# Mp3



## faithandfame (Jan 25, 2003)

I was just wondering if anyone would recommend a certain CD/MP3 head unit for me to install in my car? I have been looking at the Kenwood mp-822


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## SuperSentra4203 (Dec 17, 2002)

I really don't car for MP3 as the sound quality is not as good as MD. My Sony MDX-C7900 MiniDisc headunit. One of those MD will hold more than a CD-R with MP3 format on it. MD runs the ATRAC3 format. At 105kbps, it can hold up to 300 tracks of about 5 minutes each. Plus, they don't skip or get scratched. I would look into Kenwood's MD headunit. It's really nice and a eXcelon series. Mmmm, Mmmm, good stuff


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## faithandfame (Jan 25, 2003)

Well, I don't have any way to record onto an MD, so that wouldn't really help me out.


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## SuperSentra4203 (Dec 17, 2002)

I was going to sell my headunit until I went to my favorite store(Circuit City) and picked up a portable Sony MD player. It is the burner as well. All you need is a good computer (Windows 92 2nd edition or higher and a PentiumII 450MHz of higher.) The player comes with the software. I'm yet to try it out as I haven't been able to get to my uncle's lately. Our damn PentiumI 133MHz sucks. But hey, I git internet


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## faithandfame (Jan 25, 2003)

I have never seen a Kenwood head unit that plays MD's. I know that Sony does, but I refuse to buy anything that is Sony. I have heard too many bad things about them and car audio equipment.


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## SuperSentra4203 (Dec 17, 2002)

Most people hate Sony, but I don't have a cheap one. Not an Xplod. Brand new, it cost about $400. I bought it off a friend desperate for cash for $100. Kenwood does make two, check out www.crutchfield.com


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## faithandfame (Jan 25, 2003)

I mean for the storage capacity, MD is really good. But, I can get the Kenwood MP-822, which is an MP3 player, for around $275. And for me to have to buy an MD player, buy software and something to burn with, plus the MD disks, in the end it wouldn't really be worth it. Thanks for the advice though! On to getting a more powerful amp and subs now... don't know what to do about that.


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## SuperSentra4203 (Dec 17, 2002)

Well, for the amp, go Class D. The power and effiecieny can't be beat. Unfortuantely, most high power Class D amps suck in SQ and are expensive. Alpine sells a really great Class D the had a peak output of 500 watts and great SQ for arounf $500. Kenwood sells their eXcelon Class D for about $650. Great SQ and has a peak output of 1000+ watts @ 1 ohm. Overall, MTX is know for pretty good SQ and price, but can be troublesome. Invest in a cooling fan for any amp, they will extend the life several years and will keep the amp from going into protection mode often if run very hard. Infinity has unsurpasses SQ and output. I owned a Kappa 102A. Best amp i've come across, but as you know, finding an Infiniti amp thse days is not an easy task. If you can drop $1000, if, buy an Audiobahn Class D mono amp. Their subs are top of the line, too. Along with Audiobahn, Alpine Type-R and Ininfiti Kappa are hard to beat for their prices. Kenwood, being underrated, makes a awsome sub, the eXcelon db+. They run I think around $200-$250 for the 12"s. I recommend buying a good amp main priority, as you can have the best subs in the owrld, but without a good amp, you might as well by some Profile Baja junk.


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## ccroaddog (Jun 20, 2002)

for one think MD is pretty damn dope my body has one and it is just a great unit. For that price i know that circuit city is closing out the old alpines for the new ones...so u can get a CDA7894 for 299.99. Both kenwood and alpine are great stereo's but i really like the alpine sound quality a lot more 


http://www.circuitcity.com/frame1.j...right=productsearch.jsp&left=leftchildcat.jsp


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## omega (Jun 27, 2002)

No No No, I don't know who says MP3 isn't good quality, you can download MP3's that are better than standard CD quality anyway. I can fit 10 hours worth of MP3's on one CD, not to mention being able to use a CD-RW so if you get tired of some of the songs you delete them and add others. That Kenwood is a nice unit, I've liked the 922 and the 722 as well, so I'm pretty sure the 822 is good I just haven't seen it. Go MP3, MD is good, but in my opinion it's popularity is dying.


