Finally...

[AllanD]

I've been chasing an old-school black box for sony audio systems for a while.

Last week I finally found one on ebay for a reasonable price

It's a Sony XA-C30 source selector, it lets me put multiple bus connected accessories in my vehicle.

Basically I only wanted to add a second CD changer (yeah I said OLD School)
So now I'm hunting another CDX-757MX 10 disc changer....
This is Sony's mp3 compatible 10-disc changer (not THAT "old" school)

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[fastpakr]

Nice find, but wouldn't an in-dash that supported SD or USB devices be easier and more convenient?

 

[AllanD]

Actually that's in my plans as well, but I still like optical discs
they are more reliable than small portable devices
and if one fails and don't get me wrong, they do fail,
replacing it costs all of $0.50

The nice thing about optical is it's stable.

A friend said "but my nano never skips".

I'm not sure what it takes to make third generation sony disc changer
like my CDX-757MX skip, but I do know that I DO NOT want to be in
the truck when it happens. I've been 75mph up a desert washboard "road"
that was bad enough to trip my fuel inertia switch and I never made my
earlier changer skip, this one has six times the anti-skip buffer.

My head unit skips, but any times it does I stop to check the
suspension for damage...

Friends with iPods have had multiple devices they are failure prone,
but Apple's iPod isn't as failure prone as any of it's competitors.

Honestly what I want is a 64Gig device that depends on solid state storage.
sort of the current Nano, but four times larger....
for <$150


One of the Sony heads unit I want supports BOTH a front panel
USB "stick" AND a rear panel iPod cable.
I'm torn though, another unit supports the USB, but not the iPod
but it plays mp3-DVD+R/DL discs

I managed to fit the first six metallica albums onto one CD-R at
a high bitrate
All the Creed albums, both Alter Bridge albums, and the Scott Stapp solo
album fit on one disc with room to spare....

ETC... I can fit 90% of what I want to listen to on twenty CD-R's
At the high bitrate I use (320kBit/Sec) twenty discs will play for
NINETY Hours... now while that's a lot of music... that's several months
on shuffle before you notice the music that is NOT in the collection...

Hell, I went three months on shuffle with ONE changer load of discs.
and even then I "corrected" my boredom by swapping not the entire
disc magazine, but just TWO of the discs in that magazine

and if I still get bored I do have a Sirius Sportster that has a lifetime
subscription...

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[Ranger SVO]

Friends with iPods have had multiple devices they are failure prone,
but Apple's iPod isn't as failure prone as any of it's competitors.

I bought my first Nano in Jan or Feb 2006. Its still working. I got my second Nano for Christmas in 2007, its also still working. These MP3 players are actually quite reliable.

Like you, I like to keep a huge collection of music in my truck and nothing looks worse than CD's all over the truck (makes the truck look trashy). I choose to keep 2 ipods in my truck. In my car, I have one Ipod with 48 albums on it

XM Radio and I keep 3 or 4 MP3 CD's (each with 6 to 7 albums on them).

Thats 3 iPods and not one failure.

Just wanted to add my 3-cents worth.

 

[AllanD]

The usual failures are from the headphone jack if you also use it as a portable device...
that and the internal battery....

I've never had "CD's all over the truck" because I knew about disc
wallets and disc magazines...

a XA-250 Disc magazine is suprisingly small.

There are very few artists that you cannot fit all of their albums
on one mp3-CD and fewer still where you cannot do it with two
mp3-CD's...

The real fun is that I also get to start collecting system components
for my Saab... I've already got the Sub...

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[fastpakr]

I've never seen anything to convince me that the Apple hardware was any more reliable than that of the other major brands. Creative and Microsoft certainly do an excellent job with their flash based products. As an alternative, I just installed an AVIC-F90BT in my wife's car over the weekend. It's got some interface design flaws, but hardware wise it's pretty impressive. Integrated iPod and external USB connectivity, front panel SD, GPS, Bluetooth for phone, and it'll read MP3's off a DVD disc just fine. I loaded one disc with three of her audiobooks as well as about 30 other albums and it is very easy to browse and play everything on there.

 

[Ranger SVO]

The usual failures are from the headphone jack if you also use it as a portable device...
that and the internal battery....

I've never had "CD's all over the truck" because I knew about disc
wallets and disc magazines...

a XA-250 Disc magazine is suprisingly small.

There are very few artists that you cannot fit all of their albums
on one mp3-CD and fewer still where you cannot do it with two
mp3-CD's...


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Check out some of the rides around Abilene, CD's in the visor, under the seats, on the console. If they could figure out how to make an MP3 disc.....

I like your idea , I like having a wide selection in my truck (and car). The downside on your idea is a CD Changer and lots of CD's. The downside for me is if an iPod fails. It costs much less to replace a disc than an iPod. (0.10-cents vs. 149.00).

But so far the iPods have proven to be very reliable.

 

[AllanD]

Most of my CD's are in 10disc magazines, but it is a supercab
and a CD-wallet that holds 48CD's doesn't take up that much
space... mp3-CDs rock...

Now if I get a headunit that plays mp3-DVD-R discs....

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Check out some of the rides around Abilene, CD's in the visor, under the seats, on the console. If they could figure out how to make an MP3 disc.....

I like your idea , I like having a wide selection in my truck (and car). The downside on your idea is a CD Changer and lots of CD's. The downside for me is if an iPod fails. It costs much less to replace a disc than an iPod. (0.10-cents vs. 149.00).

But so far the iPods have proven to be very reliable.

 

[alaskan155]

i run a portable laptop drive 40gigs ,$15 for the USB to 2.5" IDE, 40gig was free from old notebook, and hooked to my pioneer deh-4000ub i love it, plenty of music

 

[AllanD]

I have a dead 60Gid Western Digital "Passport" USB drive that I was
given by a friend (as dead) and I pried the case apart...

Well the drive was REALLY dead, but the little USB adapter board
works perfectly as I used it to "unload" the absolutely
"jammed completely full" 40gb Hitachi drive in the Gateway
laptop (An M350WVN, argueably the first of the "desktop replacement"
laptop computers) I was given by another friend.

I'm already planning to put a bigger drive in the M350
(as big an IDE drive as I can get, probably a 320gb)
so this 40Gb Hitchi would probably work well that way...

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[sbsumerix]

i just run my 30 gb zune through the rca jack on my $70 walmart brand radio with 25 gbs of music on the zune i never hear the same song twice(unless i want to) on shuffle i found songs i didnt even know i had i just run then thing on a constant shuffle and never let the thing die so i dont have to start over. the zune is about 2 years old it lasted a year at first but then when they came out with an update it caused a crash in my zune and it would not respond so i sent it in and bam a brand new free zune even the shipping was free to send it out. this zune is on a year now i like them alot better then ipods easier to do everything i want to see what the new zune HD is capeable of though its suppose to be the better ipod touch.

 

[MagnaV30]

I have a hundred cd's in a cd book in my truck, as well as a 4 G Nano vid (which is way too small.
Im going to be upgrading to a 32 touch, and maybe get sirus.

 

[Toms01PSD]

I have an iPod touch...booya!

 

[Tempe]

i run a portable laptop drive 40gigs ,$15 for the USB to 2.5" IDE, 40gig was free from old notebook, and hooked to my pioneer deh-4000ub i love it, plenty of music

I have no idea how I missed this post. What a great idea!!!

T