[TQA]

OK here is the current installation. Kenwood KD G320 car set with a single CD slot 12 disk remote CD changer 2 Bose 151 speakers in the saloon and two waterproof ones in the cockpit. Both CD players are becoming erratic. Everything is at least 8 years old and is used on my liveaboard floaty thing.

It would seem to make sense to store all my CDs as MP3 files and play them from a MP3 player. I can't tell the difference.

I think I have a stereo mini jack input on the Kenwood KD G320. The manual says so but I can find it however the unit is in a hard to get at location. It was fitted when I bought the floaty thing. It also says it has a USB port but I can't see that either, may be on the back.

I am heading to the USA from the boonies of the Eastern Caribbean so might as well pick up what I need. I have a cheap little MP 3 player I use when skiing and will buy a better one I think as it's battery must be nearing the end of it's life.

Anyway option 1 use a male to male minijack and use the Kenwood KD G320 as amplifier and graphic equaliser. I will need to fix up a USB charger but that is easy.

Option 2 Buy some kind of small amplifier and connect it to my existing speakers something like this USB SD MP3 FM Digital Display Player Boat Car Motorcycl Amplifier 20W 20W DC12V | eBay

I think the 20 w + 20 w means it drives 4 speakers?

Anyway I know enough to know I don't know enough and may not even be asking the right questions.

Anybody out there been through this and knows the answers and can help me please.

 

[westsailpatti]

We had almost the same set up you have now, except we had XM radio also . I'm sure there is some way to get a mp3 to work on it . But here is what we did , first we got rid of the whole thing . I miss the XM . Then we got a boombox that is mp3 friendly . We have a Ipodnano and are using Itunes to program it , PITA IMO . The other day I got a new to me Iphone 5 . It fits the boombox and we love the Pandora station . The boomer will play a CD, AM FM too .

 

[miatapaul]

If it is just due to the CD players not working, then I might be tempted to get one of the FM broadcast converters that let you send the signal to the radio via an unused FM signal. Something like this:

Mini FM Transmitter - Monoprice.com

It would allow you to play your iPod nano, or iPhone. Simple and cheap. Otherwise I would get an in-dash that has Bluetooth, and some other inputs. I agree CDs are not necessary. There are some nice high resolution players coming out but they are really best with a very good system or headphones, not an in-dash set up with Bose speakers. But the Pono comes to mind but there are others.

 

[kentobin]

The KD-320 looks like a JVC player not Kenwood. It has a port in the back for a JVC adapter cable that will let you hook it to a mini din audio connector or standard audio connectors. The part designator for the mini din adapter cable is KS-U58. The hardware installation manual can be found at http://resources.jvc.com/Resources/00/00/93/GET0349-002A.pdf
Operator manual http://resources.jvc.com/Resources/00/00/93/GET0349-001A.pdf

The amp you listed from ebay is stereo.

For my forward berth I like to listen to audio books and quite often get tired of using headphones. I purchased two small bookshelf speakers, a 12 volt sony car audio amp, and some 6 foot audio stereo to mini din cables to connect my sansa mp3 player to the amplifier with. I use the volume control from the mp3 player to control the output to the speakers.

As to converting audio cd's to mp3 files that might be very time consuming. I have no idea how rippers automate putting the embedded data in the mp3 file that tells your mp3 player what song you're playing. Doing it manually one track at a time could take you hours let alone the time needed to rip the mp3 files.

If you install a new player or amp make sure it is fused correctly to prevent a possible electrical fire.

Good luck.

 

[Jaramaz]

Option 2 Buy some kind of small amplifier and connect it to my existing speakers something like this USB SD MP3 FM Digital Display Player Boat Car Motorcycl Amplifier 20W 20W DC12V | eBay

Not only is it stereo, it is also very cheap. Which use to show up in some different ways: inability to actually deliver the power needed, short lifetime, bad soldering (google some of these low cost things from the land to the east and you will see) and so on.

Simply put, this is crap. Do not go there.

I would have investigated the possibilities with your current set-up. If you accept playing CD:s then continue with that. MP3 doesn't solve everything - the grass is always greener somewhere else.
The integrated CD-player ... well, probably toast. There are "HiFi"-equipment made for boating, not very expensive either (about $ 100 if I look in my area, which certainly not is an inexpensive area). Then you will get new equipment with all the qualities you want (USB on front, etc).

As you hint on, your main issue is likely to be the installation of the new unit, but then that is unavoidable it seems.

/J

 

[capt jgwinks]

I have an aux in plug on the front of my stereo. I put all my mp3's on the SD card in my phone and just plug it in. I can also do Pandora, Slacker, etc. Works great. No more cd's on the boat.

 

[Hudsonian]

My crew ripped my cd collection to a usb drive for me. No CD's to store. No moving parts. The audio quality may not be tops but I'm old enough that I can't hear the highs any longer and the speakers don't pump out the bass.

