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Hello, and welcome to my site on how to make and enjoy your own car MP3 player. Using a spare computer (as many people have lying around doing nothing, or free or very cheap access to) can be a very good MP3 player. As opposed to an expensive iPod with batteries that will die, or a much smaller-capacity MP3 player with flash memory, this is very cheap, easy, and fun to do. It is powered by your car so, as long as your alternator doesn't kick it, it'll never run out of power (and if your alternator dies, your music should be your last concern). It's easily controllable by a keyboard or, better yet, a keypad (PS/2 with only the number pad side of a 102-key keyboard). You can enter song numbers or skip ahead much easier. The sound quality is much higher, and the storage can be virtually unlimited (you can use a very large hard drive, instead of being limited to 256MB or, if you're an audiophile, the 20GB of an iPod - audiophiles tend to have higher quality MP3s that don't distort as much).

There are detailed instructions on how to set everything up, and how to get all of this working in a manner to please you. Remember, however, the audio will only sound as good as the limiting factor - if you have 128kBPS MP3s or lower, you may not notice distortion on your PC, but you almost assuredly will with this setup. I HIGHLY recommend 192kBPS or higher (256kBPS is very ideal, although they take up 2x the space of a 128kBPS MP3).

Also, if you know DOS, and want the ability to add future songs, this can be easily done by copying them from a CD onto the hard drive. Making the M3Us (playlists) can be a pain, but I can tell you how to make short work of it!