Any tips on what I should be looking for?  When I last looked at these in 2006, they were upwards of £300+ but now they're a more respectable price.

I guess I need a head unit to replace my existing Renault-fit radio/cassette thing (linked to a CD unit in the boot, btw (which I never use now)).  Are they pretty much universal?

I like the idea of it running from a USB stick so I don't have to piss about loading it from a laptop etc.  Will song titles get read from the Windows file name or must the MP3s be ID3 tagged?

Budget is around £100 ish (don't want budget/cheap though i.e. a £29.99 Argos job) 

Most will allow you to choose whether to display the mp3 filename or from ID3 tags, my one best piece of advice would be just buy a decent brand and don't choose their bottom rung. You can sometimes find that the cheapies refuse to play high bitrate files like 320kbps well or have poor buffers which makes them prone to skipping.

Went to Halfords.com, clicked their first bargain link advertised:

http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_storeId_10001_catalogId_10151_productId_801713_langId_-1_categoryId_165474

Job done IMO. Edit: ahh that one doesn't have USB. But you get the idea, Halfords always have offers on


http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=10001&cm_cr=No+Campaign-_-Web+Activity-_-C222732-_-PRODHOME_ESPOTCAROUSEL-_-Sony+CDX-GT35U+CD+Radio+with+MP3+%26+USB+Connectivity&productId=774697&msg=&langId=-1&catalogId=10151
This is the same or next model up from one I had, Ronseal performance

Cheers - that Sony was one of the ones I was looking at. 

FWIW, I currently mount my iPhone to a holder on the dash then plug that in via a cassette adaptor.    A bit "steampunk" but it works.  Sound quality can't be all that good though...

Cheers.

I used to have one of those casette adapters, they are horrible and really ruin the music quality. Best upgrade you could make!

not sure if this will help but i thought i would suggest what i have setup

My setup is quiet cheap and works well, i'll explain.

I bought like a cheap car radio that took headphone jack in front, cost me around 20-30 at the time, which you can get on ebay.

I use a program called audiogalaxy which streams over 3g, all my music over the web, but u do require to have your pc on at home all times, http://www.audiogalaxy.com/
I like this program because i dont have to upload or download any music onto my iphone and my collection of music is huge.

but you can also use this service which amazon offers, but you would need to stream the music
http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/?nodeId=200593730

There is a another service you can use when it comes out in the UK, which is google music
http://music.google.com

Not sure we're ready for streaming music in the UK just yet, purely because of how expensive our mobile data tarrifs can be

I totally agree with muks (and welcome to the forums btw ) about getting a headunit with an Aux in. I bought a Pioneer MP3 CD headunit a few years ago and it'd still be brilliant if only I'd paid the bit extra for the 3.5mm jack in :/ I now find myself using a FM transmitter plugged in to the cigarette lighter and my mobile phone when I want to listen to something that I've not yet dropped onto a CD.

Welcome to the forums muks, that's a nifty suggestion there. Does the music quality not suffer what with having to be transmitted over 3G? I thought 3G was very low bandwidth

Quote from: muks on August 15, 2011, 14:33:43 PM
I use a program called audiogalaxy which streams over 3g, all my music over the web, but u do require to have your pc on at home all times, http://www.audiogalaxy.com/
I like this program because i dont have to upload or download any music onto my iphone and my collection of music is huge.

Hey - thats the same AudioGalaxy that pretty much took over from Napster way back in the early 2000's isn't it? They had a p2p client called the 'satellite' that used to just sit open and download from a list of stuff you asked it to. It used to auto resume and all sorts it was awesome until they got sued left right and center and had to start blocking copyrighted songs. I remember people starting changing the names of songs slightly to bypass the filter - 'Noasis' was a popular one   Great little app that was.

EDIT:



Anyone else remember this?

I remember that, it was good but a bit of a lottery too! If this is the successor to that then they've made the right move clearly, its going to be a big market I expect.

Thanks all.  Will probably go for the Sony CDX-GT35U.  I'm assuming they're pretty easy to fit, including the stalk controller thang [sold separately]?

I note on the Halfords site, there's a Multistalk adapter for Renault (4.99) then a Multistalk adaptor for Sony (£29.99)...  Which The F*Ck?!

You will need to get both, one part is for the car, and then the other bit for the headunit, and they plug together, this is assuming you already have a stalk in the car. If you need an actual stalk (sold separately) then I don't think Halfords sell them and they will be much more expensive

You'll also need to make sure your current radio is the standard 1 din size (you should be able to tell by looking at it) otherwise you will need to buy a facia.

And you'll need to get an adapter for renault wiring to standard ISO... however if you have an after market radio already in there then I expect it will already have this.

Ah, fek that then.  Too 'spensive.   I'll stick to the iPhone solution.

Cheers.

I expect you only need the head unit and ISO adapter (if you just ignore the whole stalk idea?)

ISO cable adapter will be no more than a tenner

Yes, I already have the stalk (Renault fit) - so, just the adapter then?

I Still think that these are a really good deal, one gets a lot of sound for a low price.
http://alatest.co.nz/reviews/car-cd-mp3-player-reviews/c3-136/?brand=DENVER  (the 420) I have the 415 and am really pleased with it
but the 420 gets a better rating !!!