Car CD Player Help

Forever Zefiro · July 2007

So I'm looking to get a new CD player for my car. I'm definitely getting one with an Aux plug-in so I can plug my mp3 player into it. I'm curious what the most reliable brands are. I'm not looking for anything fancy, I just have stock speakers in my car, and I doubt I'll get better ones anytime soon. I'm just looking for a good brand that's going to last, because the car is a 2003, and the stock CD player already died and I have no clue why. I'm guess something with the lens because the radio works fine, it just doesn't read CDs

The guy at Best Buy said Pioneer, but I figured more advice would be wise

Fristle · July 2007

In my experience, car stereo reliability isn't really an issue. Performance, features and appearance are the big differentiators.

embrik · July 2007

I love my Pioneer head unit, and it did wonderful things with the stock speakers. I eventually upgraded the speakers as well, and went with Infinity 2-way speakers. The OLED displays they use are just beautiful, and I believe they're using them on (almost) all of their units now.

Forever Zefiro · July 2007

Fristle wrote: »

In my experience, car stereo reliability isn't really an issue. Performance, features and appearance are the big differentiators.

Ok, are there some brands with better performance? Or important features I should really have? The only thing I know I need is the headphone jack for my mp3 player.

What I was looking at was Pioneer DEH-3900MP. Apparently it has a "CD/MP3/WMA Receiver," which I'm not sure what that means. It can read mp3 discs?

Thank you for the help, I just don't wanna drop ~$200 on something that I'm not gonna be happy with

phased3000 · July 2007

I would just get a Pioneer with a line in if you want something with a name attached to it. If you want features, I've seen no-name MP3-CD head units with line-in, USB and SD slots in them for 99.99. The USB slot could only be used for flash media, not HD's, but a 2 gig SD card, or 4 gig thumb drive can hold a lot of MP3's.

This was in a Canadian Tire flyer, if you're from Canada

Forever Zefiro · July 2007

I just wanna make sure I get something quality. You know, it's like getting either the Sony brand PS2 controller, or some Pelican junk. I would never get Pelican brand because they are much less durable, the buttons feel crappy, etc.

I figured the same idea applied to CD players as well.

Convael · July 2007

Just want to reiterate Pioneer. I got mine from www.crutchfield.com and had great service and everything. I've never had any problems with it except that for mine the aux input was in the back so I had to take apart the front dash in order to be able to run the cord from the back through a small gap near my glove compartment in order to plug it into an iPod. I don't know fuck all about speakers/cd players but the options like Super Bass and Vocal etc worked really nicely with speakers that I didn't even know could do that.

AtomBomb · July 2007

I've had good luck with Pioneer and Sony. I had a Blapunkt for awhile (I remembered them being good in the 80's) but it was kind of sucky. Even the bottom end ones seem pretty nice. I would avoid shit like motorized faces as it's just something else to break. Don't get something from a company you've never heard of.

Blake T · July 2007

Pioneer make very good units, as do Kenwood, they are more expensive brands. I personally have a JVC deck that I've had for a good 5 years or so that has never caused me any trouble when I wasn't doing stupid things with it. JVC Make very good units at a much better price with a Lifetime Warrenty.

Mmmm... Cocks... · July 2007

phased3000 wrote: »

I would just get a Pioneer with a line in if you want something with a name attached to it. If you want features, I've seen no-name MP3-CD head units with line-in, USB and SD slots in them for 99.99. The USB slot could only be used for flash media, not HD's, but a 2 gig SD card, or 4 gig thumb drive can hold a lot of MP3's.

This was in a Canadian Tire flyer, if you're from Canada

Holy shit - didn't know they made stuff like that. I'm gonna be looking for one in a few weeks when I get my new blazer. This is fantastic! I usually just browse amazon when I got looking for something like this and I've never even heard of this before - nice. I was planning on a DVD-MP3 player but this takes the cake.

variant · July 2007

Stay away from Blapunkt, Sony's Xplod any brand you haven't heard of before.

Also the brands you have heard of, say Pioneer, still make shitty low budget ones, try to avoid those.

Fristle · July 2007

MateriaMaster wrote: »

Holy shit - didn't know they made stuff like that. I'm gonna be looking for one in a few weeks when I get my new blazer. This is fantastic! I usually just browse amazon when I got looking for something like this and I've never even heard of this before - nice. I was planning on a DVD-MP3 player but this takes the cake.

I was considering something that could play MP3s off of DVD-R as well. Make sure it supports ID3 Tags. Also, navigating your list of MP3s is usually painfully user-unfriendly. The aux-in feature and a portable digital music player might be a better combination. I haven't decided yet, I have buyer paralysis.

blincoln · July 2007

I got a Blaupunkt last year through Crutchfield for around $100 that's served me pretty well. I got the aux-in kit at the same time, so I've got stereo RCA inputs if I need them. I probably wouldn't buy Blaupunkt again (it's been reliable and can read ID3 tags from mp3s, but cuts off the first fraction of a second of every song), and Crutchfield's installation kits aren't very robust, but they have fairly good prices compared to e.g. Best Buy.
The installation kit issue might be a universal one. I've only heard of one other aftermarket installation kit company and it sounded as flimsy as Crutchfield's.

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