Have just put a new Alpine 7894 head unit in my car. Man does it ever rock, but I can't get it to play most of my MP3s. I've ripped all of my CDs on to my computer hard drive using Music Match 6.0 basic. They were recorded at 160 kbps. Then I burned them onto TDK CD-Rs, getting anywhere from 150 to 190 tracks per disc. The idea is that rather than having to have 150 CDs in my car, I can put all my albums onto something like a dozen discs and leave the originals safely at home. Problem is, when I put any of my burned discs into the 7894, it tries to read them, then after a couple of minutes, the display says "ERROR". I know that the MP3 player does work because I have one disc of MP3s that I downloaded off the Internet and burned about two years ago that does work.
Before I use up a whole bunch of discs going through trial and error scenarios, has anyone successfully burned MP3s onto CDs and played them on this head unit? I'm wondering if it is the bit rate, the disc type, too many tracks on one disc (the disc I have that works only has about 8 tracks on it) or do I need to upgrade to the advanced Music Match version?
No replies? Guess I stumped y'all with that one. Well since I wrote that, I have upgraded to the Music Match Deluxe version 7.2. I took some of my existing tracks (ripped with the basic version 6.0) and burned them onto a disc using the deluxe version 7.2. Have made progress in that some of the tracks now actually play in the car, but I think the quality could still be improved if I re-rip the tracks using the deluxe version. I have learned that it is best to keep the tag information to a minimum. I Super-tagged my tracks and included the album art, but found that it takes each track longer to load in the car by doing this. Effect was about a 10 second delay at the beginning of each new track. So trial and error continues, but any advice is welcome.
Hi Radier Boy, first thing I'd check is to make sure the discs were closed, not just the sessions on the discs. You may also want to try using Imation CD-Rs instead of TDK if the discs were successfully closed, and/or you might also want to try using NTI CD Maker Pro 2000. I haven't had any problems with either yet.
i have the older model mp3 player, the kenwood kdc-mp8017, and all my mp3 cd's play perfectly. i believe all my mp3's are at 128 kbps, and i read my receiver manual, which tells me to burn all mp3's at 128 kbps. check the manual and see if there are notes or specifications on mp3 files. tell us how everything goes.
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Jon
Don't like rockford subs? Then don't look at my car =)