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Thursday 15 May 2003

In car audio [muz]

Those of you who have been reading for some time may remember the hassle I had with my car radio after buying the car second-hand from a franchise that shall not be named, lest I be accused of libel. Anyway, as a birthday present, Dad has agreed to help fund the replacement of said radio. I thought that before committing myself to a given model, I would consult the fount of technical knowledge that is Clan Eat Electric Death.
Given I spend a fair amount of time in the car, I feel justified in putting a leet bit of kit in there: specifically, an MP3 player. Having done a quick search of the usual suspects for in-car kit, I am considering the following:
From Blaupunkt, the Woodstock DAB 52. This little beauty supports normal CD playback as well as MP3 playback via CDRs/CDRWs and MMC. But wait, that's not all! It also includes a DAB digital radio receiver and tuner!
From Sony, the CDX-MP70. Essentially the same features as the Blaupunkt, minus DAB and MMC.
From Pioneer, the DEH-P8400MP. Slightly better than the Sony, perhaps, with in-built MP3 and WMA support, it has a DAB Tuner Control built in, but in order to make use of it I would have to buy a seperate tuner. Another 250 notes. Somewhere in between the other two - DAB is not essential for me, but it would be nice. When I can afford to shell out the extra cash, this gives me the option to add DAB functionality later.
So, my fellow clanmates. Comments? Suggestions? Scathing put-downs? What say you?

19 comments:

  1. Kavey has some experience on that. I haven't much to offer, not having driven in ten years. I would have thought CDRW is the go for this sort of thing. Can't really beat DAB for local radio too. Just on the specs you've provided that Woodstock seems like the biz? Not much in the way of reviews but those that there are look positive.

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  2. DAB / In Car audio??? You're a fucking student! You'resupposed to be worrying about whether you can afford a can of JohnWest Economy Tuna Flakes not fuckin entertainment toyz! This means youaren't drinking enough! Cunt!

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  3. It's a good point well made...

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  4. Man j00 gotta do de right ting man n fit de pie-on-neer, cos them that do dat got the banginest ICE goin down de street man.

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  5. And don choo be fogetting de phat wuffa man, or your ICE gear be gettin no respek.

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  6. A good point, Am and Lurks, but bear in mind I'm not going to be paying the majority of the cost. Also bear in mind that unlike most students, I am still in the black, and have a regular income to boot. So there. :)

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  7. I've seen a hard disk on a caddy somewhere with an FM transmitter that you tune your radio into. Dunno if the're any good tho. Personally I'd probably go with a creative jukebox + tape adapter.

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  8. I've a tape adapter for my iPod. It's better than nothing, but basically it's wank...

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  9. Tape adaptor, heh. How to take your expensive HiFi source and make it sound shit.

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  10. I have an older version of the Kenwood KDCM6024G and it utterly rocks! MP3's on CDR change your in car audio experiance completly. I'd go for something cheeper rather than over the top and spend any extra on a decent set of speakers and cables for it.

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  11. Update: on the advice of clan automotive guru Kavey, I ended up going with the Kenwood Z838W. In short, it's quite leet really. Install was no huge problem - the biggest annoyance was removing the housing for the old radio.
    Once in, activated the code lock, set up my display preferences and station presets, and off I went. Burned 8 albums of MP3s to a CD, slapped it in and away I went.
    Two problems - firstly, due to the plethora of features and the small amount of buttons, the menu system is quite involved. Some manual reading required there.
    Secondly, for some reason it's refusing to read the ID3v1 info from my MP3s... just checked the original files and it's definitely there... most curious. Anyone have any ideas what the problem might be? (Any response more specific than 'sri' would be most appreciated.)

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  12. More than SRI? I see.
    SRI + RTFM?
    I thought so.......

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  13. Bah - rumbled. :)
    But seriously, the manual says that ID3v1 is supported... bleh. I'll work it out eventually.

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  14. And... perhaps your mp3s have ID3v2 tags?

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  15. JVC or Pionier? I want take, bat i dont know...Please, visit my Car audio blog

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  16. Oh for heaven's sake now clearly english is not your first language and that's absolutely fine no problem with that but your car audio blog has absolutely NOTHING on it apart from some link throughs to the makers we all have heard about.
    GSFS.
    Translated that means GET SOME FUCKING SKILLS!!! (And for god's sake blog about something of interest **with some fucking content** that doesn't waste people's time).

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  17. Canada's great - I may not come back - working on new book called Zen and the art of snowboarding (its the mountain...it does weird things to your head man)
    Muz - any of them got a inline audio socket on the front so you can plug in a mp3 player?
    Love you! Miss you!

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  18. Not as standard, but Beej linked to this thing which connects to the aux input connector of any modern head unit and gives you a 3.5mm jack.

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  19. I just got one of these. Rather nify, although you don't want to be delving too much into your iPod library while driving. Supports mp3 & wma too.

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