The Alpine CD-Ipod ready deck I have in my truck is beginning to have problems. I am also getting tired of using my Ipod in my truck. I have almost 5,100 songs on it and my deck is pretty slow about searching for play lists and is slow to find a song in the play list. That is my fault I guess, some of my play lists have almost 100 songs on them. I want to replace my Alpine deck with this Pioneer:

http://www.crutchfield.com/App/Produ...rand%7cPioneer

I checked the newer Alpine decks and I just don't like them. You have to spend big money to get one that has a rear USB or Ipod input, and they also make you spend at least $200.00 on one that has a subwoofer output on it, and I do not like the blue lighting on the new Alpine decks. The Pioneer has 30 different light colors you can choose from. I think Alpine has gotten too big for their britches. I can get that Pioneer 4300 for $100.00 from Crutchfield, with free shipping too. Their price is $119.99 and I have a $20.00 Crutchfield online coupon code.

I want to load up songs on a few small thumb drives or flash drives. I have seen these small-sized 4 gig and 8 gig thumb drives that will not stick out too far from the faceplate of the deck:

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Maxell-Ony...Drive/15860572

That is what I will use instead of my Ipod, but I have never used a flash drive in my truck before. Anyone else here that does use a flash drive for song storage, how well does it work? Does your deck find and play songs easily or does it just play them in some random or "last modified" order? And how is the sound quality? I would think since they are MP3 files it would be just as good as it sounds from an Ipod.

Thanks for any info on this. I am about to order that Pioneer probably a little later today.

Jimmy

 

back when i had a stereo my HU had one of thoes usb slots on the front. I didnt have any issues with it as far as i can remember.

 

I just installed a new deck with a usb slot on the front a few weeks ago and I love it. It sounds great and I can scroll through every album on my flash drive.

 

Thanks for the info. I read through the 61 reviews of the 4300 on the Crutchfield web site, the people who posted anything about the flash drive and USB port all said the flash drive worked and sounded great. There was one guy complaining about the random play on his flash drive but that was it.

I ordered my new deck about 30 minutes ago. Crutchfield has a chart to let you see when you will receive your order. If it is correct then my order should be here on Thursday, and the shipping was free too. I also get a free dash installation kit and wire harness, I don't really need either one but they were free anyway. They accepted my online discount code too, so the new deck only cost me $99.99 shipped.

Now I just need to buy a few flash drives and move my Itunes library over. I found a cool free program to convert Itunes m4a files to regular mp3 format. I need to do that before I can use the flash drive on the 4300, I don't think it will recognize or play m4a files.

Thanks again for the help here.

Jimmy

 

I stopped using Crutchfield and started using Sonic Electronics; unless all the so called "Free Goodies" really equal or save money vs. Sonic's prices.

And I have a JVC HD radio; which has the USB; I use a 4GB Thumb drive and it works fine... and sounds just as good as CD so long as the file it self is of high quality with a good bitrate.

 

I have a lexar 4gb flash drive its 1 1/4in long(i just checked lol) I have had no problem with it. I have it in my sony gt630ui. I like to use my ipod tho because I can search a lot easier. I can switch from reg mode which uses the head unit to search the ipod or ipod mode which lets me use my ipod to search.

 

UPS delivered my new deck today. I am planning to install it on Saturday. I read a lot of really bad reviews online about those small size Maxell 4 and 8 gig flash drives. I do not want a big ole honkin' 8 gig thumb drive sticking out on my dash like a sore thumb. Walmart did not have the Maxell drives in stock anyway, but they do sell these:

http://www.scosche.com/consumer-tech/product/2173

It's a real small 2 gig flash drive. It is super-low profile and I think at 128 bit rate I can probably get 800 songs on it, maybe more depending on each song's length. I bought 3 of these drives tonight at Walmart, they cost $9.88 each. I plugged one in on the face of my new Pioneer deck to see what it looks like and it is great. It only sticks out about as far as the volume **** does, it's black so it blends in with the faceplate and I don't think I will notice it much.

I have over 5,000 songs in my Itunes library but I will not put all of them on these flash drives. I am converting my Itunes library from m4a files to mp3 files and will make up files with only the songs that I like from my library. m4a's will not work with the Scosche flash drive. I hope that by using flash drives in the USB port on this new deck, I will have easier and faster access to songs on the drive.

Jimmy

 

You can try best buy,staples,kmart,hhgreg,sears,target,samsclub or cosco's ect. Pretty much any store that has electronics will have flash drives.

This is mine little bit shorter than a AA and width is smaller than a quarter. 1,000 songs. I got mine with my head unit from crutch field.
photo.jpg

 

I plan on checking out Best Buy and Office Depot this weekend to see if they might have a small sized but large capacity flash drive. We have two Best Buy stores around here but they are both a good drive away from home. I will be passing by one of the Best Buy's and an Office Depot on Sunday anyway. I only took one of the Scosche flash drives out of the package just to see how it fit my deck's faceplate and I have not put anything on it yet anyway. If I find a better flash drive Walmart will give me a refund on the Scosche drives. Right now I think the Scoshe flash drive is the best thing I can find for a reasonable price. Office Depot sells a miniature 16 gb Lexar flash drive that is short and low-profile but it also costs $75.00:

http://www.officedepot.com/a/product...p-Flash-Drive/

The Lexar drives are cheaper on Amazon.com but I want to see how this new deck does before spending that much on a flash drive. The little Scosche drive will be OK for testing the deck. I am actually looking forward to not having to fiddle around with my Ipod in my truck anyway.

I really don't think I need to have all 5100 songs back in my truck again, either. I may have 5100 songs in my library but I can guarantee I have not listened to all of them and may not ever get around to it, either. Like I have a Def Leppard playlist with 83 songs on it, but that doesn't mean I listen to each and every single song in the list. Albums will always have a few songs you don't like as much, even though Def Leppard is one of my favorite bands. So maybe I will put 20 or 30 of my most favorite Def Leppard songs on the flash drive. Plus I think with this Pioneer deck I may have faster access and be able to search a flash drive easier than I can search on my Ipod. I don't mind having a few flash drives with my favorite tunes on them.

Jimmy

 

Those little ones are really cool these days; the one I'm using now is solid metal construction; and the part that sticks in is part of the USB.. its really great; it avoids the breaking or bending of the thin alum. like typical USB sticks have and makes a tight firm connection no matter what every time.. really sweet; have to get a pic of it one day for you guys to see. Wish i could find more just like it.