mstation

Anonymous · February 20, 2004, 18:19

Has any one had any experience with these mp3 players. if so what did you think, are they reliable. are they worth the money, how do they connect to your car i.e. as a replacement h/u or are they a piggy back unit?

m http://www.6thplanet.com/store/technical/ms2car10g.html m

markiii · February 20, 2004, 19:15

w www.ssiamerica.com w

I have 120Gig in miine at the moment.

best way to connect depends on you.

option 1

Mount directly in dash

option 2

remote mounting, input via phon connections to head unit or amp and mount the wired remote panel somewhere.

option 3

This is what I went for , the adapter box to emulate an autochanger on Kenwood, Alpine, and Pioneer, coupled with voice synthesis and it's lovely.

Big advantage is you can upgrade the disc easily as it's standard 3.5" IDE drive running fat32.

I'd get it from teh states with teh current exchange rate.

Anonymous · February 20, 2004, 19:18

what hard drive did you fit as the website i have been on said that it will only work with 5400 rpm drives and these are now like rocking horse S**T

Anonymous · February 20, 2004, 19:19

also how much was the adapter. by the way i still have the standard h/u but plan to upgrade in the future

Anonymous · February 20, 2004, 19:27

sorry just checked the website you recommended the prices for the adapters are on there

markiii · February 20, 2004, 19:28

nope mine is 7200 works fine.

It's the interface that matters, so some of teh latest ultra drives might not be fantastic, but teh spindle speed won't affect anything.

I'm running a 120Gig Western Digital Caviar ATA133 rated at 7200rpm

The drive doesn't need to be fast, it does need to be reliable. Laptop drives survive better than 3.5" which is why I bought my drive based on the fact it has a 3 year warranty. Just in case.

For me this is currently the best solution on the market, all of teh proprietry stuff such as teh kenwood keg are either hideously expensive or lack teh features I wanted.

You navigate this simply by filing system, so however you file it, you can navigate it. I went for A-Z, Artist, Album, Track

The only thinsg I'd change are

1. Better quality audio DACS, thats snob value more than anything though. SSI are a techncology company not a hifi company. Bur Brown DACS such as in teh Keg woudl be nice, but in a convertible sports car you really can't tell. Even at 193K VBR.

2. Occasionaly (maybe once a fortnight) it locks up and you need to power off teh headunit and back on again.

3. 3.5" drives need a full 12 volts, if your battery starts to drop occasionally it won't spin up. The easy way to fix this is a laptop drive with adaptor that you could get from Maplins or the like. Honestly unless laptop drive prices drop a hell of a lot, I can live with the blue moon when it does this.

markiii · February 20, 2004, 19:29

If you want other opinions Steve J has a slightly older revision and PMDye has teh version 1.

Anonymous · February 20, 2004, 19:31

thanks for that

Anonymous · February 20, 2004, 19:40

sorry to hassle but do you recon its worth getting this in version 1 with nod disk at all for £139.83

as i can get an 80gig hard drive for 43.48

markiii · February 20, 2004, 19:52

possibly,

coupel of questions,

1. where are you looking at getting the bare unit from?
2. What head unit, installation option are you looking at?
3. Do you want teh voice synthesis?

have you seen the price of a 120Gig disk?

m http://www.scan.co.uk/products/Products.ASP?CatID=16 m

3rd one up is mine, actually ATA 100 not 133 as I thought.

Anonymous · February 20, 2004, 20:32

unit is from

w www.6thplanet.com w

i have not yet decided on the h/u as i am going to wait till i go to the USA in august

not too bothered about the voice bit but if it was available i might get it at a later date.

its just a pipe dream but i was thinking of getting a DVD h/u in the future but as i don't know how much this would cost i don't know whether i could afford it.

markiii · February 20, 2004, 22:04

purely for MP3 use then yes it probably would be.

the firmware upgrades should work on a v1, the main difference if I recall is the data connector.

I would check with SSI if teh voice and changer controls are compatible with V1 as it requires a new chip.

If teh answer is no, ask yourself whether the wired remote is a solution your happy with.

Personally I prefer the integration with my kenwood headunit and teh voice, the variable are whether your that bothered about this and what make headunit you think your likely to go for.

SteveJ · February 20, 2004, 22:15

Quote from: "markiii"purely for MP3 use then yes it probably would be.

the firmware upgrades should work on a v1, the main difference if I recall is the data connector.

I would check with SSI if the voice and changer controls are compatible with V1 as it requires a new chip.

If the answer is no, ask yourself whether the wired remote is a solution your happy with.

Personally I prefer the integration with my kenwood headunit and the voice, the variable are whether your that bothered about this and what make headunit you think your likely to go for.

IIRC the Mk1 doesn't have a removable PROM, so can't be upgraded but I'm not absolutely sure.

markiii · February 20, 2004, 22:17

perhaps Mr Dye would take a look for us.

Anonymous · February 22, 2004, 17:17

I have/had (not put it in the Leon yet) a v1 mStation. I think the voice upgrade is available, although I'm not sure, since I never wanted it; I was happy to use the cabled remote (which wedges nicely in the ashtray holder BTW if you remove the cable cover on the remote).

The way the remote connects is pretty much the main difference between the v1 and v2; on the v2, it uses a D-shell on the back of the cradle, on the v1 it's just a raw IDC ribbon-cable connector on the top of the unit. If you're going to un/replug that often, it would probably die, and the v2-style connector would be much better (since it doesn't have to be removed). Since I only ever removed it a handful of times (to stick new music on the drive), it wasn't a problem.

I got my v1 diskless from 6th Planet, and stuck in a 40Gb something (can't remember what now!). It's 5400rpm, because AIUI, some 7200rpm drives require a significant start up current to spin up, which the mStation can't supply. More recent/efficient 7200rpm drives may not be so fussy.

The v1 definately runs the newer open-source firmware ( w www.ssiamerica.com/open w ) fine, as I have that running on mine.

I think the price of a diskless v1 from 6th Planet, and a cheap 40Gb drive from somewhere, is pretty hard to beat, even with the good $ rate at the moment...

SteveJ · February 22, 2004, 17:52

Good point on the higher current requirements for faster drives - my V2 will only play if the engine is running when I power it on - my suspicion is the newer drives are also more fussy about their 12V rail.

This all leads me to wanting a 40Gb laptop drive for the unit (only requires 5V and is more resilient)

aaronjb · February 22, 2004, 18:21

Damn, knew I should have posted here first s;)

s;) (I just sold a 30Gb laptop drive on ebay for £35..) - 40Gb laptop drives can be had for about £40 new, from places like Dabs, so probably not a bad idea..

I toyed with the idea of an mstation a while back, but decided in the end that I might as well just keep using a 'normal' mp3 headunit that reads CD's.. Hmm.. Maybe in a couple of months, given the exchange rate, I might think about an mstation again.

markiii · February 25, 2004, 18:14

if you haven't already bought,

this hardrive price is hard to beat

m http://www.aria.co.uk/specials.asp#772 m

aaronjb · February 25, 2004, 18:21

Good company too..

And I really want one of those drives to put in my Sky+ box.. Gah. Spent all my money on the '2 already! s:)

s:)

kanujunkie · February 26, 2004, 10:44

on the same theme, has anyone tried there Neo-changer?? is it compatible with the fisher-price headunit?? s:? :? s:?

Anonymous · February 26, 2004, 19:18

thanks for the help

but seen as there has been a tte group buy started, my money might be diverted to that but thanks once again s:lol: :lol: s:lol: s:lol: :lol: s:lol: