MP3/WMA-compatible car stereos

If you prefer to store your digital music files on CD-R/RW discs, a compatible stereo might be your best bet. It'll play your files back directly — letting you to store up to 10 hours of music on a single disc — and let you shuffle through various tracks and folders on the fly. On the downside, you'll likely be limited by the file formats that your stereo can play back. Most car stereos are compatible with MP3 and WMA, and many can also handle AAC files. A few can even play lossless formats like WAV or Apple Lossless.

What to look for in a car stereo with digital music compatibility

• Search functions: With up to 250 songs on any one CD-R/RW disc — or well over 1,000 on a DVD — intuitive file navigation is crucial. You'll want to be able to jump quickly between files and folders to find what you want to hear. Some stereos offer rotary knobs that allow you to spin through titles quickly, while others use buttons.
• Display: Depending on your stereo's capabilities, a large, readable display will show off file and track names as well as artist and album information, making it easy to quickly see what you're listening to. Look for a stereo that can handle CD and MP3 text information (ID3 tags) and offers multiple lines of display text. Car stereos with in-dash monitors obviously offer the best display capabilities — some even feature touch-screen controls.
• File format support: Make sure you choose a stereo that can play the music file format (e.g. MP3, WMA, AAC, etc.) that dominates your collection. Remember, most car stereos will not play the protected music files that you buy from online stores like iTunes and Napster.
• Sound shaping controls: Due to the "lossy" nature of compressed digital audio (which results in the omission of certain audio information deemed unimportant or inaudible), the sound-shaping capabilities of your in-dash stereo can play a big role in getting the best sound from your files. All in-dash receivers have some form of tone shaping, starting with simple bass and treble controls. Many offer other features like:
  • A USB 2.0 connection that bypasses your iPod's digital-to-analog converter (DAC) for superior sound
  • BBE MP and similar processing tools that revitalize your compressed tunes
  • a "loudness" setting for fuller sound at low volumes
  • bass boost or a bass enhancer for punchy low-end performance
  • multi-band equalizers for precision fine-tuning