iLounge

Company: Monster Cable

Website: www.monstercable.com

Model: iSplitter 200

Price: $20

Compatible: All iPods, iPhone

Monster iSplitter 200 Headphone Jack Splitter

By Jeremy Horwitz

Editor-in-Chief, iLounge
Published: Thursday, June 14, 2007
Category: Adapters and Cables - iPhone Audio, Headphone Expanders

[Editors' Note: On November 1, 2006, iLounge published The 2007 iPod Buyers' Guide, with more than 30 brand new, capsule-sized product reviews - only for products we considered to be amongst the very best we've seen throughout the year. The short review below is excerpted from the Guide, which you can download here. We subsequently updated the review to note the release of an iPhone-ready version in June, 2007.]

Following Griffin’s release of SmartShare, iSplitter 200 emerged as the Monster Cable alternative - a sequel to the prior iSplitter we liked and highly recommended. Though it’s essentially identical to SmartShare in core functionality, providing independent volume knobs for both of the headphone ports, iSplitter 200 adds only one new feature (a three-position mute switch that turns off one or neither of the headphone ports), and typical Monster glitz: gold-plated connectors and supposedly ruggedized cabling. You’ll have to decide whether the small additions merit the premium price, but we’d stick with SmartShare unless we found iSplitter on sale.

iSplitter 200 for iPod/iPhone

In June, 2007, Monster updated iSplitter 200 with a headphone plug that’s physically compatible with both the iPod and iPhone, shown below. No other changes to the product have been made.