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## SuperSentra4203 (Dec 17, 2002)

Once you re-record MP3 files, the sound quality degrades, I don't care how good the disc is or it says it can be recorded over hundreds of time. 10hrs, dude, at 105kbps(ATRAC3 LP2 mode), the MD can hold 30 tracks at 5 minutes each>2.5 hrs. Plus they don't get scratched up. Your wrong, MD hasn't died as it isn't truely born yet. Give it another year or so. Remember, CD-R/MP3 took wuite a bit, as did CDs.


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## SIR GTI-R (Jan 3, 2003)

Stay away from ROCKFORD MP3 players they blow up after 6 to 9 month's know this for shore 20 have been sold and so far 15 have come back blown up (don't know what happen's to them  they should have brought an /////ALPINE


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## 89Sentra (Jul 2, 2002)

Ive had a Rockford mp3 for 3 months and i hate it.

SOmetimes all i hear is crackling from the speakers when playing music. I've checked all the wire conenctions and there all tight. I have no idea what causes this. It ahs to be a default with the player


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## SuperSentra4203 (Dec 17, 2002)

Excessive heat would be your problem, but normally it's Rockford's shitty diode laser pickup.


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## faithandfame (Jan 25, 2003)

Aight I have finally decided to buy the Pioneer Premier P550MP. It seems to be a really good choice and I am getting a great price on it from omega.


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## SuperSentra4203 (Dec 17, 2002)

Not bad. I actually like the new 6500 series. I think they have one that is MP3, not sure though. How much is that headunit going for.


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## faithandfame (Jan 25, 2003)

I can get it for 197-shipped to me... it is around 240 in retail stores


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## SuperSentra4203 (Dec 17, 2002)

Why is it cheaper than the 6400 or 6500 series. Are those two better than the one your getting. I think that one is pretty spiffy,but the display isn't the best. I'll prolly be going MP3 sometime with a Kenwood headunit. I want a better headunit, and I can't really find a MD headunit that I like other than Kenwood's which is almost $600. Good thing with MD is that it isn't likely to get stolen. It was proved at my school last week. 5 cars were broken into, all locked, so they busted out the windows. I was parked by my friends S10. He had his amp, crossover, and sub stolen, along with his MP3 headunit, even though he had the faceplate in his pocket. I had my faceplate with me, but my headunit was untouched. Someone was in my car and just rummaged through my shit and stole my pack of cigarettes. I don't lock my doors, so my window was intact.

Do you know a site where they have several of Pioneer's Premier series headunits?


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## faithandfame (Jan 25, 2003)

6500 series is the regular Pioneer series. 650 is Pioneer Premier. And I know that neither one of the series features being able to play MP3 encoded CD's. Here is a site with I believe all of the Pioneer Premier headunits.

http://www.hookedontronics.com/show_prodlist.jsp?priceorder=0&brandtype=99&cid=226&go.x=8&go.y=11


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## faithandfame (Jan 25, 2003)

If you are thinking about getting any kind of audio equipment be sure to speak to omega. That is who I am getting mine from and it is for quite a bit cheaper then in retail stores.


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## SuperSentra4203 (Dec 17, 2002)

I'm loving the P940MP. Several of those play MP3 format. The Premier series has much better SQ than the regular series, but what is it like compared to other headunits like Kenwood's eXcelon of Alpine's. I am yet to hear, let alone see a Premier seried headunit.


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## faithandfame (Jan 25, 2003)

I was originally going to get the Kenwood eXcelon 822 but I changed my mind due to the fact that I could see that fold out unit easily being broken. Also, I have heard so many good things about the Premier series that I decided to get one. You can't beat $197 for all the features that it has. Also, Pioneer is a very well known brand... comes with warranty and everything. Yeah, that 940 is sweet, a little out of my price range though.


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## SuperSentra4203 (Dec 17, 2002)

When I want great quality, price don't matter, but the 550 is really nice now that I saw the specs. The fold-out units are gay as hell. People can blame Rockford-Fosgate for starting the trend. My friend bought one when it first came out and it broke within a few months.


