's certainly no worse than the VR3. But unlike the VR3 I have a much broader spectrum of FM frequencies to try to find a clear spot. Much better.
6) The device takes USB dongles & SD cards. But this device takes the High Capacity ones up 32GB.
Other points to note. You can also connect your iPod or MP3 player via the supplied cable. You also get a 10A fuse. In case you can't figure out what it's for, and it's not stated in the instructions, the device has a fuse inside the part that pushes into the lighter socket. That should blow before the device does. Handy if you leave the device in all the time. If the device stops working, check the fuse. You unscrew the end. The instructions are clear, but one point of note is that it doesn't show you how to change the fuse.
I'm so happy with this FM transmitter and highly recommend it to anyone who'll listen. The only thing I can think that is lacking with this is Bluetooth. I would love for this device to be able to communicate with my phone or Bluetooth headset (if I had some), or or an MP3 player that had Bluetooth.
By Dogtag (Seattle, Wa USA)
I never thought I'd find one that works as well as this unit.
Very strong FM signal covers up all but the strongest FM stations.
Two different type of bulk storage chips as well as playing MP3 and WMA formats.
excellent sound from external players.
Has the ability to select different folders.
A little cumbersome selecting an appropriate FM frequency as you have to scroll thru the entire band to get to the one you want, but once there, you can enter it into memory. Not a big deal, I guess.
For the price, this unit delivers.
By J. Sheetz (Wichita Falls, Tx)
I've tried a half dozen or so FM transmitters over the years and had given up on ever finding one that really sounded good and didn't suffer from static or radio bleed through. Saw an ad for the Soundfly transmitter and read the user reviews. Nearly every reviewer recommended it, so I bought one to try. Sure enough, it lived up to all the favorable reviews. Installation was quick and simple. I've had it on the same frequency since I got it and never had a radio station bleed through or static problem. I've played it mainly with SD cards loaded with my favorite MP3s at anywhere from 96kps to 192kps. The quality of the music sounds at least as good as the best FM radio station and often rivals burned CD quality. I've played the SD cards directly from within the Soundfly player and also through my MP3 player plugged into the input port. I think I prefer the direct method because there seems to be more uniformity to the sound quality from song to song. Playing through the MP3 player allows more volume and somewhat more dynamic bass but I find myself having to make more adjustments to the volume, bass and treble from song to song in order for the bass or volume to not become overwhelming. I leave the Soundfly in the lighter with an SD card in the transmitter and when I turn the car on the transmitter comes on automatically and begins playing my music. When I get back in the car after a stop the music picks up at the start of the last song that was playing when I stopped. I wish I'd known about the Soundfly long ago but at least I've got it now and can enjoy about 400 songs per 2GB card on long drives without having to change CDs often like in the past. I got one of these for my wife's car as well and will probably get more for family Christmas gifts. This is one product that performs like it should and the price is very reasonable.
By A. Rathke
I ordered a Soundfly device and wasn't sure what to expect. When it came, I tried it out and it worked faily well, but it seemed like the transmitter in it wasn't powerful enough. Shortly after the device arrived, I got an email asking me how I liked it. I replied that it worked pretty well, but was somewhat unhappy about the occasional fuzziness. Shortly after that, I got another email saying that they were sending me a different one and it included a pre-paid return label.
So now I tried the new one and it works great! No fuzziness and the music sounds great. I would recommend it to anyone. It is especially good for me since I don't have an iPod and didn't really want one. I just wanted to play MP3's in my car that only has a casette with the radio. This is perfect.
