In-Car MP3 Players

[sitas3]

Any recommendations for ones that can play mp3's and have the red display to match the audi dash??

[Bushy]

nope

the only guy to go to is Berks Car Sounds in Reading

I'll ask him tomorrow if you want?

[Nordschleife]

you may like to check out:
http://www.phatnoise.com/
for a really satisfactory solution

R+C

[sitas3]

yes please Steve. I have thousands of the little ones and I can't be arsed converting them to wav in order to burn to cd..

Nordschleife, thanks for the link. the phatbox device looks good - i will look into this.

[Bushy]

right spoken to my mate who said

alpine 7879 around £350 but hard to get hold off or

pioneer one around £500 with flip screen

what stereo hav eyou currently got?

not sat nav plus then? you could use av input to plug in MP3 player

[sitas3]

I have the Chorus 2 head unit controlling the standard 6cd box in the boot, output via bose system..

[Bushy]

MMM, so you gotta go for a new head unit, be carefull with the Bose integration though

I had loads of hassle withthe Bose on my S4 which i tried to use when i fitted my AV stuff, the sound just wasnt the same, even with different adaptors

In the RS i have bypassed it by rewiring each speaker and using a Genisis amp

Good luck

If you find the unit you want i will ask my mate for a price if it helps

cheers

[Bushy]

alternatively wait until the pc is sorted out and have one of them [img]images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

[Nordschleife]

Guys
The PhatBox, up to 40GB, is a plug in replacement for the CD changer, it behaves like a CD changer and uses the Concert II display, very impressive.
R+C

[Bushy]

Guys
The PhatBox, up to 40GB, is a plug in replacement for the CD changer, it behaves like a CD changer and uses the Concert II display, very impressive.
R+C

thats pretty cool

[sitas3]

I agree the phatbox looks good. not a nice price though + need to check with them if it works with the chorus.

also, thanks for looking around for me, Steve.

[Doug_RS2]

yes please Steve. I have thousands of the little ones and I can't be arsed converting them to wav in order to burn to cd..

If you use Nero burning software all you do is drag the mp3s onto your new audio cd and it converts them as it burns - Takes <5 mins on a X40 writer for a full cd.

[Bushy]

i reckon thats your best bet - Nero, worst way its only £8 for a copy

Howevereven some of the alledged MP3 players require the files on a CD so you would still have to burn a copy

[s2driver]

I bought a <£250, brand new 10Gb Mstation2 from www.6thplanet.com. Liquidated stock or something! £500 retail!!

Probably not the greatest in high fidelity but stores files on a hard disk. Supplied with an FM modulator but I bought a Blaupunkt DAB52 with Aux input which is much better. I need to filter the power lines due to some extremely minor whisling from the speakers at high revs.

It great because:
1. Cheap
2. Easy to upgrade to enormous capacity (first thing I did was invalidate my warranty by swapping to a larger, cheap 3.5" IDE drive). I've seen some people running >80Gb drives without issues.
4. Whip it out of your car and plug it into a spare 5.25" PC bay for instant drag and drop file transfer. PC sees it as another disk drive.
5. Home docking station available from several other places including Awesome GTi for ~£100. So have ALL of your music on the PC, in the car and on the HiFi.
6. No problems so far with reliability. 15K miles and a lot of bumps to date without damage.
7. You can hide it anywhere. All suplied hardware is suitable for boot mounting as all cables are 5m long.
8. Test reviews seem quite good though I don't know if they have failed on people
9. Supplied with remote display/control unit which is about 2"x1"x4" and also fitted with 5m cable.
10. Manufacturer (now www.ssiamerica.com) supply loads of accessories including a din adaptor for the remote display, free code updates, spares, etc

Bad because:
1. Slight whistling at revs. Easily curable for less than a £1 but I have been a bit busy lately and haven't been bothered to fix.
2. 3.5" IDE drives not as robust as CD media or 2.5" IDE drives. There are some rubber mounts inside the unit to reduce the shock level that the disk experiences.
3. If anyone buys one I would advise buying the 10Gb one,then get 2 large disk drives and run a £20 IDE RAID card so that you can automatically mirror data just incase the disk fails in the car. Hard-disk data recovery is mega bucks and I wouldn't want to re-rip my 60Gb of music.
4. Supplied FM modulator is crap. The unit has two Phonos on the back so much better if you connect directly to amp or Aux-in head unit.
5. Unknown mate/de-mate limit on connector. Might be an issue if you plug it in and out of your car/pc on a regular basis. I don't care about this because I am a bit of a dab hand with a soldering iron and have identified the connector manufacture so I could replace if necessary.

I am not telling you to buy one but it was perfectly suited to my needs and can be discreet yet incredibly capable (and upgradeable). For £250 delivered it was a bit hard for me to ignore! Take a look for yourself.

Dension do a simialr unit but it is a bit more pricey. Looks much better though and potentially less likely "interface connector lifetime" issues.

Lee

[s2driver]

BTW: I'm thinking about putting together an in car PC and ditching my head unit and Mstation, something along these lines:

Re-configure the dash on the S2 and get a decent resolution VGA monitor fitted (get some parts stereo lith'd to retain that factory feel but lose some air vents). Hook it to ITX-mobo'd PC. Convert PC power supply with a custom DC-DC converter. Play mp3 music from Hard disk (don't really need a CD slot). Buy a www.trackm8.com to run it as sat nav/Geodesy-clone. Run VAG-COM maybe. Plug in an FM radio card to retain radio capability. Psion wavefinder to retain the DAB? TV-card if you like and why not a DVD ROM drive. Run a bluetooth connection to update music files from your home PC etc. Internet too if you like, since the track mate is fitted with a phone Sim card.

Operating system startup and shutdown is an issue as it will take time to boot if the processor is naff. Power control also a major issue.

There is huge following for In-car PCs, especially in The States. Several companies now offering complete units running from 12V. Running a pucka VGA screen gives great resulution over a normal PAL-input TV screen. Laptops are also quite good because some run straight from a 12V supply and products like the Tosh libretto or the little Sony Viao thing have great, compact screens and would make a cute in-car unit (issues with extending VGA connectors? and processors too slow?).

The possibilities are endless. I will probably never get around to doing it but I am thoroughly researching the issues and talking to some electronics wizzes about hardware implementation/operation.

Lee

[img]images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img](It took me nearly a year to decide which wheels and tyres to buy so I will probably have changed cars several times before actually building a propper in-car PC!!) [img]images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]