An Alternative To A Multi-changer

[MadBaz]

Not satisfied with the standard radio/cassette I decided to upgrade my ICE to a nice MP3 player.

 

I settled on the Kenwood KDC W534 UA for

[TimsBamma]

Hmmm, very interesting.... :ph34r:

 

Had a quick look on line for the Ext H/D, can you say where you sourced yours from? Have you put any 'power smoothing' between the 12v source and the Hard Disk.

 

The drives are remarkably small, reckon one might fir in the DIN sized cubby below the H/U.

 

Hmmm have to spend a while uploading CD's to the drive.

 

Got a pic of the install in the Glovebox? I guess it needs to be easily removable so new CD's can be burned on.

 

Good luck with it. :D

[NikpV]

On a similar note - I've just replaced the mini-disc player in my escort with a cheap head CD head unit which playes MP3's - it also has a SD card slot (up to 2Gb I think) on the front and a usb port to take those usb 'disk drives ' musch better, I have several directories on my PC with music on and copy it straight to the sd cards ( have 3 which are dirt cheap) I carry far more music with me now in one of thaose little wallets - works a treat HU cost about

[MadBaz]

Heres a couple of photos of it in situ:

 

 

 

 

the reason why I chose this method is because I have a large record collection about 10 gb so far, when in MP3 format. I'm still in the process of converting my CD's, about 4000 in total.

 

 

 

There is no filtering on the 12v feed, The internal curcuits handle it all, as I said these are very robust. I once used a 24v 5amp supply in error, for about an hour on this drive and didn't cause any damage. Ive also had this in the car since August without problems. I've stripped down an earlier model, and use the innards to transfer/backup data from clients hard drives when mainboard etc has failed, and used this for about 5 years now, again no probs.

 

 

 

There are cheaper models out there, but I don't know about there durability.

 

 

 

This model is usually at places like PC W**k, I sourced mine from CCL in Bradford.

 

To synchronise I use Microsofts Synctoy.

 

 

 

In use ther are no skipping/dirty cd problems, there is a slight hum from the glove box about 20dba, thats soon drowned out :D . The file/folder selct on the head is easy enough to use, and the sound is excellent even though I have the oem speakers.

 

 

 

I thought about a usb drive but I didnt like the thought of one sticking out of the head unit, and from experience of faulty usb ports on laptops due to stress, (broken solder points) and losing usb sticks, This method suits my needs perfectly.

 

 

 

Now I must remember to delete the kids bloody Pop junior album :ph34r:

[TimsBamma]

Thanks for the PIC's and info, will book mark this and come back to it, I want to change the Front and rear door Components and am thinking of recabling the speakers with non wiring loom cables so feeding to a new Headunit etc in one go makes sense.

 

thanks again :rolleyes:

[Guest gooner52]

i bought a nice sony unit for my wifes focus.comes with about 5gb not bad

 

but one of the reasons i bought a tomtom 910 was the jukebox bulit in

 

at last count have arund 3000 tracks and its only about 15% full

 

gives me about 12gb in total :rolleyes:

[NikpV]

This kenwood unit KDC W534 UA is now available from pixmania for

[Guest gooner52]

now thats a good price

 

we paid

[MadBaz]

This kenwood unit KDC W534 UA is now available from pixmania for