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Topic: Automotive MP3 player (Read 5169 times) previous topic - next topic
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Automotive MP3 player

There's getting to be quite a plethora of car CD/CDR/MP3 players
and I was wondering if anyone has tried one yet?  How do they sound,
is skipping a problem, will they handle mp3's in sub-folders, etc?

Thanks for any responses, Dex

Automotive MP3 player

Reply #1 –
i have the aiwa one (wait wait, don't throw the stones yet... it was the only mp3 player out at the time i bought it...  )

Its not that bad... but it IS aiwa quality, and it skips like hell (albeit i have a mitusbishi eclipse with 17" aftermarket rims, and aftermarket suspension... so the bumps hit hard)

it handles folders fine, features are basic but do the job... 

i'll put it this way... its good enough to keep in the car until i have money to spend on an alpine...

but if you're going to pay $250 for a player, just suck it up and spend the extra $50-$100 for an alpine/whatever...

Automotive MP3 player

Reply #2 –
I have some bull$hi!t 'X-treme Sound' player. Its o.k. as far as sound quality no skips or anything but it doesn't play high bitrate vbr files well.

I've seen some Kenwood players in action and they seem pretty smooth. A good friend has one and the report is good.
r3mix zealot.

Automotive MP3 player

Reply #3 –
Are you sure you wouldn't rather have a portable?

Reason I say that is they seem to be more advanced (or at least...more value for the money), more theft proof, more shock/skip proof, easy to hook up (if you know a thing or two about wiring), and with a HD based player...virtually infinite space (20 GB will hold A LOT of files), and (eventual) support for more formats.

I've got an old Blaupunkt Montreal tapedeck whose main purpose is just to turn the external amp on. I used a 4 pole dbl throw switch for to select between the Blaupunkt and my iRiver 350 (CD based). Works beautifully except that the output of the iRiver is a little weak...so I turned up the gain on the amp. That's my story and I'm stickin to it.

Xenno
No one can be told what Ogg Vorbis is...you have to hear it for yourself
- Morpheus

Automotive MP3 player

Reply #4 –
Many car stereos have an auxillary input. You could use a portable in conjunction with this.
r3mix zealot.

Automotive MP3 player

Reply #5 –
I have the JVC KD-SH99. Great, sturdy unit. All is great except 2 things.

The EQ is a nightmare. Too many settings. You would drive into a bus trying to adjust it while driving.
The gaps between songs can be anywhere from 1 to 2 seconds. All of my portables have a much shorter gap.
flac > schiit modi > schiit magni > hd650

Automotive MP3 player

Reply #6 –
I bought a Kenwood KDC-MP8017 MP3 Player through EBay after a lot of research.
I have not been disappointed. Sounds great. It is like having a 10 cd changer on every cd.
It has begun to act up after about two years of use. Some trouble reading discs, I am not sure why.
I would buy it again.

David

Automotive MP3 player

Reply #7 –
Thanks for all the replies folks.  I would prefer not to use a portable, however, wiring for me
is not a problem as I am an electronics tech who used to be a pro car audio installer.

Mainly I'm trying to decide between going with a "brand name" unit or an in-car 'puter setup
as discussed over in the MP3Car.com forum.

I was just wondering how satisfied folks were with pre-made units.  The price on them
is dropping every day.   

I'll keep checking back, seems like lots of good info on all things audio.   

Dex

Automotive MP3 player

Reply #8 –
Quote
I have the JVC KD-SH99. Great, sturdy unit. All is great except 2 things.

The EQ is a nightmare. Too many settings. You would drive into a bus trying to adjust it while driving.
The gaps between songs can be anywhere from 1 to 2 seconds. All of my portables have a much shorter gap.

well, an EQ is really supposed to be adjusted once and left alone.  an EQ is supposed to compensate for shortcomings in your speakers/environment.  I agree on the longer than necessary gap though.  I love my KD-SH99.  I had one of the KD-SH909's that came out the year after too, it's got a better/bigger display area and is a little nicer colour (slightly darker grey rather than plain aluminum) but it seemed to sound a little harsher than the 99 did.  Could have been placebo, hard to A/B car stereos, heh.  But on one hand, I did blow a set of tweeters with the 909, where as the 99 with the exact same setup/level/everything did not.  So perhaps the 909 distorts a little more, or maybe I just had a lemon.  At any rate, I was lucky to get another 99.

