By Kevin Massy
(August 8, 2007)

The in-car CD player is going the way of the dodo. Why carry stacks of discs on the road when you already have all your music stored on your iPod? Why not just connect your iPod to your car? Over the past few years, there have been a growing number of ways to play your iPod when on the road.

High rollers can just splash out on a new car such as a BMW, Acura, or Scion with a dealer-installed iPod dock. For the rest of us, there are a number of cheaper alternatives to get our iPods and our cars connected. For those still clinging to the age of the tape deck, a cassette adapter will do the trick. Equally quick-and-dirty is one of the many FM transmitters that plug into the player and broadcast your tunes over a radio frequency. Neither of these solutions, however, delivers great audio quality, and both require that drivers use the controls on the iPod itself to select tunes from behind the wheel.

If you're looking for a more integrated and better-sounding connection, there are a growing number of aftermarket car stereos and related gadgets that will give you full control and browsing ability over your song library without having to fiddle around with the iPod wheel. From dedicated "made for iPod" stereo head units with full-speed USB connections to slick interface devices like Harmon Kardon's Drive + Play 2, the field for iPod-to-car connectivity is growing all the time. Here we'll show you some of the options for iPod-to-car connectivity, including the basics on how to switch out your car stereo.

iPod your car

iPod your car

If you don't have the time or money to replace your stock (factory-installed) car stereo with an aftermarket one, there are three main options for connecting your iPod to your car. If you (still!) have a tape deck in your car, you can invest around $20 to $30 in a cassette adapter: the Belkin Auto Cassette Adapter and the Griffin Intelligent Smart Deck Adapter are two of the most popular.

If your car stereo has a line-in auxiliary input jack, you can connect your iPod directly using a line-in cable (also known as a patch cord). While auxiliary input jacks are rare on older factory-installed stereos, they are becoming more common on newer cars. Many aftermarket stereos come with rear-mounted auxiliary input jacks, and an increasing number have the jack integrated into the front of the stereo faceplate.

If you don't have either a cassette deck or an auxiliary input jack, you can connect your iPod to your car using an FM transmitter that plugs into the player's headphone jack and streams your music to the car stereo using a short-wave radio signal on a predetermined frequency. There are dozens of FM transmitters on the market, each with its own variation on the same theme. Some of the more useful devices, such as the DLO Transdok, and the Belkin TuneBase act as a cradle and charger for your iPod at the same time as transmitting your tunes to the car stereo.

While they are a cheap and simple method for playing iPods on the road, FM transmitters can suffer from interference and sketchy sound quality. Auxiliary input jacks give a clearer, hard-wired sound, but still require drivers to select and control music using the iPod itself, which can be difficult--and dangerous--while driving.

iPod your car

If you want a more substantial iPod interface for your car, the best solution is to install an aftermarket car stereo that is designed to work around your iPod. These stereos make use of an "intelligent" or "full-speed" iPod connection, either as a built-in feature of the stereo itself or--more frequently--via an optional add-on module. Full-speed connectors transfer information from the iPod to the stereo's display and give the driver full search and playback control via the stereo's faceplate buttons. The challenge for these stereos is to present the driver with a user-friendly means of navigating iPod menus on the move.

One of the first things you'll have to decide is whether you're looking for a smaller (single-DIN-size) stereo or a larger, more expensive (double-DIN-size) device that will probably feature an LCD touch screen. If your car does not have a standard rectangular DIN slot, things get a lot more tricky, and you may have to make some major--and therefore expensive--modifications to your car's dashboard if you want to switch out your stock stereo.

Single-DIN systems have less real estate to play with, but some manage to do a good job of giving drivers control over their digital-audio libraries. Sony's CDX-GT610UI and JVC's KD HDR1 enable drivers to stream songs according to artist, album, or playlist, while Alpine's iDA-X001 was designed with input from Apple and enables drivers to view album art on its LCD display.

Among the larger, double-DIN systems, the Pioneer AVIC-D3 and the Clarion MAX675VD both provide user-friendly touch screen interfaces that display a virtual version of the iPod wheel. The Alpine IVA-W200 presents drivers with an equally intuitive means of navigating their iPod song collections.

iPod your car

Unsurprisingly, before installing your new stereo, you'll need to take out the factory-installed deck. This can be more complex than it first looks. Many stereos are tucked away behind cosmetic paneling, which must be removed before you can access the screws that attach it to the dash. Before even touching the electrical connections, it's a good idea to disconnect the negative terminal of the car battery. With the stereo detached from the dash, pull out the main wiring harness, the FM cable, and any other connections.

With the factory stereo removed, you'll need to prepare your new stereo for installation. Typically, this involves stripping the ends of the wires for connecting the power, speakers, and any other systems via the stereo's wiring harness. Next you'll need to connect the wires from your stereo to your car's proprietary harness: the wires are color-coded so it's easy to know which stereo wires connect to which car wires. Use automotive wire connectors for the best connection and make sure to cover over any exposed bare wire with electrical tape to prevent short circuits. With the two harnesses connected, plug them into their respective ports on the car and the stereo.

For stereos that require add-on modules to connect to an iPod, you can either hide the module behind the dash, or, alternatively, run the connecting cable from the back of the stereo behind the dashboard and out into the glove box. Either way, you are going to have to run the iPod connector itself out to the cabin, either through the glove box or through some other opening in the dashboard.

iPod your car

Most "made for iPod" car stereos make use of a music-selection interface based on the design of the iPod player itself. Even with single-DIN-size systems that have a single-line display, the driver is usually given a means of selecting songs according to the standard iPod categories (playlist, album, artist, song, and so on). Some manufacturers, such as JVC, have designed specific controls around the iPod player to give drivers a familiar interface for selecting tunes.

Other stereos make use of a more conventional combination of hard buttons and the volume dial for iPod navigation. With your new iPod-compatible stereo installed, one of the major challenges stereo manufacturers face is that of giving drivers an easy means of navigating through hundreds of songs on their connected iPods.

iPod your car

Now that your interface or auxiliary cable has been installed, you'll need some extras that will give you a seamless iPod-in-the-car experience. First, you'll need to make sure your iPod doesn't go flying in every direction when you make turns. We recommend Belkin's TuneDok, which secures your iPod and resides in your car's cup holder. You can also use a strip of Velcro and affix the iPod in a case, for example, directly onto your dashboard.

Those who want to keep their hands on the wheel while driving, can invest $60 in the DLO TuneStik, which combines an FM transmitter and radio frequency remote control. The TuneStik has a clip-on cradle to hold the remote to your steering wheel, allowing drivers to wirelessly play and control their iPods.

Going further up the price scale, Harman Kardon's Drive + Play 2 is the most sophisticated in-car iPod accessory on the market. With its large, color screen and wireless control knob, the Drive + Play 2 displays iPod album art and gives drivers an intuitive means of searching for songs. It also has an advanced music customization feature that lets users give feedback on songs to refine their personal music "channels" as they drive. The system plugs into--rather than replaces--your car stereo, and at $400, it's more expensive that many "made for iPod" stereos. But if you want a stylish and easy-to-use in-car iPod experience, the Drive + Play 2 is hard to beat.