thinking ahead

In car entertainment: stereo; speakers; portable devices etc
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GTXTRA
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thinking ahead

Post by GTXTRA »

With apologies to the ICE-gurus for what might appear to be obvious questions.

Cars currently have a mish mash of ICE installed.

16v - simple Sony CD/radio and stock speakers - no MP3 facility but nicely retro styled.
BRM - 90's Sony mini disc player plus Sony CD changer - no MP3 - factory speakers.
Scala - 90's Sony mini disc player plus old school (1990!) Kenwood midrange/tweeters and front amp PLUS a speaker box driven by another old Kendwood Amp. Kenwood CD changer fitted back in '05 when car ran a nice Kenwood CD player bought in'04 for the original BRM - currently not connected, apptly just a question of a cable to match different brand head/changer units (??) - no MP3
GTL - no radio, standard speakers - have an old Blaupunkt acquired from Hywel a while back but just havent got round to fitting it.
I also have a couple of Sony mini disc changers in the garage.

Anyway - what I really want to arrive at is a suitably styled/spec head unit/s across the cars that allow for some sort of MP3 device that can be transferred from car to car without any excess wiring or definitely no cradles.
I have A LOT of CD's (and vinyl too) that I would like to put on Hard Drive library and do download the odd track/compo from 'Beatport. Also, thanks to a Mini Disc phase during my Australian days, I have a lot of favourite compilations in that format too.
I am NOT particularly interested in having hands free in the car but if one of the recommendations offer that again without any drilling/geeky ear pieces involved then fine.

So - recommendations/advice sought re.

1- Head units - nothing too chavvy.
2- devices? I - Phone? I -Pod? I-Touch? I am mostly interested in being able to store the maximum amount of tunes on a device and am happy to retain a seperate mobile phone.
3- Radio stations - assuming analogue radio switches off in a couple of years time digital I guess - but Mr Funk was talking about being able to access global radio stations through his I - Touch?
4 - The least pressing questions tbh - re the Mini discs, I have a midi hifi with MD and USB connection. I have tried without success to copy from MD to laptop/hard drive - assuming I will have to lose the currently fitted MD players fitted to two of the cars is there a programme that allows me to do that? Or fit the MD changers to two of the cars and connect to the head units -special cables needed?

cheers


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Funky Diver
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Re: thinking ahead

Post by Funky Diver »

Whilst not going into specifics, I think the first thing to appreciate is that you're wanting to standardise your setup.

To me this is going to be a two phase affair.

1. Get your existing audio onto a format (MP3) that will then play on your ICE. This is NOT car specific rather more audio specific.

MD to MP3 - http://www.minidisc.org/charman/mdtomp3.html

Depending on your home audio setup - and I'm guessing it is not "cheap" due to your liking for vinyl, you would employ the same principles for vinyl / tape that you have lying about. I'll be honest here though, you may be better off sourcing MP3's that have already been "factory" converted rather than transferring everything yourself. Why? It's a time consuming and labourious process and the majority of music is available direct from various sources.

Some of these include;

itunes Store - http://www.apple.com/itunes/download/
Sky Songs - http://songs.sky.com
Then you have the likes of mainstream retail outlets like HMV, etc.

This then leaves you to focus on your more ecclectic tunes that may not be available. There are also "other" sources available too for a fixed monthly fee that may or may not involve copyright infringement, but I won't speak of these as it's naughty! Very naughty!!

2. Playing MP3's on your audio

Using iPod - as suggested. Probably the most popular and you would benefit from having a cradle if only to protect your iPod from rattling about whilst you're hoofing about. This IMHO is more likely the preferred option if you listen to tunes out of your car in a personal way too. (with headphones, etc) You also have access to, in most cases, your playlists from the head unit
USB - the benefit over iPod is memory space for mucho cheapness compared to iPod. BUT the pitfall is that I haven't yet found a head unit that will allow browsing "simply" or access to playlists. USB also tends to be a "oooh, look at the usb stick poking out of hte front of the head unit" affair.
SD / slot in memory. Similar to USB, but tends to be more discreet. Again, I haven't found a head unit that manages the files on it successfully.
MP3 on CD / DVD - again it's bulk memorysbut a bit more constraining than USB / slot in style memory.

So, after you've decided on that, you're down to budget and features I reckon. Pick your overall budget and divide by four. Should give you your individual requirement per car (ish).

On a personal note, I'm doing the "same" in that I'm going iPod (technically iPhone) route if only to have the ability to transfer tunes between 2 cars and for both me and the Mrs to have the "same" ability in either car, although she doesn't drive the 'Rocco. It's too cool for her ;) lol

Hope that helps.


