Beat ICE

[the judge]

Just wondering if anyone has any experience of " Beat" car cd players. Looking for a cheap replacement of standard radio/cass system in Legnum. The beat 250 looks to have good features incl card slot for under £50.

Also will the galant ISO lead ( also needed ) be compatable for the Legnum?

Cheers
Dave

[Turbo_Steve]

I believe the ISO harness will work fine.
I actually have a Beat250 CD player here that I bought ages ago and haven't used. After seeing this post, I hooked it up to see what it sounds like...and what would you know, it's a DOA!!!!!!

SO I've tried to contact the dealer...and they went out of business. Grrr.

Feature wise (and chipset) it's identical to a Medion deck I also have. Sound is passable...hardly the last word in detail or stereo imagery, but it'll do a bit of bass and treble and sound okay.

The build quality is also comparable, so I'd suggest it'll do what the Medion did as well (faceplate retaining mechanism is almost identical) which is that the plastic studs which hold it in place will gradually wear away. Mine lasted two years of daily clip/unclip, which for £50 seems reasonable.

Now, for the real problems:
It won't play VBR MP3s. So whilst you can use the card slot, or the USB socket, you may find yourself recoding some MP3s to fixed rate to ensure they play.
Not a big deal, but definitely an annoyance. Get yourself a copy of MediaMonkey PRO (about £15) to manage your music transfers to SD or USB.

The other problem:
It's limited to a certain number of songs.
I dunno how many the beat will do, but the chipset in question is limited to 8-bit addressing, which means 255 songs. So you can't plug in a harddrive full of music. And that includes subfolders...the whole memory card.

[the judge]

I believe the ISO harness will work fine.
I actually have a Beat250 CD player here that I bought ages ago and haven't used. After seeing this post, I hooked it up to see what it sounds like...and what would you know, it's a DOA!!!!!!

SO I've tried to contact the dealer...and they went out of business. Grrr.

Feature wise (and chipset) it's identical to a Medion deck I also have. Sound is passable...hardly the last word in detail or stereo imagery, but it'll do a bit of bass and treble and sound okay.

The build quality is also comparable, so I'd suggest it'll do what the Medion did as well (faceplate retaining mechanism is almost identical) which is that the plastic studs which hold it in place will gradually wear away. Mine lasted two years of daily clip/unclip, which for £50 seems reasonable.

Now, for the real problems:
It won't play VBR MP3s. So whilst you can use the card slot, or the USB socket, you may find yourself recoding some MP3s to fixed rate to ensure they play.
Not a big deal, but definitely an annoyance. Get yourself a copy of MediaMonkey PRO (about £15) to manage your music transfers to SD or USB.

The other problem:
It's limited to a certain number of songs.
I dunno how many the beat will do, but the chipset in question is limited to 8-bit addressing, which means 255 songs. So you can't plug in a harddrive full of music. And that includes subfolders...the whole memory card.

Cheers for that info Steve.
Explains why it's cheap.... was looking at another option apart from picking up a basic jvc/sony/Kenwood for a similar amount of money at Halfords.:dizzy2:
Seems that that may be the better option though!!

[pitslayer]

ive got a kenwood which i used briefly for my car pc, got box aswell, yours for £35 plus P&P

[Turbo_Steve]

-shrug- That's a good deal..but my kenwood experiences have been pretty negative too. I wouldn't touch them with a barge pole now.
Feature-wise they rock, but numerous build-quality issues, combined with consistently poor sound quality (no better than the Beat250! LOL) means I think they're over priced.

My best HeadUnit to date has still be a bottom of the range Pioneer, that has consistently delivered a more detailed and controlled sound than other brand I've listened to since...including a Becker!!!!

[HMG1K]

-shrug- That's a good deal..but my kenwood experiences have been pretty negative too. I wouldn't touch them with a barge pole now.
Feature-wise they rock, but numerous build-quality issues, combined with consistently poor sound quality (no better than the Beat250! LOL) means I think they're over priced.

My best HeadUnit to date has still be a bottom of the range Pioneer, that has consistently delivered a more detailed and controlled sound than other brand I've listened to since...including a Becker!!!!

I've had my Kenwood top end headunit for 13 years now - moved from my last car to this with no hassles, though I do love the new PRS top end Pioneer units, would love it to compliment my PRS 420 amp. However it won't work with my Kenwood Keg hard drive auto changer. Also was looking for any replacement to be double-DIN.

[Ghost_2008]

I recently picked up a cheap Pioneer stereo from ebay for about £40,

http://www.twenga.co.uk/prices-DEH-4000UB-PIONEER-Car-radio-396208-0

So far brilliant looks and sounds very good, hooked my fli sub up and the standard speakrs and it's all come together nicely....... i can play my Ipod though it but at have to use the rear audio input rather than the USB connection at the front. So it will play anything but you will need to control it throught the device, you can buy an adaptor for the ipod and then control your ipod thought the stereo, but a normal USB mp3 player should hook up without issue through the USB connection.

The only issue is I think they compromised functionality for looks...... It looks lovely but the buttons are far from intuitive, even when you are used to them you cant really change settings while driving......... I would give it a 9out of 10.....