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## faithandfame (Jan 25, 2003)

Yeah, well I am still in high school and I work my ass off for my money. But, I don't have money to be throwing around, so if I can find something fairly nice for a good price then I am all for it.


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## SuperSentra4203 (Dec 17, 2002)

Hey, i'm still in highschool, too. Read my bio in my profile and you'll see how things have been lately. My system for the time being consists of my Sony MD headunit and 16 year old OEM speakers. Man my system sucks


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## faithandfame (Jan 25, 2003)

Oh, well I work almost 40 hours a week plus go to school. So, I am constantly busy making that money. But, it basically pays for my car insurance and whatever else I am able to do in my "free" time. I have a pretty good system though... 2 MTX 12's. Could be louder but people can still hear me coming down the road...


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## SangerSE-R (Jan 13, 2003)

mp3 quality is all in the chooser, md has nothing on mp3, md sux, just d/l and encode higher rate mp3's 256 and above only.


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## SuperSentra4203 (Dec 17, 2002)

SangerSE-R said:


> *mp3 quality is all in the chooser, md has nothing on mp3, md sux, just d/l and encode higher rate mp3's 256 and above only. *


If you had a good MD player, you would choose it over MP3. With MD you don't have to worry about scratching CD's, and the newer MD players will read and play the MDLP ATRAC3 format. Gives a high compression rate without degrading sound quality. 10hrs to a MP3 disc is cool, but I would rather not worry about scratching my CD's or getting burn marks on them over time. A higher encoding and transfer rate shows that it requires more space to get good sound quaity. my MD player at 105kbps will have the same SQ as a MP3 at 256kbps


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## SangerSE-R (Jan 13, 2003)

lol, mp3 is still better, for the price of a good md player, I could make a custom car mp3 unit with a 10 gig hd , so what do you have on that?

update:
I was making car mp3 units back in 1998 when most of you didn't know what mp3 was lol


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## ccroaddog (Jun 20, 2002)

What about WMA's ???? they are smaller and have just as good quality.


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## faithandfame (Jan 25, 2003)

The Premier p550mp that I am getting plays WMA's as well as MP3's.


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## SuperSentra4203 (Dec 17, 2002)

SangerSE-R said:


> *lol, mp3 is still better, for the price of a good md player, I could make a custom car mp3 unit with a 10 gig hd , so what do you have on that?
> 
> update:
> I was making car mp3 units back in 1998 when most of you didn't know what mp3 was lol *


LOL, but My MiniDiscs won't get scratched Uhgg, how ya like 'dem apples :banana: I will be getting a MP3 player real soon, prolly in a few days, just depends on how much I spend on a B12 Sentra or KN13 Pulsar SE. BTW, I know something most people don't know but you will, what MP3 stands for> Mpeg-1 Audio layer-3. I do my fair share of research. As for the HD, I don't own that many CD's 

BTW, don't screw with WMA files. Junk is all I have to say.


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## ccroaddog (Jun 20, 2002)

what really sucks is that mini disc was a really good idea too bad Sony did a shitty job of getting it out there when it first came out and know there are few mini disc players being made. I believe a wma CDR can hold 22 hours of music.....what was minidisc again?


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## SuperSentra4203 (Dec 17, 2002)

Downside of MD is that it can hold anywhere from one CD to 4 CD's, which isn't that bad considering it's size. Trust me, the SQ of MD is better than MP3. I have heard both. My MD player is 4 years old and has better SQ than my friends brand new Kenwood. One thing I don't like about MP3, and most likely the main thing, one scratch can easily destroy 30 minutes or more of music. Good thing, 10hrs, and everything is readily available.


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## ccroaddog (Jun 20, 2002)

SuperSentra4203 said:


> *. My MD player is 4 years old and has better SQ than my friends brand new Kenwood. *


personally kenwood dont sound good to me.....but im comparing kenwood to an Alpine


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## SuperSentra4203 (Dec 17, 2002)

Alpine is top of the line. Kenwood isn't far behind. Sony and most Pioneers ain't got shit on Kenwood or Alpine. Nothing has anything on Alpine.


