I've been chillin' w/ my stock CD player in the X for 3 years now, and I hate not being able to have a CD with 300 songs on it. Now that I have DSL and I'm downloading a ton of music I want to put a ton of songs on a CD. But of course the X won't read the disc (I think). I actually haven't tried it, but I was under the impression it will not work.

So any way here is what I want. I want an inexpensive CD/MP3 player that will work w/ whatever speakers I have now, I'm not changing anything but the CD player.

So my question is... Can anybody recommend a good performing, inexpensive player? that isn't a knock off

I just installed a pioneer deck in my 2002. It cant play mp3's, but the model above it can. It will make the stock speakers sound much better, too. In terms of price, what you spend is what you get - usually. My suggestion is look around and see what you can find. Try car audio stores and try some of the bigger places, like best buy. If you want to save some cash, see if you can find a used one.

Anybody got any suggestions for good MP3-CD players? I've got a budget of 500 bucks (for the deck, I'm keeping my speakers).

Any suggestions? Good/bad?

I bought a Sony Discman, that plays MP3 cds, with all the car attachments at Best Buy for like $70. That way, I can take it out of the X and play it on the boat as well!! Plus, it's alot cheaper and less involved than putting in an entire new head unit.

Unfortunately, this will only work if you have the head unit that has a tape deck as well....

I have an iPod. More songs than I can listen to in a resonable amount of time in a very small package.

I have the stock 6 disk changer head unit for the SE, and an FM Modulator that is wired in between the head unit and the antenna.

There is a slight loss of quality with the modulator, but then again we are talking about listening to lossy music in a vehicle that isn't exactly a quite luxury car either...

Oh, as for MP3 CD's - I carted CD's around for years. Have no desire to fool with them any more - MP3 or not. iPod goes in my pocket, along with all of my music - that's it. No need to carry around any other crap, no CD's to get lost, scratched, melted, etc.

I might eventually swap out the stock head unit to something with an aux in, but so far I haven't been too impressed with any of the kits I saw. the best looking "filler" was a stock Nissan part tray pictured recently in another thread.

It's all relative, and depends on what you want. I used the dock that comes with the iPod at home to charge it at home and load songs (rare to change 'em). I bought another dock and cable, and used the AC adapter that comes with the iPod at my office. Extra set of speakers left over from an old computer system plugged into the dock and I have tunes in my office. Very slick, and nice and independant of my work computer - don't have to worry about loading an MP3 player (our environment is monitored pretty good). When I fly home Saturday, the iPod will be more than up to the 5 or so hour treck home - and it's size will really pay off.

The Ipod actually isn't such a bad idea...hadn't thought of that...Ive made so many MP3 discs that I just figured I'd get a deck that would play them, but the portability and sheer memory size of the ipod is a very definate plus.

Which size drive did you get?

i've got this jvc: http://www.etronics.com/product.asp?stk_code=jvckds890&store=&catid=317

in my '03 x. and i love it. had it in my tacoma before that too....

it's not the fanciest in the world, but it will work like a champ and leave you enough cash to do some other mods!!

You could also just go to ebay and get a cheapo laptop that can play mp3s and hook it into your stereo using the tape adapter from a cd player. This not only gives you almost unlimited music, but will also allow you to have a built in mapping device. I do that when I go on road trips....

30 GB. Now for the same $$$ you can get the 40. While 30 is more than enough for music, I also use it to transfer files around. No longer need to carry around my external hard drive - iPod does it all. Plus it will boot my macs in an emergancy

I had the first HD based MP3 player that was on the market - http://www.pjbox.com. I got spoiled on having gobs of music in a self-contained package. I used to travel extensivly, and the (at the time) compact size was a godsend. The iPod blows away that first gen player in relative size - if you have never held an iPod in your hand, go to a store and do so. It's hard to appreciate how small they are until you do.

I have a 30GB iPod as well. Fortunately, my head unit has an aux in so that I don't have to use an FM modulator. I also have a 6-disk CD/MP3 player (Alpine CHA S634) so my music choices are always covered.

I think I'm going to go with the Ipod. Looked over some of them last night online, and they're really coming down in price!

How is the search function on them? Easy to use, or something I have to take my eyes off the road for a long time?

