MP3 CD Players, anyone got one??

sierra1 · December 11, 2001

Anyone got one of the Head Units that plays MP3s?? I have a question. I have a bunch of comedy stuff that isn't 44.1K encoded, it's sampled at a slower rate. Will this stuff play on one?? I guess I'll find out soon enough anyway when I have my remote starter put in, but if someone knows, let me know.

Thanks..

silverado man · December 11, 2001

If i remember right i think that it should work.

wolfie · December 12, 2001

on the same subject.. Is anyone making a GM-fit MP3.CD head unit?

sierra1 · December 18, 2001

As far as I know, not yet. It's no big deal to buy the faceplate and put/get it put in there. It would be nice to have a bigger display area, but it's just a "show" anyway!

And all my oddball rate MP3s seem to work fine.

raventai · December 19, 2001

witch one did u get? do they read id3v1/v2 tags? I have a lot of stuf it the 160+ k range some at 360 are there any limits?

sierra1 · December 21, 2001

I got the Sony CDX-MP450X, goes for around $275. Yes, it seems to play all the oddball sample rates, even though some sound horrible (not the player's fault). If the filename format is right (Joliet) it will display the long filename, if it isn't, it does the usual 8.3. One other quirk it has is it sometimes doesn't exactly remember where it leaves off playing an MP3 file, it's only close. I was playing a file that was about 10 minutes long, and it was just 9 00 on it when I got out of the truck. When I came back, it started the next track at 000. No real big deal. It will scroll the long filename, if ALL the files are done right, if not, it won't I guess. I had one file, of about 200 I burned yesterday, and the burner software warned me the filename was too long, but I let it go. So, no scrolling, nust the first part. My other CD I made yesterday does scroll ok.

So far, only one file that plays on my PC won't play on the Sony. I threw it in there on a CD I burned because it WONT play on most PCs at all. It tries to play it, but it makes a noise like a cat hissing during the entire thing. I just wanted to see what happend. It sounds fine on my Dell, for some reason, it's immune to whatever freaks the other players out.

I made a huge CD of talk radio stuff, sampled at 11.2 KHZ?? and it plays fine, except it's pretty "dead" sounding.

I would give the H/U a B- grade on MP3s, an A- on CD play in it's price range, and a solid A on FM. The AM sucks like almost all newer stereos, both car and home. My friend has one of the old "wonderbar" radios out of an old Caddy from 35 years ago. The FM isn't any better than the stock radio, but the AM is amazingly good sounding! He uses it to listen to baseball games out on his porch in the summer.

sierra1 · December 21, 2001

Oh, if you search around, you will see a lot of bad stuff written in some sites about the Sony H/U. Take them with a grain of salt, high bit rates (320 is as high as my ripping SW goes) work and sound GREAT! I have some old classical stuff I ripped to MP3's that I know every click, mistake, etc in, and in 192, I could tell it wasn't perfect, but at 320, no, I could hear all the background noises and stuff, and the sound of the mike amp clipping form the huge bass hit sounded just like it has for 17 years since I bought that CD in 1984. I have zero complaints on sound quality, and only minor ones when playing/handling MP3s.