Blaupunkt MP3000 MP3 Player

Price Paid:  $199.00 from crutchfield

Year / Model Reviewed:
 blaupunkt mp3000

Summary:
Installed the unit, worked great for 5 minutes. removed the cd, put it back in, and ever since that the unit makes noises and I get a "load/eject error" I am awaiting a replacement unit from crutchfield. Dissapointing that the unit was defective, but crutchfields return policy is hassle-free.

Price Paid:  $199.00 from SoundDomain.com

Year / Model Reviewed:
 Blaupunkt MP3000

Summary:
I had been shopping around for an mp3 car deck to replace my old Alpine, which had started to skip on CD playback. When reviewing mp3 decks, I liked the price of the MP3000, and was encouraged by the fact that Costco had been carrying it. In my experience, Costco carries merchandise that is reasonable quality at a good price. My local Costco didn't have it, so I ended up ordering it on the web. I didn't go for the lowest price available, because of all the nasty things I've heard about New York mail order houses. It was very easy to install on my 95 Ford Tauras. Playback of regular CDs, CDRs and CDRWs is great, and so is the tuner. But I bought it for the mp3 capability. I have had no problem with playback - all the disks I've burned play back with absolutely no problem. But it has taken some experimentation to find what works best for sound quality. The manual recommends a minimum bit rate of 128k, but I found that while the music sounds OK, it doesn't have sparkle. MP3s at the highest bitrate (320k) sound fabulous, but I can only get about 4 albums worth on one CDR. I found that if I used a variable bit rate (VBR) setting of 128k to 225k, I get reasonable file size and excellent sound. By the way I rip all my mp3s from my own CD collection using CDEX (an excellent free software ripper/encoder) and burning with the software that came with my burner - the stripped down EZCDCreator (Roxio). I don't know why other people have had problems with mp3 playback, but my unit has had absolutely no problems with chirping etc. The folder skip works really well to get to the album I want and the text scrolling is definitely nice - you get to see all the nicely tagged information (typos and all). For a reasonably priced mp3 deck with good performance, I would heartily recommend the Blaupunkt MP3000.

Strengths:
value!

Weaknesses:
It would be nice to somehow get direct access to folders/tracks without being forced to go through the folder/tracks sequentially.

Similar Products Used:
Several Alpine cd decks. This is my first mp3 car deck

Price Paid:  $179.00 from Coscto

Year / Model Reviewed:
 blaupunkt

Summary:
Plays MP3 files wonderfully now. Even at 92kbps. Before a warrantee repair I had the chirps and pops so I called Blaupunkt. Thay said to send it end for Warrantee repair since I had the early decoder chip. After the repair it functions great. It even remembers where it was last playing in a song after being turned off. I use Windows media player with an MP3 plugin. For some reason Real Player did not record the file and folder names like the MP3000 likes. So if you have and early player call in for repair. The new units should be fine.

Strengths:
MP3 play. For my car the display is good. The radio sits LOW in the center console.

Weaknesses:
Display may be too bright for high mounting

Similar Products Used:
Rio Volt, Memorex MP3 CD player

Price Paid:  $200.00 from millionbuy.com

Summary:
I could not be more pleased with this unit. It works flawlessly, sounds and looks great, and is reasonably easy to operate. When you first insert an MP3 disc, it spends a few seconds scanning the filesystem, and then you can skip between tracks and folders as quickly and easily as if you were listening to a CD. The ID3 tag support is a nice feature too. Wow, I can have my entire music collection (or at least a sizeable chunk of it) tucked under my visor!

Strengths:
Big, bright display. (Some say TOO bright, but I haven't found it to be a problem - and there IS a contrast control, contrary to what some have said.) ID3 tag support. Quick cueing with MP3 discs. Great price. Detachable faceplate. Good looks. (It's more handsome in person than it is in the photos - the finish is actually a classy charcoal, not the gaudy silver that it looks like in the pictures.)

Weaknesses:
It would be nice to have dedicated knobs for bass and treble, instead of having to page through the Audio settings menu, but I guess this is a pretty common deficiency among car stereos, and it's nothing I can't live with. I wish the scrolling of the track titles was faster. Even at the "Fast" setting, it still crawls by. These are minor annoyances, though.

Price Paid:  $182.00 from Ebay auction, shippi

Year / Model Reviewed:
 MP3000

Summary:
If you rip your own using a good CD-ROM drive from non-mangled source CDs, or if you seek out the highest quality downloads, you won't have a problem with extraneous noises on this player. I use the LAME encoder for ripping my own CDs, and if I download files, I don't touch anything under 192 Kbps. If I can't find a good 192 Kbps file, and can only find a bad sounding file, I don't sweat it. I live by a "you get what you pay for" mantra, and people complaining about poor playback of stolen artwork receive no sympathy from me. The MP3000 is a great value, a real sleeper of a deal. If you're not one to piss and moan about chirps and pops in poor quality, stolen music files, and would rather listen to high quality MP3 files, you won't have a problem with the MP3000. I recommend the LAME encoder for best results. BTW, it handles VBR files just fine, except for the time display _IF_ you FF or REW during playback.

Strengths:
Great Value!!! Lots of features that you may or may not use. Powerful built-in amp, with source-tone-memory. Excellent FM tuner (Very sensitive). Clean sounding AM. Signal strength meter. Rotary encoder knob that actually responds properly when you try to adjust the volume quickly (unlike certain Alpine models). ID3 support. Separate digits for the clock. Very easy to operate while driving.

Weaknesses:
The "too bright" display really is bad on dark rural roads. The quick-and-dirty (but effective!) workaround is to flip down the faceplate if you're not operating the MP3000, just listening. The power stays on unless you remove the faceplate. It sounds like a bother, but it's really quick and easy, and not so bad considering that the MP3000 is otherwise near perfection for the price.

Similar Products Used:
"Regular" CD players from Kenwood, Koss, Pioneer, Sony.