using mini digital player in a car?

[raverx3m]

im looking at the aune ape player at the moment.
and it seems soooo damn almost there

if it had a rotaty volume control and a bit bigger display.

is it possible to use a different power supply to power this or any other unit in a car?


as i said its almost there.


can anyone suggest a unit that has the above features and DAC built in.


all i want is to be able to play my flac files in my car.

as simple as it sounds, the car audio industry is like a fn turtle.
by the time they catch up to speed we will be not needing flac support anymore.

i have been searching and asking everywhere trying to figure out how to CONVENIENTLY play flac in my car while maintaining a digital signal all the way to the speaker amplifier.

there are options but they require to use analog cables etc.

and running through a headunit as well, alot of converting and processing.


if we only had an indash media player like we do for home theater life would be so much easier...


PS: all IPOD SUGGESTERS, please take a hike. not trying to be rude but thats obviously not an option. otherwise i would be using ipod with ALAC.

[erin]

I would get one of these for the car and get yourself a 7" monitor for the car, hook it up to your amp and away you go!

The WD is way cooler than the Aune becuase you can, if you want, also play videos in your car + you will still get analog or digital audio output from the WD, and you can use a 1TB HDD, which comes with the unit. Very elegant solution i think. and with the 7" monitor they mostly seem to come with 2 inputs so you can hook up a reversing camera whist you are at it.

[raverx3m]

i just realized the major problem with any of the home players would be the lack of acc turn on wire.
unless theres a power button on the unit that i can wire up to a small relay to momentarily close the circuit.

and theres really not that many amps that have a digital input.so i would have to run it through


its really bothering me that the car audio manufacturers are always complaining how much car industry sucks.
yet they dont do much to please their customers.
most major companies have been releasing **** in last few years.
repackaged, redesigned units, mostly just different faceplates
they move the buttons around the faceplate and call it a brand new unit...
dolphin animations... no comments
we got all these dacs, HDD players,media servers, media players you name it, for home.

but if i wanted to make a decent system fro car, my only options are overpriced pioneer/alpine/etc unit that still doesnt have all the features that should be there.

or a car PC that is also missing a big chunk out of it.
the car interface.

a simple single/double din usb controlled LCD display with volume knob and a preamp would be soooo nice right now.



ok rant is over lol.(just tired of searching everywhere for a decent solution)

also the WD and seagate and other media centers are not touchscreen capable.
you control them with a remote.


just think about what an ackward situation it would be if you have some 70s german porn flick blasting in your car and your remote battery dies suddenly...

[erin]

Remote on/off is easily done with a switch or relay. Not such a big issue if playing porn if you ask me.

[raverx3m]

so is that the only one available?

[erin]

The only media player?
No there are heaps of brands around. I suggested it because it takes an internal HDD, but there are many brands that will do this. You can even get some with TV tuners built in.
If you wanted a "no compromise player" but in a small package Xtreamer makes a nice looking one (not tried it though)
Xtreamer Ultra Announcement!

You should take a look for yourself and decide if this is something you want or need?
Perhaps its overkill for the car?

The Xtreamer does allow you to connect a monitor (so they say on the website) but I was not able to ascertain if you could connect a touchscreen monitor to it.

Perhaps a carputer is more your scene?

I do empathize with you though. The car audio scene is a bit behind where it should be. At the moment media players are kicking that a$$ out of the domestic audio industry as well. IMO media players when tweaked with better caps etc. and mated with a good DAC are at least the equal if not better and more convenient than Cd players/transports.

[raverx3m]

i pretty much just want a nice quality unit to play flac files. i have backed up all my cds in flac format and now theres nothing available to play flac in the car. i used to listen to music at home it was ok. but now the car is where i have most of my music and...
the player i mentined was the best option i could find.

thats why i created this thread to see if anyone else knows about a player that will work better than this one.

volume knob an bigger display and


i only have a single din opening so no space to fit 2 units anywhere.


the problem is not finding the combo but finding the unit that has the features in one.

i can build a car PC but theres still no interface for the car besides that USB super knob.

and a good quality DAC is not a bad thing to have in the car

[Lord Le Brand]

hmm... I'm getting an idea: Building this!
What would be needed to make this work? Let's see what I've drawn from the previous posts:
1 DIN car player
Rotary volume knob
Digital inputs (USB?, SD-card?, (e)SATA HDD?)
LCD display
Built in pre-amplifier (power amplifier?)
ACC turn-on wire input
Am I missing anything?

[raverx3m]

i went ahead and ordered a booksize pc from foxconn for 170.

and will order a USB touchscren from mp3car.


the problem lies in connecting these above components to the rest of my system while also making them usable in the car.


i got PC on one side
and the amp with speakers on the other side.
but nothing to connect them together.

i can use a preamp but i have no idea how is the interface on the PC it will be a btcch to adjust volume while driving or even skip to next track using the touch screen.

so i thought of getting a USB dac that has a volume control
but then it doesnt have the skip fwd and back buttons
the above player has the fwd/back and playlist controls but doesnt have the volume know .
wft its never in one package theres always something missing.

or for a bit lower quality i could just use an audio control half din EQ/preamp that has volume control and send it to the amp.



is there a real noticeable difference when using an external DAC such as one offered by aune VS using a built in sound card dac with 3.5 jack outputs?

[erin]

I have tried one of those little atom PCs and found the onboard audio output to be quite acceptable. I would wait and see if you like the sound before buying anything else.

If you are using a touchscreen, I'm fairly sure the playback software will have a volume control that will be usable from the touchscreen. there is so much software I'm sure you will find one to suit. Most audio playback software has eq. I dont see much need for any other equipment.
I think this would all be pretty easy from the touchscreen.
I presume you will be running widoze software?