I am still trying to nail down what features/options I want to get when I buy my '8.

I have no experience with mp3 music. I understand that you can put several CD's worth of music on a single CD-R. Can you get more music on a mp3 CD than the six disk CD changer?

I see that Mazda lists an OE mp3 player for the '8. Can you get that from the factory/dealer installed? Or would I be better off installing it myself? How hard is the installation? My wiring experience is limited to basic car stereo installs.

Thanks

 

Using any one of a multitude of CD burning tools on your PC, you can put several hours' worth of MP3-encoded audio on a single data disk. The OEM MP3 player is a drop-in replacement for the standard single-disk audioCD-only disk drive mechanism, and will play both CD Audio and MP3 data disks.

You can order it as a dealer-installed option, or have a dealer install it after your initial purchase, but many of us have bought the bare unit cheaply from our local dealer (or Rosenthal Mazda or Mazda South online) and installed it ourselves.

Look in the Audio and Electronics forum for several threads on the subject, including complete instructions with step-by-step illustrations.

 

Think of it this way -
If 1 Song = 5 Minutes
Then 1 Audio CD = 12 Songs = 1 hour worth of music

If 1 MP3 Song = 7 MB (Megabytes i.e. Size of the file on the PC)
Then 1 MP3 CD = 100 Songs = 8 hours 20 minutes worth of music

And like Eccles said, you can still play your regular CDs with the MP3 player.

Jeff