New radio installed..

[Futurefesty90]

ive never had a problem with a JVC. even with the windows left down in the rain. i know its a semi-cheap radio but its never let me down. this is gonna be my next one.

http://resources.jvc.com/DocumentImages/00/00/09/02.JPG

[perucho]

Maybe the Pioneer unit hates living in a Neon. I had a Pioneer Premier in a Discovery and the sound quality was okay but it was super slow navigating through the mp3 folders/files.

[Pu241]

Yes, I am not sure I can get used to the loss of sound quality from compression myself. I can remember paying premium bucks in the 80's to get digital sound in the first place that was clean, clear, and complete. Kinda a step backwards, but convenient storage wise with MP3.

A lot depends on the quality(bit rate) of the MP3, you still have compression loss, but in an automotive environment you'd be hard pressed to hear them.
Issue then becomes one of storage.
When 8GB thumb drives are $12 I not too concerned.
Anyone ever try to interface an external USB drive to the USB port on a head unit?
Those are pretty cheap now too, for hundreds of GB of storage.

[ericsmith32]

All the headunits I looked at could only handle so many files and GB. The max on mine is like 8GB the Clarion is like 32GB.. but if it's a bunch of small files it may not find them all. I thought the same though. Mount a external harddrive and every so often hookup a laptop.. never have to worry about hearing the same song twice.

[ericsmith32]

"Up to 255 files per folder can be recognized. Up to 512 folders can be recognized and up to total of 130560 files can be played" .. per Clarion. So say each MP3 is 4mb (most are 3 on mine)... 130560 x 4 = 522240 megabytes or 510 Gigabytes. Rough math at 6am correct me if I'm wrong. Hmm didn't realize it would be that high you might be on to something. I don't see why a external HD wouldn't work not any different than a thumb drive.. but with computers never know.

[Pu241]

ericsmith32,
Think I'm going to be picking up the dual XR4110, thanks for the heads up!
Does the Dual call out how many files and folder it will recognize?

[ericsmith32]

• Maximum number of files: 65535
• Maximum number of folders: 65535
• Maximum number of files in each folder: 65535
• Maximum number of folder levels (sub folders): 7
Note: If the number of files/folders exceeds the maximum outlined above, the additional files/folders will be ignored.
USB and SD card device capacity limit: <16 gigabytes.
Any devices greater than 16 gigabyes are not compatible.

Interesting this was not in my manual but on the online version. To it's limited to 16GB it could actually handle up to 255GB. 16GB is still over 4000 songs though.. must of one hell of a commute if you get bored with one thumb drive.. lol.

[Pu241]

Strange that number, 65535, was also used as some parameter in the old days fofr the computer to recognize the hard drive capacity,or some such thing, before plug and play.
Don't exactly remember what parameter it was used for though.

16GB thumb drive are $$ now, can get 2 or more 8GB drives for less.

Actually, this is a temp solution till I build the car computer into the ash tray.

[ericsmith32]

Hmm I thought that number looked familiar. In this day of theives I won't put anything fancy in my cars...

[ericsmith32]

A lot depends on the quality(bit rate) of the MP3, you still have compression loss, but in an automotive environment you'd be hard pressed to hear them.
Issue then becomes one of storage.
When 8GB thumb drives are $12 I not too concerned.
Anyone ever try to interface an external USB drive to the USB port on a head unit?
Those are pretty cheap now too, for hundreds of GB of storage.

BTW figured out why the MP3's sounded terrible. I wouldn't of guessed but headunit uses different sound settings for the different inputs. Where on the radio portion I had the crappy speakers on the front they were on for the USB. Put the sound to rear and set the bass and terrible sounds 100% better.