since i'll be having an intercom thingy when i get my car finished, im considering getting a portable MP3 player.

id rather have one of the large storage Hard disk based ones, but knowing that HD's dont like vibration (and the ride will be a tad 'raw' i'd be concerned about how long it'd last.

anyone had any experience of premature wear using them in cars like this?
I'd probably be better off with flash based storage but i'd have to keep swapping mp3's a lot since the storage is limited...

I would use the HD based player. just fab a foam base for it to ride on (flat). get a piece from your local computer store. HD's normally ship with a nice low density foam that would work great.

I've just bought a 512mb player off ebay for my car as dont want to fit a music system,holds about 9 cd albums, £33.99 + p/p seems good..........

With a R1 and all the road noise I think the MP3 player will be very hard to hear!

My next car will have an inbuilt system for my iPod, don't want a fully stereo, just an amp and speakers.

iPods are the nuts - such a nice piece of kit to use - I'm up to 3.8 days of continous music on mine

Thats alot of ABBA and Stely span Jasper!!

I bet the last hour is a compilation of all the Crazy Frog mixes!!

Donut: do you mean Steely Dan (excellent music ), or Steeleye Span ( not so excellent folky music, All around my hat etc....)

You yooffs dont know what your chattin' about!!!!!

Black Sabbath, BLS, Metallica, Hendrix, Quo, Pink Floyd, ACDC, Aerosmith...thats driving music. You cant drive litening to soft a55 5hite

And i dont think theres much point in a stereo in a 7...they bring their own music

[Edited on 9/6/05 by flak monkey]

I'm using a kit build HD player in my stylus and have been using the car 4 summers and the hard drive is still in good condition with no bad sectors.

I mounted the Hard drive vertically so an shocks from hitting a bump should not smash the heads into the platter.


Have a look at www.number69.netstylusmp3.htm
I know you can get an Ipod to do this now but back in 2001 in car mp3 players cost a fortune !

[Edited on 9/6/05 by B@man]

forgot to add - even with a Alpine 180w amp and the 6x9's behind each seat you can't hear it at over 70 MPH !

[Edited on 9/6/05 by B@man]

Until recently I had this lot in a Mk5 Escort

Car MP3 player currently running 40000+ MP3 files

Computer system Specs

Intel PIII 450

192Mb memory

2 x 120Gb Maxtor hard disks

1024 bit SB Live audio card

Keycorp video display adapter

100Mb Network card

Irmon IR receiver

Keycorp K55 10.1" Colour LCD monitor

Vikay 4x20 LCD display

Windows 98SE

Winamp V2.8

Pc is built into a cheap aluminum look flight case purchased from B&Q for £10.

Powered from a 300w 12dc to 240ac invertor.

Hard drives are soft mounted in foam to protect from shock.



Sound system specs

Boschmann 600W

3 x Jensen 300W

Fury 100W

Sony 4020 150W

1 x Eminence Kappa Pro 400 Wrms 12 inch Sub Woofer

2 x Aura Bass Shakers (mounted under the front seats)

2 x Bumper 300 Wrms 12 inch Bass

2 x Eminence 600 Wrms 2.5 inch Tweeters

4 x Sony 3-way 200 Wrms 6 x 9 inch Mid range

2 x Eminence Beta 200 Wrms 8 inch Mid range

USAcoustics 2 Farad Capacitor

Power Zone 1 Farad Capacitor

Pro Sound 5 way Electronic crossover

Pro Sound Equaliser

so you had a quiet car then!

I do not understand people who spend £100s on a car stereo. For several reasons:

1. You dont get proper stereo in a car, you sit right on top of one speaker, and most of what you hear comes from that one only.

2. A car is a box, with terrible acoustic properties. I have yet to hear a decent car stereo/sound system.

3. People seem to think that making the car rattle with 3 subs in the boot is cool, and makes the music sound great....it doesnt!

4. Somone will probably nick it.

The only way to experience the depth in music is to listen to it on a proper stereo, in a nice room, in a comfy chair... Speaker tweeters should be at ear level. Speakers should be pointed toward your seating position, the sound paths should cross about 0.5m infront of you for the ultimate stereo soundstage. Also watts RMS doesnt equal volume...

I'm a bit of an audiophile...I could go on...but I shan't

David

Seems easier to just use in ear phones and an mp3 player of your choice, I wouldn't want to fit a sound system it would look crap in a 7 type car,............

As Jasper says you could fit a power amp under the dash, but I wouldn't even want the speakers on show..............

My other idea was to use an mp3 player through some small , PC type powered monitor speakers , perhaps on velco so you can remove them easy...........


I dont want to hear the radio over 80-90 mph there's more to concentrate on in a 7 type car..............


Blimey I'm nearly ranting

Sorry Dave, i was never one for that type of music, i'm more with Flack Monkey when it comes to good tunes.

Last 3 CD's i bought are

Coldplay's new one, System of a Downs new jobby and Kraftwerk live double CD.

I tried an MP3 player but listenign to music driving a BEC 7 is a little out of place.

All i enjoy are the plaintive screams of my passengers!