[JGE]

I'm tired of having to burn my music as MP3 files onto CD media.
But I have no interest in owning an iPod or other portable player.
Thus, I'm intrigued by this new Kenwood unit which sports a front
panel USB and auxiliary input.

Am I correct in believing that I can simply burn a bunch of MP3s
to a thumb-drive, the biggest I can buy, plugging it into the front
panel USB input, and navigating the various folders by artist, album,
etc ?

Thanks, John

[Lee[_17_]]

JGE Wrote:
[..]I have no interest in owning an iPod or other portable player. Thus,
I'm intrigued by this new Kenwood unit which sports a front panel USB
and auxiliary input.
I would suggest the next model higher that places the USB input on a
pigtail from the rear of the unit; it can be placed, for easy access, in
the govebox or pocket beneath the unit. Having a 3" USB stick out from
the front panel of your receiver is inviting damage .. one thoughtless
reach by the front can result in broken USB as well as damaged receiver.
I sell these and have seen all kinds of things happen.
JGE Wrote:
[..]Am I correct in believing that I can simply burn a bunch of MP3s to
a thumb-drive, the biggest I can buy, plugging it into the front panel
USB input, and navigating the various folders by artist, album ..
Yes, and it works beautifully; I usually suggest nothing bigger than 2g
sticks due to the amount of time required to index (read) the contents,
but some have told me they were alright was it up to 4g sticks -- it can
take a full minute to start working once the stick is inserted. Kenwood
states that you can nest 8 levels of directory's:
i:/rock/90/Lenny_Kravitz/Let_Love_rule/ is an example of 4 levels ..
I've never imagined anything required beyond 4.


--
Lee
------------------------------------------------------------------------
View thread: http://www.caraudioforum.com/showthread.php?t=297152
CarAudioForum.com - Usenet Gateway w/over TWO million posts online!

[JGE]

On Mar 13, 9:46*am, Lee wrote:
JGE Wrote: [..]I have no interest in owning an iPod or other portable player. Thus,
I'm intrigued by this new Kenwood unit which sports a front panel USB
and auxiliary input.

I would suggest the next model higher that places the USB input on a
pigtail from the rear of the unit; it can be placed, for easy access, in
the govebox or pocket beneath the unit. *Having a 3" USB stick out from
the front panel of your receiver is inviting damage .. one thoughtless
reach by the front can result in broken USB as well as damaged receiver.
I sell these and have seen all kinds of things happen.
JGE Wrote: [..]Am I correct in believing that I can simply burn a bunch of MP3s to
a thumb-drive, the biggest I can buy, plugging it into the front panel
USB input, and navigating the various folders by artist, album ..

Yes, and it works beautifully; I usually suggest nothing bigger than 2g
sticks due to the amount of time required to index (read) the contents,
but some have told me they were alright was it up to 4g sticks -- it can
take a full minute to start working once the stick is inserted. *Kenwood
states that you can nest 8 levels of directory's:
i:/rock/90/Lenny_Kravitz/Let_Love_rule/ is an example of 4 levels ..
I've never imagined anything required beyond 4.

--
Lee
------------------------------------------------------------------------
View thread:http://www.caraudioforum.com/showthread.php?t=297152
CarAudioForum.com - Usenet Gateway w/over TWO million posts online!

Thanks Lee. Hmm, yes, good thought about the damage potential of the
flash-drive sticking out the front.

I wonder if there is any adapter for going from the CD changer plug to
USB ? I have a perfectly good Kenwood CD/MP3 unit in my car now,
and hate to spring for a new unit just for this. Maybe I should just
find a cheap-o MP3 player and connect via the CD-changer to 3.5mm
mini-plug adapter (which I already have).

John

[Lee[_18_]]

JGE Wrote:
On Mar 13, 9:46 am, Lee wrote:
JGE Wrote:
I'm intrigued by this new Kenwood unit which sports a front
panel USB and auxiliary input.

I would suggest the next model higher that places the
USB input on a pigtail from the rear of the unit

I wonder if there is any adapter for going from the CD
changer plug to USB?


No changer port to USB adapter, but there is a changer to AUX adapter
(KCA-C1AUX) http://tinyurl.com/yrgunm

JGE Wrote:
Maybe I should just find a cheap-o MP3 player and connect via the
CD-changer to 3.5mm mini-plug adapter.

