Play MP3s in Your Car

I have converted most of my music collection to MP3 files and would like to listen to them in my car. In the past, I listened to CDs on the road by using an adapter that attached a portable CD player to my old car's cassette player. Is there an MP3 equivalent?

Lowell Robinson, Frankfort, Kentucky

I don't know of any MP3-player-to-car-CD-player adapters, but if your car has an FM radio, you can use an adapter that transforms your MP3 player into a small radio station. And I do mean small: The transmitter is just strong enough to broadcast the analog signal from your MP3 player to your car radio, boom box, or other nearby FM receiver.

I looked at two models during a recent cross-country road trip: the $30 TuneCast from Belkin and the $30 400FM Wireless Music Adapter from Irock (see FIGURE 3). The adapters are the size of a small cell phone and use a short cord that plugs into the headphone jack of your player. Since they're wireless, you can place them almost anywhere, as long as they're within a few feet of the radio's antenna. When the radio receives a clear signal, both models produce acceptable FM-quality sound. But I heard continually clear signals only in regions with few radio stations--between Butte, Montana, and Bismarck, North Dakota, for example. In urban areas, the signal was consistently stepped on by local radio stations.

Changing frequency settings helped--each model comes with four separate settings--but having to change the settings continually soured the experience for me. (Note that Belkin's new $50 TuneCast II scans all FM frequencies rather than just four.) The Bottom Line: How successfully these transmitters will work in a given area is a hit-or-miss proposition, so check the return policy before you buy.