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Old 03-15-2018, 10:50 PM   #1
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Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: Andrews,Indiana
Posts: 2,430
Year: 1991
Coachwork: Bluebird
Chassis: AARE
Engine: 3116 Cat 250hp
Rated Cap: Just the two of us.
What radio?

My old Pioneer just isn't doing the job anymore. It's a double din cassette,cd,am/fm. I have a lot of books that are aiff format. i can convert to MP3 but it won't play them either. It's also getting so it don't want to spit out a cd. It did serve me faithfully for over a million miles in the semi. I can still use it to convert all of those cassette tapes to MP3.

I want something that has a USB port on the front so I can load books onto a stick and just plug it in. I also want a aux jack at least on the front, one on the back would be nice too, to plug in my XM receiver. Is there anything that will play aiff files without a conversion? Something with front and rear speakers so I can use the speakers outside that are built into my awning arms.

Single din is fine. I'm not looking to build the worlds finest audio system and don't want to spend much. Something under $100. Pioneer tends to play book chapters in the wrong order. You have to run them through another process which just tends to add more time at the computer. Don't know about other brands.

Any suggestions?

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Old 03-16-2018, 07:28 AM   #2
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Join Date: Nov 2011
Location: Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario
Posts: 1,791
Year: 1997
Coachwork: Thomas
Chassis: B3800 Short bus
Engine: T444E
Rated Cap: 36
I would suggest offloading all that processing to a phone, tablet or computer. That way you can have proper Playlists and play any file. Get a head unit with auxiliary in and Bluetooth.
An old android phone could be a dedicated media player for the bus.
Additionally, I've always found the user interface on head units to be difficult. Browsing song libraries is often a pain. Phones solve that issue, since you can choose the app that best suits you.
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Old 03-16-2018, 08:14 AM   #3
Bus Crazy
 
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Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: Andrews,Indiana
Posts: 2,430
Year: 1991
Coachwork: Bluebird
Chassis: AARE
Engine: 3116 Cat 250hp
Rated Cap: Just the two of us.
jazty:
I had thought of that, I don't have playlists other than the books. I don't feel the need to listen to music ALL of the time with earphones plugged into my ears. When I listen to music I just listen to what is playing on the radio. I pretty much only listen to satellite radio so I can at least get it down to the kind of music I like.

I find that getting files onto a phone is a bit cumbersome. The phone would have to be plugged in anyway because of battery life. It is soooo simple to load a book to a usb drive then plug into the radio. I still need a cd player because I also get books on cd.

The radio I have in the shop has bluetooth, I find it much easier to just plug in a usb drive with a book than to load to phone and do it that way.
The Pioneer thing is complicated. It seems that they look at when the track was produced not at the track number and books aren't produced in the order of the track. Track 9 might have been produced before track 1. There is an app available to automatically produce a playlist for Pioneer.

I have three computers in the bus but, don't really want to run them while driving.
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Old 03-16-2018, 08:27 AM   #4
Bus Crazy
 
Join Date: Nov 2011
Location: Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario
Posts: 1,791
Year: 1997
Coachwork: Thomas
Chassis: B3800 Short bus
Engine: T444E
Rated Cap: 36
Quote:
Originally Posted by somewhereinusa View Post
I don't feel the need to listen to music ALL of the time with earphones plugged into my ears.
Just a note: when I was saying "head unit" I meant in these terms: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Head_unit (not earphones).

Yeah, it's all personal choice. Android phones are about the easiest to load files onto. Most can be used like a basic USB stick. Just plug it in and dump files onto it under the Music directory. Then the music software will create a nice, easily searched and navigated library (I like VLC).

I usually buy my head units off of Amazon. My checklist consists of the following in order of importance:
1. At least 50w per channel, 4 channels
2. Auxiliary in
3. Bluetooth support
4. maybe CD (if its for my gal's car. I converted all my CDs to files long, long ago)

As long as those items are checked then I don't care much about brand. Price and reviews trump all. I've tried good name brands on down to the unknown. All worked fine, except for a cheapo Boss unit. It had a hiss. Naxa (another cheap name) has always been plenty good enough.
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