Which CarMD to buy?

[Guest Anonymous]

Hi! I am a simple user and love the MD technology. I just bought a new car (audi a4 convertible) and I am looking for a good car MD player. Design is very important to me. To my disappointment I discovered that all the MD-players I found on the web (Sony, Kenwood, Blaupunkt,...) look like space ships. Somebody got a hint, where I can find a decent looking car MD player (like the old Blaupunkt tape decks)....??? answer via email also, if possible (fn.private@gmx.net)... thx in advance. best regards fabian...

[jamesdstark_]

The current choices for MD in the car are pretty sad, particularly cosmetically. I was excited to hear about the new Sony MDX-CA790X, but when I took a look I was sorely disappointed. It seems Sony has adopted a super cheap LED style display rather than dot matrix. I saw the unit only had 8 characters for the title, and aparently no place for the "group" title even though its MDLP.

My dream machine for the modern MD user:

1. A line displaying the "group" (8+ characters)

2. Another line to display the title (10+ characters, dot matrix!)

3. ANALOG KNOB VOLUME CONTROL PLEASE!!! Its the most efficient.

4. no flip-down faceplate to insert MD. I want putting in a MD to be a one step convenient process. To me convenience is the whole appeal of MD. There is plenty of room on the face for the slot, after all they are MINI discs.

5. Simplfied classy appearance, all black with only 1 color of illumination, ideally selectable colors to match the car's. None of this "extreme cyber" look, makes me want to vomit.

6. Graphic EQ. Ideally the unit would have a large dot-matrix display that could be used for the graphic EQ when not displaying the titles. Also remove any "loudness" or other cheesy sound functions.

I'm not holding my breath for all this, even though I don't believe I'm asking for anything extrordinary. In fact I think my desired features are rather conservative and obvious. Unfortunately it looks like sony has taken a more "portable" approach to car MD, including car kits with some of the newer portables. Thats something I will never do because its too much of a mess with all the cables and fumbling with the minature portable. I guess I'll keep dreaming for now, until someone who designs these in-dash decks gets some sense.

[Guest Anonymous]

it was good to read that there are others having the same problem....but..... i still don't have a hint....

does anyone know where i can find pictures of all car MD players available on the market... homepages of the manufacturers are quite bad...

thx in advance

fabian

[tmeg]

:idea: I second that what jamesdstark said. I am waiting for such a Car MD, too. My old radio is nearly brocken (display is defect), but sound is ok with the casette adapter from my N1.

[jamesdstark_]

Fabian, try melting-pot.com. they have a few japanese car MD players. Unfortunately there is no consolidated source that i've found listing all car MD models, besides minidisc.org.

[MDX-400]

It seems Sony has adopted a super cheap LED style display rather than dot matrix. I saw the unit only had 8 characters for the title, and aparently no place for the "group" title even though its MDLP.

My dream machine for the modern MD user:

1. A line displaying the "group" (8+ characters)

2. Another line to display the title (10+ characters, dot matrix!)

3. ANALOG KNOB VOLUME CONTROL PLEASE!!! Its the most efficient.

4. no flip-down faceplate to insert MD. I want putting in a MD to be a one step convenient process. To me convenience is the whole appeal of MD. There is plenty of room on the face for the slot, after all they are MINI discs.  

5. Simplfied classy appearance, all black with only 1 color of illumination, ideally selectable colors to match the car's. None of this "extreme cyber" look, makes me want to vomit.

6. Graphic EQ. Ideally the unit would have a large dot-matrix display that could be used for the graphic EQ when not displaying the titles. Also remove any "loudness" or other cheesy sound functions.

I'm not holding my breath for all this, even though I don't believe I'm asking for anything extrordinary.

Well just to address some of this I must say a few things. On the first note about the 8 character display, that is and has been the standard number of display characters display on EVERY Sony car deck since the beginning of the UniLink ERA. I only know of one exception in the Sony car decks and that is the MDX-400 which has 10 characters. This is due to the fact that they are all required to display an entire CustomFile name on the screen (which is limited to 8 characters). This 8 character display is the base for the UniLink and CustomFile systems which are the backbone of Sony mobile and have been for over a decade now. Why the MDX-400 actually "got away" with 10 characters is beyond me, but it was the only one.

As for the group title, I think the new CA790X does support group titles but they will likely have to be toggled. I.e. the display will show EITHER track title, or disc title, or group title or playing time, but not all of them.

The REAL problem with Sony decks is the SCROLLING of the text, not how many characters fit on at once. Instead of continuous scrolling the title will scroll only ONCE and then if you want it to scroll again you have to press the scroll button. On the slightly older pre-Xplod decks it was even worse because there was no dedicated scroll button--you have to press the menu button first and then another button just to get it to scroll again! Why Sony doesn't let the car decks continuously scroll is a mystery and also really dumb.

As for the dot-matrix thing, yeah I was kind of suprised to see the lack-of on the CA790X, but it really isn't that big a deal if you can see the letters. Plus the dot-matrix displays usually wash out more easily in the sun.

As for the analog volume knob, actually not many HUs at all feature an analog volume knob anymore. They do have knobs but they certainly aren't analog. They are almost always "rotary encoder" (electronic) knobs that just drive the units volume control instead of up and down buttons. However yes I was appaled at the fact that the CA790X doesn't have a knob! The CA680X does! (I actually like the design of the CA680X but with the Xplod "quality" I'd stay far from it personally).

As for the non flip-down face--that can only be had on lower end units for the most part in car audio (either that or the VERY expensive models of which don't come in the MD variety). (I think I've explained this before?). I see that is a feature you would want personally, but really this goes against what most everyone in the mobile electronics market wants. Furthermore the purpose of the flip-down is so that you can get more display area. You can't have a dual-line display and all that other stuff you mentioned you wanted AND a non-flip down face. That just isn't going to fit on a DIN sized unit, that's for sure.

