DougNY

What I had meant, and I am sorry if I didn't clarify, is that the CD player does play MP3s when they are burned into the audtio CD format. However, the PCM will not play MP3s saved on the cd as data files. This is important to some of us because you can put 5X as many songs on a CD as a data file than burning it as a CD audio format.

djantlive

The MOST does not have analog input into the headunit as it's digital. On analog based system pre-03, you can use the cd changer input as aux for xm/mp3. I don't like MP3 since sound isn't superior to CD. If you are able to convert MP3 into CDA files to play on your system, that's better than hooking up a portable MP3 player anyway. I hate portable players like iPOD with a line dangling on the console.

I like the sound of Bose. For the price of the option, it's worth the money for the sound. Porsche used to have much lower quality sound (4-6 spkr, 100w max). Bose is a step up, although admittedly it's not cutting edge on functionality. Aftermarket stereo setup just doesn't have the OEM look and fit as Porsche equipment. .

If you want gizmos, you should have gotten a Lexus! Lexus offers touch screen NAV, bluetooth, keyless start, laser sensors for cruise control, etc.

S4to911

Another update:

Over on the Rennteam forum, there is a thread where they also discuss this. It turns out that cars with build dates after late April have the PCM2 with a CD head unit with MP3 capability. My 911 S Cab (as I found out today) actually had a build date of 5/4/05, not mid 4/05 as I previously thought. I just burned 119 MP3s onto a CD-R disk.

Results:

(1) The disk plays perfectly.
(2) The LCD readout on the PCM lists the disk title, as well as all of the track titles.
(3) The sound quality at 192 Kps is OK--I may play with the burning a bit to try to tweak it.

texas911

Gizmos? And the 911 doesn't have any? Get real, German cars can out gizmo any Japanese car right now.

I wish mine could play the mp3s.

Leader

Not to hijack this thread....but, how much (mp3) music can you burn onto a standard CD? I know I can put about 70 minutes of CDA files on a disk and the quality is pretty good for the car.

Also, is an mp3 music CD going to be a significant step-down in fidelity?

S4to911

You can get 100-120 tracks onto a standard 700 MB CD-R disk.

The fidelity depends on the bit rate of the MP3 (I believe), the higher the better (ie 192 Kps or beyond). I would agree with the posts above that playing the MP3 from an MP3 disk is a "slight" stepdown in fidelity from the same track burned as an audio CD (at least to my ears).

I am trying to tweak my MP3 disk burning by playing with the bitrate, starting with higher bitrate WMA and Real Audio files to convert to MP3s prior to burning, etc...any suggestions from more experienced CD burners would be welcome.

MJones

Main changes included on cars from April 15 are:

Reads mp3 (it's recommended to have the files at least in 128 Kbit to get a high reproduction quality).

The selection of titles has increased by 3 digits due to the mp3 function and the increase of the memory that this comes with (I assume it's referring to the mp3 tracks name...)

Improved mute functions: The silent mode of the audio reproduction does not deactivates when increasing the volume during a navigation indication or traffic announcement.

texas911

S42911, if you want HIFI sounds, DO NOT convert anything to mp3, WMA or whatever, just rip them as native AIFF files. When you convert to the other formats, it actually compresses them and that's where you lose quality. Also, what's really important for playing back mp3s is not just the bit rate, but the hardware to decode it and turn it into analog. Most cheapo mp3 players sound bad because they have cheapo converters. I have found that iPods actually have a pretty good analog converter. No experience with the Porsche one.