Help a newbie pick a CD player please!

[lifesnotfair]

Ok, I'm a young engineer and should know about this stuff.. or not, but still, I'm ashamed to admit it: I know nothing about stereos and how it all works.

The thing is, I've never had a car that can play MP3's, and I really want to. I bought my '88 Supra not so long ago. The car came with a Pioneer unit (CD-RW but not MP3), an equzlizer (which I removed yesterday, making space for my already-ordered factory pocket which goes under the radio), and two Xplod speakers in the back, with a... how do you call it? Well, with this:

So.. I like my music not so loud. Yes, I wanna be able to pump up the volume from time to time, but not THAT loud. I'm already seeking for those mounting brackets for 6" in the front, because I've heard with the 4.5" speakers there's not much one can do. I guess the speakers in the back are already nice.

Anyways, I see in crutchfield.com all this units that specify RMS and stuff I don't know about. I just want a good looking, economic MP3 player. Any advice or suggestion?

 

[trd88supra]

thats a amp that puts more power to the speakes. RMS is how much contunious power it will push.

 

[supraman7mgte]

i have a kenwood excelon,and love it,comes with its own software so you can make custom music files,and holds a grip of songs on a cd. add a music keg,and you have enough room on its 20g transportable hard drive to hold up to 1200 songs

 

[csr ma71]

For mp3 players, no Sony, Panasonic and no name brands.
Stick with Pioneer, Eclipse, Kenwood and Alpine.

IF you're going to continue using that amp, you can store it underneath the wooden board in your trunk, to the right of the spare with no overheating problems.

 

[lifesnotfair]

Yeah, previous owner placed it there. I guess it would be kindof an obstacle if I'm ever putting something big in my trunk. Gonna see if i can relocate it, but it's not one of my priorities right now .. Gonna check those brands you mentioned, I didn't even know if "Eclipse". What about JVC, any good?

And nobody has answered about what RMS I should look for, and how many Wx4 (45x4, 50x4, etc) I should look for either...

 

[Fuzz420]

RMS= Roo mean squared. This is your conitnues power rating the speaker can sustain at all times. Example 1000 watts peak power and 500 watts rms speaker.
Peake power is refering to how much power the speaker can take at a brief second, a 1000 watt burst.The daily continues power shouldnt exceed the factory specified RMS rating.In our example its 500 watts. As a rule of thumb for longevity of speakers and subwoofers i wouldnt suggest running over 70% the rated RMS spec. What i mean by this if its 500watts rms, then run about 400watts.Theres always variables involved with power ratings so i always tune on the conswervative side

To answer your question on which cd player its a matter of opinion. Pioneer is prolly the best bang for the buck cd player.Eclipse is on the priceyer side but are excellectn units. And JVC are ok as well, closer to pioneer type quality, but i believe when u compare price model price model between the JVC'S and pioneer, the pioneer always has more features.

When i bought my supra it a had a old pioneer it, since then ive upgrade to the 9500 series, with ease cause all pioneers use the same harnes.Makes life easier when all u have to is unplugg the old and plug in the new.

 

[lifesnotfair]

Damn, I didn't think about that, the wiring. I like an Eclipse CD1000 I saw. But now I kinda want to find a Pioneer that I like

Btw, your example is 500rms... But all players I see have from 16 to 22... Is this huge difference just because you were only setting an example?

And what do you mean by "run 70% of the rms".. Run what? Sorry for being such a fool.

 

[Fuzz420]

Damn, I didn't think about that, the wiring. I like an Eclipse CD1000 I saw. But now I kinda want to find a Pioneer that I like

Btw, your example is 500rms... But all players I see have from 16 to 22... Is this huge difference just because you were only setting an example?

And what do you mean by "run 70% of the rms".. Run what? Sorry for being such a fool.

For cd players to, speakers its not a big deal on the power rating.Your right most cd's players are 16 to 23 watts. Pioneers are in 22 range, most aftemarket speaks you put in should be able to handle it.

As far as running 70% of the rms, i put that in as i wasnt sure if u were dropping in a amp on the small speakers. Pretty much if your speaker is a 100 watts rms and u plug a 100watt rms amp, it wont last long.So idealy u u want to run 70w to 80w. I hope im not confusing you. But as i said if your just hooking up a cd player with some new speakers just make sure the RMS of the speaker exceeds the RMS of the cd player. Something like a 30 watts rms speaker,your brand of choice, will do.

 

[lifesnotfair]

I think I get it, kinda. But the RMS of the unit will be something around 22W, yes, but the amp I have have must be 200 or 300 something W.... so the speakers would need to be a bit more than that, right?

 

[Loki]

I have a Kenwood Deck, can't remember the model # at the moment but I really like it and it wasn't super expensive.

