DURABRAND WMS7100MP3 10-Disc CD Changer
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Similar in Car CD Changers
- Disc Capacity: 10
- CD-R/CD-RW Playback: CD-R/CD-RW
- MP3 Playback: With MP3 Playback
- Changer Type: CD
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Durabrand WMS7100MP3 CD Changer gives a lot of music for not much money.
Pros
Great playback quality, easy interface, lotsa music to go with 10 discs and MP3 playback.
Cons
Not many features, wired controller is fragile.
Recommended it?
Yes
The Bottom Line:
Great storage capacity and great MP3 and Audio CD playback make the Durabrand WMS7100MP3 Car CD Changer a good buy at a good price.
I just finished installing my new Durabrand WMS7100MP3 Car CD Changer which I purchased from Walmart.com. I paid $108.84 tax and shipping which brought the total to about $130. I installed the CD changer into my 2003 Dodge Ram 1500 Laramie Quad Cab (read my review).
The CD Changer comes in four pieces: a 10-disc caddy, the disc changer/reader, a wired controller, and a central connection box. The CD Changer connects to your vehicle's radio via the antennae connector and broadcasts on 88.5 or 88.9 FM by your selection.
Playback of both MP3 and CD Audio is very good. There appears to be no difference in quality between playing a regular CD in the changer or in the stock radio's CD player. It appears to be very good at reading any CD format as I've tried everything from 10 year old 1x CD-R to a 24x CD-RW with no problems.
MP3 playback is as good as playback on a computer. If the MP3 file has ID3 tags then they are displayed on the controller, if not then just the filename is displayed.
Playback for both CD Audio and MP3 has four modes: normal, shuffle, repeat, and scan. Each mode has its own button on the controller. One negative is that shuffle is not random at all--each time a CD is played on shuffle, it plays the songs in the same order.
Installation of any CD Changer is not a very easy task. Aside from connecting the CD Changer to the radio, you must also supply it with a constant power supply and a supply that is only available when the vehicle's ignition is on. The power and ground wires on the control box were not very long and I had to remove the 5 amp fuse from the constant power supply to make the wire fit in the dash of my truck
The control box has two DIN style plugs on one side for the controller and the CD Changer. On the other side were the input for the antennae from the chassis of the car, an output antennae to the radio, a pink wire for the constant 12 volt power, a red wire for the 12 volt ignition, and a black wire for the ground.
Included in the kit is two pieces of foam with glue on both sides for mounting the control box, two brackets for mounting the CD Changer, and two mounting plates that can be used to mount the CD Changer brackets to carpet. You also get the necessary screws and washers to make it all work.
Notable by its absence is any kind of MP3 management software or CD ripping software. I'm sure that was the biggest concession made for getting such a low price on what feels and sounds like a quality product.
Loading discs into the changer is easy, simply slide the door open and press the eject button and the caddy is ejected. Each disc fits into a tray that pulls out of the caddy and is very easy to put back in the caddy.
Finally, I want to talk about the controller. I know I only paid $130, but a wired controller is silly. The wire on the controller is about 4 feet long and after snaking its way from the control box in the dash to the bottom of the dash and out to the world, there's not much left (only about 2 feet). The kit includes a piece of double-sticky foam for mounting the controller somewhere on the dashboard, but it's a little too wide and a little too tall to mount anywhere on the RAM's dash (that it can reach) without covering something up. Luckily the RAM's dash has a nice rubber-lined cubby hole below the climate control that the controller rests in nicely. An RF wireless controller wouldn't have cost much more, even considering it would have been two way communications so it can display the MP3 and CD information.
The controller itself is pretty and is logically laid out. The number pad used in the menus doubles as the controls for changing discs and moving around on a CD. The 5 is shaped differently, making it easy to center yourself without looking at it, so once you have the buttons memorized it's an eyes-on-the-road affair. The display is a backlit monochrome LCD with a nice blue tint to it. The current disc and track are displayed as well as an icon indicating the disposition of the disc. If you are listening to an MP3 then the name of the file or the ID3 tag information scrolls across the bottom half of the display, for CD Audio it shows the track number.
Overall, I'm more than happy with the purchase. If you were to load up 10 800-megabyte CD-Rs with MP3s you'd have enough music to drive around the world without hearing the same song twice. There's not Ogg-Vorbis or Windows Media playback, but it doesn't really matter, all the music I want to play is available in MP3 format and I can rip from CD to MP3 on my PC in a matter of minutes per Audio CD.
Update
After driving around with this thing for a couple of days I've grown to appreciate the quality of Audio CD and MP3 playback. I drive a little hard, and it is installed in a Truck which means that potholes, and such are amplified. I'm happy to report that it's never skipped a single beat!
