i have a four cd changer which i love but with a mp3 player i can have more than one cd hold more songs than 6 cds by it self. Im really in a bind here i have know idea what to get.

I've been reading up on another thread about who's getting the 6cd changer, but is the mp3 player even an option? If so where would it go? I have an in dash 6 cd changer in my current car and I wouldn't trade it for anything. It's such a pain in the ass going into the trunk to change cds or for the mp3 player (if that's where it will be located).

it replaces the cd player with new cd coding mp3 player so u can make a data cd of mp3 holding mroe than 200 songs and play that which is great and with a data cd you can keep adding songs to it.

If you want the mp3, I would suggest that you get the base stereo and then replace it with an MP3 player. I am thinking of converting the one in my Miata to mp3. Can't shift and change songs.

Gents, look through some of the existing threads. The 6 disk changer is a slot-loaded style changer that sits in place of the regular CD player or MP3 player.

---jps

with all the $$$ i'm spending on the stereo, i really don't want to listen to inferior sounding mp3's....and yes you can tell the difference, especially at 200 songs per cd, yikes. Like an am radio in a tin can. dynamic range...gone.

Originally posted by norats
with all the $$$ i'm spending on the stereo, i really don't want to listen to inferior sounding mp3's....and yes you can tell the difference, especially at 200 songs per cd, yikes. Like an am radio in a tin can. dynamic range...gone.

Doesn't the mp3's sound quality depend on encodind bit rate? Some people say 128 kb/s is very close to CD quality, if you want exceptional sound quality encode them at 160, 256, or something high like that. You won't have as much mp3's in a CD but still more songs than the 6 cd changer...

both my RX's have MP3 players, can't live with a regular CD or changer anymore.

yes, you can tell the difference, I can at home on with the nice stereo setup, but in the car, no, it sounds fine.. with all the road noise, wind noise and what not, its hard to tell.

I say it really depends on the MP3.. unless you're gifted, human ears can't discern the difference on a good MP3. Granted majority of the ones you find on Kazaa/etc are crap, if you rip your own CDs and do em with quality, care, and love, I dont see the problem..

mp3 all the way
but then again im not an audio-necro-philiac

6-disc...& that's my final answer!

I was actually disappointed to find that I could hear a noticeable difference between MDs and CDs in my Miata, and with the top down at speed, no less.

The difference in the sound quality is not a matter of hearing details in the background (which are normally drowned out in an environment like a car), but in how "smooth" the sound is. In the case of my Miata, the extreme highs from the MD are more "harsh" than with the CD player. And this is noticeable at all volume levels, and at freeway speeds with the top down (as long as the stereo is loud enough for the song to be heard, of course).

---jps

here's my 2 cents...

the MP3 player wins in all accounts...

1) first of all, for those that say MP3's don't sound as good as CDs, well you can always play a regular CD on the MP3 player...but you can't play any MP3s on the 6-disc

2) you can fit more songs in MP3 format on one CD than you can on 6 CDs...actually, i've been able to fit 144 songs total on one CD, all with varying bitrates, some CD quality 320kb/sec, some at 128kb/sec which sounds more like a good tape recording

3) price difference - the 6-disc runs at $500 while the MP3 player will be under $400...possibly $350

4) baggage - should i bring 6 CDs or 1 CD with more songs? do that math...

btw, the human ear will NOT be able to discern a good quality MP3 from a CD track...if an MP3 is encoded in 160kb/sec even, the quality is so good that you'll really only be able to hear a difference if you really, REALLY listen for it...at 192kb/sec it's almost impossible to hear it...and at 320kb/sec, it's CD-quality...a regular track on a CD is around 45 MEGS while that same track compressed to a 320kb/sec bitrate MP3 is around 10MB

I like minidiscs better!

Originally posted by BRx8
here's my 2 cents...

the MP3 player wins in all accounts...

1) first of all, for those that say MP3's don't sound as good as CDs, well you can always play a regular CD on the MP3 player...but you can't play any MP3s on the 6-disc

2) you can fit more songs in MP3 format on one CD than you can on 6 CDs...actually, i've been able to fit 144 songs total on one CD, all with varying bitrates, some CD quality 320kb/sec, some at 128kb/sec which sounds more like a good tape recording

3) price difference - the 6-disc runs at $500 while the MP3 player will be under $400...possibly $350

4) baggage - should i bring 6 CDs or 1 CD with more songs? do that math...

btw, the human ear will NOT be able to discern a good quality MP3 from a CD track...if an MP3 is encoded in 160kb/sec even, the quality is so good that you'll really only be able to hear a difference if you really, REALLY listen for it...at 192kb/sec it's almost impossible to hear it...and at 320kb/sec, it's CD-quality...a regular track on a CD is around 45 MEGS while that same track compressed to a 320kb/sec bitrate MP3 is around 10MB

Ditto... You nail that one on the head. I am also getting the Mp3 player. Anyways, 6 disc changers are so 90's...