 

[Fuzz420]

I think I get it, kinda. But the RMS of the unit will be something around 22W, yes, but the amp I have have must be 200 or 300 something W.... so the speakers would need to be a bit more than that, right?

If your amp is 300watts yours still ok to choose the speaker of your liking, but when setting the amp up start with the gain on 0(all the way turned down) and just ease up on the volume.Make sure your the cd player your using is at full listening volume meaning the volume u would ride around listening to, then set the gain on the amp accordingly.Turn it up untill sound quality its slightly affected and then back it down a few notches

 

[Turbo. Targa. Life.]

Umm no fuzz. Myself being an audiophile, I can tell you that you're wrong. When choosing RMS wattage, it's actually better to slightly OVER power a speaker than to under power it. When you underpower a speaker, it tries to draw more power from the amp than it's putting out, thus resulting in a clipped signal. Bad news.

Personally, I've always favored Alpine decks. They aren't too pricey, they're VERY user friendly, and their features are great. JVC is a definate no-no. Cheap, wal*mart pieces of shit. Pioneer decks are alright, never really found one that I like too much. As far as speakers go, best bang for your buck is going to be Infinity. They have GREAT speakers.

Those speakers in your hatch are...well, put nicely, rigged. I would never recommend external boxes with speakers--nor ANYTHING sony for that matter.

 

[lifesnotfair]

I didn't put them in there, previous owner did. And I thought the Sony Xplod series was pretty good (??).

I like the Eclipse CD1000 unit. But now I don't know about the wiring.. do I need another harness or something? As someone mentioned, it'd be cooler to just plug n play with another Pioneer... gonna check if I like one, coz last time I did, my last 5 choices...... none was a Pioneer

 

[92turbo4life]

i have a alpine deck... a 1200 watt amp by jl audio and a alpine type r 12". it was like 750 with instalation. the amp is on the back seat and the speaker in the box is int he hatch. thing bumps extremely hard..... me cay bumps more than a car with 2 15's

 

[lifesnotfair]

Heh, there's just no way in hell I'm spending that much in music. I'm not a music freak, just wanna listen to some MP3's nicely while driving.

 

[92turbo4life]

agareed^ that is the biggest waste oif money i dropped in my car.... i have listened to it 3 times. i listen to the turbo i swear no lie.. its sad.

 

[Fuzz420]

Umm no fuzz. Myself being an audiophile, I can tell you that you're wrong. When choosing RMS wattage, it's actually better to slightly OVER power a speaker than to under power it. When you underpower a speaker, it tries to draw more power from the amp than it's putting out, thus resulting in a clipped signal. Bad news.

Personally, I've always favored Alpine decks. They aren't too pricey, they're VERY user friendly, and their features are great. JVC is a definate no-no. Cheap, wal*mart pieces of shit. Pioneer decks are alright, never really found one that I like too much. As far as speakers go, best bang for your buck is going to be Infinity. They have GREAT speakers.

Those speakers in your hatch are...well, put nicely, rigged. I would never recommend external boxes with speakers--nor ANYTHING sony for that matter.

Ha, you sir are correct. I thought something was missing in my explinations or didnt look right.

Alpines are nice deck, im not a fan ive always had trouble working there "top end" stuff with there many feature. My vote is still for pioneer, thats about the only thing half decent u can buy from walmart.Some people are skeptical of the walmart series pioneers.

Something that i know turbotarga and i will agree on, is in the audio world u get what u payfor.Dont go too cheap cause end up like many of my friends, when there wondering why there music doenst sound right

 

[mkiiSupraMan18]

Geez, people get into radios huh? Just go to Best Buy/Circuit City/Wal-Mart, whatever, listen to a few of their set ups and pick out a combo in your price range that sounds good to you. I never really thought there was a science to it (but knew it was out there). Or buy whatever is on sale. I got a Jensen MP3 CD player for like... $120, motorized face (which I wouldn't recommend, no bad experiences, YET), 2 RCS outs, Changer control (not using) and it works awesome. Takes a little time to load when you first start the car but other than that it sounds good and I thought I got a hell of a deal. Visuals are ghey, but I just leave it on the song title/info anyway. I don't listen to anything w/ bass or any techno, but damn Country music sounds good through it. :biglaugh:

 

[esc]

I have 2 Pioneers. The one in my BMW has built in EQ and everything, great sound (just no MP3 playability). The one in my Supra is a little less on quality but plays MP3s (which is fine because the sound system in the Supra sucks anyways). I've owned 1 Sony CD player my whole life and it was total junk. Pioneer forever

 

[lifesnotfair]

I'm looking at crutchfield.com, looking for something under 160 bucks. I liked the Eclipse CD1000 a lot, but I'm gonna search for a Pioneer right now, as I have a Pioneer harness (for actual cd player).