Update - July 18, 2004
The wired remote is proving to be the biggest shortcoming of the product. The joint where the wire enters the base of the remote has broken already and is showing the inside of the cable. The unshielded ground wire appears to be disintegrating at this joint. I'm going to tape the joint together and then mount the remote to my dash instead of using it from my lap which I normally do.
I'm reducing the recomendation based on this turn of events. It's still a good deal for $108, but it's not a great deal.
The CD Changer comes in four pieces: a 10-disc caddy, the disc changer/reader, a wired controller, and a central connection box. The CD Changer connects to your vehicle's radio via the antennae connector and broadcasts on 88.5 or 88.9 FM by your selection.
Playback of both MP3 and CD Audio is very good. There appears to be no difference in quality between playing a regular CD in the changer or in the stock radio's CD player. It appears to be very good at reading any CD format as I've tried everything from 10 year old 1x CD-R to a 24x CD-RW with no problems.
MP3 playback is as good as playback on a computer. If the MP3 file has ID3 tags then they are displayed on the controller, if not then just the filename is displayed.
Playback for both CD Audio and MP3 has four modes: normal, shuffle, repeat, and scan. Each mode has its own button on the controller. One negative is that shuffle is not random at all--each time a CD is played on shuffle, it plays the songs in the same order.
Installation of any CD Changer is not a very easy task. Aside from connecting the CD Changer to the radio, you must also supply it with a constant power supply and a supply that is only available when the vehicle's ignition is on. The power and ground wires on the control box were not very long and I had to remove the 5 amp fuse from the constant power supply to make the wire fit in the dash of my truck
The control box has two DIN style plugs on one side for the controller and the CD Changer. On the other side were the input for the antennae from the chassis of the car, an output antennae to the radio, a pink wire for the constant 12 volt power, a red wire for the 12 volt ignition, and a black wire for the ground.
Included in the kit is two pieces of foam with glue on both sides for mounting the control box, two brackets for mounting the CD Changer, and two mounting plates that can be used to mount the CD Changer brackets to carpet. You also get the necessary screws and washers to make it all work.
Notable by its absence is any kind of MP3 management software or CD ripping software. I'm sure that was the biggest concession made for getting such a low price on what feels and sounds like a quality product.
Loading discs into the changer is easy, simply slide the door open and press the eject button and the caddy is ejected. Each disc fits into a tray that pulls out of the caddy and is very easy to put back in the caddy.
Finally, I want to talk about the controller. I know I only paid $130, but a wired controller is silly. The wire on the controller is about 4 feet long and after snaking its way from the control box in the dash to the bottom of the dash and out to the world, there's not much left (only about 2 feet). The kit includes a piece of double-sticky foam for mounting the controller somewhere on the dashboard, but it's a little too wide and a little too tall to mount anywhere on the RAM's dash (that it can reach) without covering something up. Luckily the RAM's dash has a nice rubber-lined cubby hole below the climate control that the controller rests in nicely. An RF wireless controller wouldn't have cost much more, even considering it would have been two way communications so it can display the MP3 and CD information.
The controller itself is pretty and is logically laid out. The number pad used in the menus doubles as the controls for changing discs and moving around on a CD. The 5 is shaped differently, making it easy to center yourself without looking at it, so once you have the buttons memorized it's an eyes-on-the-road affair. The display is a backlit monochrome LCD with a nice blue tint to it. The current disc and track are displayed as well as an icon indicating the disposition of the disc. If you are listening to an MP3 then the name of the file or the ID3 tag information scrolls across the bottom half of the display, for CD Audio it shows the track number.
Overall, I'm more than happy with the purchase. If you were to load up 10 800-megabyte CD-Rs with MP3s you'd have enough music to drive around the world without hearing the same song twice. There's not Ogg-Vorbis or Windows Media playback, but it doesn't really matter, all the music I want to play is available in MP3 format and I can rip from CD to MP3 on my PC in a matter of minutes per Audio CD.
Update
After driving around with this thing for a couple of days I've grown to appreciate the quality of Audio CD and MP3 playback. I drive a little hard, and it is installed in a Truck which means that potholes, and such are amplified. I'm happy to report that it's never skipped a single beat!
Update - July 18, 2004
The wired remote is proving to be the biggest shortcoming of the product. The joint where the wire enters the base of the remote has broken already and is showing the inside of the cable. The unshielded ground wire appears to be disintegrating at this joint. I'm going to tape the joint together and then mount the remote to my dash instead of using it from my lap which I normally do.
I'm reducing the recomendation based on this turn of events. It's still a good deal for $108, but it's not a great deal.
