A good way to work out what features you are looking for is to figure out what you will be doing the most with your receiver.

AM/FM Radio – if you are going to be listening to a lot of AM/FM radio you need to make sure that your radio has a low FM Sensitivity (around 8-12 dBf) or uses digital processing to clean up the radio signal. HD Radio ™– This is the new stage of AM/FM radio that uses digital signals instead of analog which allows for much clearer radio but you have to have a radio that has an HD tuner.

Satellite Radio – If you want to add satellite radio to you listening experience then you need to make sure that the receiver you choose is “satellite radio-ready” or has a built in satellite radio tuner. If you are planning on listening to a certain satellite company (Sirius or XM) be sure to check if the stereo is compatible with that company; most are compatible with both but a few only work one or the other.

CDs – Almost all of the stereos made today play all types of CDs including copied CDs, CD-Rs and CD-RWs. If you are going to be listening to a lot of CDs then you need to make sure that your radio has a high Signal to Noise Ratio which will make your CDs play bake cleaner.

iPod ®– Some of today’s stereos allow you to do more than just play the songs on your iPod; they charge it and allow you to control you iPod from your car stereo and use whatever hands free buttons are in your car. Models that allow for this sort of control are equipped with an iPod control adapter but if you would rather just control it with your iPod then all you need is an auxiliary jack.

Other MP3 Players – To play other types of MP3 players (or anything that plays sound and has a headphone jack) through your car stereo you need to make sure that the receiver that you choose comes with an auxiliary jack that allows you to hook up your MP3 player via its headphone jack.

Bluetooth – Some car radios allow come with built in Bluetooth or are Bluetooth ready and need an adapter to become Bluetooth enabled. With Bluetooth in your car you can go hands free with any Bluetooth capable phone or device with some receivers even being able to stream music via Bluetooth.

Flash Drives – Many car stereos now come with a USB port that allows you to hook up a flash memory storage device that has all of your music on it and the stereo will pull all of the music off of that drive. Some stereos also have SD™ card slots that allow you to put your music on a SD™ card.

DVD Playback – If you want to be able to play DVDs over your car’s stereo then you will need to have this feature. This feature is on a lot of Double DIN receivers but a few Single DIN receivers feature slide out screens and DVD players. Receivers with DVD playback are a critical part of any mobile video system.

Displays – There are hundreds of different display options available today from being able to change the color of the backlight to touch screen to telling you the name, artist and album of the song you are listening to.

If you like to have a lot of control over your music then you want to look for a receiver that has an equalizer or at least the ability to adjust the mid-range frequencies and not just the bass and treble.

If you are planning on upgrading the speakers in your car then you need to look for a model that has Preamp outputs that allow you to connect an amplifier to your stereo. You should also look for a receiver with a high output voltage and power rating which will give you a cleaner signal.

If you are going to be adding a Subwoofer to your system then you should look for a model with a dedicated subwoofer output which will allow you to control the volume of your sub independently from the rest of your system.