Insignia IN-CS102 MP3 Car Deck

Insignia IN-CS102 MP3 Car Deck

I managed to buy this from Future Shop for a measily $50. I was bored of my Pioneer CD deck. It couldn't read CD-RW and most importantly, I could only fit about 20 songs at most on an audio CD. Now I can put up to 150 songs depending on the bitrate. I know it's not a quality deck but it does the job until I buy a nicer car. Why put a $400 deck into a $1500 car right?

I had a tough time removing my old Pioneer deck since I didn't have the L-keys to remove it. A coat hanger and a couple of butter knives later, I got that thing outta there. The previous owner of the car had the original factory wiring harness connector removed and just spliced the deck directly to the wires of the electrical system. I bought a replacement connector/harness and spliced it back in. I turned on the ignition and it worked from the get-go.

Let's talk about the pros of this deck. First it's inexpensive. It looks pretty nice. In fact, it seems out of place in my car. My interior is black and there's this eye-catching silver deck in the console. It can read CD-RW and play MP3 files, WMA files, and of course CD audio.

As for the cons, it takes a long time to start playing. Long time as in 5-10 secs. Upon turning the unit, it has to scan all the songs on the CD. There is also a 2-3 pause from song to song. The deck gets really hot and the heat radiates to the faceplate. It also skips when you drive over a bump. My Pioneer skipped too though.

For the amount of money I paid, I can't complain about it's short comings. I'm not much of an audiophile so it does the job for me. I got more than what I paid.

Here are the specs:

40 watts peak power (22 watts RMS) x 4 channels
CD, CD-R/RW, MP3 and WMA playback with ID3-tag information
Blue mark LCD display with detachable faceplate
2 pair RCA preouts (2V)
AM/FM-MPX PLL tuner with 24 (6 AM, 18 FM) presets
Preset EQ with pop, rock, classic, flat modes
ISO/DIN mounting style
Pause, scan, repeat and random playback functions
Rotary encoder controls volume, bass, treble, balance and fader
CD signal-to-noise ratio: > 55dB