Another strange thing is that most of the Xplod units have traditionally had the EQ7 system (sort of a 7 band EQ) but the new CA790X only has EQ3! Gasp.

I don't mean to be rude when I say this but it is probably a good thing that you aren't holding your breath for all of you want--it just isn't going to happen in the mobile electronics industry--especially with MD which isn't popular to begin with. I do see what you are saying though on some points.

Personally I'm more concerned that Sony has decided to (since years ago now, really) go with all this Xplod junk which is just that--the quality of their mobile gear now has a bad rep and for good reason. There isn't a lot of a problem in getting the older good stuff, even in MD, but there is the problem of no MDLP...

[jamesdstark_]

Actually you can easily fit 2 lines of display and a slot for an MD on the face there is plenty of room. The key is to use smaller character height. I used to have a home-built mp3 player in my car which had a 4x40 display, and it was only 1-din sized and the text was still really easy to read. After using that going back to MD with only an 8 character total display is rather irritating.

I'm aware nearly all modern car audio decks that have an "analog" style control are actually digital in nature. I still want a true analog volume control, maybe I'm the only one who sees this is better. Because you can adjust in the finest increments, as well as change the volume as fast as you want. All digital knob controls I've used only adjust so fast no matter how fast you turn the knob. And the volume increments aren't very fine, usually a maximum of 30. And finally having just a dot on the knob which shows the volume level is so much more elegant than having it display on some graphic on the screen that only shows when you are adjust it.

[MDX-400]

Re the display, perhaps it is possible--I guess it just isn't probable because, again, the majority of the mobile industry consumer base still views the flip-down face as a higher end feature and that seems to be dominant to the point at which today many not only the high end units but also the midrange units are not only flip down but motorised flip down. (This might annoy you even more as the motorised faces are usually not that quick at opening up).

As for the volume control you do have a valid point. This type of feature is met with decks that are indeed high end though. I think Nakamichi still uses "real" volume knobs and also I think the Denon (VERY high end and definitely not mainstream) decks do as well.

Unfortunately decks like the Denon DCT-Z1 are upwards of $3000+ for a simple "no features" deck and for this discussion it becomes relevant to mention that such a deck is a CD deck, and any type of MD equivalent is unheard of.

However now that I think of it, I'm pretty sure Nak makes their "45 level" deck in cassette, CD and MD. The MD one is quite rare though. But now I'm realising that the Nak MD deck probably is very close to what you are looking for. I mean the display might not have that many characters but it is a very "classy" looking and straight forward deck. The only problem is that it is not MDLP compatible, being an older deck.

MD for car has a constant problem that it is not very popular particularly in the US/Canada. Eventhough there are a fair amount of decks to choose from (that fit many peoples bill)--those decks are from the "past". There aren't many new MD decks being made today for the car and that means there aren't many decks being made with MDLP.

I think this is clearly the biggest problem in selecting a deck for the car. There just simply aren't many new MD decks (and therefore MDLP decks) being released nowadays.

[jamesdstark_]

I think i might have to go die-hard-core MD and just get a plain non-MDLP unit. I had my eye on a Becker Mexico Pro MD 4937, but I was discouraged because it wasnt MDLP and could only be used with a becker cd changer. But it looks so cool I think I'm just going to get it. It's flip-down face, but maybe if I'm luck it will auto-eject when I flip down. Thats my annoyance with it is you have to hit one button to open the face, and then another to eject which seems redundant.

[MDX-400]

Well just to address some of this I must say a few things.  On the first note about the 8 character display, that is and has been the standard number of display characters display on EVERY Sony car deck since the beginning of the UniLink ERA.  I only know of one exception in the Sony car decks and that is the MDX-400 which has 10 characters.  This is due to the fact that they are all required to display an entire CustomFile name on the screen (which is limited to 8 characters).  This 8 character display is the base for the UniLink and CustomFile systems which are the backbone of Sony mobile and have been for over a decade now.  Why the MDX-400 actually "got away" with 10 characters is beyond me, but it was the only one.

Wow, I guess I erred here a bit! Sorry. Here is a small correction:

For one thing the standard Sony HU display has 10 characters (normally), not 8. I just I just got a bit confused. However it does appear that the CA790X does have an 8-character display which IS a bit pathetic/dumb considering 10 is supposed to be the standard.

As for the MDX-400's extended display, it does have two more than the standard making 12 characters, not 10 instead of 8 like I originally mentioned. Also it isn't the only one. The MDX-U1, MDX-100, MDX-400, all have the 12 char. display. It also looks like the MDX-C800REC can display 12 but I'm not 100% on that. The WX-5500MDX also does 12 and I guess perhaps a few more of the JDM (and non-Can/US) units would as well.

Even more strange is that the CA790X isn't the first with less than 10 either! The MDX-CA680X only had 8 as well, and that also goes for the MDX-C8500X and even the "mighty" MDX-C8970 had only 8! Well at least the C8970 had an SA which justified taking up the space of two characters--the nearly identical C8900 w/o the SA had 10.

I suppose 8 is the minimum then for Sony HUs (that support Custom File, which is pretty much all of them), but you'd think that they'd make a point to make the MD ones (particularly the newer ones) at least 12 or something. It seems the opposite is true, though. The first MD HU, the U1 started out with 12 and then they slowly went to 10 (same as non-MD units) and then now they've gone down to 8

Sorry about my initial mistake. I was thinking that 8 was the standard before but now that I've thought about it I guess 8 is below average for the display, particularly on an MD deck.

Roland M.