How to Play Your iPod Through Your Car's Stereo Regardless of Your Car Radio's Setup

Rocking out to your favorite iTunes playlist in your car is one of the most popular uses for an iPod, but what will you do if you don't know how to hook your iPod up to your car's stereo? Following are 3 ways that you can connect your iPod to your car's speaker system, no matter what kind of car radio you have.

Audio In Cables

If you have a fairly modern car stereo system, hooking your iPod up to your car radio will be a cinch because chances are that your car's radio has an audio-in port. If you look closely at your car radio's faceplate and see a headphone jack that reads either audio in or aux-in, you definitely have an audio in cable support.

To connect your iPod or iPhone to your car's audio in port all you'll need is an inexpensive auxiliary cable that'll run from your iPod's headphone jack into your car radio's aux in port. Using this method, you'll be able to play your iPod or any other MP3 player's music through your car stereo system - it's just as simple as that.

Car Cassette Adapters

If your car radio is lacking all of the state of the art features of modern car stereos and instead sports a cassette player, you'll still be able to play your iPod playlist through your car's speakers by using a car cassette adapter. Car cassette adapters look just like a standard cassette tape, but works to bridge your cassette playing car radio with external media players including iPods, cell phones, and CD players.

FM Transmitters

If your car is only equipped with a radio player - or even worse, an A-track player - you'll be able to use an FM transmitter as a last resort to be able to groove to your tunes in your car using your iPod. FM transmitters plug into your cigarette lighter and iPod and highjacks a radio station's frequency that'll allow you to play your iPod's music once the assigned radio station is tuned into. FM transmitters are a great way to listen to your iPod's music on older car stereo systems, but can result in static if you're driving under a bridge or in other areas where radio signals are weak.

For more, read 5 Must Have iPod Accessories You Should Definitely Buy Along with Your iPod , 10 Most Idiotic iPod Accessories Ever Created by Complete Morons , and Top 10 Coolest Apple Products (2000-2010)