Car Deck Opinions

[jailbird]

All, I was looking to replace the stock deck in my Neon w/ a MDLP deck (too bad nobody seems to make HiMD decks ).

So far I was looking at the following two decks on audiocubes:

Sanyo CDF-MS11 CD/MDLP

Pioneer MEH-P070 MDLP

I like the fact the Sanyo can do both CD and MDLP, but the Pioneer seems to have a better SNR and 13 band parametric equalizers, which is cool. Does anybody have any experience with these decks, or similar ones?

A lot of the radio stations around here are firing up HD Radio streams, and I was hoping to get a HD Radio deck, but there are hardly ANY HD Radio decks, let alone one that does MDLP also. I was looking at the Sony MDX-66XLP changer, but as far as I know, that won't work with any of the 4 existing HD Radio decks that I can fine (2 Panasonics, a Kenwood, and a JVC). Am I correct on this? Is there any kind of workaround?

Sorry to ask stupid questions, just don't want to make a purchase and then regret it afterwards .

Thanks guys!

[wheatr]

I am using the front aux input on a new Sony GT400 cd deck and will

install the Sony MDX-66XLP soon. The input is easy to use with my portable.

The new soon to be released JVC KD-HDR1 is HD radio ready

with nothing else to buy. 2nd generation and lots of cool features

it also has a aux input on the rear that would require a cable to hookup a portable.

Look on Crutchfield.com for info as when the decks are in stock you can see the product manuals.

Edited February 16, 2006 by wheatr

[1kyle]

I'd go for any decent deck with an AUX in on the front --very useful but not many seem to add this feature.

I'm currently using a Kenwood MDLP car radio --but I really would like the ability to play HI-MD disks as well. (Now solved -- see post in Hi-MD section).

I'm not sure whether HD radio is worth the effort. We've got DAB in the UK and whilst it gives more stations the bit rates aren't anything spectacular that would make me want to listen rather than popping in one of my own MD's. HD radio may also become Subscription based and it won't be available everywhere.

For speech etc old fashioned AM is still fine -- we are lucky enough to have a very high quality (Content not audio) Long Wave station BBC Radio 4 on 198 Khz which can be received EASILY in a car radio all over northern Europe -- from about Bilbao in Spain to Poland.

This is primarily a TALK station so the Long Wave sound is adequate for this type of listening in a Car --some great programs can regularly be found on this station which really alleviate the boredom of travelling long distances on the inevitably congested UK road network.

I'm sure there's a lot of demand for a Hi-SP car deck that could also play legacy format disks. -- I really can't be bothered with carrying CD's around and in any case MP3 CD's to my ears don't sound very good anyway.

For Kenwood car radios see my topic posted in the Hi-MD section. This solution may work for other models.

If all else fails you can always install a Cassette Radio and use the Cassette adapter --but I think you might have trouble finding either of these products any more.

Cheers

-K

Edited February 18, 2006 by 1kyle

[vertical]

Hi

Sorry, do these two car audio devices support NET MD?

By the way, do all MDLP devices support Net MD, as default?

[calpico]

My ALPINE deck plays netMD recorded discs and MDLP.

Edited December 16, 2008 by calpico

[sfbp]

You may find some restrictions on editing NetMD tracks on some decks, but that hardly applies to in-car.

The other option, as someone higher up this thread rightly point out, is to get the MDX-66XLP. However it requires a Sony Unilink interface. But it's the only changer unit made that plays back LP2 and LP4 (and hence NetMD).

There are two ways you can do this:

1. get one of the Sony-built RF- modulators (this is what I did). Sony does a good job, by inserting the RF transmitter in the regular FM signal path (ie its input now becomes your antenna, and the output is where the antenna used to plug into on the head unit). There are several models, no need to buy the one that specifically comes with the MDX-66XLP.

2. get a Sony head unit (there are lots of these around) that does NOT have to have MD capability at all, just the Unilink to support changer.