music hard drives for cars?

I have a complete Sony system in my car (with HK amps and BA speakers). I bought everything from Sony-Japan so not the junk sold stateside. Among other things, I have a minidisc changer.

I don't have an MD home deck anymore so I rarely use the one in the car. The unit is small - about the size of a double-din head unit - and fits in a tire well perpendicular to the CD changer. All the cables (RCA and DIN) are run throughout the car and would be a royal PITA to re-run new or remove them.....so, I'd like to replace the MD changer with something just as small but that would hold a decent library.

Not sure what is available in hard drives....let alone one that would interact with the Sony harnesses. Sony does makes an ipod adapter that perhaps I could make work that way. Any ideas or suggestions?

Thanks in advance.




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Subtlety is EVERYTHING.

Sony does make an adapter that will hook adapt an ipod into their din cable....so you can menu through the head unit (radio, DVD, CD changer, XM, ipod, etc). The cable is in an area where you'd mount it and forget it.

I've never had an ipod so I know little abou tthem, what they hold, how to catalog music, etc. A hard drive would be killer for room and capacity.

Heck, I'd mount a 2nd CD/DVD changer if I had the room.



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Subtlety is EVERYTHING.

ipod's that run through your radio rock. im going to get a head unit that connects directly to my ipod but for now im using an FM transmitter not the best quality sound but sure as hell beats looking through dozens of scratched cd's all over my car and holds alot more songs than i even know. i didn't know how to work an ipod either which is unusual because im a teenager but i learned its not that hard the only negative about it is you have to download itunes on your computer but after that u just load your music into your itunes library and when u plug your ipod in to your computer using your usb connector then sync all your music like that.

Ok, I also have a Sony Unilink AUX adapter in this system too, and on it is a USB port. The product guide says this:

USB Input: The USB input allows you to connect a laptop computer to your car stereo system (USB cable not incl.) in order to play MP3 files or other audio from the computer. The computer must have a compatible operating system in order to work.

Does this mean I could make a mini-PC and incorporate it into this?


And this for you electronic geniuses who have forgotten more than I will ever know (I realize its old, but still cool):

https://www.chaos.org.uk/~altman/mp3mobile/

If only this guy was my neighbor.......

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Subtlety is EVERYTHING.

Yes the laptop thing works great on the unilink. In addition to the IPOD method (most price concious method), try PHATNOISE.COM. I have a phatnoise drive with a 40 gig card in my car. I love how it works; and the music manager software is awesome. Little pricey but they are capable of "lossless audio"; not just the standard download rate of 128kbps. Love the quality of my phatbox!

Hope this helps you decide.   Dave

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David Fancher
USACi World Finals 2006
4th Place SQ PRO 601+

Holy crap! THAT is the shtz.....EXACTLY what I was thinking of.

My system may be too new for it yet (2005/6) but I emailed them explaining what I have and want to do.

The site has been bookmarked for eternal reference.

Thanks a bunch David!



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Subtlety is EVERYTHING.