I have a '00 TL Non-Nav, and I want to change up the head unit as well as door speakers. I'm pretty sure I'll go with the Boston Pro series for the speakers. But I'm a little unsure as to what to do with the head unit. I'm leaning toward getting an MP3 player. Can anyone recommend some good MP3 players out on the market? (reasonably priced, not like $800 MP3 players).

Also, that leaves a bunch of space when you take out the stock head unit. Ideas on fillers? Don't have enough money now to get a Navi and monitor.

Thanks in advance,
UCLAtl

 

Recent issue of MaximumPC mag just gave Kenwood's CD/MP3 HU 9/10 score. They also tore apart NEO MP3 car player.

 

When I went to a stereo shop a couple months back, I remember seeing a kick-ass mp3 player there, think it was kenwood, but the price was up there. Do you model the mag is referring to?

Any other thoughts on mp3 players?

UCLAtl

 

Kenwood MP8017 CD/MP3 receiver for $360. BTW, it was the Sept issue of Maximum PC.

 

heh, you might wanna take a look at this
http://216.177.40.14/forum/showthrea...threadid=15767

the faceplate needs a little work. I'll probably redo another one soon.

 

Thanks miwa. Pretty cool setup you got back in April!

Wow, a lot of the terms you guys were flying around were pretty new to me. So, I was wondering if anybody could basically lay down what qualities I should look for in an MP3/CD player.

Thanks,
UCLAtl

 

yea, thanks .. I can't say that I'm not pleased

basically, most of the mp3/cd players on the market are pretty good already. I think they all will handle different bitrates (you know, the Kbps that shows up when you play the mp3 in winamp?) and they all will handle cdrs as well as cdrws. if nothing else, it should at least do those things. because sometimes u just wanna burn a set of mp3s on a cdrw and get rid of it later.

the next thing u wanna look at after that is how well it will play the mp3s without skipping if you're driving along a bumpy road. unfortunately, for this one, u'll just have to find as many reviews as you can on sites like mp3.com or wherever.

another thing u should consider is how well it displays the song names and/or how do you navigate through your folders on the cd. Something like this can get annoying if you happen to rely on it a lot.

Finally, the typical things you wanna look at on a cd player is the Signal-to-Noise (S/N) ratio. the higher the number the better. you dont want something with like 89db S/N because you'll end up with a lot of hiss on your tracks. read: no aiwas if you're serious about this. most people usually dont notice the hiss if they're not too seriously into sound. they just like how cheap the unit is and it does the job pretty nicely. however, since you mentioned that you'll be getting boston acoustics speakers, I figured this might matter to you as 'good' speakers tend to play everything it gets .. including the hiss

Also, if you plan on powering the speakers from the head unit, which I don't recommend because they REALLY sound much nicer through an amp, then you should look for the RMS power rating that the head unit will give you NOT the max that's written on the box or the unit. Companies just LOVE to overrate their stuff this way by mentioning the 'peak' wattage. It'll have to say RMS somewhere. I think mine will push somewhere around 22watts per channel.

Finally, you gotta pick one that 'looks nice' to your taste. I mean all this means nothing when you stare at the cd player and you're not happy with the way it looks. happy hunting

 

go to audiocontrol.com to check it out, you can just hook up any portable mp3 player to it, it does a lot of tricks, worth a look...

 

aiihgt if you can wait a month...then you should...coz alpine is coming out their MP3 player and its gonna be off da hoook...it comes XM satellite radio ready...and thats only $10/month...100 digital channels 24/7...the head unit is gonna be around 600 which is really worth it...coz alpine is the ish...take it into consideration....i work at a car audio store...we also carry kenwood mp3 players...but i prefer alpine when it comes to car audio except speakers and subs....speakers...i prefer MB Quart...expensive hand made german speakers, but worth every penny....subs....JL Audio is the way to go....but thats my opinion...

think bout it!

 

Heres my post from the CL forum about my mp3 player solution:
http://www.acura-cl.com/cgi-bin/ulti...c&f=1&t=010080


Here it is LarryB's MP3.2 CL . A 30 gig Hard drive is the heart of the unit and has enough room for approx 800 CDs. An amazing interface with close to limitless possiblites. I couldnt be happier. Thanks to Black_Pride for help with my questions and getting me the unit. Heres the Pics. For more info on the unit go to http://www.ssiamerica.com/

A shot of the trunk (mp3 player is the unit hanging in the top center)


Our sunglasses holder customly redone by myself and a friend to create a great mounting spot which maintains the complete stock look when closed.


and a pic of my car a few nights ago when i repainted my mesh grill

 

In another post, I mentioned the pros of the JVC Digifine 2.1 (I know.. you're thinking JVC, but its really a good deck... really..)
including the fact that it has a brushed alumimum faceplate that looks great on a Silver TL/S. It has three 4v preouts (F/R/S), front analog input, multicolor display, cd/mp3 text, motorized, angle-adjustable face, 50x4 (~20w rms) internal amp, remote, and more stuff that doesnt immediately come to mind.

You can find an internet deal on this deck for around $300 ($400 in retail stores)