UKBouldering.com
technical => computers, technology and the internet => Topic started by: Fiend on November 16, 2019, 11:10:13 am
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Finally digitised hundreds upon hundreds of strictly the finest drum'n'bass, techno, gabber, and death metal CDs, and am now looking for in-car playback. My oldish car only has a CD player with no aux input. So I have various choices:
1. Get an aux input put in and use phone / mp3 player.
2. Replace the stereo.
3. Use a FM transmitter and phone / mp3 player / usb stick / micro-SD card:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=lp_1342660031_nr_n_3?fst=as%3Aoff&rh=n%3A560798%2Cn%3A%21560800%2Cn%3A3030781%2Cn%3A3030871%2Cn%3A1342660031%2Cn%3A528666031&bbn=1342660031&ie=UTF8&qid=1573902280&rnid=1342660031
The latter is vaguely appealing as it seems the simplest and fairly cheap although they're not something familiar with. Were I to get one, the most important things by far would be: Cable to unit rather than integrated, large ergonomic controls, good transparent sound quality, and ideally USB audio input, or failing that, large capacity micro-SD card input. DAB radio and any phone interaction extremely not important.
Thoughts?? Obviously Amazon page is a bewildering mess of identical units under different names with homogenously uninformative translations and masses of reviews by people who only use it to stream spotified rnb muzak off their ibollox. So some more guidance would be useful, ta.
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I've tried various FM transmitters over the years and I've never found them to be great.
I've just fitted a Himbox to my Octavia which is a Bluetooth receiver that plugs into the aux port. It's really good and with Google now voice control and the buttons on the controller I can select, play, skip tracks fairly easily. It also works well as a hands free kit.
Didn't you also ask this same question on Facebook recently?
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I might have. I can't remember. I'm sure I got a load of off-topic bollox like "Swap your car for a newer one with ApplePlay" or something.
What's the main issue with FM transmitters?? Patchy transmission / interference?
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Interference. I had one in an older car for a while. My commute to the Frankenjura has a long stretch where the autobahn runs alongside a high speed rail line: couldn't hear anything for miles.
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I had a few cheap FM transmitters back in the day. Overall found them to be a bit of a hassle - finding a frequency that works tuning the radio etc.Maybe a more expensive one would work better...
I'd save yourself the hassle and just buy something like this: https://www.halfords.com/technology/car-audio/car-stereos/pioneer-mvh-s110ub-car-stereo
I have a similar one but with a CD player as well. They're quite straightforward to fit, for me the hardest part was getting the old stereo out! You might need adapter cables to make it compatible with your car but you can easily find this info online.
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I got some guy off an Audi forum to come round and fit an aux in (socket in glove box ) and cruise control. It wasn't expensive and haven't had any problems.
Have previously had FM transmitters. They never work consistently unless you're parked up.
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Like everyone in this thread I've always found the old transmitters to be patchy and to transmit a lot of static. However, I was recently bought this one and have been really impressed with it. I use the bluetooth on my phone (iPhone 5s) to transmit music from offline Gdrive mp3s and haven't had any issues with static of interference from other stations. Other people have used it with Spotify and Youtube and its been fine. Mine is set at 107.5 and for the price I would recommend. I haven't tried making calls, I just use the headphones.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Transmitter-CHGeek-Bluetooth-Wireless-Handsfree/dp/B07N18X4MQ?ref_=Oct_BSellerC_528666031_2&pf_rd_p=132233c9-0506-5cad-a071-b59a7434f384&pf_rd_s=merchandised-search-6&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_i=528666031&pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_r=XRNJ97WZ31ZYXDAB4MYE&pf_rd_r=XRNJ97WZ31ZYXDAB4MYE&pf_rd_p=132233c9-0506-5cad-a071-b59a7434f384
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I've got one of the (w) ANKER Poertable Bluetooth Speakers that i just stick on the dash of the van on long journeys and play through my phone. Reasonable sound, but the van is noisy anyway, not exactly the Albert Hall.
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Cheers for the replies guys. Saved me bothering with the FM transmitter. Will probably suck it up and get a new unit - especially if it keeps the steering wheel controls connected.
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Worth knowing if you've got the multi-function steering wheel the cruise control hardware is already fitted, you just need a stalk fitting and the software enabling. The radio has connectors for a CD changer, the aux in goes into that and socket in glovebox. I use a cheap bluetooth receiver to connect to my phone.
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Yeah I got the cruise control added asap, worth every penny. So the wheel audio controls would work with an aux-in added?? Seeing names of tracks etc pretty crucial (on unit, not phone).
