MP3

In June I bought a Pioneer MP3/CD (no USB) from Autobarn under $200 and played MP3 CDs to Bamaga and back and it went brilliantly. I didn't expect it to play under all road conditions but it did. Ain't technology grand!

few weeks ago I bought an MP3 player tht plays DVD's as well as MP3's for $350, it was Sony from JB Hifi...

you can get close to 1000 songs (depending on length, type, sample rate etc) on a DVD :)

Hi Chris,
Did similar, bought an Alpine CD/ MP3 / Radio to replace normal Troppy installed fare. Brilliant even over the worse corrugations. Use an Ipod /Ipac interface to the unit to play all your ripped / legit tunes. Great way to go, if you are into music.

Regards
Ian@Mt Dare

I recently bought a Clarion unit (755USB model I think) and its great - Cost about $260 and has a USB connection on the front pannel (also plays cd/ mp3/ wma/ mp3pro FILES). Also has a remote (which has been far more handy than I thought it would be).

The thing is great - has not missed a beat on any tracks - corrugations and I love the flexibility of changing my 'package' of songs for each trip. The only issue I had was using an older USB1.1 memory stick - couldn't be read fast enough and had some dropout periods during song playback, particulalry at higher Kbps. Problem solved by using only USB 2.0 compatable memory sticks. Also looked at JVC model with USB port but this was an earlier release (~ 04' and about $80 more).

regards

Henry

Some units use the headphone jacks rather than the USB to connect the player to the radio.ie, no adaptor, just a headphone jack connector. I can't see any reason why this wouldn't work just as well as a wire connection and its cheaper. This is available on some really cheap units as well as high end models. Repco have one for abour $40.00. Salesperson in Alice told me this unit works really well if used with reasonable speakers. Didn't buy one, but might be worth a look. We use an adaptor that goes from headphone jack on the mp3 player into the dash tape deck. Works very well. Also have a FM connector but found the headphone jack connection to the tape deck works better. If you use this approach, all the shuffle/track controls etc have to be done on the mp3 player whereas many of the expensive USB connecting models give you control over the mp3 player from the controls on your car audio system with track info reading out on the info display of the car system. Never worries us as we run the mp3 player on shuffle and just let it do its thing. The element of surprise helps to keep the driver awake.

A further thought. Some manufacturer soon is going to wise up that we don't need cd/mp3 players/tapedecks as well as radios any more in our cars. All we need is a decent radio with an input jack on the front so we can plug our mp3 player into the cars amp and speakers. Should be quite a bit cheaper (and smaller).

Has anybody made a car radio with a docking station for an IPOD yet ? It would be good if there were no wires and the IPOD was always on charge .
Willie .

Just bought a Teac CD/MP3 player on Ebay for less than $50 that uses a cassette that goes into the player in the car and plays mp3 through that...at present converting lots of my lp records to mp3...depending on what settings they are converted with depends on how tracks you can get on a cd...one that I have made has 200 tracks on it....have since found out by using a slightly lower setting I can more than double that amount , but it does cause a small loss in sound quality...cheers

Hi Chris,
Sony have a headunit out that has 1gb of memory in the faceplate.
So you take the faceplate in and hook it up to the PC via USB.

I think they are around the 6-700 mark locally though.

Ed