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The concept of being able to listen to my iPod in my car is one that appeals to me greatly. My old Blaupunkt stereo won't read CDs when the temperature's below 55°, the "rock" radio stations around Cleveland are simply abysmal, and whereas I do enjoy listening to NPR most of the time, there are many occasions when I'd rather hear what David Bowie has to say about Reality than what Ben Bernanke has to say about interest rates.

There are numerous methods these days for getting your iPod music into your car stereo's speaker system. One of my least favorites, although the one I really want to embrace, is the use of an FM transmitter. I like it in theory because it's simple and clean; no need to dismantle my dashboard for installation and few (if any) wires draped about my car. I dislike it because the quality of the reception depends heavily upon the area in which you're driving, and because it's not conducive to long distance travel.

The good news, though, is that FM transmitters have gotten better as of late, both with sound quality and with functionality. Before I get to those products, though, we'll start simple.

Griffin Technology's iTrip ($39.95) is as basic as they come. This little device plugs into your iPod's dock port, and looked natural sitting under my 5G iPod. A backlit LCD screen allows you to easily see the radio frequency you've selected, which you do with the switch on the right hand side. Its size makes it the least cumbersome of all the FM transmitters I looked at for this article, and I like that I wasn't forced to plug it into my car's 12V accessory outlet to use it, as I had to with the others. This gave me the freedom to put my iPod with the iTrip anywhere I wanted, or to hand it off to passengers. The drawback, of course, is that the iPod's battery can run out while traveling, but Griffin's PowerJolt ($19.99) can be used in conjunction with the iTrip so you can keep your iPod connected to a power source while listening to the music over the radio.

The signal you get from the iTrip is decent. Although there was never a point where I could get perfectly clear audio in my geographic region, I also didn't have problems with the signal getting overpowered by static. There are two modes, LX and DX, which you can switch between if your signal isn't that great. LX is stereo, and DX is a stronger mono signal. If you don't mind hearing your music in mono or if you're listening to an audio book, the quality there is much better. If you want stereo, though, you'll have to settle for LX and the limitations it can contain.

Another benefit is that you can switch it to international mode, which gives you access to FM frequency ranges 76.0 to 90.0, as opposed to the U.S. standard 88.1 to 107.9. If your car stereo can tune down past 88.1 (my Blaupunkt can), this will make it easier to find an unused frequency as these lower ones are off limits to radio broadcasters.

DLO's TransPod FM Transmitter ($89.00) takes the whole process a few steps further than the iTrip. Most obvious is the addition of a cradle that holds your iPod (any model with a dock connector) and an arm that plugs directly into your car's 12V accessory outlet or cigarette lighter to both power the transmitter and charge your iPod. It's convenient having all of this rolled into one device, but it can also get in the way.

Because the TransPod requires that it be plugged in to work, you're stuck with the placement available with the arm. There are interlocking pieces you can use or remove to get the length/angle you want, but depending upon your car's set up, it may still be hard to pull off. In my '98 Honda Civic, the 12V outlet is tucked away under the dashboard and behind the gear shift, meaning no amount of interlocking arm pieces was going to get my iPod where I could easily use it. In my wife's '05 Matrix, the outlet is right up front and easily accessible, but I still had to use an arm piece to keep the iPod out of the way of the gear shift. And whereas the arm joints can be tightened to prevent slipping, the 12V accessory outlet itself would shift a bit under the iPod's weight, causing it rock when turning. Perhaps if using the TransPod with the iPod nano, the lighter weight would stop this from happening.

The blue LCD screen is easier to read than that on the iTrip (and looks cooler), and the controls are easier to get to. Buttons on the side toggle the LCD backlighting and the station presets, and the two on the front allow you to cycle through those presets. The ability to pre-program stations is great when you're taking long trips and have to change your radio frequency to keep a good connection. And speaking of the connection, the sound quality was better than that of the iTrip; I still never received a perfect signal, and there were some random pops here and there as if I was losing the frequency. And although Belkin claims that the TransPod shuts itself off when not in use, I guess this is determined by whether the iPod is on, not whether the car radio is. If I didn't manually stop my iPod, it would continue playing even if the car was off and I wasn't in it.

This was not the case with Griffin's RoadTrip FM Transmitter and Car Charger ($79.99), which turned itself and the iPod off when the car is turned off. Unlike the TransPod, though, it didn't turn itself on automatically when I'd start the car. It would recognize that it was now receiving power, but I'd still have to manually hit the power button to start sending the signal to the stereo.

The RoadTrip's signal was the best of the three products evaluated here. I didn't get the occasional pops I received with the iTrip and the TransPod on most days, and the signal remained strong for a greater distance. Still, the limitations of using an FM transmitter remained, such as the need to jack up the volume on the radio in order to hear the iPod, which apparently plays at a much lower level. Luckily, my car's stereo resets itself to a preset volume when I turn the car on. In my wife's car, if we forgot to turn down the radio when getting out, we'd be hit with a loud blast of static or whatever else the station would pull in when starting the car. This was a problem with all three FM transmitters, though, not just the RoadTrip. Griffin suggests that doing a soft reset of the iPod may sometimes fix the low audio level, but it didn't work for me.

LIke the TransPod, the RoadTrip comfortably holds any iPod with a dock connector (via the use of adapters to fit your particular iPod) and features an arm that plugs into your car's outlet. I found this arm to be a bit sturdier than the RoadTrip's, but with a shorter length and more limited control. In my Civic, there was no way I could get the RoadTrip up and out from underneath the dash, and instead had to angle the arm downwards to rest the base on the cup holder. This had the added benefit of being a bit more solid; no rocking or fear the arm would lose its grip and send the iPod crashing onto my gear shift.

The RoadTrip's buttons are easy to access and see, sitting just below the backlit LCD screen on the front of the base. However, there are no presets. So, although the sound quality was a bit better for me than with the TransPod, the functionality of the RoadTrip was not quite as nice.

So, which model is for you? Any of them could be, really. If you want something small for quick trips that allows you to put your iPod where you want it (and not even remove it from some cases), the iTrip will suffice. If you're in your car for longer trips and will need switch radio frequencies as you go, the TransPod is a good system. If you're like me, however, and plan to use your transmitter for a 20 mile, 45 minute commute to work and therefore don't have to do any station switching, the RoadTrip will be your best choice in both sound quality and stability. Whichever way you go, just be sure you don't leave your iPod sitting out in your car. I don't know about you, but my 5G iPod would pretty much double the value of my car on the black market.

And one more thing...my rankings below reflect these FM transmitters compared to each other and products using the same technology, not against cassette adapters, wired installations or other methods of hearing your iPod through your car's stereo system. I'm ranking each FM transmitter for what it can do within the limitations of the technology, not the FM transmitting process itself.

Applelinks Ratings (5 being highest):