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## ccroaddog (Jun 20, 2002)

amen brother !!!!!!!! alpine


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## SuperSentra4203 (Dec 17, 2002)

Naw, it's /////Alpine 

Hey, tomorrow, i'm dropping almost a grand on some good tunes, wadda think

Kenwood MP3 headunit
Kenwood 12" subs (maybe only 1)
Kenwood Class D mono subwoofer amp (1 ohm stable)
Monster Audio XL RCAs
Monster Audio #4 power & ground wire
Monster Audio 1 farad capacitor (if necessary)

I have more future plans, all will be Kenwood, and I will upgrade to eXcelon subs. I am getting a deal on the amp at a store for $250. I talked him down today frm $310.


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## bickmade (Aug 16, 2002)

This is the one I like.









Key Features: 
detachable, fold-down, Day and Night face 
High Definition 3-D Dot Matrix display 
spectrum analyzer 
plays both MP3 and WMA files — for greater compressed audio flexibility 
Alphatuner V 
18 FM/6 AM presets 
seek tuning 
Super High Definition Bass 
Sirius Satellite Radio controls (Sirius Radio subscription, tuner, and antenna required to receive the satellite radio signal) — service is available only in the lower 48 states, not available in Alaska, Hawaii, or U.S. territories 
CD changer controls — add a Panasonic changer to your receiver order, and save $$ with Crutchfield's package discount 
auxiliary input 
MOSFET50 internal amp 
5-volt front, rear, and subwoofer preamp outputs 
low-pass filter 
wireless remote 
clock 
25 watts RMS/50 peak x 4 channels 
CD frequency response 20-20,000 Hz 
CD signal-to-noise ratio 96 dB 
FM sensitivity 10.2 dBf 
2-year warranty 
detachable, fold-down, Day and Night face 
High Definition 3-D Dot Matrix display 
spectrum analyzer 
plays both MP3 and WMA files — for greater compressed audio flexibility 
Alphatuner V 
18 FM/6 AM presets 
seek tuning 
Super High Definition Bass 
Sirius Satellite Radio controls (Sirius Radio subscription, tuner, and antenna required to receive the satellite radio signal) — service is available only in the lower 48 states, not available in Alaska, Hawaii, or U.S. territories 
CD changer controls — add a Panasonic changer to your receiver order, and save $$ with Crutchfield's package discount 
auxiliary input 
MOSFET50 internal amp 
5-volt front, rear, and subwoofer preamp outputs 
low-pass filter 
wireless remote 
clock 
25 watts RMS/50 peak x 4 channels 
CD frequency response 20-20,000 Hz 
CD signal-to-noise ratio 96 dB 
FM sensitivity 10.2 dBf 
2-year warranty


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## bickmade (Aug 16, 2002)

This is what me and my girl use


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## Icej (Oct 25, 2002)

I have this kenwood headunit








it sounds good with my audiobahn subs.


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## ccroaddog (Jun 20, 2002)

i still like my deck even if its one year old now
http://www.alpine-usa.com/html/D2_n_1_n_n.html

for a good deck that does mp3/wma go with the top three alpines CDA9815=500.00 , CDA9813=400.00 , CDA9811=330.00
http://www.alpine-usa.com/html/D2_n_1_n_n.html

i think that alpine sounds and out performs both Panasonic and Kenwood, not saying that those two are crap but Alpine is better. Alpine would alos rather have different crossovers for front and rear speakers and still have the option to change the crossover on the sub as well. If you wanna pay for a cool looking display go ahead (not my money).


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## faithandfame (Jan 25, 2003)

cc- what is your opinion on the pioneer premier p550mp?


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## ccroaddog (Jun 20, 2002)

premier is a good deck if you use the options as far as volted pre-out(2volt) built in Crossovers and that you plan on doing a 4ch with a sub amp then ya its a good deck but, if you dont want the option listed above the pioneer dehp5500mp would be just fine. Now since i always try to get people to buy alpine this one has all the same options(almost) as the premier 550mp










has 3 4volt pre outs and a easier to access sub control

i still like mine


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## faithandfame (Jan 25, 2003)

What model is that one and what model is yours?


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## ccroaddog (Jun 20, 2002)

last years CDA7995 dry deck. Which means you need external amps to hear your music, the deck has no power output


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