Portable Music Players and the Boat Stereo

I'm finally biting the bullet and I'm going to get a portable music player.

I've been using iTunes, but I've tested out Napster and I think I like it alot better for 14.95 per month.

The question is what portable player to get that has the best features plus the ability to hook up to my boat stereo and my home theater receiver. My boat stereo is a Sony CDX-F7705 so it has the auxilary input. I see that some of them have an FM tuner widget that plugs into the head phone jack of the mp3 player. I guess the one for the iPod has a jack that will plug directly into the Aux jack of the sony HU.

Anyone that knows the in's and out's a little help would be great.

thanks

Direct plug-n-play is best, and well, since you have the inputs it should be easy to get that done. Personal preference has a lot to do with which player will work best for you. My wife has an Ipod, so we will use that and I like I tunes a lot. But there is the battery thing on apple. My advice if you go that way is buy from Best Buy and get the extended warranty. I guy at work has the Dell DJ and likes it a lot too.

Eric

Note: Napster only has an approved list of portable mp3 players that you can get unlimited music for $14.95. If you want to ever burn the music or use it somewhere else other than the MP3 player or computer, you'll get jacked 1 buck per song. I know because I somehow thought 'unlimited MP3's' for $14.95 meant I could use them somewhere besides my computer or MP3 player, but was disappointed.

If you have a napster approved MP3 player, and you use your computer or MP3 player as your primary source of music, then it's a great deal.

Has anyone used tunebite (http://www.tunebite.com/)?

It can apparently re-record a protected WMA file (the type Napster uses) into an MP3 by capturing the decoded output bitstream from Windows Media Player prior to it being sent to your PC's sound card and transcoding it into an MP3 file. You have to play back a song to get it to re-record MP3 free of copy protection that you can now copy to any mp3 playing device.

It also sounds legal for backup purposes since you're not cracking the WMA protection. Note: I'm not advocating anything illegal here. You should own the song before using this utility.

I use musicmatch for like 20 bucks a year, I download to my Dell Jukebox and Creative Zen Touch. Love both! Need more music thoughif anybody could recommend some tunes I have abuot 1300 so far but need more for wakeboarding!

bypass the fm tuner. if you have a aux in use that. there will be no sound loss. as far as suggesting an mp3 its really up to you. i happen to hate i tunes. its really a pain in the arse. but if you are comfortable in that environment then go for it. i happen to burn the music myself from cds so i dont use any online service. alot would depend on your listening style too. if you just listen to singles for a few weeks while they are popular then id probably go to napster since you can swap out songs all the time. BUT if you are going to pay 15 bucks a month for rented music then why not just get xm or sirius for about 10 a month. i have sirius and love it however i dont use it on the boat. i use my mp3 player. popular players are creative, rio, dell, and ipods of course. id test one out and get the most user friendly unit available and with as much memory as you can afford. when you burn your mp3 do so at 192 kbs to prevent sound degredation. youll use more memory but itll be worth it. good luck

can someone point me to a link with a cable that will work with some popular mp3 players that will hook up the the aux port on the sony HU?

sorry to be such a PITA...

John,
I am not sure the input on your sony but if it is RCA inputs then all you need is a headphone jack (2.5mm) to RCA cable. You can pick them up at almost any stereo store or even wal-mart.
As far as hard drive players go I recently bought the I-river h320 and am very happy with it. Here is a link to a forum that discussed the I-river products. http://misticriver.net/

I have an iPOD and I love it. I use both napster and iTUNES to download songs. if iTUNES doesn't have the song then I go the Napster and just import the sond downloaded from Napster to iTunes. I think the iPOD is the most user friendly that I have found. Plus there are tons of accessories to add on to the unit. I know that there are extra battery packs or iPOD if you dont like the battery life.

If you get the iPOD You must get the sik imp from
http://www.sik.com/imp.php

This thing plugs into the base and supplies a aux OUT and charder through the dock connection. This way there is no wire out the top I have one and I love it. The problem with the iPOD interfaces that some companies like Alpine have is that unless you have the screen I think it is easier t use the actual iPOD.

OK I think the iPOD and get the sik imp here

http://www.sik.com/imp.php

Hope that helps

Preston

John,

Is your input a set of RCA's on the back, or is it a headphone style input on the front? My Clarion has a headphone style input on the front. Go to Best Buy, Radio Shack, Walmart, whatever's handy and get the appropriate cable for your application.

