MP3 Head Units

Hi All,

A bit of a newbie here, but have been around stereo's for quite some time and I am quite technical (I can tell you all about THD, Wow and Flutter, Ohm's law, etc.) although I'm not an installer so I hope you don't hold that against me. 

I own a 4x4 that I do take off road on pretty rough trails regularly and after going through a 2nd cd changer and head unit (1st was a Sony Deck and Changer, 2nd was a Clarion Pro Audio Deck and Changer), I've decided to try and find an MP3 head unit that is a fully solid state unit.  What I mean is, there are no moving parts... no CD, no Hard Drive, etc.

The reason I'm looking for this type of unit is simple, no moving parts = no parts to get out of alignment off road = hopefully higher reliability.

TIA,

Ray

have you gone to RadioShack lately...the have a pretty cool gadget that has what you're looking for and it does it through a radio station...check it out.  it was in the xmas catalog...

I know radioshack is mostly OEM stuff.  I'd rather buy it directly from the OEM manufacturer / dealer rather than Radio Shack if I can.  Plus let's face it, everytime I've gone into Radio Shack, I am more knowledgable than the minimum wage salesmen there.  No offense intended here, just stating the facts as I see them about Radio Shack.

FWIW, I was running a Clarion Pro Audio Deck and their 12 disk changer.  For an amp, I run a Sony XM-5046 5 channel amp (only one that fit under my front seat of my SUV.)

For speakers I run Boston Acoustic Rally separates up front (5") and their coax (6.25") in the rear along with a JL 10" sub in a JL ProWedge enclosure CS110T-W1.

I'm hoping you all have a higher end solution to my requirements as the shop I normally go to could only suggest some of the newer Sony Xplode gear or some of the new Hard Drive systems which again wouldn't work for my intentions of the harsher conditions off road.

TIA

Ray

Funny thing about sensitive electronic gear, it doesnt like to be banged around.  I dont think you will be able to mix serious car audio with offroad recreation unless you can isolate the unit.  Possibly elastomeric vibration dampers or something.   Good luck.

For mp3 try:  mp3car.com   or  ssiamerica.com  

For dampers try:  acecontrols.com  or  efdyne.com  or  enidine.com

Enidine will provide a solution for your requirements through their tech support.

F4Pilot,

I agree with CD drives, Hard Drives, DVD Drives, etc. but I've had great luck with the solid state electronics.  My Amp, Head Unit Radio and Alarm electronics have all easily withstood the jarring the get off road and the amp is the original amp I purchased several years ago hence my being partial to something solid state versus something with moving parts like the cd player or hard drive.

I guess it's still too early for a true mainstream solid state system.  Sony has just released 2 units ($1500 and 1000 respectively) which accepts mp3 on their memory stick modules.  I hope other manufacturers will follow suit.

Ray

Solid state is pretty expensive, you should see the hi-end home stuff. 

I was hoping you'd engineer an isolation solution and let us know how it turned out.  Another project I had to shelve for a while was making a digital camcorder mount for my sportbike so I can capture quality on-bike footage.  I need to isolate the range of vibrations occured from various suspension jarring and 13,000+ rpms.  I would like to not ruin a $1000 camera.  $300 cameras take crappy analog video.