You search by browsing through your music library. You can browse by artist, song, genre, or composer. It's easy to use but sometimes I find myself taking my eyes off the road when I am specifically searching for a particular track. You may want to consider picking up a 2nd gen iPod. Their design is more intuitive when it comes to navigating by touch. With the new iPods, the controls are touch sensitive so groping around to change the track while keeping your eyes on the road can become a frustrating experience.

I just bought this one.
http://www.crutchfield.com/cgi-bin/S-yYT...ay=L#morephotos

Altima i have an earlier sony model but that same general cd player and i like it a lot. Let me know what you think because i might get that same one because of the mp3 capabilities. This site also has it for a lot cheaper:
http://www.discountjungle.net/sonycdxm850mp.html

There isn't any player out there that won't require you to take your eyes off the road for an unsafe period of time.

I use the shuffle. You can either shuffle all songs, or inside your playlists. You can have as many playlists as you like.

As for navigation by touch, the 20 and 40 GB iPods come with a remote that is easier to use by touch as it has real buttons - I just leave it in the X these days.

I'm running the Pioneer DEH-P8500MP head unit. It plays MP3s, WMAs and is XM Satellite ready.

I would not reccommend keeping the stock speakers. My new Pioneer head unit would push so much power to the stock speakers that after 15 minutes of moderate volume the coils would heat up and start popping. I finally bit the bullet and upgraded to Infinity Kappas. I'm much happier now.

I payed 250.00 on e-bay. It's a pretty sweet mp3 player. Tons of features. I definately recommend this unit. Go to ABC Warehouse and check it out before you buy it, make sure you like it, thats what I did.

yxterra, not trying to sway your decision by any means, but one thing you should know if you dont know allready, is that with the mp3 disc's you will lose a TON of sound quality.

Compared to what? Depending on the bitrate and the type of music, you can get VERY close to CD.

Remember, we are talking about playing music in a LOUD truck, not a luxury car - it's relative...

Compared to what? Depending on the bitrate and the type of music, you can get VERY close to CD.

Remember, we are talking about playing music in a LOUD truck, not a luxury car - it's relative...[/QB][/QUOTE]

DocNo, I realize you know everything there is to know about any subject that is up for disscusion, but all I was trying to tell the man was that the quality will not be as good as a reuglar cd. It just will not. I also stated I was not trying to sway his decision at all, just letting him know.

I bought a Pioneer Premier P940. It plays MP3's and has almost every feature you can imagine. It is a $900 deck I bought new off of Ebay for around $550. Buy new not refurbished. You will not be disappointed with the deck.

I would have to disagree! My MP3s are all set at 192 kbps which is at or higher than CD quality(if I am not mistaken, CD quality is 128-160 kbps, but I'm not positive on those numbers). I am TOTALLY ANAL when it comes to sound, and the CDs I make with my computer come out just as clear as store bought CDs. I not only listen to them in my X, but also on my home theater, my computers theater system(SB Live! Platinum 5.1 with Altec Lansing 5.1 speakers), and with my discman and high quality headphones so the sound is actually right on my ear!!! There really is not that much of a difference if you have quality recording devices and the songs are copied at a higher bitrate.

Actually, CD audio's bitrate is 1411.2 kbps.

Anytime analog information is digitized and compressed there is going to be a loss of information. That said, if converted to MP3 from original source, 128kbps isn't bad, 160kbps is about as good as you can hear, and if playback on high-end equipment, there aren't too many people on the planet who can detect any loss at 192kbps. I've used as much as 320k-VBR, and settled on 192 as being about as good as it gets.

True, there's a lot of information lost from approximation of the CD waveform to MP3, but we're incapable of hearing most of it. Saying that there is a ton of sound quality loss is stretching it.

Edit: Oops, forgot to post links. Go to Crutchfield\'s Website and put in your X year and current setup, you should get 60+ results.

For those looking for cool, expensive options, the Phatbox looks interesting, and for the ultimate in geeky setups, Omnifi is way cool.

Cheers!

OK...So prove me wrong!! lol I guess its true that you learn something new every day

Hehe - sorry bud, didn't mean it that way. You were absolutely right, "CD Quality" in reference to MP3 is within the bitrate range you specified. The CD bitrate was posted as an FYI.

Cheers!