Although the following is not as if you can play MP3 cds through the built-in system, I feel it is the "cleanest" looking MP3 player as there are no wires to clutter the center console. Some of you may already know about it, but for those who don't, it is the digisette MP3 Player:
http://www.digisette.com/en/products/duoseries.asp

 

Cool, how much is it?

 

What I really want is some sort of interface using the embedded bluetooth capabilities and my iPAQ to store the MP3's... Hopefully someone out there can hack this into reality!

 

Check on Amazon. I think they have models starting at about 70$.

 

I can talk to this because I have one of these. I bought it for my motorcycle. While this is a clean looking solution, it was kinda lousy in practice. Here are some of the issues (in no particular order):

* Battery life is terrible (1 hour, tops). It uses a custom rectangular battery that is ~$20 to replace. They include a cigarette lighter cord, but the idea here was that this was supposed to be a clean solution, right?

* Device will auto power-off when it detects a 'pause' state for a minute or two. The problem is, it won't power itself back on. You need to remove it from the player and push buttons to re-awaken it.

* The device is supposed to recognize FF / REW conditions to allow you to move between tracks. This does not work consistently. Frustrating!

* USB 1.1 support for loading onboard flash. Very slow.

There's probably 1-2 more that I'm forgetting about, but that's enough already. I've pretty much given up on it. If anyone wants to make me an offer, I'll be happy to sell.:o

 

Thanks for the input. Its good that someone has some real world experience on this. Oh well, back to my iPOD!

 

Plus all the extra wow and flutter

 

How about the small memory capacity, allowing it to hold only a CDs worth of music or so (at a bit rate that will sound decent on the TLs system). Might as well just burn a redbook CD from the MP3s.

Mike

 

Actually, I bought a 128M card for a total of 192K. I ran out of battery power before I ran out of tunes.