Anybody notice that the MP3 head units have a tendency to skip (with scratched CD-Rs) quite a bit more than the regular CD head units?

"Test Driving" some MP3 head units today and noticed that it skipped frequently (of course my MP3 disc was scratched and stuff) but I've got some OLD CD's that are SEVERELY scratched up that still play without skipping too terribly bad in my regular CD player unit.

Looking at the Pioneer DEH-P7400MP unit. Anyone have anything good/bad to say about this unit?

 

I haven't noticed MP3 radios skipping more unless they were just a crappy radio. I had an Aiwa that skipped like CRAZY.

i have the DEH-P8400 and its a great radio. It has a little long time between tracks but it doesn't bother me. My brother has the model your looking at and he said it took 8-9 seconds to seek from song to song and he took it back..

 

If I had to take a guess at it, the following metaphor would be my guess.

Let's compare the CD's to the steering on the truck.
A normal CD (wav file, rather big) we set equal to the normal steering set-up of an F-150. Now, we will set an MP3 CD (files being small) equal to a truck in which the steering wheel only moves a few inches from side to side (so say 3 inches to left means the wheels are pointed as far left as possible and vice-versa for the right).

Now, how hard would it be to drive that MP3 F-150 truck down the interstate (safely?)?

Moral of my metaphor, there is less room for error on an MP3 CD. And hence, I would think the scratches (and any other imperfections) would show up a lot easier.

But I could be wrong.

 

Sounds logical SteveB..
I too had considered that aspect as well. Nice example.

 

Well there are two aspects. If there IS a physical scratch that destroys data, the blip will be much more noticeable on an MP3 because it is more compressed.

However, because of that compression one would think you could buffer a hell of a lot more song and afford to read an area of the disc multiple times. However, in practice, many manufacturers' implementations have been extremely poor.

 

I have this head unit and absolutely love it. Easy operation, wireless remote, and full control of my XM all built into a pretty good looking head unit.

Here are the cons...

With XM, it doesn't scroll the Artist/Title
The display isn't quite bright enough for those REALLY sunny days
Umm, that's about it.

I really like it!! Email me with questions... email is in the signature line...

I know the pics are kind of lousy but, here are a couple...





Enjoy.

RP