Im looking at the sony mexr1 headunit for a number of reasons;

- high pass/ low pass filters, as well as sub control
- DVD player/video out
- can play mp3`s off DVD
- multpile RCA out's
- I can get JVC and SONY gear cheap from work

Now don't get me wrong...i despise sony, and this unit is hell ugly...but ive heard thier higher end gear (non xplod, as this is) isnt all that bad.

im planning to use this inconjunction with the Jaycar $400 1-din bay monitor.

can anyone offer opinions (preferably from those in the know, not those who blidly hate sony due to xplod gear..although a fine reason it may be) or even still, alternatives on either of these products?

Strathfield audio has told me its currently the only headunit that will play mp3`s off the dvd for under 1k

I think the Strathfeild mob are telling little white lies again.

I have this unit from JVC installed in my car: http://www.jvc-australia.com/products/_products_sub_group_details.asp?ID=1497

It has all of the features that you listed, High pass onto front and rear, and low pass for sub (80hz or 110hz iirc)

You can buy these from their website or from JB HiFi. I reckon it looks much better than the Sony one. Other than that i cant offer any advice on the sony unit.

However i do have a critque of the JVC unit, its that it takes a good 30 seconds to play mp3's off a cd after i turn my car on.

does it play mp3 off the DVD's tho? or only cd-r`s? i was looking at that one too cos i can get sony and JVC at cost price + GST

go with the JVC. GIGA-MP3 is mp3's on DVD discs, sexy lookin unit too

http://www.jvc-australia.com/!ProductFeatures/GIGA_MP3.asp

fair enough. they both have the same RRP...only thing i dont like about the the JVC is lack of high and low pass filters and subwoofer control. this is vital

I just went out and checked my headunit...

It has a LPF at 80, 120 and 160hz and an abilty to set a HPF to what the LPF is set to.

And yes it does play DVD's full of mp3's

edit: and controlable sub level too on a scale of 1-8....

excellent. i think i may have found my headunit :bouncin: just one thing tho, do they all do the 30 second thing in that model, or is it just a problem yours?

Edit: Oh, and welcome to AMC by the way :D

My JVC deck, Im not sure if I can play Mp3's of DVD, but it doesnt take 30seconds to load though.

Playing Mp3's of the SD card and the CD, loading time is like 1-2 seconds, almost instantaneously.

thanks...

I think it could have been a dodgey cd as i loaded a new mix today and its much quicker, so i have no idea any more....

The reason for the 'load times' is that it meeds to read the media (in this case, DVD) and get a lsisting of all the files on it, and then read all the ID3 info so it can display the artist and track name etc. Some units will also create playlists based on Genre in the ID3 info, so you can select 'ROCK" and it will play all the rock tracks on the disc.

As SD is solid state, it doesn't have to do the searching by track like a CD or DVD does. It would also have a smaller capacity and less tracks on it to catalog for display.

Also, the load time would depend on how many tracks are on the DVD. If it is only 20-50, should be fairly quick. If you have crammed them on and put nearer 1000 tracks on it, could take a while to load all that data. Just check that 'new' mix, I bet there is like half the amount of tracks on it compared to the old one.

As for the HPF/LPF requirement of the HU.... do you not have amps? Or do your amps not have filters?

my amp has it, but its just a knob that is turned by a screwdriver. id like to be able to know what Hz its set too...which my amp doesent allow for

you could always get a big thumping crossover network like the SQ guys sometines have.... then you could be to the .1hz exact....