Help finding a specific headunit...

[StarSpeckledSky]

Hi,

After recently getting a newer car (2004 Corolla LE), I decided I'd like to swap out the factory radio for something aftermarket. I'm probably being a little picky with what I want, but would you folks be kind enough to help me find what meets my needs closest?

Here's a list of what I'm looking for, most important first, least important last.

- MP3-CD player

- ID3v2 tag support, so that long names will not be cut off at ID3v1's 30 character limit

- Multiple lines to display song information: REALLY looking to display the Title, Artist, Album, and Elapsed Time all at the SAME time

- Prefer no knobs, but since that's unlikely... Knobs with directional tilting should be stable and easy to control

The Kenwood KDC-MP635 comes really close to what I'm looking for in it's display of all the song information I want, but unfortunately it does not read ID3v2 tags (a deal-killer for me), and the tilt-dial is rather finicky too.

Thanks!

Click to read more...

 

[DejaWiz 5,000+ posts]

http://www.onlinecarstereo.com/CarAudio/ProductDetail.aspx?ProductID=13380

http://www.onlinecarstereo.com/CarAudio/ProductDetail.aspx?ProductID=17446

http://www.onlinecarstereo.com/CarAudio/ProductDetail.aspx?ProductID=17455

 

[StarSpeckledSky]

Thanks for the quick response Deja. The first and last would need more lines of text to suit me, but the middle (Clarion DXZ775) definitely looks interesting. Do you know what brick-and-mortar stores carry Clarion headunits so I can test one out for myself?

 

[DejaWiz 5,000+ posts]

Good question. The Dealer Locator might be able to help you.

 

[StarSpeckledSky]

Are there any units that read full-length ID3v2 tags, AND display the Title, Artist, Album, and Elapsed Time all at once?

The Kenwood KDC-MP635 comes close, with it's 3-line display option of:

Elapsed Time

Title / Artist

Album

However, the unit reads only ID3v1 -- rather than ID3v2 -- tags, meaning anything more than 30 letters long is abruptly cut off. For example, one song I tested it with should display (taking scrolling into account) as:

5:12

No Such Thing as the Promised Land (Mako Reactor) / sephfire, sgx

http://ff7.ocremix.org - Voices of the Lifestream

But all the red text is absent, being too long for ID3v1 tags.

The Clarion DXZ775USB mentioned above, on the other hand, can read ID3v2 tags just fine as I found out tonight. (Thanks again Deja for the link!) But instead of displaying all fields at once, you're limited to a choice between Elapsed/Title/Artist:

5:12

No Such Thing as the Promised Land (Mako Reactor)

sephfire, sgx

and Elapsed/Title/Album:

5:12

No Such Thing as the Promised Land (Mako Reactor)

http://ff7.ocremix.org - Voices of the Lifestream

Surely there exits some headunit (not too ridiculously expensive) that can give complete, simultaneous display of Title, Artist, and Album tags in addition to the Elapsed Time for the track. Am I really asking for too much? o.o

 

[Confusedsoul 10+ year member]

Only thing I can possibly come up with is single din:

JVC KD-LHX500 or maybe the KD-LHX550

And they're not current units. Sorry man //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/frown.gif.a3531fa0534503350665a1e957861287.gif

 

[StarSpeckledSky]

Thanks for the suggestions man. I'm being really picky, aren't I? //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/crazy.gif.c13912c32de98515d3142759a824dae7.gif

Seeing that nearly all modern players have knobs, I've revised my priorities (and the first post of the thread!) so that if they have tilt-knobs, they must at least be stable and have good response, not over- or under- sensitive. Also, Deja, I found out that the Clarion DXZ775USB has *sliding* volume & seek controls rather than what looks like buttons. Interesting control method I haven't heard of before.

I'm beginning to think that, since it seems so hard to find a unit that will display all 4 of those song attributes (and you would think that double DINs would have more room for that), perhaps I ought to just add " / Artist Name" onto every Title tag of the MP3s before I burn them to CD-R. Though I still hope to find a unit that makes this unnecessary.

 

[DejaWiz 5,000+ posts]

perhaps I ought to just add " / Artist Name" onto every Title tag of the MP3s before I burn them to CD-R. Though I still hope to find a unit that makes this unnecessary.

I have always formated the song title field as "Artist - Song Title". I have yet to find a HU that can display a full 30+ characters across without scrolling.

 

[StarSpeckledSky]

I have always formated the song title field as "Artist - Song Title". I have yet to find a HU that can display a full 30+ characters across without scrolling.

Ah, sorry I wasn't being clear. Scrolling is not at all an issue for me, I mean it's pretty much required for a Title / Artist combo line. I meant that I'd like to see a HU show all 4 song characteristics (Title/Artist/Album/Elapsed) at once, doing all the auto-scrolling nessesary, rather than having to manually switch display modes between partial groupings of those 4 characteristics (i.e. Title/Artist or Title/Album or Title/Elapsed).

But, from what you just said, it seems that my best bet may indeed be to condense my MP3's tags and get a unit that supports ID3v2, creating the illusion that the HU displays all the fields I want it to. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/tongue.gif.6130eb82179565f6db8d26d6001dcd24.gif

 

[DejaWiz 5,000+ posts]

^ Ooooooooh I gotcha now. My bad man. Yeah, that would be cool to see a HU that could do that.

 

[StarSpeckledSky]

Wooo! After some more digging, I found just what I was looking for in the JVC KD-G730!

All text fields on the display are fixed, meaning there are no options to control what song information is shown. That would seem like a bad thing, right?

But get this. The unit itself adjusts what is displayed so you would never need to decide what info the screen should show!

When you insert an MP3-CD, it first displays Folder Name (line 2) and File Name (line 3). If any tags are present, after a couple seconds it replaces the display with Album & Artist (line 2) and Title (line 3). Any CD-Text will also be shown in the same way.

That means no more annoying "NO TEXT" messages or switching back and forth between display modes if some of your MP3s are without tags, or if some of your CDs are without CD-Text. Maybe modern headunits no longer have that flaw, but it's a welcome change from the behavior of my old one-line Kenwood.

In addition, this display seems to show the most information at once out of any I've seen: (1)Clock Time, (2)Folder#, (3)File#, (4)Elapsed Time, (5)Album, (6)Artist, and (7)Title. Considering the text fields allow up to 16 characters to be displayed w/o scrolling -- compared to 11 on the Clarion I tested -- not to mention the alternate bold font that makes for easier reading, the JVC KD-G730 could very well have THE best, most informative display for a unit around around $200.

Oh, and it has some nice features too. No speaker crossover settings, but its 3-band parametric EQ and the subwoofer rolloff & volume controls are certainly more flexible than the 3-band simple EQ I'm used to.

Only beefs I have so far are minor: Loudness compensation is in a menu, while I'm used to having a button for it. The Album / Artist scrolls first, THEN the Title, so it may never scroll through the full Title on short tracks. And oddly, while the volume bar on the display only obscures some of the text, letting what is visible scroll while you make the adjustment, as soon as the volume bar disappears, it resets to the first 16 characters of each line as if it had yet to begin scrolling.