I think the player to get is the 20gb neo jukebox for your car.All you basically have to do is transfer all your mp3s to the hard drive and it goes in the trunk. You'll have everything at your fingertips and it's about the same as the mp3 player for the rx8(about $40 more depending on where you buy it.) If you guys are worried about space then this is your answer ;)....Thats what i plan to use.

Originally posted by norats
6-disc...& that's my final answer!

Oh, no. I am sorry. Maybe you should have taken the 50/50, phoned a friend or asked the audience... you are clueless and go home with just $1,000. :)

I have the new iPod 30GB (Windows and Mac) unit and have 200+ CDs loaded onto this bad boy. No more searching for CDs or maxing out my caddy at 6 disks. I have thousands of hours of music and cutting all my favoriates to CD even at 128 or 160 kb/s is really not much different than CD itself. At 96k where most MP3s try to save space is where you get in to trouble. Use the Variable bit rate for even better performance. About the only thing Mazda could have done better was to offer a factory DVD/MP3 option that used the navigation system to play movies or watch TV. BMW offers that in Europe, and Mazda may even offer it in Japan, but not here in the US, we are all too stupid for our own good! ;)

Originally posted by G-man

I have the new iPod 30GB (Windows and Mac) unit and have 200+ CDs loaded onto this bad boy.

I've had my 20GB Rio Riot for over a year now, and I plan on hooking that up to the RX-8 with a FM transmitter and 12V adapter. It should fit nicely in the center compartment. I'm not a big audiophile so the decrease in sound quality through FM waves won't bother me.

Somewhat related but not really ... I'm really tempted to go iPod now that it's smaller and now that I have a Mac (15" Powerbook).

You can have both a the standard CD changer or the 6 CD Changer AND an MP3 Player. The latter goes into a space below the CD Changer. Knowing that, I think the MP3 makes more sense because you will have both. I belive the MP3 Player is also quite a bit less expensive than the 6 CD Changer.

Originally posted by boowana
You can have both a the standard CD changer or the 6 CD Changer AND an MP3 Player. The latter goes into a space below the CD Changer. Knowing that, I think the MP3 makes more sense because you will have both. I belive the MP3 Player is also quite a bit less expensive than the 6 CD Changer.

I thought I wasn't allowed to have the 6cd changer and the MP3 both. are you telling me this is not correct?

the deck systems in the rx-8 are modular, so you can get any combonation of 6cd, cd, mp3 and md


it would be NAAAAASSSSSSTTTYYYYYY if it was an MP3 CHANGER, i need the 6 disc cause i need the quality, PLUS i just find it easier to have 6 diff types of music on 6 diff dics than sorting through one HUGE arangement, beauty of MD is that you can organize them into groups w/o any loss of quality and still have like 4 discs on one MD. Anyway, i hate listening to HUGE playlists of like 100+ songs, but, i might go mp3 md anyways, HIGHLY doubt it though

I'm choosing the mp3 player, for maximum flexibility. The 6CD changer is just doesn't offer the right mix of features and cost for me.
I plan on using my 30Gb iPod most of the time. I'll probably keep a handful of mix mp3 discs in the car. (I can burn them from my Powerbook on demand.) I plan on rigging up a line-in on the faceplate so I can plug in the iPod without having to use one of the FM transmitter solutions.

mp3 cd player AND a MD player....... best of everything/maximum flexibility.

mp3's ripped at 192kB/s or more have virtually NO quality loss over regular CD tracks. There is a small degradation in dynamic range, but in a car who cares???????

If you want to maximize quality and quantity on your mp3 discs rip your music using VBR(variable bit rate). Then you can have pristine quality while minimizing file size (more songs on a disc).

I have about 20 gigs of music ripped from my cd's at 100%VBR and the sound quality is EXCELLENT. The comp. rips most of the tracks in the 200-235kB/s range which is all you really need to get the quality. If you really want to get hardcore.... Rip your music at 320kB/s, still get more songs than the 6 CD changer, quit whining and shut the hell up!!!!!!!!;)

I consider myself to be an audiophile and I am very happy with the VBR recordings.

just my $.02

by the way...... i don't even care that the audio system in my FD is f-ed up. The engine/exhaust note is orgasmic!!!!!!

