Right now I have a 10 disc changer running through a Clarion cd deck (deck cd player doesn't work anymore) and I'm looking into MP3 decks since I have a ton of MP3's and all my cd's on MP3. I have a few questions about these and how they work. First off I'm kind of partial to Pioneer (but I'm open to other ideas, I just don't like Clarion at all). How exactly do these decks work, do they just read mp3 format off of cd's that you create or do they use memory sticks that you can download mp3's onto? Also, are there any special features I should look for when looking at these? Thanks for the help.

 

Pioneer decks read the MP3 encoded discs. Here is a site that has quite a bit of info on MP3 car audio: www.highwaymp3.com Check their message forums.

 

They have both types, but the memory stick ones are more expensive. Sony makes one....... and Pioneer at 10 gig!!
http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/Pi...,21417,00.html
But check out the MSRP!!!!!!
And the funny thing.... it lacks a bunch of cool features that much cheaper decks have.

 

I'm not sure how Pioneers work, but I have a Kenwood and I LOVE it.. I set my music up like this

Artist folder with all the songs of THAT artist in that ONE folder and then the next ARTIST FOLDER with their songs etc..

When I place my MP3 CD in the player all I do is use the AM button to go UP through the artist foders, the FM button to go DOWN through the artist folders , and the < > button to find the song under that artist folder (A-Z) order by name of song. note : if you make your folder like this ( artist/album/song ) then you will need to remember which songs are on which album in order to find them. ; but if you set it up like this (artist/ songs) you find them much easier by just remembering the name of song (A-Z). hope this helps

 

I've been looking at different players and I've narrowed my choice down to a Pioneer Premier DEH-P740MP or Pioneer Premier DEH-P840MP. The basic differences are that the 840 has dual faces that are fully motorized while the 740 just has a detatchable face, the 840 has a few more screen savers and stuff like that, and the 840 can play WMA format and has a spectrum analyzer.

Does anyone have any experience or opinions about these?

 

I don't like the 840 myself, but it would be the better choice over the 740. The 740 has slow load times, nearly 5 seconds between songs. I'm going with the 9400 myself.

Check out these sites and compare the prices.

www.ikesound.com
www.sounddomain.com
www.thezeb.com
www.etronics.com

 

I would seriously look into getting the Piemier version. ( 940 ) They can be had for almost the exact same price. The Primier version will come with 6V RCAs vs. 4V from the 9400. I think that's worth the extra mon...... actually.... nothing!!!