CD's in the Car

Still play CD's in the Car

  • Sure do

  • Not anymore


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So you're saying that fumbling with your phone, looking for music, is not a distraction?
No. But a playlist running from a phone for the required time of the trip plus some extra is easily accomplished with phone before the trip begins.

I do commend you and anyone else who finds and plays music when the car is stopped, whether that be a cell, player, or cd.
 
Are all usb ports the same? :dunno:
I listen to all the songs on my CDs, I used to have one in the car and would change it out to what I wanted next.
I can't see having 400 usb sticks. :rolleyes:

If you use mp3 and standard tagging yes. Only exception I've found is Ford. I can convert my whole library to mp3 320 and it'll fit on 3-4 64gb USB sticks
 
No. But a playlist running from a phone for the required time of the trip plus some extra is easily accomplished with phone before the trip begins.

I do commend you and anyone else who finds and plays music when the car is stopped, whether that be a cell, player, or cd.

I've never been a playlist kind of guy, at home or on the road. I like to listen to the entire album or CD. Putting a playlist together beforehand would be a good idea to avoid fumbling with a phone, but that takes time also. I don't drive much or very far most of the time. A CD or two is all I need. Sometimes a CD will last me a few days before it plays all the way through.

Fortunately, my phone is hands free in the car thanks to Bluetooth. I can call using voice command and when the phone rings, the stereo mutes until I hang up.
My new car has audio controls on the steering wheel, but I forget to use them because I've never had them before. I still find myself reaching for the voulme control on the deck instead of the steering wheel. Old habits are hard to break.
 
I've never been a playlist kind of guy, at home or on the road. I like to listen to the entire album or CD. Putting a playlist together beforehand would be a good idea to avoid fumbling with a phone, but that takes time also. I don't drive much or very far most of the time. A CD or two is all I need. Sometimes a CD will last me a few days before it plays all the way through.

Fortunately, my phone is hands free in the car thanks to Bluetooth. I can call using voice command and when the phone rings, the stereo mutes until I hang up.
My new car has audio controls on the steering wheel, but I forget to use them because I've never had them before. I still find myself reaching for the voulme control on the deck instead of the steering wheel. Old habits are hard to break.
Most of my cars are older so no Bluetooth. The newest is a 2013 Jeep and it only has a 1/8" audio in jack to its cd player which I use on road trips with my phone. Every time I go somewhere and rent a car I get sensory overload with the radio with buttons on the wheel and touch screens etc. Going to Seattle in a couple weeks and I'm sure it will be the same thing. I usually hold up in a parking lot until I figure it out.
 
The CD player in the car also has a USB input. I have a small 40 gig hard drive that I have filled with music that I tried to use in the car. Instead of maintaining the folder system on the drive where each artist has a separate folder, followed by all of the albums in sub folders, the car shows a running list of songs instead of each individual album folder. It's a pain in the ass to find something that way, so I abandoned that approach. The CDs are much easier to use. I never use my phone as a music source.

That would be annoying. Stock unit or aftermarket?

I had to run an errand this afternoon, so I went out and played with the USB hard drive in my car again before leaving. I was able to figure out how to get to the artist and album folders. This sure makes things easier, but I still think CDs are better for me, around town at least.
There is no way I would try searching for music on the screen while driving, but I can see using it on long road trips. I would have to haul too many CDs otherwise. I'm retired and my wife will be very soon. She wants to spend a couple of months down south next winter, and we are also planning to visit our daughter in Rhode Island this summer. I plan to take an amp and speakers with me when we go down south, but I'll probably be stuck with using my laptop as the only source.
 
but I still think CDs are better for me, around town at least. .
:idea:That may change once you get used to it. The more you add to the stick the less you'll be reaching for the CD case, so really load up before taking the trip.
Why grab the CD when the music is already available on your system?
Time will tell.
 
:idea:That may change once you get used to it. The more you add to the stick the less you'll be reaching for the CD case, so really load up before taking the trip.
Why grab the CD when the music is already available on your system?
Time will tell.

