kart_man

Has anyone on here tried/got an Mstation ?

It's the harddisk that you can plug into your PC, load up with MP3's (I assume) and then plug into your car stereo.

Claims to hold 3000 tracks !

Quite tempted just to save carrying piles of CD's in the car ! I assume you'll lost some quality, but with my exhaust, that shouldn't matter too much

Any comments ?

DJ Dunk

iTrader: (5)

These were going for £199 a while back. Anyone know if there are any left anywhere ?

Pretty good apparently

ozzy

I'm saving up for one of these Dension MP3 Player

You can install your own size disk and looks better quality IMHO than the MStation. It was the old version that was getting sold a while back.

You can still get'em here though 6th Plant

You can get more info on the Dension one at In Car MP3

Stefan

kart_man

Thanks guys,

Ozzy, any idea how much the Dension one is ?

I'm only thinking about it as my local halfords has a 20% off day tomorrow, and they have the mstation for £240 (£300-20%). Not sure which version or which size it is though. I wouldn't be surprised if it was the v1, with 10gb hard disk !! Only halfords could still be more expensive even after 20% off !!

ozzy

Kart_man,

It's £299 for the basic unit. You need to either add one of their drives or your own drive (this can be sourced cheapier).

Details on what you get are here http://www.ihavetohave.it/acatalog/In_Car_MP3.html

Stefan

ozzy

Techy details for the version 2 MStation can be found here http://www.6thplanet.com/store/techn...ms2car60g.html

Looking at the prices, the Dension is a bit more expensive. I haven't heard either, but for looks alone the Dension gets my vote.

What headunit do you have? Do you have any AUX inputs? I would avoid using the FM modulator regardless of which MP3 player you go for.

Stefan

12LEE

FYI - Halfords are sitting on ~200 mStations - the original batch they bought (and failed to sell @ £599) from Traxdata.

nom

mStation works well, but as said above, don't bother unless you have AUX inputs somewhere as the FM mod is hideous.
The Dension one looks as though it might have a problem - the maximum bitrate is 384kbs - I've found that the RIPs that I do frequently go way over this at times - what would it do? Just not play at all? I suppose you can set the maximum bit rate to a lower amount, or just set it at a continuous lower bitrate, but then you're losing SQ. And the big hard drive would be good...
Whatever one, make sure you use a good ripper rather than the icky 'realaudio' stuff that comes with it or equally nasty windows-bundled thing.

kart_man

Thanks for your input guys. My HU has AUX input, so I'll ensure I use these when I finally decide which one to go for. The ones Halfords were selling looked like the version 1 (10gb), so I didn't go for that in the end.

Cheers

Dave

MattW

You won't be disappointed with the mstation. Got mine from 6thplanet (v1), weel worth the cash. There are usually a few on ebay too.

nib

I have a version 2 MStation fitted via an AUX input on an Alpine HU, however, I find that when switched on it interferes with the FM signal. This results in the inability to receive traffic info. Does anyone have way around this at all??

nom

That's the hard drive. In other words, I doubt it

nib

Nom - I assumed it was the hard drive as well but I find even if it's not engaged & power is switched on the remote the interference starts. I'll probably try & re-route the cabling to see if it makes any difference.

mccltd

The interferance is usually down to the fm modulator.
It is powering its own frequency into your radio(hence how you can tune it in) inbetween your aerial and radio,thus overpowering the radio signals recieved from the aerial.
This is why when you turn off the device the radio signals are then fine.
hmm sounds double dutch, but this used to happen withthe old CD modulators.

JonW

Nom - depends on how you listen to music i guess. From what I read when I was playing with my mStation (and now using a CDRs with a JVC HU) so long as you go better than 160 then your ears wont know the difference. This is due to the car not being a great sound stage and there being so many other noises to contend with and the fact your ear cant listen to the ends of the sprectrum.

People did say that 124 bps was noticableyflat and missing information, but the further you go the better it is. Id agree with that. I would suggest that most people would be more than happy at 160-180bps and not notice any degradation, I know I dont.

Maybe Ive not got the best ears but Im also looking for usable sounds, I think if youre looking for SQ then you should be playing CDs and not MP3s perhaps? Or id this gonna be like the record v's CD debate with real audiophiles getting on board??? ;-p

Also worth noting is that if your device claims to hold, say, 1000 tracks, this will be at 124bps and the higher the sample rate the larger the file, thus you'll get less tracks on the unit. For info, I get approx 8CDs ripped to MP3 on one CDR 74min at 160-180 (variable bit rate) and not the 10 as advertised.

MStation was a good product. But with Dension coming onto the market its pretty much dead now Id have thought. Dension is cheaper (than mStation V2) and does not require a homebay to be played on your home hi-fi and also includes better connections to the PC and car etc. Its a more modern looking unit and satelite display too. Also the ability to go for a big disk rather than be stuck with the supplied unit as in the mStation is a big bonus.

The problem with the 6th planet and other mStations V1s is, from what i can tell, that they are old stock and of course offer no real backup or warranty. Id say Dension is where its at now and where id put my money (and probably will do soon too).

Jon.

RRH

selling my version 1 mstation if you're interested.
make me an offer...

simon

nom

You're right - it does depend on what you listen to & how fussy you are! 160kbps is noticeably bad to my ears - even when on the move - but the difference of a 'lame' RIP over a RealAudio (or whatever) makes a big difference too - I think 96 (variable) on Lame sounds better than 192 (fixed) on RealAudio.
The rest of it - a choice! Everything's a compromise is some way or other...