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Mr Funk
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Re: thinking ahead

Post by Mr Funk »

Funky has pretty much nailed it above.
On the subject of browsing on the 'pod I opted for the oft referenced alpine unit. Pod/USB only and you the playlists etc are all accessible via a very well thought out layout. You effectively control the pod through the head unit rather than vice versa


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Re: thinking ahead

Post by Funky Diver »

ooooooh... just found about the Parrot RKi8400

www.parrot.com/catalog/products/parrot-rki8400/

It has a cubby hole behind the face plate to stick your iPod in it, and can access nromal USB doofers too. Wonder if you can get spare back bits? Might make things easier for you to just transfer over the front panel between motors.

Perfect for my needs at least :P


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Re: thinking ahead

Post by Nate »

small mp3 player with fm transmiter. mine holds 16 gig of music (more then enough, even for me!) and just plugs into the fag lighter. ebay will provide


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Ryan
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Re: thinking ahead

Post by Ryan »

Nate wrote:with fm transmiter. and just plugs into the fag lighter. ebay will provide
I've got one of these for my iPod - cheap and convenient to swap between cars too, is a bit fuzzy on occasion (roadnoise usually gets rid of this when you're on the move) and it can cut out/drop out occasionally for about 1-2 seconds - but for £15-£20 I'm not complaining.

IPod has a cradle in the Passat daily, is thrown in the console by the handbrake in the Bora, and slides around in the centre consol in the rocco (in which it plugs straight into the retro radio ;)
As for headunits, mine are all OEM (ish)


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Re: thinking ahead

Post by DT1 »

Just to point out that you can get units with rear mounted USB ports, so you can take the wire to a discreet position, e.g., into the glovebox.


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Mr Funk
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Re: thinking ahead

Post by Mr Funk »

Right....
Went off and asked a couple of people about the whole internet radion on the move thing and we're going to give it a go this weekend when I get the car back but apparently it works fine and it's crystal clear as long as you have a signal but the guy I spoke to came up with the same thign I thing we discussed at Clackett.
There is a move over to digital but by the time that happens the new DAB radios will drastically drop in price so it's all a case of wether you want to cover yourself now or wait a while until the price drops. Pain in the arse having to effectively pay out twice but may work out as you'll be paying out less later on rather than a lot now.....
If that makes sense.

Ipod/USB wise there are any number of units that'll do the job, personally I've gone for an Ipod headunit as it plugs in rather than using the aux port and gives you total control from the headunit rather than trousers through playlist on your ipod (not only a pain but there's that whole grey area with it potentially being naughty). I can then hide the wire and throw it in the glove box out of the way.


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Re: thinking ahead

Post by Funky Diver »

We're talking about hiding something in the glovebox... whilst I'm on it... it'd have to be complete handsfree control for me. I so much as look at my glove box and it refuses to open / close or self destructs. Aaaaah, the joy of Rocco ownership :P

Onto Internet radio, I'm hoping the results are good for at LEAST one thing... streamed music from Sky Songs! If you like music, and have Sky... it costs you nowt to listen to EVERY track they have (the catalogue is getting better everyday!!) including create and listen to playlists. In terms of DAB.. for some reason, round where I live forget it. I've never met ANYONE in Darlington YET that has got a decent, interference free DAB signal... and I ask about 50% of the folks I visit (I'm a Sky engineer so I get about a bit!) So for me... I'm gonna just accept that DAB aint gonna work and need to find other alternatives.


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Re: thinking ahead

Post by Funky Diver »

Mr Funk wrote:we're going to give it a go this weekend when I get the car back
How'd it work out?
What did you use?

Probably going down the iPhone route myself with Sky Songs (rather than internet radio) so I'd be intrigued to find out how it went :D
Sky Songs FAQ wrote:We recommend 256 kb per sec. Sky Songs usually works well through a mobile 3G connection.
So I'd imagine that an iPhone on Orange should give me plenty decent coverage compared to the heap of shtie network I'm currently on!!


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Re: thinking ahead

Post by the edmundator »

Vodafone supposedly has the best coverage... at a price.


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Re: thinking ahead

Post by Funky Diver »

Not where I live, I use Vodafone for work and the 3G coverage is rubbish outside the town centre. Orange at least is very decent, bearing in mind that Darlington was the main centre of operations for Orange for a lot of years ;)


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Re: thinking ahead

Post by D-reame »

I have just been down this road myself. I ended up with an alpine 103BT. This has built in Bluetooth hands free so no geeky bits. It has an iPod connection which I put in the glove box out the way. It also has an aux line in on the front and a USB for flash drives. It will play mp3 CDs and best of all it has four colour variations including green. It looks well. Not over the top with no flashing boy racer crap. I can post pics if you want. It cost me £169. Not cheap but good quality.


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