That's part of the problem. What music I have on my computer and an external hard drive is a very small percentage of my collection. The portable hard drive I spoke of in previous posts is only 40 gigs. It's full, and jazz only. It's a small portion of my jazz CD collection. I have no desire to rip all of my CDs to my computer, jazz or otherwise. I have a 16 gig flash drive that I could use to add some other music for the car, but I always take my laptop along on any overnight road trips anyway. I also have an 1/8" AUX jack in the car. I wonder if I could connect the laptop and just run the music player on there?
 
Should work fine.

Do you know if there is an available cable to connect the laptop to the car 12V jack to avoid draining the laptop battery? I guess I'd also need an 1/8" to 1/8" connecting cable to use the AUX?

EDIT: I found the 1/8 to 1/8 cable and a car charger for my HP already. This has been a good thread. I leaned something today.
 
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I almost never listen to CDs in the car and haven't for years. It's either music on a USB stick or just FM.

I got my license in 2001. By that time a lot of my CDs were home made anyways. Once aftermarket car stereos with USB ports became popular and affordable, I went that direction and haven't looked back. When I install a new stereo, I do put in a CD just to see if the deck works. I don't know why I bother, because I'll likely never use it.:D
 
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I have no desire to rip all of my CDs to my computer,
You can rip directly to the flash drive. No need to store them on the computer itself.
Ever read Tom Sawyer? Maybe you can convince your wife to do it when she's bored after retirement.
 
You can rip directly to the flash drive. No need to store them on the computer itself.

I never heard of that. I have no idea how to do that, and besides, it would defeat the whole purpose of having them readily available on my computer.
 
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I never heard of that. I have no idea how to do that, and besides, it would defeat the whole purpose of having them readily available on my computer.
You do it exactly the same except you choose the stick instead of the hard drive.
It doesn't defeat the purpose, it expands it. Instead of having them readily available on the computer, they're now readily available on your computer, in your car, at your friends house...
 
You do it exactly the same except you choose the stick instead of the hard drive.
It doesn't defeat the purpose, it expands it. Instead of having them readily available on the computer, they're now readily available on your computer, in your car, at your friends house...

I'll have to investigate that. I didn't know there was an option other than the laptop drive. When I rip to my laptop, I've never been asked for a destination. It must be a default.
My 40 gig portable drive is full. I haven't bought a flash drive in a few years. The largest one I have is 4 gig. Holy shit! I just saw one online for $30 and it's 128 gig. :yikes: I will be needing more storage soon anyway. My 500 gig external drive is almost full. I can move my music to the new stick(s) and make more room for my photos, which take up most of my external HD.
 
You do it exactly the same except you choose the stick instead of the hard drive.
It doesn't defeat the purpose, it expands it. Instead of having them readily available on the computer, they're now readily available on your computer, in your car, at your friends house...

I've been converted. :thumbsup:
I bought a 128 gig flash drive on Amazon for about $30 last week. I then spent the last 2 days ripping about 200 more CDs to my laptop in lossless format. I copied the entire library to the new flash drive. I now have over 500 CDs on the stick. No more need for CDs in the car, except on the way home from buying them at the local used record store, or if I want to listen to something I didn't rip.
Now I need to take a road trip. :D

I could not find a way to rip them directly to the stick, but I wanted them on my laptop anyway, so I can stream the music to my Squeezebox (and have 2 copies). I was also able to free up some space on my external hard drive, where I initially had the library backed up.
 
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Not anymore. When I finally upgraded from the cassette to a CD player, I was very excited. A couple of months later, something went wrong and it is not possible to insert a CD into it. I would use it if I had it. Now I rip CDs to mp3/USB stick and use that with the car player, so play CDs indirectly. A slight inconvenience, but I can live with it. The only frustration is when I buy a new CD and would like to put it in the car player when I leave the shop.
 
Sure, sometimes. Especially in my old VW Passat TDI (2005), a CD sounds better than streaming from my iPod through a tape adapter. In my more modern 2010 truck, the bluetooth into the input jack built in sounds pretty good, so I use that a lot. Or also Sirius/Xm in that vehicle. And I could do the stick thing, or use the built in HD in that also.
 
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