Wiki Car MP3 Player

So i've been using similar gadgets for the past 4 years now, i started when i found an fm transmitter on ebay that i linked to my ipod and played through my radio, worked well enough but started to be an annoyance having to bring my ipod into my car everytime i went anywhere. I then found another alternative on ebay much similar to this item here that plugs into your lighter socket and has a built-in mp3 player which was much more convenient. I think it cost me around £5 then and up until now i've been using it and that was a good 2 years ago, it was a chinese make called Solam and actually had mp4 video on it as well which was pretty pointless with a 1.8" screen but a nice little feature none-the-less. The actual player is still in working order to but i decided to upgrade as it wasn't compatible with Windows 7 64-bit so putting new music on it was a bit of a task (using virtual machine software). Also the only issue(s) i had with it was the shuffle or should i say 'random song' system as it wasn't like shuffle it would play songs sometimes twice in a row or the same song as 1 track back and for some reason which i think was a bug everytime i would start my car and choose next track for the first time it would play the same song whenever the car is started, this song would change when added new songs but it started to become very annoying.

Anyone on to this little player and bear in mind i will be comparing this to my last player and have only had this for a couple of weeks. Firstly it looks really nice and is a lot easier on the eyes than some of the other car mp3 players on here. I didn't get the one in the picture however, mine is the same but with chrome instead of red. The LED screen does it's job and shows the frequency, song title, song number, how many songs there in total, the track play time and total track length. The one gripe there is that the frequency fills up like half the screen which to me personally doesn't really need to show at all as if your like me i just set it and forget it. Putting songs on this thing couldn't be easier, no built in memory so you use either a SD card or USB stick, i use the latter so can't comment on the SD card side but it's just a simple matter of plugging the usb stick into your computer and throwing some songs on there. What i like most about this player though is the fact it supports folder swap so basically you can setup a bunch of folders on your usb stick with different tracks in each and using the remote switch to different folders to play or in lamens terms.. playlists!

In terms of playback it will play the songs in the order on your usb stick/sd card, there is no shuffle option. You can however use the remote to pick a track by pressing it's track number but not really practical for me as i change songs too much to be able to memorize the track numbers. Now, when i first tuned this into my radio it was really quiet but simply bumping the volume up on the player itself brings it to normal 'radio' volume. The remote that you get with it has an EQ on it that some people will be very welcome to, it works pretty well i guess but i'm no audiophile. I can however definitely tell the sound quality is much better than my last player which is where the EQ must be playing it's part, the bass sounds great. Bumping up the volume on the PLAYER too high will distort lower quality tracks though so be careful on this, you've just got to find the right balance.

That's pretty much covered everything though i hope, i wanted to write a review on this as buying this was a bit of a gamble that payed off as there was no reviews on this particular player before so if anyone wants to know anything else please ask.

I preferred this square-screen format to the other alternative products, and it fits well in the socket in my car. I use it with an SD card - have not tried it with a USB stick

Plus points: a reasonably clear display, the ability to select or change folders (provided the tracks have been saved into folders), and the option of random-play - which not all such products offer. The remote control works well;

Minus points: I would have preferred a configuration where the SD card slides right into the body of the device. The card only just slots in, and projects below the device. This means that it is a little vulnerable to being knocked. A USB stick, being longer and bulkier, would be even worse. Occasionally the player says 'no card', but unplugging and reinserting the device solves the problem. On quieter tracks, a slight background hum or whine can be heard - I don't know if this occurs on all FM frequencies.

Summary: At the price, the minor shortcomings are an acceptable trade-off for the convenience of having a large collection of music playable through my FM car radio. Definitely worth buying.

As my car CD player is broken I was looking for a way to play my CDs easily without having to resort to messing about with the unit and wires so when I saw this I gave it a go. It does exactly what it says and installed very easily. The display shows what you want and the ability to have your music stored in folders is great. The one drawback is that not everything can be accessed from the unit and you need to use the remote control that comes with it but this is not a major problem, especially at this price!