Jaycar MP3 Recorder/Player Board

[@rt]

Hi Guys
I’ve got one of these so called MP3 Recorder boards from Jaycar, but the chip also happens to be a decoder.
In fact, I don’t think it can encode to MP3 at all!
http://www.jaycar.com.au/arduino-compatible-mp3-recording-module/p/XC4516

The board overall wants a 5V supply, although the VS1003 decoder chip wants a 2.7 V supply for it’s core,
and can take up to 3.6V supply for it’s IO logic. The 2.7 Volt supply regulation is on the board itself,
as I suppose is also a 3.x V supply for it’s logic.

What I’m wondering is why this would be sold with Arduino shields and the like,
when it’s IO is connected straight to the pins on the chip, and should be 3.6 Volts max.
What sort of Arduino board would supply the 5V power, and talk through the IO at 3.6 Volts?

Also if you’re up for a laugh check out the data sheet of the module on Jaycar's site (not the VS1003 chip itself).
Cheers

[amyk]

Wow that's ridiculously overpriced. A complete MP3 player/recorder costs less than that:

http://www.dx.com/c/consumer-electronics-199/portable-audio-video-180/mp3-players-101

I'm not even sure why the VS1003 is still in production and apparently popular in certain communities. A general-purpose MCU/DSP is powerful enough to decode MP3 these days, plus do a lot of other things.

[@rt]

That doesn’t address the question, but yes, even the same retailer sells cheaper mp3 players.
I have two of the bare chips on the way from eBay for just under $7 each.

A software mp3 player isn’t suitable for the project at all.
I’m using a dsPic that is also running a graphics library, and I don’t want the overhead on it.