In car mp3 playing

Matt82

Matt82

Matt82

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Joined
13 Mar 2004
Posts
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Hello all

Im stuck in the 90s in terms of in car audio, my cars are full of CDs, the pinnacle of in car media, IMO, was the minidisc.

Seeing as I am more than a decade behind and getting fed up of having CD cases everywhere, I really ought to get an MP3 playing system

From what ive seen I would like to get an SD card based system

Single din, Kenwood (blue matches the interior lighting on the Golf), SD card, large screen

http://www.kenwood-electronics.co.uk/products/car/cd_receivers/bluetooth/KDC-BT92SD/

Anyone have experience with headunits like this?

Are they really any good?

It has bluetooth built in so useful for phones too it seems

 
Personally, I'd use iPod rather than SD - I don't know how far they've come along but the indexing on SD/USB was never too great. The iPod handles its own indexing and searching and is obviously quite a high capacity device. Buy an old one from eBay (get a faulty one, you don't need buttons, headphones or even a screen!), use iTunes to rip all your CDs and be done with it.

In terms of the actual unit, what's your budget? Most have variable illumination.
 
What smartphone do you have (if you have a smartphone)?
I just plug my S3 into my car stereo which does an incredible job with Poweramp.
Before the S3 I used to plug my SGS1 and iPod into it.
 
iaind said:
Personally, I'd use iPod rather than SD - I don't know how far they've come along but the indexing on SD/USB was never too great. The iPod handles its own indexing and searching and is obviously quite a high capacity device. Buy an old one from eBay (get a faulty one, you don't need buttons, headphones or even a screen!), use iTunes to rip all your CDs and be done with it.

In terms of the actual unit, what's your budget? Most have variable illumination.
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It's much easier to use USB or memory card storage unless you've got a ton of music and especially if you don't own an iPod. If you do, or own an iPhone though, it's a reasonable suggestion. Not as neat though.



Minidisc? Eww ATRAC compression :p
 
Howard said:
It's much easier to use USB or memory card storage unless you've got a ton of music and especially if you don't own an iPod. If you do, or own an iPhone though, it's a reasonable suggestion. Not as neat though.

Minidisc? Eww ATRAC compression :p
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Depends on what you're after, the iPod offers a few niceties that mass storage doesn't. Album art, indexing, not having to faff with folders etc. In terms on £/gb mass storage will be cheaper, but with faulty 30gb iPods going for less than 30 quid it's what I'd do.

Why not as neat? My personal setup is the iPod in a case tucked in the glovebox. Just comes out every few weeks to sync new music

Minidisc was awesome for cars though. Rugged, small, recordable. Loved them myself :)
 
We both rock androids, Sony Xperia Arc and a Ray

Are there headunits that can talk to an Android? That would be convenient, i dont think id like a headunit that id have to control with my phone as they Police wouldnt take too kindly to that
 
Some do, a few choices

Use it in mass storage mode
Use a2dp streaming (sound quality is remarkably good and you can skip tracks)
Fnd android compatible HU. I know they're out there but have never looked myself, I think they all rely in an app which you install

Would a double din fit?
 
I had a USB stick in a pioneer in my last car, current car HU has bluetooth, so just stream from my phone (Samsung Galaxy) and control with the steering wheel buttons :)
 
Sorry to be awkward but I wouldn't stream from my phone as the battery only lasts a day anyway so streaming bt would kill it faster
 
Matt82 said:
We both rock androids, Sony Xperia Arc and a Ray

Are there headunits that can talk to an Android? That would be convenient, i dont think id like a headunit that id have to control with my phone as they Police wouldnt take too kindly to that
Click to expand...

Just buy a car holder for your Android because if you're going to mess about changing songs it will be 'safer' pressing buttons on a phone that is at a reasonable position in a holder than messing about with a car stereo that is normally lower down.
 
Personally I find it much harder to use a phone to control playback/select tracks than the headunit. Scrolling through a small display through hundreds of artists is tedious IMO.

Personally, I'd favour either stereo in from your phones or Bluetooth. You also have the option of internet radio or streaming services as well as your own music library.

Matt82 said:
Sorry to be awkward but I wouldn't stream from my phone as the battery only lasts a day anyway so streaming bt would kill it faster
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They have these things called "in car chargers" ;):p
 
Scottland said:
Personally I find it much harder to use a phone to control playback/select tracks than the headunit. Scrolling through a small display through hundreds of artists is tedious IMO.

Personally, I'd favour either stereo in from your phones or Bluetooth. You also have the option of internet radio or streaming services as well as your own music library.



They have these things called "in car chargers" ;):p
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Cba with having to have it on charge all the time in the car and putting a line in thing in too.

This is why ive not moved on from md!
 
Another option is a Bluetooth car kit if you want to keep the oem dash look. I've just got a Motorola tk30 that plays mp3 over Bluetooth or USB but I've not installed it yet. Parrot mki92000 might be worth a look too.
 
BT headunit + Smartphone + Spotify = the way forward

i've been using the above combination for well over a year now, so simple, so little hassle, no need to fiddle about with sd cards or usb sticks, all the playlists i want are already synced to the phone.
 
Firestar_3x said:
:confused:

LOLZ etc.
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I kind of understand where he was coming from, in terms of the minidisc as a transportable medium anyway.

It was a shame that they never became "data" storage. A minidisc of MP3/WMA wouldn't actually be too bad of a format, even better if they had updated it as optical disc technology improved.

If we had a blu-ray based minidisc, it would be about 5-10GB in raw data size, which would be ample for most people.

Personally though I don't think you can beat the iPod, especially one with solid-state storage. Even a 4th (photo) or 5th (video) gen iPod with a compact flash replacing the HDD is easily good enough to be better than a random SD card or USB stick, I've tried all three in the Audi and the iPod just works best. Better fluidity between tracks, better control integration, the works.

Matt82 said:
Hmmm what about 7 inch tablet? Its about the size of a double din
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Once the novelty wears off from the "oooh tablet, I can watch/play/surf" stuff, you'll be left with a system that takes ages to start up, is incredibly stealable, looks pretty crap, and doesn't have any of the features that make in-car audio better suited to vehicles than carrying a random pocket radio.
 
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