Guest Author - Valerie Shoopman

If you dislike bulky headphones and irritating earbuds as much as I do, plus you spend a lot of time in your car, then you might want to consider getting an FM transmitter to add on to your current iPod, MP3 or portable CD player. Heck, you might even already have an FM transmitter and not know it! Some of the newer MP3 players and even some cell phones with built-in MP3 players come with built-in FM transmitters.

An FM transmitter allows you to listen to your MP3’s or audio books wirelessly through the FM radio in your car or home stereo. That means if you have some killer or even decent speakers, you are going to get a much better listening experience than what comes out of headphones or earbuds.

The digital FM transmitters are very easy to set up and use. For the external FM transmitters, just plug the audio cable into the existing headphone jack on your computer, iPod, MP3 player, or portable CD player. Then set the FM transmitter to the frequency of your choice – generally anywhere between 88-108 MHZ and tune your FM radio to that same frequency.

For the built-in internal FM transmitters, you need to go into the setup menu for the MP3 player and find the FM transmitter menu, then choose the desired FM frequency and tune your FM radio to that same frequency.

For example, on my Fusic cell phone, I can set up the FM transmitter in 3 easy steps.

1. Select Menu>Tools>Music Transmitter and scroll to my desired FM frequency.
For ease of use, it is set to 88.1 by default.

2. Select Options>Music Transmitter>On to turn on the FM transmitter while
playing MP3 files.

3. Set my FM radio to the same FM frequency as in step 1 and start my favorite
song or audio book to enjoy listening in stereo quality with no annoying
headphones or earbuds.

That’s it - just like magic, you can listen to MP3 songs, audio books or even satellite radio all wirelessly (yes, no cables to hook up!) for distances of 5- 30 feet (depending upon the model) between the FM transmitter and your FM radio antenna.

You can transmit music or audio from your computer in the den to the good stereo out in the living room, transmit your satellite radio to your good home stereo, or my personal favorite - transmit audio books and music from my portable MP3 player to the FM stereo in my car. Digital FM transmitters give you great sound quality, are hassle-free and they sure beat buying, burning, labeling, and changing CDs.