Automotive MP3 player

Reply #9 –
Quote
I bought a Kenwood KDC-MP8017 MP3 Player through EBay after a lot of research.
I have not been disappointed. Sounds great. It is like having a 10 cd changer on every cd.
It has begun to act up after about two years of use. Some trouble reading discs, I am not sure why.
I would buy it again.

David

could simply be the lens is getting dirty, or out of adjustment

Automotive MP3 player

Reply #10 –
There are three I use once in a while:

Kenwood KDC MP6090R - great sound quality, so far I offered everything from 32kbps to 320kbps - swallowed without any complaints. Slow on searching, 4 sec gaps between tracks, but that's ok for me.

Roadstar (I don't know what model exactly atm, cheap, special offer for 129 €). Sound is alright, a little low volume/power, no probs with bitrate/VBR either.

Medion (from German Aldi, don't know exactly, 139€) - Crappy: Nasty background noise, low volume, awful quality on 64kbps audio books - It's really strange: On my Kenwood these files sound almost decent while driving, only a ringing "s" once in a while, but on this Medion they sound awfull watery, ringing everywhere - never heard that many maps (megaartifactspersecond) anywhere else.

[EDIT]Forgot to mention: The Kenwood also surprised me in a positive way about media compatibility. All cheap supermarket CD-R(W) Media I tried so far work well, only some skips on RWs that had been dirty/scratched before recording.  In contrast to the other ones it even works with CDs that contain folders of non-mp3 data files.[/EDIT]
Let's suppose that rain washes out a picnic. Who is feeling negative? The rain? Or YOU? What's causing the negative feeling? The rain or your reaction? - Anthony De Mello

Automotive MP3 player

Reply #11 –
I have a Jensen (ok, ok) I bought just because it was cheap. In Mexico car stereo theft is a real problem. So far I am happy with it. Folder (and subfolder) managing is good (I have album per subfolder), just like having a CD changer. Sound is OK, I drive a compact car and the 45x4 output is just enough. The sound from my -aps files is very crisp. Skipping is non-existant on MP3 CDs (it skips sometimes with regular CDs, though). The display could be better. It just shows track name, folder name, artist name or time played one at a time, I would like to be able to show them all at the same time (like w****p or FB2K), but, hey! you are supposed to keep your eyes on the road anyway.
All and all, a very good buy.
Oh, model number is MP3510.
Go ahead, don't be afraid.
I'm the one in the picture, sitting on a giant cabbage in Mexico, circa 1978.
Reseñas de Rock en Español: www.estadogeneral.com

Automotive MP3 player

Reply #12 –
A buddy of mine has that jesnsen and loves it.  I was thinking I might pick it up for a cheap car player

On a different note, my grandfather picked up some Jenson CDR's a few weeks ago for $.01 after rebate.  CDRIdentifier shows the atip as Riteks.
"You can fight without ever winning, but never win without a fight."  Neil Peart  'Resist'

Automotive MP3 player

Reply #13 –
Bought the missus a Sony MP3 Player (of which I may later edit this post and insert the model number) for  Christmas...

Brilliant!  Does everything - 8kbps up to 320kbps, variable rate, ID3 Reading, refuses to jump no matter what you are driving over.

Its infinitely better than a Multichanger in the boot ...

I think (I may be making this up) I put a VCD in it the once and it played the soundtrack back!

Paid £200 but since seen it on line for slightly less than £150.  But I am filthy rich so I dont care  B)

Automotive MP3 player

Reply #14 –
Wouldn't suprise me if it did play the audio off a VCD seeing how it is an mpeg stream
"You can fight without ever winning, but never win without a fight."  Neil Peart  'Resist'

Automotive MP3 player

Reply #15 –
Quote
[well, an EQ is really supposed to be adjusted once and left alone.