 

[TQA]

My crew ripped my cd collection to a usb drive for me. No CD's to store. No moving parts. The audio quality may not be tops but I'm old enough that I can't hear the highs any longer and the speakers don't pump out the bass.

How can you select what track to play if your music is on a USB drive.

If it is on a MP3 player you can have playlists etc.

 

[MarkSF]

If you have a USB drive, the head unit does the track selection.

Here's what I would do : get an IPod. I've got my entire CD collection on my 160gb classic, in lossless compression, so no loss of quality. Thus isn't so important on the boat, but I use it on my home system too.

Then I have a normal car head unit with aux input. I like to gave the FM tuner too, for public radio. The aux input is also handy for movies, as the sound on an Emerson 19" TV is crap. The picture is fine, though.

However, there are many ways to do this. Take your pick.

 

[miatapaul]

How can you select what track to play if your music is on a USB drive.

If it is on a MP3 player you can have playlists etc.

There is a menu on the display. I have never seen one as good as the interface on a real mp3 player, or even one that is useable. So for me I would just use the auxiliary input and use an MP3 player. The eBay amp is shipping direct from China, so it will take between 3 to 50 weeks to arrive. Similar amps are available from sources in the US.

If you can find the JVC adapter that may be the easiest, but this is an older machine. My guess is it plugs in the same place as the CD changer.

As to ripping CD's I like Exact Audio Copy, it will read a disk multiple times if there are scratches and does the best job of any I have used. It will connect to the internet and get the tag info so you don't have to type it in. You can control what quality you rip at, I tend to do it at the highest quality as storage space is cheap nowadays. If I had it to do over again I would use Flac but I have gotten rid of my CDs (Had almost a 1000) in preparation of moving aboard.

 

[TQA]

OK It looks like the best route for me might be to go with a modern non CD in dash car stereo like this -

Boss Audio 612UA - MP3 Compatible Solid State Receiver, AM/FM Receiver, USB/SD - Walmart.com

It has all the inputs on the front and still gives me AM/FM radio.

I will get Exact Audio Copy as I have some CDs that the Microsoft program is struggling with.

 

[hellosailor]

tqa-
There are some major "gotcha"s with MP3 files and USB sticks and the like. I spent about five years (taking breaks for meals and showers, but no sleep<G>) converting most of a music library to MP3 figuring I could ditch the lps, metal tapes, cd's, and get it all down to a few inches.
Nope.
Ain't that easy unless you've got a small library and tin ears.

Offhand...first, there's the player. Tried to upgrade the old car stereo to a new one, found that only two or three models on the market will actually accept a USB stick with a thousand folders on it. One folder per album that is, but most radios put a limit like "512 folders max" or "xx many folders in xx levels" so you may want to consider that carefully in light of replacing the radio if you can't read the media.

Eventually I replaced the car and the new one takes USB and "SD" cards. Ergh, no. It gladly takes huge USB sticks (128GB is $55 now) but only SDHC cards, 32GB maximum. That's obsolete for five years now, replaced by SDXC which is available up to 512GB and will reach 2TB. (!)

Then there's MP3 conversion and software. My aging ears no longer can hear bats the way they once did, they crap out at "fm" quality. So for me, "VBR-2 MP3" files sound almost as good as "lossless" files, but at 1/5 of the file size. You may want to make TWO digital libraries, one in lossless WAV or FLAC format, the other in "good enough" MP3 format. Try several options (in EAC or other rip software) and see what sounds good enough for you. In a car or boat with ambient background noises? You may not need lossless files, but you'd want to have them for future use.

FLAC, by the way, is probably the most compact lossless format, and no longer as oddball as it once was. But common car/boat stereos won't play it.

So...in case you're wondering, a thousand albums may take 500GB in lossless WAV, 350GB in FLAC, but only 85GB as VBR-2 MP3 files. (VBR is "variable bit rate" and "-2" means two steps down from lossless, a little loss allowed.) I can't tell if I can really perceive any loss at VBR-4, so I went back up to -2 figuring at that point, I know my ears can't tell the difference if there's any background noise.)

It may sound crazy but it is a paradigm shift. I can stick my whole library on one USB stick, and tell the car "random play the stick" (different radios allow the stick, or only set folders, to be randomly mixed, caveat emptor) and go for a month without hearing the same song twice. Google Play (free) will do the same thing, allowing you full access to your library from any web connection, 20,000 titles stored for free. It means "your" music can come out of anything, anywhere, and it is what you want to hear, with no clunkers.

A batch of gotchas and too much setup pain, still, but there's a really nifty pony in that pile!

Dedicated MP3 player? I wouldn't waste my time. The classic iPod has been killed off (up to 160GB), the smartphones all have "decent" MP3 players with sadly limited volume controls (who told them 16 levels was enough?) and throw-away earbuds, but some of the smartphones will take 64GB and 128GB memory cards these days, too. MP3 players?

Maybe the Pono Player and some of the others, but they're rather pricey given the new options.

