I'd really like to get some MP3 play capabilities into my 02, but I'm not sure which way I should go.

My options are

MP3 Head Unit
Pro: Simple to install. Ease of use. Improved amp/sound. Pretty lights.
Con: Can only play CD-R MP3s which limits to about 100-150 tracks. I listen to a huge variety of music and find only 700MB to be very limiting. I hate burning additional CDs because I find it too time consuming and difficult to keep my music orginized. My GF has a MP3 head unit right now and it hardly get's used, and when it does we listen to CDs we cut 2 years ago. There's not much room in the S, and keeping a donzen or so CDs in the console can get annoying.

Neo Car Jukebox
Pro: 20-120 gigs of space. Removable HD for easy computer hookup of song downloads.
Cons: Messy install. Additional wired remote needs to be installed. No pretty lights. No improvement of sound quality. More expensive at $300-$500.

What I would really like, which I have not been able to find, is a DVD based head unit which plays MP3s. At 4gigs, it's enough to hold a good amount of music so I don't feel like I have to keep a lot of discs or do constant burns. I have a dual layer capable burner, so given a compatable player, at 9 gigs, it would be more than enough. The major problem with this is the fact that the majority of units which features this ability is really ment for DVD movie playback and have more features than I can use, due to the location of our HU, plus, they are very expensive at over $1,000.

I have found a few cheap DVD based MP3 players on e-Bay, but they were all off brand units, of which I'm unsure of the feature quality, build quality, and sound quality. I've had a very difficult time finding reviews on these items.

If anyone has any suggestions/insight for me, I'd greatly appreciate it.

Thanks.

 

Option X: keep headunit and purchase PIE Hon-Aux input - giving you an RCA jack input - connect an ipod or other MP3 player as your CD changer input

Option Y: buy new headunit with more watts per channel with an aux input and connect an ipod or other MP3 player.

 

Option Z: Ai-Net HU from Alpine, iPod from Apple, and the interface to install it seamlessly into the car.

That's what I'll be doing next month

 

[QUOTE=Diatomic,Aug 6 2004, 02:56 PM]

If anyone has any suggestions/insight for me, I'd greatly appreciate it.

 

I have a Kenwood Excelon MP3 head-unit and do get tired of burning cd's all the time. So I was thinking of adding this http://www.kenwoodusa.com/excelon/excelonKeg.jsp
It has a 20GB drive and will give a compatible head unit ID3 tag info.

JeffA

 

Option X

 

option expensive: buy a sony with memory stick port, and burn all ur mp3's to them.