In theory, I agree. Now, If only recording engineers would mix everything the same...
flac > schiit modi > schiit magni > hd650

Automotive MP3 player

Reply #16 –
Quote
Kenwood KDC MP6090R - great sound quality, so far I offered everything from 32kbps to 320kbps - swallowed without any complaints. Slow on searching, 4 sec gaps between tracks, but that's ok for me.

got one of these in my 309, it's brilliant  it's like having a multichanger, but without the multichanger 

oh, and it's played every disc i've stuck in it so far, including mp3 cd-rw and redbook on cd-rw.
Dan

Automotive MP3 player

Reply #17 –
Quote
In theory, I agree. Now, If only recording engineers would mix everything the same...

well, any given album gets mixed to sound how they want it to sound, one would think.  So striving to reproduce that wouldn't be too bad of a goal, although I know what you mean because there are any number of albums out there that could use some minor/major tweaking.  The only thing I ever adjust is the Super Bass control, as I'm more or less happy with how everything I listen to sounds, except for the lack of bass in a lot of rock recordings, especially older stuff.

Automotive MP3 player

Reply #18 –
Well, I took everyone's advice to heart, but ended up
buying the Alpine 9807.  Seems to be a nice unit.

We considered the JVC units, I've always liked them,
but was disuaded because according to the Crutchfield
catalog, they require a specific "Folder" arrangement
and numbering system, which would make a lot of
the CD's I already have unusable.

But anyway, thanks for all the feedback folks.   

Dex

Automotive MP3 player

Reply #19 –
they only require that if you're going to use the radio preset buttons to quickly switch between folders.  In which case, you'd prepend a 01, 02, 03 etc to the folder names so that pressing the 05 radio preset button switches you to folder 05Crystal Method.  Other than that it'll handle your existing CDs just fine. And you can still switch between next/previous folders with the next/previous folder navigation controls.

Automotive MP3 player

Reply #20 –
Hi Shorty; boy, its too bad that Crutchfield didn't make that more clear
in their catalog.  I might'a had a JVC!   

Also, its so coincidental that you would use Crystal Method as an example.
A friend just turned me on to this group, and I immedietly went out
and bought Vegas and Tweekend! 

I could listen to "Wild, Sweet, and Cool" and "Blowout" over and over,
cranked, of course.  (And I'm an ole fart!)   

Dex

Automotive MP3 player

Reply #21 –
how old is that?  I'll be 32 come Aug 6th. (Yes, the bomb's anniversary.) The Crystal Method are my favourite band these days.  In addition to Vegas and Tweekend they've got a ton of remixes of their stuff and of other bands' tunes they remixed.  And the Community Service mix album they did has a bunch of great tunes on it, some theirs, some not. Blowout is one of my faves too

<edit> I'm too lazy to lookup which Alpine unit that is that you picked up, but I installed one of their new mp3 decks a few weeks ago and I must say I was pretty impressed with one of its features.  It let you time-align all the speakers.  That is, it lets you adjust seperate delay values for each corner so you can eliminate one of the imaging problems in a car, sound from the different speakers taking longer/shorter to arrive at your ears in comparison to the other speakers.  Combine that with great speaker placement and you can get some insanely good imaging, almost tempted to pick one up if I had some spare cash to blow
 

Automotive MP3 player

Reply #22 –
Quote
how old is that?  I'll be 32 come Aug 6th. (Yes, the bomb's anniversary.)

Hey Shorty . . . Lets just say, I was graduating High School around the time you
were born.   

The Alpine unit I got was the one that was the highest model that played mp3/wma
without having the motorized face plate.  That just seemed to me to be
something else to go wrong.  I like being able to insert/eject the CD direct into
the front of the unit.  Also, this unit does not have the feature you mentioned,
which isn't that big of a deal to me in a car.

When I bought Tweekend and Vegas, my buddy bought Community Service.
I want to get that one too.  I don't generally listen to heavy metal much, but he
also turned me on to a group called Type O Negative thats pretty good.  Their
song Wolf Moon is great, and they do an odd cover of the Beatles Day Tripper,
and also Cinnamon Girl, Summer Breeze, and Pictures of Matchstick Men.
Seals and Crofts Summer Breeze especially sounds wierd done in grindy rock & roll.

    Dex