MP3

[Martin Evans]

I think this could have been a PM to JPB, our resident car radio boffin!!

I have only ever bought one car radio and that’s the radio cassette in the Midget. All the others came in cars or were given to me!!

I now need a new radio for the V8. There’s not a lot of room in the standard MGB radio console and I am sure units have got bigger!! I think car CD players are even bigger, than radio cassettes, presumably since the CD is bigger in area (I know some store multiple discs in the boot but I can’t be bothered with that!!) All I have is a power supply, an aerial plug and wires to two speakers; I don’t want to make the ground shake as I drive past.

Moss list radio/MP3 players for MGBs but at this stage, I don't really know what is involved. I suspect that radio/MP3 players maybe smaller, since you don’t need to insert the disc or cassette. However, I know virtually nothing about them and don’t even know the difference between an ipod and an MP3 or whether Bluetooth describes someone who has been eating black currents.

In the past, most of my cassettes were copied off my records and later CDs, so that I could use them in the car (I can still use them in the Midget and the Minor). Can you load an MP3 with “Ripped” CDs from your PC and play them? Are radio/MP3 players generally smaller, behind the scenes, than radio cassettes? If you have to download everything off the Internet, there's not much point; I already have the music on a hard copy as you might say and just need to change the format of it.

[tractorman]

While not the expert that John is, I did have a look at radios the other week (I nearly bought a classic without one!). As you say, modern radios are larger than the older ones - the fittings are DIN sizes though and I would suspect that most modern radios will all be that size (certainly the ones I saw were DIN fitting), though some are less deep.

Some have USB sockets, so you don't even need to go to the expense of an i-player (or other more sensible MP3 player). I'm just getting into the MP3s, having been slow to go to 8-track, then cassette and, only within the last fifteen years or so, CD! There is the advantage that there are still several sites where you can download FREE MP3 "songs" to the PC and then to the USB memory stick (and from there to the car stereo). It saves a lot of hassle converting the old cassettes (with their variable speed playback...) or CDs and you just get the decent tracks from the albums.

Mind you, the dog has now realised that when "the Living Years" has been played, it's time for me to switch the computer off and do something that interests her!! The power of adverts reminded me that "Let's Stick Together" (the Roxy Music version) was good: the dog suddenly jumped up when the advert was on the other night!

[suffolkpete]

Car CD players seem to be on the way out, they rarely seem to be supplied in new cars these days, most offer radio/mp3 players. You can rip CDs in mp3 format from a PC, upload them to your mp3 player and plug it into the auxiliary socket or, in some cases upload them direct to the radio via USB. http://www.classiccarstereo.co.uk offer retro styled radios that they claim will fit classic cars, although they seem a bit pricey to me. There are other firms that sell classic radios modified to receive FM and with auxiliary inputs added, perhaps a better solution if you want to retain the original appearance.

[Martin Evans]

I've had a look at some of the ripped CDs in the file; some are WMA and some have ripped as MP3. Both seems to play the same on the PC and I expect it is just coincidence the way they were ripped (I have never paid any attention to it so far). I have been able to convert WMA files into MP3, so that bit is OK.

I see some of the classic radios are just radios, into which you plug an MP3. It's hard to gauge but MP3 players seem to be about the size of my mobile phone (Basic pay as you go). It's not clear whether the MP3 would draw power from the car, when used in that way (Would save the battery) but it could mean the unit is smaller, if the MP3 is remote. I have an old fashioned Gheto blaster, from the early 1980s and you could plug a microphone into that, to use it as a loud hailer (I never did) and I suppose this is a similar thing, in that the MP3 is basically using the speakers of the car radio.

How long before this is all obselete I wonder

I remember the 8 track system. I never had one and don't really know what the eight tracks were. I know the cassettes were much bigger. My father nearly bought a Jensen Interceptor and they were standard on those but it was not in unit with the radio (Were they ever ).

[Richard Moss]

I've fitted a couple of JVC and Pioneer stereos to cars lately - they play CDs and also MP3s (either burnt onto a CD or via a memory stick socket on the front or from an ipod plugged into a socket). Dirt cheap, flexible and perfectly adequate - plus the last ones were obtained at Halfords for about £30 in their half price sale.

[Martin Evans]

I'm in the process of fitting a radio, that will play MP3 from a USB stick. I have created some MP3 files and put them on a stick. My parents have a radio/CD/MP3 in their house and they've never used the USB bit. As the car installation isn't finished, I tried the stick in their device. There are a number of CDs on the USB stick, each in it's own file but when you play them, they seem to play in an order, other than as they are found on the stick. Is there a way of configuring them, so that they play an album at a time, in turn

[TerryG]

That depends on the stereo. I have albums in folders on my USB sticks and the stereo plays through them in alphabetical order.

[JPB]

That depends on the stereo. I have albums in folders on my USB sticks and the stereo plays through them in alphabetical order.

This is what the (Siemens supplied) "infotainment" wireless in the Golf 7 does but it also allows the option of playing track by track in alphabetical order, playing album by album with each track either alphabetical or in its original sequence, playing randomly or playing in order of folder rather than album, say where a track saved from a single in a folder can also be played as part of the album that would have contained that track had I bought it on an LP.

That's typical of most of these modern devices as far as I can tell since the much simpler one (also Siemens sourced) in the Smart offered the same selection of ordering methods.
Some manufacturers' menus are more complex than others, the B&O setup in Dad's motor is, in typical B&O fashion, simple like breathing. At the other end of the spectrum is the menu on the Japanese head unit in t'other half's posh Toyota. To communicate with it, you need to buy it flowers, wine & dine it and - if you want to shove a DVD into it - then you need to be officially married to the stupid thing before it'll let you. At least that's how it feels, going from my modern car wireless set to hers.