I'm tired of toting Cd's around and I dont want to sacrifice room for a changer. Ideally, I'd like a head unit the plays MP3's that can store them on it's own hard drive. Also have the option to load new tracks to it via CD or if possible, Compact Flash or Memory stick or something.

I thought Sony had something like this. Are there any others that I can investigate?

 

I dont know if anyone makes a HD and HU all in one unit. Alpine makes a hard drive player but it's the size of another HU. Kenwood makes a "Powder Keg", but again it's a seperate unit.

 

There are a handful of HD-based units out there, just do a little more digging. Loading songs is either by memory stick or removable HD placed into a PC-based cradle.

 

Sony do a couple that are also CD players. I assume you can transfer from CD to HD but not entirely certain. Memory stick would be just too painful unless you have at least a 1Gb stick.

 

Dension makes one, check it out.

http://www.dension.com/main.php?pageid=49&topid=42

Sony's MEX-1HD has a hard drive, but not removeable. You have to rip the CD in the head unit.

 

Why not get an Alpine HU, and the Alpine/Ipod interface? You control the Ipod through the HU, it displays the tracks titles etc... It is due out by the end of the month. You get the features you need plus Alpine quality. You can fit a lot of music on a 40gb ipod!

If Sony made one they would only do their proprietary atrac format not MP3's, like their "network walkman", both of which are headed the way of betamax and minidisk.

-JD

http://www.alpine-usa.com/products/leading...ch_kca-420i.htm

 

They do have them. Sony and Alpine both have a hard drive unit. They suck major nuts.

First of all, they only rip real CDs, not CDRs of ANY kind.

second, they cost almost 2 grand. Get an Mp3 player, and an mp3 changer, and youll have over 1000 songs on demand. Or even better, just get an IPOD.

 

I guess Ipod controls through the HU would work okay. Next question would be who offers this (or is introducing it soon?)

 

If you feel like spending the money you could always put a dvd player in hooked up to a modded xbox. That would be some cool shit.

 

You read my original post too fast and ignored the link!

Besides BMW, Alpine is the only the only company I know of to offer an Ipod link for car audio. It is supposed to be out by the end of this month, read more about it here:

http://www.alpine-usa.com/products/leading...ch_kca-420i.htm

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ CLICK ON THIS LINK

-JD