Thanks to Mr. William for the tip on setting to INTL mode- I followed the advice, and the sound is clearer than I've heard from any of several previous transmitters! Be sure to set 87.9 as a preset- my transmitter doesn't start on that frequency when I restart the car, so I have to hit the preset button to get back to it. No big deal, and I found that this was pretty good right out of the box, but it's even better with the LX and INTL settings. Apparantly some people had a problem with the unit charging the iPod, but mine works just fine.