# Mp3



## tom (Jun 2, 2003)

I have an interesting problem (to me). My wife has a radio cassette player in her car and it is an integeral part of the dash, thus a CD player can not be fitted.

Soultion/ fit an MP3 player but how and which one and would the sound quality be ok?

Your thoughts given that mini disk and portable CD players are too big.

tom.

Thought anyone wanting to get rid of an MP3 player that I could experimentwith?


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## rhaythorne (Jan 12, 2004)

I'd just get one of those CD/Cassette adaptors. It has a cassette-shaped adaptor at one end of its lead that you slot into the cassette player and a 3.5mm minijack at the other end which you plug into a portable CD, minidisc or MP3 player. Thus you're playing the portable device through the car cassette player's heads.

Personally I don't rate the sound quality of MP3's highly at all, but they're fine for in-car use I guess


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## Garry (Feb 25, 2003)

Personally I don't rate the sound quality of MP3's highly at all, but they're fine for in-car use I guess











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## Mrcrowley (Apr 23, 2003)

Garry said:


> Personally I don't rate the sound quality of MP3's highly at all, but they're fine for in-car use I guess
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I'm surprised. I think mp3 sounds fine, but it's very dependant on how it's ripped. I usually do it at 192 kbps and they sound near cd quality.



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## pauluspaolo (Feb 24, 2003)

I used to download mp3's from KaZaa (not anymore though) and the quality could be variable - those I rip myself seem to be fine to my uneducated ears. Personally I'd get a minidisc player and one of those adapters mentioned earlier - it's a crime that minidiscs never really took off they do everything that tapes can, last one hell of a lot longer and sound infinitely superior. I looked for a minidisc player for my new Audi (the stereo was shagged otherwise I'd have got one of those adaptors too and used my minidisc walkman) but couldn't find one for a reasonable price (didn't want to spend Â£250 on a stereo for a car that only cost Â£400) - in the end I got a reasonable cd player from Halfrauds for Â£100 fitted. Sounds good and in the end it was a good buy









The minidisc player I have is about 10cm x 10cm (about 2cm thick), this is an old model too so they are probably even smaller now - how can this be too big? The only problem that I can envisage with using a minidisc walkman in a car is that it could be tricky changing the disc whilst on the move.


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## Garry (Feb 25, 2003)

I think that minidisc is brilliant. I've got loads of them, a portable player and a semi pro recorder / player. Quite frankly, I'm amazed they are not more popular for all the reasons Paul stated...........


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## pg tips (May 16, 2003)

my brother plays guitar and puts all his backing on a mini disc amazing kit.


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## Garry (Feb 25, 2003)

Dee and I do new years eve stuff and music for the local Turkish restaurant now and again, I do the guitar and she sings. We have all our back up stuff on about 20 minidiscs. Best portable format ever imo. We just use a portable player plugged into a 200w pa.


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## TimD (Feb 7, 2004)

If you go for an iPod you could use it with an in car holder / charger. You could then play you tunes via the existing radio with a small FM transmitter (illegal but available on ebay) or via the cassette with an adaptor. The advantage over a minidisc is that you can rip your CDs much faster than real time and it will label every track for you. Quality shouldn't be an issue if you go for a bit rate higher than 128 Kb/s, minidisc uses data compression too.

Cheers,

Tim.

P.S. I don't have an ipod yet.


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## rhaythorne (Jan 12, 2004)

The only MP3's I've ever made myself were 128kb/s (it was the highest the software would go at the time!) so maybe that's why they weren't much good









Minidisc is my favourite though. Not _quite_ as good as CD but you have to listen very hard to hear any difference. Add the portability and recordability and it should have been a winner. A shame it never really took off.


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