When you entire music collection is stored on adivice that is no bigger than your mobile phone,it seems a shame not be able to have the contents of this tiny jukebox at your disposal when you are in the car.Unless you have a car stereo with a tape player(into which you can plug an inexpensive tape adapter),the only real option is FM transmitter.

If you happen to own an iPod,there are plenty of FM transmitter to choose from.One of the most popular is the Griffin iTrip Dock.Since it is powered by the iPod,there is no need for any batteries,but it means it wont’t work with older,non-docking iPods.As it doesn’t connect via the headphone socket,you don’t have to worry about setting the right volume,but I found that it took up to a minute to switch on.The prequency is show on the small backlit LCD,and audio quality was good no metter where the transmitter was in the car.

It makes the Griffin abetter choice than the Kensington Pico,which is designed for those with a first generation iPod nano,hence the black finish tiny dimensions. Again it is powered by the iPod,but there is no display frequencies appear on the iPod’s screen and are selected by the jog dial on the side.However,the signal wasn’t as strong as the iTrips,so the Pico had to be in exactly the right position to avoid interference.And even the quality wasn’t as good –a lack of treble made it sound dull.

For those who don’t own iPod,there are still plenty of options.One is the Digiana Audiax.It isn’t much bigger than your thumb and take just one AAA battery (or can be powered via the included cigarette lighter adapter).Operation couldn’t be simpler – plug the coiled mini jack lead into your player’s headphone socket,press the power button and select a prequency between 88.1 and 107.9 MHz.There’s a rudimentary LED backlight that only lights the centre of display,but the signal was strong and provided interference free audio from any position in the car.Audio quality was fine but when you are statinary it became obvious that voices were a little muffed.

A cheaper option is the iCarPlay,which plugs directly into your cigarette lighter.It has a tiny blue LCD panel,which is hard to read in daylight and awkward if your socket is not the dashboard in front of you.The two buttons let you select tha same range as the Audiax and as with that transmitter,the memory remembers you last setting when you power it on again.The 0.7m cord gives more freedom on where to place your player than the Audix.Sound quality was not bad,and the signal was fairly strong.Aside from the tiny screen the only downside is that you are limited to in-caruse-you cannot plug it indoors for use with a home FM radio.

The last one is the Belkin TuneCast II.It has a green backlit display and take two AAA batteries.There are good for several hours playback,but quality drops of noticeably as the cells lose power.Thegood news is the Belkin bundles an in-car adapter.The TuneCast automatically powers on whenever it detects a signal,and also powers off when it stops.The best feature though,is the built-in memory,which can be store four frequencies ( which you did then store in your head unit’s matching memories ),and if the current setting is not working you can easily select the next one without pulling over.The short lead means the player has to be next to the transmitter and I found it was picky about its location in the car.However,once you have found the ideal place sound quality tops the lot.

Labels: FM Transmitter, headphone, iPod Nano, MP3 Players