Vince

anyone interested? the rio empeg hard drive based mp3 player is only $199. I think it might be perfect for the little gap under the stereo.

here's the link



i'm thinking about this unit for my coupe

pdutta2000

This looks very promising. The main problem, however, is connecting to the fiber optic system that MB has decided to use. I didn't see anything on the website that would overcome this issue. I would be very interested in your results if you do indeed decide to go ahead with this purchase. Good find!!

tommy

Another problem is that the surround is circular, so I don't know how well anything is going to integrate into the center console.

Someone did say that Crutchfield is offering a surround for the top part of the stereo area, maybe someone has developed a kit for the bottom?

Vince

i was thinking of just using an FM modulator to add it on.

As far as the surround thing that tommy is talking about, i don't even know what you mean by surround?

tommy

By surround, I mean the black plastic that "surrounds" both the current radio and the gap under the stereo. If you're going to mount anything aftermarket in the dash, you're going to have to do something about it. And I don't know if it's going to be pretty.

Vince

oh.

is tray below the stereo molded in there or something?
can it be removed to make way for an additional player?
It should unscrew.

Vince

just reading the rio page and it says, "The supplied car mount fits securely into your DIN bay, and connects permanantly into your car wiring system.
"

So, assuming that mb uses a standard DIN bay this would work.

tommy

Yeah, the entire assembly is one big piece of plastic that goes around the stereo on the top and sides, then comes underneath, and is the little bin itself. Now, I have no idea what's behind the black plastic, but I really think that it's not something easy to work with, and I've also heard that just getting back there is not as easy as you'd hope.

Vince

just found another reason to get this



tetris

Buellwinkle

How do you load songs into it? What you need is for Tetris so display on the dash and use the steering wheel controls to play it. Now that would be worth any additional expense.

Vince

you can add song's 3 different ways:

the slowest way is using a serial port,

next would be USB,

finally 10baseT ethernet.

it allows all of them.

Since it runs Linux as the OS tetris can just be installed on the player. I have no idea what the controls are, however it does come with a remote control.

Flashman

It is a discountinued product.

pdutta2000

That's exactly what I was thinking!! If you go to the "Buy" section of the Rio website you will see that the original price is $699 and it is on sale for $199. No one drops $500 off the price of a product unless they are trying to get rid of existing inventory. Now this is good, cause the price is great. This is bad because there is no chance for a return if it doens't work.

Vince

i don't think it matters if it's discontinued, empeg has a great support community, so i hear/read.

mmutlu

Anyone heard of cd/mp3 player for cars?...so audio and mp3 cd's can be played.

vadim

Go to www.crutchfield.com - they list a few models of in-dash CD players that support MP3.

As for MB coming up with an MP3-compatible unit - forget it... Too controversial for them to enter this domain... Remember Napster?

Speaking of in-dash units, may I suggest an alternative?

http://www.romemp3.com/product-detail.html?ID=15

I've got one of those, a nice thing to complement a car cassette player.

If you'd like to read more about my experience with it, click here:

https://mbworld.org/forums/showthrea...0&pagenumber=3

Happy New Year!

Vince

this is the worst...
i got so excited about this thing going on sale. I guess alot of other people did too, because now it's sold out

cheapguy69

Anyone know the dimensions of the Rio Car player? I had been looking at this one, but it is about 1" too wide for my glovebox since I have the cd changer in there.

As far as hooking them up, I have the COMAND system so the AUX input jack is right in the glovebox so all I need to do is connect to that.

davidasman

The pocket below the radio is it's own piece, that can be removed. However, removing it involves taking apart the entire dash (i.e., metallic or wooden trim depending on your model). Then there are like 4 T-15 screws that need to be removed. After that the HU and the pocket will slide out from the console and the pocket can be taken off completely.

That being said, I do not believe (though I could be mistaken) that the size of the pocket is a full DIN size. I think that the stock HU takes up slightly more than 1 DIN so you still will not be able to fit another DIN sized anything below the stock HU.

The size of the entire stereo cavity will allow for 2 DIN sized components to be added. Such as an aftermarket LCD and DVD/MP3/AM/FM type set up. Metra makes a kit for about $30 to allow for an aftermarket install. This will cause you to lose your steering wheel controls. There is an Alpine system that is said to work with the steering wheel controls but I don't know that that has been confirmed, and I have heard that the system is quite pricey.

Good luck!

session

almost an entire year between responses... funny!

seen

why not use an alpine?

PoonerElRay

So did anyone end up buying this gadget?

Clownburner

...Not from this post.

But I own two, one in my new MB, and one in my 2001 Porsche Boxster S.

Installing it in the Mercedes was a challenge. I couldn't live with the awful quality of FM synth, so I ended up connecting it using a cassette adapter. I know, I wouldn't have believed it either, but the model I found actually sounds REALLY good (considering the limitations of the factory Bose system), and I'm extremely picky about my sound. I didn't want to tinker with the factory system in the MB since it's leased.

In the Porsche, I gutted the system completely and hooked up a pair of 8-inch Canton woofers in a custom fiberglass enclosure with front and rear JBL component speakers and additional 6-inch Canton mid-woofers in the doors, all powered by McIntosh amplification. Sweeeeeeeeeeeeeet.

The gadget itself, also known as the 'Rio Car' is by far the coolest MP3 player ever devised by man. Check out the specs at www.riocar.org and then go buy one off ebay (but be warned, they're about $800 there).