 

[i_amcdn]

I have my Android tablet loaded with MP3. Link it to my BOSE mini sound dock via Bluetooth. Tablet stays down below mostly. Speaker sits just underneath sliding hatch and acts like a speaker box. Of course if we have to slide the hatch close due to rain or spray we have to move the speaker.

The BOSE has awesome sound BTW and lasts about 8 hours per charge.

 

[TQA]

hullosailor

I have a little Scandisk MP 3 the sound quality is good enough for my aged ears. I can set all the playlists etc that I want on it.

My understanding is that i can store the music on that. Use it to choose what I want then take the output that would go to the headphones to the car stereo and use that as an amp and equaliser to play through my Bose 151s and cockpit speakers.

 

[hellosailor]

tqa-
Quality and aging ears, yes.(G) Makes good equipment much more affordable, so to speak.

If your MP3 player, like most, only has an "earbuds" socket for output? Then the odds are you cannot, or should not, run that output into a "car" stereo even if it has an auxiliary input.

Reason being the aux input is usually a "line level" input which is designed to take a much much lower signal strength than a headphone level.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Line_level

It is POSSIBLE that you can start with the volume all the down on the MP3 player and turn it up until you get something acceptable and working. But even if you can get a match (random luck) you may get a lot more distortion that way. If the signal is too strong, you get a blown stereo. Sometimes the kludge job works, other times...it becomes a "don't do this at home" moment.

You might be surprised at how little a "car stereo" with modern input sources (for USB or SDXC direct) can cost. And guaranteed one of those memory sticks can hold way more music than your MP3 player.(G)

 

[Stu Jackson]

If it is just due to the CD players not working, then I might be tempted to get one of the FM broadcast converters that let you send the signal to the radio via an unused FM signal. Something like this:

Mini FM Transmitter - Monoprice.com

Those are pretty horrible. I've tried them.

I have (gasp!) a cassette player and a CD changer. I use the cassette tape adapter when someone comes onboard with a iSomething.

I'm old school, haven't gotten into the 21st Century yet, but I have all the music I want, as cumbersome as those CDs are. I have a 12 disc changer.

In your case, just get a new stereo. Getting the old one out simply requires the sliders that come with new stereos - they slide into the sides of the existing radio and click to get it out. If you've ever installed one, you'll know. When I put mine in, I made sure to save those puppies. If not, you might be able to get them from Crutchfield, also a good place to buy stereos.

 

[miatapaul]

Those are pretty horrible. I've tried them.

I have (gasp!) a cassette player and a CD changer. I use the cassette tape adapter when someone comes onboard with a iSomething.

I'm old school, haven't gotten into the 21st Century yet, but I have all the music I want, as cumbersome as those CDs are. I have a 12 disc changer.

In your case, just get a new stereo. Getting the old one out simply requires the sliders that come with new stereos - they slide into the sides of the existing radio and click to get it out. If you've ever installed one, you'll know. When I put mine in, I made sure to save those puppies. If not, you might be able to get them from Crutchfield, also a good place to buy stereos.

Yea, they really depend on where you are, and how much free spectrum you have. I had a signal that worked pretty well for me, then a new station poped up on that frequency. But they work pretty well and gives you some time to decide what to do. I was surprised how well the one I have works, but it is direct from china, and likely puts out more power than you are allowed to without commercial licenses! The best ones hook directly to the antenna, but before I did that I would just replace the unit.

 

[hellosailor]

Some of those adapters ALSO can take a SD card or SDHD card, allowing them to become a "card player" at the same time.

They mainly suffer from the fact that there are NO unused FM frequency slots in any US urban market, but offshore with the antenna unplugged...that might not be a problem.

For ten bucks...not a major loss if it isn't satisfactory.

 

[TQA]

tqa-
Quality and aging ears, yes.(G) Makes good equipment much more affordable, so to speak.

If your MP3 player, like most, only has an "earbuds" socket for output? Then the odds are you cannot, or should not, run that output into a "car" stereo even if it has an auxiliary input.

Reason being the aux input is usually a "line level" input which is designed to take a much much lower signal strength than a headphone level.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Line_level

It is POSSIBLE that you can start with the volume all the down on the MP3 player and turn it up until you get something acceptable and working. But even if you can get a match (random luck) you may get a lot more distortion that way. If the signal is too strong, you get a blown stereo. Sometimes the kludge job works, other times...it becomes a "don't do this at home" moment.

You might be surprised at how little a "car stereo" with modern input sources (for USB or SDXC direct) can cost. And guaranteed one of those memory sticks can hold way more music than your MP3 player.(G)

The set I am looking at is 35$ US - cheap as chips.

OK here is where I prove that I know just enough to be dangerous.

I find I am overdriving the car stereo. What about heating up the poker and soldering in a resistor say 10k in the line in cable?

 

[hellosailor]

You'd think so, but since it is stereo you'd need two of them, and then, for mystical reasons, impedance and level matching is way less likely to work, even if someone who knows what they are doing can supply details for you.

The Gods of Gizmo sometimes must be supplicated. Sometimes, with all respect to George Carlin, the best answer is "more stuff".