Dont have a CD player on your boat? Guess what, you dont NEED one!! 
What you say?.. check this out as I was 'educated' myself here this last week and thought I'd pass this along for those that are technology challenged like myself.
For anyone that hasnt seen these VR3 FM modulators, they are COOL! I just purchased one from Walmart for $29 and loaded 5 CD's worth of music on a flash drive. Just plug in the VR3 into a cigarette lighter, select the FM channel on the radio to match the modulator, plug in your flash drive to the modulator and you now (basically) have a 5 disk CD changer/player!!! All you need is a AM/FM radio to receive. NO more CD's on the boat to ruin or mess with... it's super easy and works great. Only down side I see for marine/boat use, is it's not water-proof and I'm not sure if they make a 'marinized' one or not (if not someone should, and will probably make some $$ at it...)
When not using it on the boat, I can use it in a rental vehicle, my truck which doesnt have a CD player, or a friends boat/vehicle or even the ol' truck at work that just has a am/fm radio,, I can now take the VR3 with me anywhere and play my CD's.
Here's the skinny:
![]()
If you don't want to spend $300 for an iPod and FM transmitter, now you can get MP3 audio in your car or boat for just $30 with the VR3. With a good capacity keychain flash drive (a 500MB stick costs just $45), you can load up lots of great audio for your car or boat (500 MB = 8 hours of audio files, or 16 half-hour programs). Already own a flash drive? You are more than halfway there.
Plug the flash drive into your computer's USB port, copy over the downloaded files you want to listen to, and plug the drive into your VR3, which sits in your car's cigarette lighter port. The VR3 plays through your car's FM Tuner and is grounded, so the audio quality is as good as your car stereo, at least in my and my friends' cars. There is no shuffle; files play only sequentially. But the player holds its position when you turn the power off (at least in our cars) -- great for audio books.
The play/stop and skip forward, skip backward buttons are easy to find by feel, in case you can't see the device easily because of where it plugs in your car. If you do have an iPod, the VR3 comes with a wire for playing your iPod out into it as well. It's really a beautiful little tool.
Anyway,, thought this was too cool to not pass on... amazing how simple this works and was easy to convert my music Cd's to MP3 files on the computer. I'll admit, I'm about as computer stupid as anyone out there and the whole thing to get music on to the flash drive was simply cut and paste.
Here's a link to different VR3 type modulators.. check it out.
http://www.virtualrealitysoundlabs.com/vr3_fmmod.html
What you say?.. check this out as I was 'educated' myself here this last week and thought I'd pass this along for those that are technology challenged like myself.For anyone that hasnt seen these VR3 FM modulators, they are COOL! I just purchased one from Walmart for $29 and loaded 5 CD's worth of music on a flash drive. Just plug in the VR3 into a cigarette lighter, select the FM channel on the radio to match the modulator, plug in your flash drive to the modulator and you now (basically) have a 5 disk CD changer/player!!! All you need is a AM/FM radio to receive. NO more CD's on the boat to ruin or mess with... it's super easy and works great. Only down side I see for marine/boat use, is it's not water-proof and I'm not sure if they make a 'marinized' one or not (if not someone should, and will probably make some $$ at it...)
When not using it on the boat, I can use it in a rental vehicle, my truck which doesnt have a CD player, or a friends boat/vehicle or even the ol' truck at work that just has a am/fm radio,, I can now take the VR3 with me anywhere and play my CD's.
Here's the skinny:
If you don't want to spend $300 for an iPod and FM transmitter, now you can get MP3 audio in your car or boat for just $30 with the VR3. With a good capacity keychain flash drive (a 500MB stick costs just $45), you can load up lots of great audio for your car or boat (500 MB = 8 hours of audio files, or 16 half-hour programs). Already own a flash drive? You are more than halfway there.
Plug the flash drive into your computer's USB port, copy over the downloaded files you want to listen to, and plug the drive into your VR3, which sits in your car's cigarette lighter port. The VR3 plays through your car's FM Tuner and is grounded, so the audio quality is as good as your car stereo, at least in my and my friends' cars. There is no shuffle; files play only sequentially. But the player holds its position when you turn the power off (at least in our cars) -- great for audio books.
The play/stop and skip forward, skip backward buttons are easy to find by feel, in case you can't see the device easily because of where it plugs in your car. If you do have an iPod, the VR3 comes with a wire for playing your iPod out into it as well. It's really a beautiful little tool.
Anyway,, thought this was too cool to not pass on... amazing how simple this works and was easy to convert my music Cd's to MP3 files on the computer. I'll admit, I'm about as computer stupid as anyone out there and the whole thing to get music on to the flash drive was simply cut and paste.
Here's a link to different VR3 type modulators.. check it out.
http://www.virtualrealitysoundlabs.com/vr3_fmmod.html
