The DXZ845MC is Clarion's first CD receiver with the Music Catcher system.

Portable digital music recorders and players are hot! Users love the way these small portables let them store lots of music and provide cool ways to organize and playback their favorite tunes. You only have to look at the strong sales of Apple's iPod to appreciate the potential future sales of these devices. Car audio manufacturers hope they can tap into this interest and expand sales by adding music recording and storage capabilities into their car CD receivers. Clarion's first attempt at exploiting this market is the DXZ845MC, a new CD/MP3 receiver with the Music Catcher digital recorder system built in.

The Music Catcher is a built-in digital recorder that can record and playback up to six CDs worth of material, recorded and stored as WMA (Windows Media Audio) files. The Music Catcher can record single tracks, or entire CDs, by the simple push of a button. Playback is simple — just select the "Music Catcher" function from the menu and pick the folder and file you want to hear. The concept sounds promising — record and store your favorite music right in your car, with no CD changer or other external storage device required.

This ProAudio model is positioned near the top of Clarion's CD receiver lineup, and comes with a lot more than just the Music Catcher. It also includes a variable color display with titling features, MP3/WMA file playback, SIRIUS satellite radio controls, dual-zone output, auxiliary input, and three sets of preamp outputs. After getting my hands on one, thanks to Crutchfield Advisor, I was anxious to see how well the DXZ845MC would live up to Clarion's promise of "powerful sound reproduction," and how well it would "easily store...and playback...music with CD-changer like simplicity."