Also, Alan's advice about Sirus or XM is a good one too. New music all the time...unless you like the classic rock stations...and it's cheaper.

Eric

Eric

Kenny, I have about 11gb of music on my computer. Feel free to come by and get what you want.

I went with the Creative Labs Zen xtra MP3 player. It's got a 40Gig HDD in it so it can store about 700 hours of music. I have not played with it too much. The interface is ok and somewhat intuitive. It can play tracks by album, artist, your own custom play lists, or random. I got the monster cable Y splitter and hooked it up to my home stereo. I noticed that any MP3 that was under 192bit rate doesn't sound so good. WMA files and MP3s at 192 or better sounded pretty good. I did have to crank up the volume all the way on the MP3 player and adjust some of the controls on my home reciever for optimal sound.

I have yet to hook it to the boat. Maybe on Sat I'll try that.

John,

I've been told that 128 bit rate is CD quality and anything above that is basically above the discrimination capability of the human ear. That seems to be generally true with my home audio equipment and in my car. I hear somewhere else that MP3 players are more sensitive - anyone know why? Feel free to call B.S. if I'm mistaken, but you can make a Cd at both rates and see if you can tell a difference.

Renee, I'll take you up on that!! are you working all next week?

We did the the upgrade to an MP3 player this year on the boat. I was going to go with an IPOD, then one of my crew asked "Will the four remotes on the boat control the IPod?" And that got me to thinking. I have a Kenwood deck and Kenwood makes what's called a Music Keg that has a removable cartridge of either 10 or 20gig. Great little device, all the remotes control it and it even announces the name of your playlists over the system. Pretty cool little device. Only negative is that it only works in the boat. They're not too expensive. about $150. Great program called Phat Noise music manager manages all my music. I love how it says the name of my lists as I scroll through them. And anyone in the boat can control all the music.

We need to have a MP3 exchange party...

Minimum 10gb at 192kbps clean rips only.

yeah, but Tate will be home several day... and it's actually 18gb of music! Give me a call~

Send me your hard drive I'll put 6000 songs on it for you.

Buddy is picking up hard drive this weekend, it hold the entire SONY library of songs it's over 45,000 songs.

Get the I-POD

i still prefer my mp3 cd player in my boat and car, no batteries to charge or mp3 player and wire hanging around the boat.
cdrs are obviously cheap

for mp3 player i went with a 256mb flash based mpio the size of a 9v battery. small and sweet. super easy to change the music (just like a USB jump drive) and if i lose it or break it i don't have to worry about putting my whole mp3 collection on a new player.

anyhow other than the suggestion to consider a mp3 cd player, my advice is that you can plug the headphone output of any mp3 player into the aux input of your deck. just need the appropriate cable.

I'll use the MP3 CD player HU in the boat as well as my MP3 player, but I'll have a full volume of songs in the MP3 player.

I have the 7705, and love it. I also have the SIK cable, and really feel this is a great set-up. DO NOT use the FM crap. You really lose a lot of sound quality, no matter what others say. The Sik cable is great. My stereo guys removed the cigarette lighter plug, and wired it directly to the hot. All I do is plug into the bottom of the Ipod, and I am ready to go. Super set-up.

Here is a pic:

Buzz,

I'm looking for a way to hold my iPod in the boat, where did you get that mount?

I believe that mount is a prototype for a future MonsterTower offerring

One of my buddies has a really nice magnetic mount that he uses to switch between his blackberry and ipod on the dash of his car. I think it would be strong enough for a Ipod mini but I am not sure if it's strong enough for the standard ipod.

I was wanting to put in a mount for my I-Pod, but the guy at my stereo shop told me he thought that you had to have a special deck to beable to process the signal.

I've got a Kenwood head unit, new last year (can't remember model #), It has the receiver for a CD changer and I assumed I could use that channel... Get the adapter that goes between that and RCA jacks, mount that on the dash to an RCA coupler, and then run the 1/8"-to-RCA cord tothe I-pod.

The guy told me I needed a head unit with a special degital music chanel or selection in order to play the I-pod. I thought I could just use the CD changer channel.

Not sure if I described that well, but maybe someone knows for sure.

By the way, I love my I-pod. As far as ease-of-use and capacity it's the best for me.

Monster,

The guys at my stereo install shop made the bracket, and could probablu make another one for you. Feel free to give them a call. I like how it is mounted under the switch plate. If I ever remove it, there will be no holes showing.

Street Noyz
(619) 260-1747
Ask for Skip or Paul