Originally posted by BRx8
btw, the human ear will NOT be able to discern a good quality MP3 from a CD track...if an MP3 is encoded in 160kb/sec even, the quality is so good that you'll really only be able to hear a difference if you really, REALLY listen for it...at 192kb/sec it's almost impossible to hear it...and at 320kb/sec, it's CD-quality...a regular track on a CD is around 45 MEGS while that same track compressed to a 320kb/sec bitrate MP3 is around 10MB

Thanks for your info... I will get the MP3 now... as I download all songs in 192kbs

Funny how some people bash MP3s and love MDs at the same time.... Just to let you know, MDs use a psychoacoustic model compression scheme similar to MP3s. To each their own, but I think some people are listening more with their brain than their ears and going off what they expect to hear than what they do.

This is a similar concept to the people that say they can hear the difference when they spend thousands on a cable :rolleyes:, of course you do, you have to justify the mass amounts of money you spent for naught.

I know there are people out there who can hear the difference in poorly encoded MP3s, but the people who can notice a difference between a good, high quality VBR MP3 encoded by a good codec (like Lame) and the original cd recording are few and far in between. The model that was used is, obviously, biased around the average human ear, with a little fudge factor mixed in for some people with dog ears, those that fall out of that range will hear a difference, but they are typically trained in the field of acoustics and rely on their ears for their job.

BTW: People with gear capable of producing those differences are even fewer, I'd say the loudspeaker you'll be using is your weakest link...after that your tuning abilities to get everything balanced in the listening enviroment.

Bah, I'm tired of defending MP3...if you are so convinced that the "difference" you hear is real no amount of logic will apply to you. Just don't say you love MD and can't stand MP3, they are very similar in concept and use very similar compression schemes.

This is getting almost as bad as the audiophile's long going analog vs. digital debate. Should we beat that dead horse some more :rolleyes:.

I plan on using my 30Gb iPod most of the time. I'll probably keep a handful of mix mp3 discs in the car. (I can burn them from my Powerbook on demand.) I plan on rigging up a line-in on the faceplate so I can plug in the iPod without having to use one of the FM transmitter solutions.

ectomort,
How are you going to connect the IPod? Cuz in other posts, it says in the stock stereo there is no aux line-in for external devices , so I'm just wondering how.

Eventually, I will be getting the best of all three worlds:

1 - MP3 Player - I will be able to play CDs & MP3s discs
2 - MD Player - I'll be able to play my MDs as well.

Persoanlly, I'd rather carry around tiny MDs than a bunch of CDs, but I like having the option to play almost any format.

As for iPod, etc - I'm not a fan of Apple, so this is out of the question for me. Plus, I'd rather have everything in the dash - no connecting cables and whatnot.

Originally posted by OmegaBob
Eventually, I will be getting the best of all three worlds:

1 - MP3 Player - I will be able to play CDs & MP3s discs
2 - MD Player - I'll be able to play my MDs as well.

Persoanlly, I'd rather carry around tiny MDs than a bunch of CDs, but I like having the option to play almost any format.

As for iPod, etc - I'm not a fan of Apple, so this is out of the question for me. Plus, I'd rather have everything in the dash - no connecting cables and whatnot.

I agree with you, having an "Adaptor/Ipod" soulution just looks cheap. Plus wires are always getting in the way.

I'm certianly getting the MP3 player, as for the MD or cassette. I might add one of those at a later time, if it's even needed. Cassettes are almost dead, especially if you have an Mp3 player, and can burn you own CD's. Faster, Cheaper, last longer, and sound better.

MD is cool, but I'd have to go out and buy a recorder, and MD's just to use it. But if it can do stuff the the Mp3 player won't be able to do, then I'll take a more serious look at it.

Originally posted by OmegaBob
As for iPod, etc - I'm not a fan of Apple, so this is out of the question for me. Plus, I'd rather have everything in the dash - no connecting cables and whatnot.

FYI, You can use iPod for PCs. Just add a card for firewire

Originally posted by takahashi


FYI, You can use iPod for PCs. Just add a card for firewire

The new iPods support FireWire and USB 2.0 (recently renamed USB 2.0 Hi speed) so any recent PC probably has the requisite serial support.
The updater was released today.

Originally posted by ReX-8
How are you going to connect the IPod? Cuz in other posts, it says in the stock stereo there is no aux line-in for external devices , so I'm just wondering how.

It's true there's no AUX line in on the faceplate, but the jury's not in on internal AUX connectors.

Initially, I'll use an FM transmitter like iTrip http://www.griffintechnology.com/products/itrip/index.html ($40) solution. Once I get the time, and enough other folks get their RX-8s and start modding their audio systems, I plan on building an adaptor. I'm not sure how elaborate it will be. Ideally I will "dock" the iPod, with all connections hidden (no wires) and use a wireless remote to control it. I'll definitely post pictures/instructions on the project.