Alright here it is ladies and gentlemen:

I haven't seen anyone give a definitive answer on the whole CD Player / Six Disc / MP3 issue, so after speaking with the product development group's liaison at Mazda at length I thought I would clear things up.

Right now you can either get a single disc CD player or a six disc in dash CD changer. Neither of which will play MP3's.

Presently all of the accessories for the 8 have not been released to the public. Specifically regarding the DIO's (Dealer Installed Options). A single disc MP3 player will be offered with the rest of the DIO's approximately in June when the cars arrive at the dealerships.

According to Mazda once the cars arrive owners will be able to purchase this option and have the dealer place the order for it from Mazda. No information regarding pricing or other DIO's was given.

Bottom line, everyone who wants to play MP3's had better think twice before they end up wasting an extra $500.00 on that 6 disc, b/c they will just be replacing it as soon as they get it.

Hope this is was helpful.

-Quick

 

Do you know anything more about the MP3 unit? Is the unit going to be manufactured by Kenwood, given their prior relationship with Mazda?

 

That's all I know, I didn't press him for specific details. At the time I was just happy to hear that it was going to be available and that I didn't have to spend an extra 500 up front for the 6 disc.

Personally it can be made by anyone, frankly I don't really care. As long as I can still burn MP3's and then play them in my car that is all that really matters to me.

-Quick

 

But would the MP-3's sound OK?? I'm not an electronic wiz, I just like clean crisp sound.

 

Wow, there's a flammible question. Basically it depends on the encoder used, the codec, and the bitrate. I do all of my rips and encodes using CDeX, using the Lame encoder at 192Kb/s bitrate. I do 192, because I'm not looking for max compression. I merely like to fit 6 or 8 albums of high quality mp3 onto 1 disc. 192 sounds really good using the Lame encoder.

 

I have this toy called "Creative Nomad" installed into the car. It was a tricky installation though: The cd input had to be removed for the input cables but the cd must still running in the trunk otherwise no sound. But it works fine now and -- I have 6 GB of music always with me which relates to 100 cd's or so (new ones have 30 gb). I would never again take a cd (don't have any anymo' ) and the coolest: You just take it out to the beach and continue listening (and cannot be stplen overnight). 500$ for a changer? That's ridicoulous

 

It depends on you and your "ear". Me personally, the artifacts of all the decoders that I've heard so far ruin it for me. But that's me...

---jps

 

You just need a louder exhaust :-)

 

Egad, the thought... I'll get one of those with the cool LEDs surrounding the tail-pipe, and the attachment that makes an artificial BOV "phoosh" while I'm at it.

But on a serious note, I elaborated a little on my experience in this thread. The encoding "artifacts" don't show up in say, background details, but rather in smoothness and other obvious (well, obvious to me...) ways. It's just like you don't have to have a high-end TV to notice MPEG compression artifacts on the TV.

---jps