CD Players

technology thing, but i personally think you are better off inserting an amplifier with a radio and input plugs, not being totally up to date someone will correct my misguided intentions, but music is so rapidly moving to digital formats (& hard drives don't bounce like cd players) it'll be a fratcion of time before you are recording your cd's into digital formats and then usb transferring to a pencil rubber size thing to plug into your Fender to play whatever you want and it will never bounce.

suggest maybe invest in a Target $149.00 mp3 player and upload your music to it and purchase something that will play it (and other formats).

spend the extra budgeted $ on a great amplifier and speakers.

Rosco,
I have a Pioneer CD player in the Patrol, we've had it a couple of years and I think it was about $300-350 (from Brisbane Car Sound) for the unit and I installed it myself. It needs better quality speakers but they're still on the wish list. We had a CD cranking while we drove down the inland road between Dilli Village and Hook Point on Fraser in January and it never skipped at all!! I was quite impressed!! (If you've driven that at all, you'd be impressed too!!! :-) )

We're on the Gold Coast, so if you want to come and have a look at it or whatever, drop me a message and we'll see if we can get together.

Hi Rosco I have a Blaupunkt RPD 540 radio / cd , I bought from Repco 2 years ago for about $260 and it is still working good , I have been driving on some rough roads including the CSR and it has never (skipped) yet. I think it has a system like the personal CD players were it over samples the music several times before playing it back.Hope this helps , Ray

Rosco
I too would buy a Pioneer unit again, just keep going, never give any probs and it has never skipped.
Make sure that whatever you get can play CDR's with MP3's on them as you can fit hundreds of tracks on one CD, no need for a stacker, you can fit weeks worth of music on a few cd's.
I bought my latest Pioneer just before the MP3 capable units came on the market, bugger!
Peter

Rosco,

My parents asked me about this. They are on a 2 year trip and space is at a premium. Much of the travelling is away from decent music radio stations so they wanted to take an extensive collection of songs from their CD collection.

We had a look at a Hard Drive based player from the Nomad brand that has a 60 Gigabyte drive in it and is hardly bigger than the size of a cigarette pack. It was about $600 to $700 but could hold up to 10,000 (yes - ten thousand) songs.

With it you can buy a FM transmitter (about $70) that broadcasts the output from the headhone jack for about 20 metres. Then you just tune the normal car stereo to the same FM frequency. The unit can be put in a soft spot anywhere in the cabin and I am pretty sure you can get a cig lighter connection to power it. (batteries only last hours).

In the end the parents thought this would be good but was a bit pricey and perhaps fiddly. I did agree with them but I am pointing this solution out because I think there will be a wave of these sort of products over the next 12 months or so which will make it so easy to take all the music you want and play it anywhere, including corrugated tracks!!

If you're interested you can order them from a few places on the internet or search for info.

Apple iPod is the most popular at present but the battery is non replaceable and only lasts 18 months or so of recharging. There are a few unhappy Apple customers at the moment!!

Steven

I've got an Alpine MP3/WMA player.. would never go back to CD player now.

This thing never skips or jumps, or anything.. and I got 173 songs PER CD... so SYdney to Melb = 2 CD's at MOST.

Also got alpine speakers.. Ive always had their kit since I got my license, Had sony once, but sold it within a month went back to Alpine..

YMMV

G'day,

I have a 3 yr old pioneer cd player and it goes fantastic and never had a problem, it plays burnt cds and even cd-rw which it probably designed to. However i would buy a new pioneer cd player, i've heard that mine was one of the last good ones and they have since changed where they are made and alot of people are having trouble- i've even spoken to a couple places that refuse to stock pioneer cd players because they have has way too many complaints and returns. Aparently Alpine are the new no.1, also dont go for a cheap brand, i've found the cheaper you go the worse they are and the more they jump. hope this helps

regards
Steve

Hi before you buy have a look at this site www.ex-audio.com its a Hong kong supplier I have purchased 2 of there 7" screens so far with no problems and very quick delivery and saved big $$$ they have DVD CD am Fm units at good prices .

Rosco
I Have an Apple iPOD
(MP3 Player) it holds 2500 Songs and it only cost $395, The Paj also has a 6+1 in dash CD Stacker which hardly gets used now the iPOD can also store Digital Photos on it if you get the Data card Reader Great Little Investment My iPOD Goes Every where with me.

I have Pioneer PEH-5550 MP3 player and it gets absolutely hammered as far as corrugations go yet has only ever skipped once (from memory I was catapulted halfway out the window at the time). Cost less than $400 & 4 x 50 w channel and 2 CD's will get me all the way to Perth.

Had Sony but took it out as all it did was skip then jam up with dust (no good for Pilbara)

I went into Chermside Car Audio in Brisbane and the bloke sunk his size 13's into the plywood display where all the CD players were mounted. The only two players that didnt jump were Pioneer & JVC. Clarion, Kenwood & Alpine all jumped.

I took the Pioneer as it had the removable face which keeps the dust out of the CD slot.

It didnt jump once on the road into Lawn Hill, nor along the Gibb River road, thats proof enough to me.

Cheers,

Glenn.

G'Day Rosco,
As you have no need to trade in the Landy any time soon, may be worth putting in a alpine system, have become very reasonably priced these days for a premium system. I just put four speakers and a head unit in the Patrol for under $900 fitted.
Speakers have a separate tweeter which is placed higher in the door, with the main speaker underneath. Makes a big difference to sound quality, the installer spent all day getting it in until HE was happy with the sound. No complaints from me, and not too bad on the hip pocket either
Rolande

Rosco -I'm not sure if the standard radio in Defenders is mounted the same as in older Discos like mine - i.e. at a very steep angle. If so, JVC CD players are one of the least prone to skipping, even when positioned almost vertically - the only problem being that discs don't eject too well at extreme angles. The solution is to get a JVC or other player with a line in that you can plug a portable CD/MP3 player into. JVC speakers have also proven to be very good. Agree with Trucksters comment on Sony - very harsh sounding speakers. Alpine, Pioneer and JVC speakers provide a much fuller sound.