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Yeah I got the cruise control added asap, worth every penny. So the wheel audio controls would work with an aux-in added?? Seeing names of tracks etc pretty crucial (on unit, not phone).
Thought about one of those header unit replacements that has a larce screen and mp3, bluetooth, handsfree and sat nav all in..
e.g.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_osacat=0&_odkw=Audi+A3+audio&_from=R40&_trksid=m570.l1313&_nkw=Audi+A3+audio+android&_sacat=0
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You wouldn't be able to control anything or see mp3 names on your unit with an aux connection.
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Seeing names of tracks etc pretty crucial (on unit, not phone).
As Andy says, no chance. Would require complete new radio. I have my phone in a holder by the radio. It provides power so the screen can be on all the time.
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Cheers. New unit then. Better have red screen display to match the rest of the car ;)
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Cheers. New unit then. Better have red screen display to match the rest of the car ;)
I suspect with the android ones you can have whatever theme you choose...
I'm sure you could upload your background of... er...
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Did you think that an FM transmitter would give you the track names on the screen?
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;D
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SIGH. No you scrote, but the FM transmitter would be placed by the air vents so in full visibility etc. Which yes obviously a phone (via aux) would be but I've got too much music to upload on my phone and deffo couldn't be arsed using a touch screen to change tracks in car.
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I settled on a second hand mechless Sony unit and store music on one of those really short USB sticks.
Can also connect phone by USB or aux in.
Less than £30 in total.
Works great
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I've got one of the (w) ANKER Poertable Bluetooth Speakers that i just stick on the dash of the van on long journeys and play through my phone. Reasonable sound, but the van is noisy anyway, not exactly the Albert Hall.
This is what we do, UE Megaboom in the back with the kids, me shouting at Siri and getting whatever it thinks I asked for. The kids love an audio book it's normally Fantastic Mr Fox etc. The actual radio in the van is the originakl one for when imprted amnd bizarrely only covers FM from 76.0-90.0 so it's Radio 2 or Gaydio (very good if you need pepping up in a morning).
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I bought one of those generic cig lighter Bluetooth FM transmitter things for the Saab for about a tenner off Amazon, after the aux in stopped working on the stereo.
Absolutely no problems with it, no interference or anything. Worth it so I can use Spotify to play podcasts on the commute.
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So I got a new head unit put in. Simple Kenwood 130U. It's okay, USB mostly works fine.
But there is one biggish issue. The unit / USB is putting out a tiny gap when it changes tracks (which doesn't exist in the recording I made) This is okay on normal albums, but for mix albums it sucks dick sideways - and I have a couple of hundred mix albums. Is this a common thing with playing off USB? Could it be low transfer speed? Or is it a head unit problem? It's getting on my tits so any info would be appreciated.
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Probably worth having a flick through the settings on the unit, sounds like some sort of 'track gap' thing which might be configurable if you're lucky.
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possibly a file/folder hierarchy issue?
too many layers of folders?
firmware update available?
same problem with different file types mp3, wav, flac?
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re-render the albums to single tracks?
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Cheers guys. Remus I will try that.
Lagers, could be some of those issues, not folder hierarchy tho as they're only two deep. I did think about concatenating the tracks on each mix but there's a couple of hundred mixes I think!
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It took Apple a bloody age to bother with gapless playback on the iPod so I'm guessing unless you find a setting, you're stuffed.
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UGH with added UGH. Why can't things just work??
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Looked into it further. Cheers PB, you're right, no easy way around it. Apparently "gapless playback" is still a bit esoteric in the era of folding screen mobile phones with the processing power of a 2 year old desktop #whatever.
Anyone got a good freeware program to merge mp3 files into one audio file?? Batch conversion per folder would be ideal - I've tried foobar which works but requires adding a folder then choosing to convert/merge all files.... I have approx 310 folders of album mixes to merge......
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There's a command line program called ffmpeg that can probably do it, but it's a bit impenetrable.
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Is there a reason (other than you're you) that you're resisting putting them on a mobile phone with a MicroSD card and connecting via BT?
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Because I'm me of course :) Also I don't want to be controlling stuff via my phone while driving, the aftermarket stereos are appallingly unergonomic compared to the factory one, but far better than a touchscreen phone esp. since I've got steering wheel controls hooked up (presumably it would have to be playback through the phone to get gapless playback, rather than using it just as a drive). Same applies to changing micro SD cards compared to colour-coded USB sticks. Also more fiddling around with sound settings through phone etc.
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What's the actual size of your music collection (a 128GB card is 8FAs)? The tail is wagging the multi coloured camo dog here.