Hopefully, I'm not being redundant. However, I did check the previous thread before asking.

I wanted to know if anyone has the 6 CD changer and MP3 player factory/dealer installed in their RX -8. I was talking with a local dealer about getting both installed once my car arrives, and he told me I can't have both. He couldn't explain why. I'm not getting a cassette player. So, I figured the MP3 player could go in the cassette slot.

Any info who be appreciate!

Alphaman60

 

Your dealer is correct. There is space for 2 audio modules, one above the head unit and one below. There are three options for the top module: CD player, MP3 player and 6-CD changer. There are 2 options for the lower module bay: cassette player and mini-disc player.

 

Thanks for explanation. I guess that's means I' ll be getting the MP3 PLAYER.

 

Ecto is correct - the upper and lower modules are not interchangeable. IMHO the MP3 is the logical choice - a single MP3 disk can hold a whole lot more than six audio disks anyway.

 

Can the MP3 player that Madza sells play regular CD's as well?

 

Yes. And it will also pick up track and album title information if the CD has CD-Text information on it.

 

MP3 upper deck
MPLD lower deck....

 

THANKS AGAIN!

 

Uk gets the 6 CD changer as standard.

Mazda want £300 ($450) to put in the MP3 player. If it was a HDD based player might be worth it, but not a CD/MP3 player which will cost less than the 6cd changer.

 

iIs 6 deck standard in the US coz I am going to sell mine after installing the MP3

 

No, the single-disk is standard, but the 6-disk is a port-installed option.

Rob: You might look at purchasing an MP3 player from Trussville Mazda - even with FedEx shipping across the pond it would probably come in well under 450 quid, and it's not hard to install by yourself.

 

6CD's at 192K will barely fit on a single 80 minute CDR, so I won't be bothering... a 6CD MP3 player would tempt me... but otherwise I'll just make CDR's of the audio CD's.

 

£300 list price here. with fed ex + taxes (roughly 22%) and a tax collection cgarge (£10) I doubt it'll come in under that.

Not that I want one anyhow. 1CD worth of MP3's is either = 6CD at decent quality or too poor to listen too. IMO theres no advantage over the 6CD (apart from sheer # of disks, I already have my collection cdr'd for the car).

Would be a tough choice if I was upgrading from single CD tho.

Its just poor mazda dont factory fit this for a small extra charge, it cant cost them any more (probably less) than the 6CD. Just another way Mazda want to fleece us for cash.

 

IMHO, the audio environment of a car cabin is so poor that high bitrates just aren't justified for in-car listening, but each to his own.

Where the MP3 comes into its own is low-bitrate spoken word recordings. When I was preparing for the 11-hour drive to Topeka last month, I blew an MP3 CD with the entire BBC version of the HHGTTG (6 CD's worth), an audio book (another 3 CD's), the complete Fawlty Towers (another 2 CD's) and a couple more random comedy albums. Just the thing for long, boring, interstate trips. :D

 

One major advantage over the 6CD that the MP3 has however is length. 80 x 6 gives you 480 minutes total, and if you're burning off MP3 files to audio CDR, even at 192k you aren't at normal cd audio quality levels, and suffer a major degredation in total numbers than at say 128k mp3 discs. Not to mention if you listen to speaking voice only stuff, like say downloaded audio books or howard stern shows, which can be several hours and you can get them all on one disc since many are 64k < bit rates. I had an mp3 disc with 60+ hours of these kind of files.

 

Another Major advantage of the MP3 player over the 6 Disc Changer: Not all music cd's use the entirety of the space available on the physical CD. An example, the new Strokes album chimes in at a whopping 46.1MB (encoded@192K). Granted, I realize this is a shorter album than most, but what are chances of other albums not maxing out the space available on CD's? This example extends to roughly 15 albums on an MP3 CDR - on the CD changer option it still equals 1 out of your 6 slots. Not to mention the hassle of changing discs on the fly... I have risked the lives of many doing this and I'm not proud of it. Just couldn't seem to keep the music fresh enough - used to carry a rotation of 250 CD folders around in the backseat. If any of them were to get lifted it would have crushed me.

 

Exactly on that last point. If someone pinches my 12-CD carrier, I can just re-burn my mp3 CDs...Before I got the player, I carried all of my favorite CDs (over 100) in the car. Some are out of print and pre-release versions. That could have been disastrous. I know Peoke is particularly sensitive to this living in Philly!

 

A couple of points:

1) If you have rare/valuable/one-off CDs like B-nez and myself (I know we aren't the only ones), you should consider burning a copy for daily use, and keep the originals in a safe place.

2) If you make compilation CDs, you will normally fill up the CD.

Personally, regardless of the sound quality issue, MP3 CDs don't work for me. I have many many CDs. When I get my drivin' music together, it's always a different combination, an arbitrary decision on what I want to hear. Sometimes I want this CD that I haven't heard in years, sometimes I want this song that I just heard sampled on a commercial, or this album someone mentioned yesterday, but it's always different. Sometimes I want to hear a complete CD, and sometimes I just want to hear a few songs from a CD. The combinations are endless. If I went and just put my very favorite songs (not even include the once-in-a-while songs or complete albums) on MP3 discs at a good rate, I will have around 20 MP3s. Odds are, my choices for a particular day will be on several MP3s, and I would still want a few selections from regular CDs that weren't included on the "very favorite" lists. So, I end up carrying a handful of discs to the car anyway. I would not gain anything from taking the time to make all of those MP3 CDs, I would lose at least some sound quality, and I would be constantly swapping out discs on the single MP3 player, instead of just loading 6 CDs and being done with it.

So, there is no one magical solution that works the best for everyone. Different things work for different people, and if anyone thinks that one way is best because that's what works for them, they are a fool.

---jps