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Never understood the appeal of listening to an MP3 streaming wirelessly to a quality car stereo instead of listening to the quality and clarity of CDs. Haven't listened to Pandora on my phone via the car stereo so I have no idea of the quality. I listen to Pandora at home via DirecTV on my surround sound system. Most new head units include Bluetooth capability. Spend a little more and get HD radio. Check your local stations to see if they broadcast in HD before spending the extra cash.
Never understood the appeal of listening to an MP3 streaming wirelessly to a quality car stereo instead of listening to the quality and clarity of CDs. Haven't listened to Pandora on my phone via the car stereo so I have no idea of the quality. I listen to Pandora at home via DirecTV on my surround sound system. Most new head units include Bluetooth capability. Spend a little more and get HD radio. Check your local stations to see if they broadcast in HD before spending the extra cash.
I use a 16 GB thumb drive instead of CD's. If I figure right, it probably has about 325 albums on it, and that would be a lot of cd's to haul around. The sound quality is fine.
I use a 16 GB thumb drive instead of CD's. If I figure right, it probably has about 325 albums on it, and that would be a lot of cd's to haul around.
But is the recording at the same quality as CDs or is it compressed MP3 files? Also, there isn't that many albums people enjoy listening to. If I'm in the mood for a particular style music, I'll bring that CD with me. My commute is about 20 minutes or one and a half Pink Floyd songs (lol).
But is the recording at the same quality as CDs or is it compressed MP3 files? Also, there isn't that many albums people enjoy listening to. If I'm in the mood for a particular style music, I'll bring that CD with me. My commute is about 20 minutes or one and a half Pink Floyd songs (lol).
Some of the music was downloaded from the original album CD's and then transferred to the drive. A lot of the other music is songs that I recorded with wavepad and saved as MP3's at 256 Kbps. I may have to sample the same songs up to a dozen times to select the best sounding streaming audio. When I find the best version I capture it. The only downfall is every song has to be captured in real time. The nice thing about wavepad is that it gives you the option to tweak the music before saving it. Gives me something to do in the winter.
I too put a JVC unit in my Saab, works well does what I need it to. Buttons are small and some functions confusing, but they all seem to be that way today.
CD's....what the hell are those LOL
Memory sticks and bluetooth streaming are where its at for convienience today victim, you cannot scratch a memory stick.
Yeah I was actually checking out Crutchfield. I can easily install a stereo. I just want a decent one. I'm thinking 200 should be good. I think the cheapo 60-80 dollar ones have got to be just junk. I think that was what was in my last truck. Had a off brand name I never heard of.
Found a Alpine that looks to fit the bill. 130 bucks
E4U, forget Crutchfield. It's sky high over priced. Go to Sonic electronix.
It has same well of knowledge on devices and is cheaper. Service is good, I bought from them. Stick to Pioneers. That's brand I had for years and never failed. Make sure you have everything for BT, as it may require microphone separate. Any mics down there in head unit won't work, as in - poor reception. You either need a mic right on the sun visor in front of you or a BT boom mic. I have several cars with factory BT hands free link, and they suck on FWY with where the factory mics are.
You may also fork for steering wheel controls. They do sell add ons.
Truly, best bet will be to have hardwired long boom mic to your phone, phone cradle somewhere easy to reach, I saw them even mounted on steering wheels, and BT between your phone and HU. But if you were not to have mic right in front of your mouth, it'll be hell of frustration trying to talk to someone doing 70. CA? Who does 70. 95.
It's only in Hollywood movies you easily clearly speak on hands free doing 100 on FWY in a convertible with roof down.
They work superbly well for streaming. I do NOT use them for hands free, but they have built in mic, and CAN be used for this, if properly located. But music quality streaming is excellent. I know how to set them up for Android, and have "use for phone conversations" disabled. Have only "use for music" enabled.
Of course, you need HU with Aux jack, but that's easy $100 or less for quality unit.
Thanks guys. I need more for talking to people rather than music streaming. So the voice/phone aspect is more important than the music features. I will look into the other website and models suggested. I don't know much about car stereos when it comes to what quality is better than other. I only need to do this because I don't want a $175 driving while talking on cell ticket
Very happy with it. There is a sister unit to it that has the CD player in it for only a couple of bucks more, but I figured it's been years since I listened to a CD so why bother. I was extremely impressed with the call quality, especially for being installed in an old noisy diesel.
Only drawback is that the USB is on the rear of the unit, so if you wanted to plug into it that way, you would have to run the supplied cable out from the back and mount it somewhere. I routed it into the glove compartment, but have yet to use it. I have an Android phone that I stream Pandora or Spotify from instead of using a thumb drive, and I charge the phone off an adapter in the cigarette lighter, so I don't really need the USB.
Mike
Last edited by whiteboyslo; 07-04-2014 at 11:19 AM..
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