Car CD Player recommendations

April 7, 2005 4:38 PM

Can anyone recommend a good cheap car CD player with CDR, MP3, an audio-in jack, or some combination of the three?

My crappy built-in CD player does none of the three, and I needs my MP3s.

posted by graventy to Travel & Transportation (5 answers total)

We got an Aiwa somethingorother from BestBuy when we were trying to answer the same question you are. This little number seems to be the functional equivalent nowadays, they call the line-in an "iplug" now apparently. $99, can't go wrong. Crutchfield is the place to go hunting though, they have a good search engine and are smart about what radio goes in which dash. Go to "what fits my car?" on the lefthand side. Ours is the ugliest radio I have ever seen in my life, but it does all three of the things you mentioned wanting.
posted by jessamyn at 5:45 PM on April 7, 2005

About a year ago I bought an Aiwa from Crutchfield.

The CDC-X204


It does all that you want. The audio jack is in the front for easy iPod plug in.

I wish it had a bigger screen for displaying the names of MP3 files, but otherwise it is great.

Not to plug their site or anything, but if you buy from Crutchfield they send you (for free) all the wiring you need to hook the stereo up your self and the mounting bracket to fit you car.
posted by thefinned1 at 6:31 PM on April 7, 2005

If you're a tightwad, and you manage to find the specs for the CD player input, a lot of decks can have a line in jack soldered to the CD player input instead. Or, if you're flush, you can buy a pre-made unit from the company that made the stereo.

I know I was happy to find the specs for my pioneer deck... :-) Too bad by the time I found them I already hooked an XM radio to the AUX in.
posted by shepd at 8:57 PM on April 7, 2005

Note that Best Buy is the company that had a man arrested for using perfectly legal $2 bills. I suggest it's best to shop elsewhere.
posted by five fresh fish at 12:13 PM on April 8, 2005

This is mainly a personal preference thing, I would say. However, in my experience, Alpine gives great quality at a pretty fair price. This is the unit I'm planning to get for my current car: Alpine CDA-9847

I've used that site (Hooked On Tronics) a few times too, they have pretty good deals on a lot of car stereo stuff, and their service has been good for me. They also have the CDA-9845, which does the same stuff but is slightly less powerful (16W vs 18W per channel), and it's $10 cheaper.
posted by knave at 8:17 PM on April 8, 2005