W00t there it is!

So I've decided to actually use this thing finally.

I'm obsessed with www.W00t.com

Not only do they generally have some cool stuff and great prices but their forums are a riot. Message boards seem to bring out the oddest people or at least the oddities IN people.

My first W00t purchase was a Omnifi DMP1 for my new car. This is essentially a "wired-in" mp3 player with a 20Gb hard disk. They've been around for about 18 months and the company was showing some promise until they announced that the DMP1 would cost $599 without installation. OUCH! So needless to say no one was willing to pay for a not-portable MP3 player that cost way more than an iPod of larger capacity. So down on its luck Omnifimedia was snapped up by the Rockford Fosgate group (rants to come about RF at a later date). So now RF as, aside from the cost, a really cool product that would appeal to the higher-end Car Audio crowd. In their infinite wisdom RF abandoned further development and is now clearing all the Omnifi products out at rock bottom prices. I paid $145 including shipping for my new in the box DMP1 from W00t.

Why not buy an iPod? Well I listen to MP3s all day on my laptop at work...no need for an iPod there. I'm an audio snob at home and don't want to poison my nice hifi gear with lossy compressed audio...no iPod needed here either. Now the car is a different story. While I love XM Radio, I crave more variety than they can provide. I keep at least 50 audio CDs in the car at all times and that is really cumbersome IMHO. I could buy a MP3 capable Head Unit but that still means delicate polycarbonate discs to deal with....the same goes with a MP3 capable changer.

The DMP1 has a 20Gb laptop HD which can be hacked for more capacity. http://members.cox.net/techfire/omnifi/dmp1/harddrive.html

Even at just 20Gb that's about 29 700MB CDRs worth of music...not bad. I'll eventually drop a 100Gb laptop drive into and voila! Take that iPod.

But the biggest reason is why does anyone want an iPod sticking to their dash? The stark whiteness of an iPod goes oh so well with 99% of the car interiors out there, NOT! The DMP1 has a standard DIN panel size and actually looks like it belongs in the car. Now if your fortunate to have an extra DIN pocket or a dual DIN head unit opening you can drop the DMP1 right in. It can also be surface mounted anywhere if you lack the extra DIN pocket.

A full review and possibly an install FAQ/guide will go up once I get my DMP1 tomorrow.