cheap ebay usb/sd car music player - any opinions?

vyv_cox said:
Why do you think the Sony would be power hungry? I have a fairly up to date Sony CDX GT300S with inputs for iPod and auxiliaries. It consumes 0.8 amp with a CD playing, less with just the radio.
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Our Sony mp3 CD player (CDX-A360) uses a fearsome amount of power: 3-4 amps playing a CD at very modest volume. It blows 8 amp fuses when turned up loud. It also uses several hundred mA when on 'standby' as opposed to being completely off. It does not appear to be faulty.

I would dearly like to change it!
 
Hi, Maybe you can help? We have just purchased a Sony radio to replace the Blaupunkt on our yacht purely to have an aux jack so that we can use our ipods etc with the radio speakers which are wired in the cockpit and down below. We're now having problems getting power to the 'panel'. There's power in because there's a whirring where the CD would be inserted but there's no display. In order to get power to the unit we had to invert the yellow and red wires as per Sony instructions. At a loss to what we have done wrong. We appear to have two power wires coming from the boat (i.e. red and black) but the new radio requires 3 i.e. red, yellow and black. Any ideas? Many thanks Claire on s/y Ocean Rainbow - currently in Guadeloupe!
 
Courtshort said:
Hi, Maybe you can help? We have just purchased a Sony radio to replace the Blaupunkt on our yacht purely to have an aux jack so that we can use our ipods etc with the radio speakers which are wired in the cockpit and down below. We're now having problems getting power to the 'panel'. There's power in because there's a whirring where the CD would be inserted but there's no display. In order to get power to the unit we had to invert the yellow and red wires as per Sony instructions. At a loss to what we have done wrong. We appear to have two power wires coming from the boat (i.e. red and black) but the new radio requires 3 i.e. red, yellow and black. Any ideas? Many thanks Claire on s/y Ocean Rainbow - currently in Guadeloupe!
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I believe, if its a car stereo, then you will have three wires for the power. there will be the ground (connected to the negative side of the battery, usually a black colour) then for the other two, one is permanently connected (via a fuse of course) to the +ve side of the battery. this is usually the red wire. The yellow wire would in a car connect to the ignition. so the unit will always have power so it will retain the stored frequencies and settings but will only come alive when you have power on the ignition of the car. Frankly, if your not so fussed about memory etc you can just connect the yellow and red wires together and connect these both to your switched and fused positive supply. then your black goes to the negative side of the house. this has the advantage that when you switch it off it wont be taking any power at all. If you wire it with the red permanently connected it will always draw a current from the battery even when its off. depending on the unit this could be an insignificant amount or a surprisingly high amount! I used to have a vw golf that would flatten its battery if the car wasn't used for a fortnight. eventually traced it to the sony radio.

good luck. massive envy at your cruising! 4 years and counting before I can set off....
 
From elementary electrical theory, an amplifier/radio/mp3 player producing 12 watts of sound, will draw more than one amp of current from a 12v battery (P=iV + inefficiency losses). Of course there are complications such as "perceived" power, and "music power", used by manufacturers to exaggerate performance.

Also, manufacturers of such equipment design it for the automotive market, where the electrical system is fed from the vehicle alternator, and is essentially limitless in capacity. For that reason, frugality is not an issue in design.
 
Old thread, I know. I was shown these cheap head units and I nearly bought one (might still do) I likes the idea of the remote. Could be so useful quieting the radio to use the vhf without bobbing below, and to control the sounds (eg switching off Archers or the ghastly Homefront :disgust:) from the forecabin.

BUT, then my son bought me a standalone Bluetooth speaker for Xmas, now I'm in two minds if I need one. My phone does it all
 
elton said:
From elementary electrical theory, an amplifier/radio/mp3 player producing 12 watts of sound, will draw more than one amp of current from a 12v battery (P=iV + inefficiency losses). Of course there are complications such as "perceived" power, and "music power", used by manufacturers to exaggerate performance.

Also, manufacturers of such equipment design it for the automotive market, where the electrical system is fed from the vehicle alternator, and is essentially limitless in capacity. For that reason, frugality is not an issue in design.
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just on the sound power (RMS wattage) vs current argument. even if something is 'running' at 12 watts its only going to spike at that (unless you like listening to a continuous tone). I mean , in real terms I can see my ammeter twitch off the stops when the base thuds but I expect the average current draw is a lot less.

Most of the car stuff is pretty power hungry. Im sure they are efficient if you want Dr Dre blaring out at 100 watts but if you just want a bit of classical music on quietly in the background they take a disproportionate amount of power.

This is indeed an old thread and I can report that the original unit I bought of ebay is still going strong. It takes only a few milliamps on lower volumes. It does however give a lot of distortion if you go really loud on it. also the built in FM receiver has poor discrimination i.e. you sometimes get several stations at once. however, for a few quid its fine and I have just got an 8gb sd card in there with all the music I own on it. the remote control works from the cockpit and has even got wet on a few occasions and its still going strong.
 
I got one of these (similar) units to replace an elderly radio/cassette unit. The sound production from SD card, aux input and USB was, I thought, very good. The FM radio however was diabolical and unusable. Consequently I returned the unit (big advantage of Amazon over ebay) and bought a (not too) more expensive radio unit from Halfords. I would probably have bought a Lidl/Aldi version had they been on sale at the time. So, if you want a radio, these cheap units are not for you.
 
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