pioneers are good but the load time is SLOW, no joke dude, very very slow like 5 sec to load next song. thats why im going with pioneer.

 

HAHAHAAHAH what is this dude saying?
dude, make up your mind


but yeah, i have a pioneer and i love it.

I just saw this dude selling brand new Pioneer cd players on ebay for pretty cheap, he has excellent feedback.

http://cgi6.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...sort=3&rows=25

here's a pioneer7400 from that dude for 219+15 shippping. under your budget.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...tem=1940672441

 

My bad JVC upon mp3 playback and SQ are quite good, just that their build quality is something left to be desired.


But for mp3 functionality:

Personally, I prefer the JVC units (the Digifine 2.1's) over any of the other MP3 players due to the fact it is the fastest non-hard drive unit, and the manner in which you can search for a specific song is the best of them all. However, the Kenwood unit is just as quick, and can search in the same manner (by reading folder names) but you have to push a button on the HU each time you want to do the search. What I really liked about the Kenwoods was that when you searched like this you could actually find another song without stopping the song you were listening to. Very cool, IMO. However, the layout of the Kenwood faces are simply too fawken busy... Still, the JVC is the most functional for MP3's, IMO.

So, basically, I would consider the JVC and Kenwood units top tier in terms of MP3 playback. Then I'd have to give it to Alpine and Sony, at least the higher end Sony's I played with. As for Alpines: Not as quick as the JVC or Kenwood units, and you can't search by folder name. The Alpine assigns a track # to each track, and it's not that easy to find a specific song. You have to wait a couple seconds (approx. 2) to get the song to start and the ID3 tag to show. With the JVC and Kenwoods, you can search by folder name, so you know exactly which artist it is and find out the song within a second. Overally, the Alpines are wonderful decks, though. I've always preferred Alpine units, and once their MP3 speed is up to snuff I might consider making a switch. Especially the 1.3 DIN units.

Coming in WAY behind are the Pioneer units. Same functionality as the Alpine, but horribly slow. Pioneer is about 2 years behind in the MP3 race, IMO. I had a 7400MP, and for MP3 playback, I hated it. Waste of money to buy that MP3 player, for me, to use as an MP3 player. Literally a 5-7 delay between songs. So, if you're trying to find a specific song, and don't have the track # memorized (from 1 to 100+), you're screwed. VERY nice units otherwise. In terms of quality of products, the Pioneers are excellent decks.

For best mp3 playability... if you can search and find a good deal:
would be the JVC KD-SH707 after testing all the decks and checking out features. The JVC does have a 7 band built in graphic EQ, allows you to turn off the internal amp, has 3 sets of preouts (only 2V, 4V for the KD-SH909), and uses a Burr Brown 1 Bit 24-bit Resolution DAC. My main complaint would be the remote and their faceplate hinges which tend to loosen after awhile oh I hate credit card remotes

 

Sorry about my first post.. I was rating the brands by Build quality and not my mp3 functionality...

I gotta lay off the Bailey's and the Rutger's sophomores

 

So is it really worth it at this point to try and find a mp3 unit in the price range i am looking at?

Or would it be better to get a normal head unit for around 200-260?

It seems like this whole thing with the head units reading mp3s is new and therefore may not yet be even close to its best.

 

It's all up to your preference....

personally the mp3 thing gets old... and sifting through songs gets kinda tedious. Having 11-12 nice tracks on a CDR is much more user friendly.

And for best SQ from a good deck you cant go better than an originally mastered CD.

heheh sorry for confusing you more bro... good luck!