Of course, but remember, using the USB displays the song / artist (ID3
tags) as well as the folder names on the display of the unit.


--
Lee
------------------------------------------------------------------------
View thread: http://www.caraudioforum.com/showthread.php?t=297152
CarAudioForum.com - Usenet Gateway w/over TWO million posts online!

[JGE]

On Mar 13, 3:35*pm, Lee wrote:
JGE Wrote:

On Mar 13, 9:46 am, Lee wrote:
JGE Wrote:
I'm intrigued by this new Kenwood unit which sports a front
panel USB and auxiliary input.

I would suggest the next model higher that places the
USB input on a pigtail from the rear of the unit

I wonder if there is any adapter for going from the CD
changer plug to USB? *

No changer port to USB adapter, but there is a changer to AUX adapter
(KCA-C1AUX)http://tinyurl.com/yrgunm

JGE Wrote:

Maybe I should just find a cheap-o MP3 player and connect via the
CD-changer to 3.5mm mini-plug adapter.

Of course, but remember, using the USB displays the song / artist (ID3
tags) as well as the folder names on the display of the unit.

Good point, plus I'd have to buy/find a cig-lighter adapter for the
iPod.

I've been reading about people trying to connect the little portable
hard-drives
to the HU's USB port, but it seems pretty problematic. 'Twould be
cool though,
because I could fit all my music on one drive (it might almost fit on
a 16GB
thumb, but you advise against one so large) and it would eliminate the
damage-hazard problem you mentioned.

Thanks for helping me think out loud on this conundrum ...

John

[Matt Ion]

Lee wrote:

I would suggest the next model higher that places the USB input on a
pigtail from the rear of the unit; it can be placed, for easy access, in
the govebox or pocket beneath the unit. Having a 3" USB stick out from
the front panel of your receiver is inviting damage .. one thoughtless
reach by the front can result in broken USB as well as damaged receiver.
I sell these and have seen all kinds of things happen.

Why not just use a USB extension cable? My local computer store has 6'
A-to-A extenders for $5... plug it in and stash the drive in the glove
box or any dash pocket...

[JGE]

I just realized, on this trip I will carry laptop along (together with
inverter for the charger). So I can just go from 3.5mm mini-jack
output of MacBook into aux-in (courtesy of CD-changer to 3.5mm
mini-plug adapter) of existing Kenwood HU.

Duh ...

John

[CT]

On Mar 12, 3:49 pm, JGE wrote:
I'm tired of having to burn my music as MP3 files onto CD media.
But I have no interest in owning an iPod or other portable player.
Thus, I'm intrigued by this new Kenwood unit which sports a front
panel USB and auxiliary input.

Am I correct in believing that I can simply burn a bunch of MP3s
to a thumb-drive, the biggest I can buy, plugging it into the front
panel USB input, and navigating the various folders by artist, album,
etc ?

Thanks, John

I have a Dual unit with a USB port on the front. I love it and so far
haven't had
problems with passengers or myself hitting the usb drive sticking out.

Depending on your model, there might be different features. I have a
4GB stick right now (I think
owners manual said it can accomodate up to 8GB), and I don't have any
lag issues when it reads
the drive. It takes maybe 1 second to initialize, then it's playing
songs, and moving from
song to song or directory to directory is pretty instantaneous.

Mine doesn't navigate by the ID3 tags, but does display this
information. It navigates by file and directory.
So I just stick it on random and just skip something I don't want to
hear. I think you also have to stick
the files into directories, because having too many in the root will
cause problems. I made three directories
on my thumb drive, one for me, one for my wife, and one for my
daughter, so we can each have our songs
on the drive, and just flip to their respective directory to listen to
their music. It is really convenient.

My unit also has the CD drive that plays regular audio and CD-R/RW
data discs. Now, it takes forever to read
CD if it's loaded with mp3's. But having 4GB worth of music on a
thumbdrive only taking 1 second, it's really
a no brainer. I'd look for different make/models to see if they offer
different options when it comes to playing
your music, like by artist or genre, etc.

Overall, I recommend a car unit with a USB connector.

Chris.