John101477

So after my second CD receiver stopped ejecting CD's in 3 months, I started thinking that there is a better way to have tunes on the trail than a CD receiver that gets filled with dust and we all know that dust and moving parts is a bad combo. Now I had never owned an iPod but was familiar with the audio quality and what was available. I went down to best buy and found a number of receivers that are iPod ready. Most of these were CD receivers as well but being as how my area is very dusty in the dry months I didn't want anything with moving parts. I kinda browsed through the open box area and found the Alpine iDA-x200. someone had brought it back because they thought it had CD capabilities as well. Being open box I got it for a decent deal and bought my first iPod (nano) as well. No moving parts to get clogged by dust, no skipping on rough terrain, and I can take it out once a year and spray that pressurized air in it to clean it once a year. I think I bought $50 bucks worth of songs that I didn't have and added a bunch of my CD's to it already.

scuba

Another thread thats slightly blog status.

Anyway;

Cd's are old news IMO, especially in the OR world, I basically bought my ipod because even while crawling the crap still skips.
besides, who wants to mess around with a buttload of cds anyway...

yotarover

you should have looked for one that has a SD slot or usb, my jvc only takes sd,usb, or mp3 connections and trust me it takes shock and awe like it's nothing no moving parts

desertcamper67

I've got a question about these MP3 playing head units. My only digital music carrying device is my phone. It has a 1.5mm? headphone jack on the side. Can I hook a wire from this jack to the MP3 jack on the back of my Pioneer deck? What kind of wire comes out of those Nanos and what does that socket look like on the deck.
My daughter bought a cheap Kragen stereo and it had USB port, SD card slot and plays CDs/am-fm. It may be a cheapie but its very fuctional.

lofreqjeff

Because I run with no top or doors, keeping the radio free from the elements and dust was always a concern for me. I have the radio one of these marine radio enclosures:



Works great!

scuba

If it has a headphone jack just find a used cheap HU with the AUX input.
Simple.
Double sided head phone cord from phone to AUX port on HU and your done.

Like this..




Good luck bro!!

desertcamper67

Thanks Scuba. I had a feeling it could be done. I think I have an Aux port on the back of mine. Just need to get the double male wire now.

John101477

Mine is actually done through a usb as well. A 1.5 jack will work though.

desertcamper67

Is the music controlled by my phone then or the receiver?

scuba

Well, more your phone.
You cant really hit FF or RW on the HU and get it to do anything, So you have to do that from the phone or mp3 player..

aviator

Only problem with MP3s, from an audiophile outlook, is that they compress the data stream and you loose some detail and colour from the track. But I'm just nitpicking here...

John101477

the only problem i have with these external units is i use my wheeler as my DD as well so if i have the top down i don't want lucky larry to be able to just yank it out and have a new stereo for his beat up 85 honda. i'd rather the theif atleast have to use tools lol.

John101477

nit pick away. i was gonna touch on that same point. where an iPod is slightly less perfect than a CD it is not to bad in comparison to a cell phone extremely compressed MP3. I am not a big apple fan but they got it right with the iPod. one thing i like with my Alpine is that i can do a searc h straight from the receiver since it was purposely made for the iPod. I also like that i can unplug my iPod during a song i like ghet out of my truck and plug in my ear buds and start right from where i left off.

scuba sorry for the Blog lol.

desertcamper67

[QUOTE=John101477;51164764]nit pick away. i was gonna touch on that same point. where an iPod is slightly less perfect than a CD it is not to bad in comparison to a cell phone extremely compressed MP3. I am not a big apple fan but they got it right with the iPod. one thing i like with my Alpine is that i can do a searc h straight from the receiver since it was purposely made for the iPod. I also like that i can unplug my iPod during a song i like ghet out of my truck and plug in my ear buds and start right from where i left off.

I've heard of what you nitpickers are talking about but I would trade music quality for reliablilty. If its something that needs to be heard precisely I'll have to burn it to CD (or have my kids do it since I haven't done it before.)

mastacox

All you need to satisfy the nit-pickers is a lossless compression format (For IPods, Apple Lossless I think...) Best of both worlds.

I use WMA Lossless with my Zune, the files end up around 2-3 times as large as a 160 kbps MP3, but they work great! ...as long as you've got the space for them.

aviator

The Kenwood I'm looking at has a USB port so I'll be able to load tracks onto a lipstick drive thingy [memorystick?] as a direct cd data transfer using Nero... I can get 8Gigs for $20 and I've seen huge ones so no worries about not enough space for tunes. One of those lossless compression things might be useful though.

John101477

lossless compression is a good setup if you have a 120 gig iPod. i only bought an 8 sooo. as for the sound difference it is not to bad and even with the extended version of hotel california it has the right beat and the guitar work sounds fairly clear. granted even the CD's we buy from wally and best buy are not perfect but it is hard to find perfect CD's anymore. SACD's are just to expensive... what a difference though

kilgoja

yeah i have an ipod classic...i've hooked it up to my aux input in my truck....have to turn the volume up to like 40 where as a cd the volume can be at like 20 or so.....the ipod tunes were copied to my computer straight from my cds but it just doesn't sound anywhere as good as a cd to me...just sounds kinda weak like an old jambox from back in the day...lol...or a shop radio.....i guess out on the trail it would do the job though

seanmearse

I have the same one you are talking about, with the USB/1.5mm jack/SD card slot? Its actually on the floor in my living room waiting to go back in the truck. I liked it better than the Sony crap i have in it now. I figured, sony, good stuff right? nope. Might even buy a JVC again, never ever had an issue with JVC.

NYChopshop

Pardon my intrusion on the subject, but I'm both an audiophile and a professional sound engineer, and I feel I could bring a tiny bit of information to the table.

First, there is no such thing as lossless compression, it's a contradiction in terms. Noncompressed audio, or CD format (WAV files), is still not perfect as an audiophile format, but that's neither here nor there for car audio purposes. Most of what is referred to as 'lossless' is just a complex proprietary algorithm applied to the data, but I would just stick to full size WAV files if you are a stickler for quality. For most listeners, a higher quality mp3 is sonically good enough to enjoy in a moving vehicle. There is so much coloring the sound and so much outside noise competing with what you're listening to in most cases that full CD quality isn't necessary. Ipod's cant carry much, and they're apple made which makes me physically ill, so here's what I like to do: I have a kenwood excelon head unit with a hardwired USB cable. I have a 320 GB USB hard drive loaded with mostly MP3's at a higher bit rate, but some non-compressed WAV files. My head unit plays them and scrolls through the folders and files via my head unit (and it's remote control) buttons. Just a thought.