Mark Green

I am going to buy a Pioneer Minidisc head unit.
(Pioneer because I already have the CD changer and my last one is lasting well - touch wood)

I have had a quote of £600 & £300 for the two models respectively.

Anyone know of any cheaper?

I bought the last one dead cheap on Tottenham Court Road but it does seem a bit dodgy up there. Opinions please.

Thanks

Mark

Mark Green

Mikem,

I don't want a heated debate about this as everyone has their own preferances but,

1. I already have a CD multi-changer which I will use in combination with my new head unit.
2. I don't like in dash CD since from experience it's a good way to scratch your cd's.
3. I don't want tape as my 2nd source due to getting peed off with ff/rwd etc. (that's why I'm upgrading)
4. Correct me if I'm wrong but I think the comression on Minidisc is quite clever such that the bits of signal lost due to said compression are those that you will probabnbly only see on a graph.
5. From experience - I have Minidisc at home - I cannot tell the diference between Minidisc and CD in a quiet room let alone the car.

Mark

[This message has been edited by Mark Green (edited 06-12-1999).]

Bajie

Tottenham Court Road is more like a cartel now so it is very difficult to get decent prices as four or five shops are owned by the same guy.
Also, if the equipment you look at is not an 'approved' dealer you cannot be too sure where the item you buy came from, so it should be a lot cheaper ... but isn't.
Try Panther's on the North Circular Road near Ikea in Wembley area. They import loads of Japanese Hi-Tec, a lot of which is not yet available in the UK. Phone them first.
You might be better off getting the head unit at a Car Stereo shop though.

Mikem

Mark (and anyone else about to waste money)
Why do you want to spend you money on a source(mimidisc) that uses a MINIMUM of 50% signal reduction (ABSOLUTE TECHNICAL FACT) to enable fitting about 70odd minutes of stereo sound onto a tiny bit of plastic. The system uses digital reduction not compression. Portables are sort of OK but can lead to boredom.
Yes I do work in H-Fi and believe me I'm right.
Anyway it's your money.
Good luck

MikeM

Doug

Mark,

I have the Pioneer KEH-P9000R mini disc head unit after a lot of calls I finally paid £540 fitted!

^Gazzer^

I have a Sony Minidisc in the car which is fantastic. I also have a decent Sony deck in the house, which is also brilliant. As well as giving very good sound quality (in my opinion) minidisc is extremely compact, versatile and easy to use. Ideal for the car.

It's 1000 times better than farting about with tapes.

Gazzer.

pilch

Guys,

Along a similar vein...

How much could I get a Pioneer MD changer? Preferably glove-compartment size. I have loads of MP3 files and could download to MD, so this would be ideal. Are there changers out there yet, or is it just a single external unit?

Cheers

Pilch

Mark Green

Pilch,

Sorry to disapoint you but the Pioneer MD muli-changer is no longer available due to the fact that Sony hold the rights to the MD mechanism and have stopped other people using it. (So my local car hi-fi shop told me at the weekend.)

Mark

robski

pilch,

why not wait for in car MP3 its coming this way....

robski

pilch

Robski,

Yeah good idea but once again its CD. I want re-recordable not burn and throw.

Mark,

B@STARDS!! Sony are just as bad as Voodoo (if you're into the PC gfx market) and Intel.

I've always fancied a minidisk player as you cen then take the tiny disks with you and play in a personal unit. MP3 players are messy. Personal MP3 uses digital logical storage whereas in-car MP3 will use a CD based player with the image files on the CD platter. Whilst this allows hours of music on one CD its too permanent and you need a PC to make them (although I have many of those!)

Nuff rambling - off 2 sulk about my car...

Pilch

Nick Lines

In car MP3 is available now, in the form of EMPEG Car. Cracking unit this, if slightly expensive at 700ish quid.

I does not use CDs, it uses an internal hard disc. For the reasons why, check out the FAQ on their

Liam

The only thing that would put me off of the empeg player is that it's, ugly. Good idea though and sounds great.

Adam M

Nick

don't belittle the planet cd player it is an excellent deck and the cover mechanism is great piece of engineering.

I am a Naim man myself.

Andy Tang

iTrader: (3)

I have recently fitted the top of the range Kenwood Mini Disc player. The quality is amazing!!

It has 3 RCA preouts (4v, rather than 1.8-2V, reduce distortion??) and is a mask unit.

Cost £350 (rrp £500) and fairly easy to fit! Got a 6 disc changer for £150 (rrp£200). Worth a look/listen!

Andy

Nick Lines

I was going to tell everyone what a great purchase I made on Friday, but I think Andy has beaten me to it...

I bought the KMD-PS970 high end Kenwood Minidisc player from Citysounds on Tottenham Court Road on Friday last. Gobsmacking compared to the 870 that I kindly donated to my wife :-). 3 pre-outs@4v, MASK (neat), all features on tuner you could wish for, stunning sound quality - it opened my eyes completely, and I thought the 870 was good!

Minidisc is wonderful. Yes, compression is "lossy". You probably can hear a difference on a piece of music you know well, as it will be reproduced in a subtly different way that you can't put your finger on, but to say which is subjectively better is hard - I found a track that sounded better on an MD recording, which has me baffled. (Burn/Nine Inch Nails)

On the subject of Tottenham Court Road, do check out Citysounds. The guys in there surprised me by being knowledgeable and willing to actually sell things to me, as opposed to just "there it is, take it or leave it" after 2 minutes with calculator. I had a trouble de-activating the MASK feature when I installed yesterday and, thankfully, Andy was exceptionally helpful. Thoroughly recommend this outfit (and the deck)

Cheers,

Nick

Mark Green

Andy/Nick

Any phone numbers ?

Are city souds the cheapest on T.C.R. or did you go for service ?

Mark



[This message has been edited by Mark Green (edited 18-12-1999).]