So there's absolutely no way to play a CD in a new car without a phone?

Always thought it strange my 2014 has no usb

 

Agreed. I am almost all physical media when at home but no reason not to do something like this in the car. Especially as storage gets cheaper these days and you can rip things in lossless formats.

 

Wish my Mazda 3 had a CD player. I suspect my CD collection is also close to two thousand. But the thought of taking the time to digitize it all is overwhelming. Too many other things in my life. The stuff I bought on Amazon came with digital versions so I put that on a USB stick but still 98 per cent is unavailable to me when I drive. So I have learned to find enjoyment with XM despite its low audio quality.

 

Good suggestion.

Yes, this can be a better solution than the FM transmitter. Can’t say that I did an exhaustive comparison but of the few transmitters and tape adapters that I tried comparing a bunch of years ago, the latter worked better than the former. And that’s what I ended up using before upgrading to the BT adaptor on my 2003 Land Cruiser.

 

I have a 2019 Audi A1 with no CD player, and I have to say I do miss it.

The car has a Bang and Olufsen sound system, and I can use Apple car play to play Spotify through my phone, but I have no idea how I can listen to CD quality audio.

 

USB drive.

 

The problem I have is the Chromebook I bought last year has no CD drive, so I can't burn music from my CDs to my computer to put it on a USB.

This is why I hate not having physical media.

 

I’m not familiar with chromebooks. If they have USB ports, external Optical drives are cheap enough.

 

My 2019 Buick Encore does not have a CD player and I almost didn't buy it as a result but checking other recent cars, I could see that the chances I would find one I liked with a CD player were slim. So far I use an iPod Touch with CDs added to iTunes using ALAC connected to the Buick's USB port. I would prefer a USB drive but I don't think the Buick media player will play ALAC, FLAC or other lossless audio. From the Infotainment manual, "Applicable audio extensions are mp3, wma, aac, m4a, and aif. ‐ WMA and Apple lossless files are not supported. ‐ Supported file systems are FAT32 and NTFS". Sound quality with the iPod is adequate and if I have to continue using it, I can live with it reluctantly.

I do miss the disc player, my preference would be a disc player in dash to play CD, DVD-V, DVD-A, and SACD but that isn't going to happen.

 

Records have had a very long lifespan, I completely agree.

But I would say that only goes back to 1948 max. And more realistically ~1955 (RIAA standard). Playing a shellac record on a standard 21st century turntable probably would not turn out too well.

 

Of course they don't compare to post 50's recordings but with the right equipment I would not bash all the earlier records in good condition that readily. Of course you've said "standard".

 

This is where I’m at as well. I’ve always been a “put disc in player” person rather than a “listen to the rip” person.

 

Not the sound quality. I meant that an old 78 wouldn't play on a modern turntable at all. Would require a TT with both a 78rpm setting and its own needle just for shellac.

Not impossible of course, but it's not like taking an album from the late 1950's and it "just works".

 

Back to this now one year old topic....seriously, Bluetooth + smartphone at this point. If you don't carry a smartphone on you or don't want to pay for one, you can pick up an old Android device on the cheap, leverage a car adapter for the likely problematic battery on anything fairly old, drop a microSD in there, rip your CD's and away you go.

It not only gives you more options for your own car, but if you're renting one while on vacation you're covered there as well. Hands-free works well too on the newest vehicles, certainly easier than when I used to fumble through my CD case back in the day.

 

I thought you were talking sound, I might be wrong but I thought that no long ago I saw current TT's with 78 (Thorens, may be?) , I'll grant you, its easier to find the needle in the haystack.

 

I must have had a dozen cd/fm units installed in cars over the years. It is the first thing I do when I get a car without a good one. I do stream from a phone too but sometimes I don't want to pull over to boot up the bluetooth, search for the music and play. I always have a few cds ready to pop in on the fly.

 

It's funny that this weekend I noticed my 2018 Toyota RAV4 actually had a CD player. I probably knew that when I got it but I guess I've just ignored that little slot as its never been used.

 

Big difference in SQ in my 2015 Honda Civic between aux jack or Bluetooth vs iPod /iPhone connected directly through USB (far superior sound). Nice to have all three options plus cd when I'm on a road trip though.

 

CD players in cars were hard to find in2017 when wifey and I were looking. Ended up with a CPO Lexus service loaner that had one.

she had three requirements

1- great seats
2- CD player
3- headrests that didn’t mess with her ponytail.


I have an old Nakamichi in dash CD player I’m hanging on to for future need.

 

The inexpensive Audio Technica AT-120 has a 78 setting (just press both the 33 and 45 buttons at once) and a removable headshell. Pop on a headshell with a cart and stylus suitable for 78s and Bob's your uncle.

Actually on topic: we don't own a car because my wife doesn't drive and we live in a city with a decent public transit system, but we rent cars through the car sharing service Zipcar when we need one. I'd say about a third of the cars in our neighborhood still have CD players but I haven't used an in car CD player since I got my first iPod. I still have a Classic that I use with a USB cord, or I just stream Spotify via Bluetooth.

 

I want to buy a portable usb cd player. From what I understand, not all usb cd players will work in all vehicles. I just bought a Toyota RAV4 hybrid. I'm trying to figure out which usb cd player to buy. Does anyone know where I can find out this info? These players are too expensive for trial and error. Many of these usb players on Amazon have a list of vehicles for which the player will work. None of the ones I looked at list a RAV4. Any leads would be much appreciated.

 

What year rav?

 

Bob's brother has gotten friendly with a lot of women over the years.

He's taking a break right now, however, due to social distancing requirements.

 

bringing CDs in the car is really inconvenient. just get a cheap DAP or older android smartphone with bluetooth (my recommendation is a galaxy that has the replaceable battery still) and you will never want to bring discs in the car again. the only argument against this in 2020 is luddism, imo. And I still have about 5k CDs in my house...

 

My bottom line these days is, if a dealer even brings up a phone as an option for a player they're not offering me, then they either compensate me for what it would cost me for a phone, or it's a non-starter. Once he brings it into the conversation, he's opened it up in negotiations, ball in his court.

Of course I could just use a flash drive. At that point, I will make note of how many is a fair number, and ask how many is he going to give me. And, how much is he going to discount me for the digitization of my files? Is he going to pay for a lifetime dBPoweramp? Hey, it's not like I am expecting him to pay for my music; I am just expecting him to take some consideration for what it would take for me to replace his standard CD player.

That is not to be considered an expectation when I walked in there, that that was the product; they have literally generations of precedent for providing this. And, by bringing up their expectation that their customer comes with a phone in his hand he's already purchased (plus monthly service), he's already opened up negotation, and he's going to pay for that.

I don't care if I have to walk across the street to ten dealers, this is important to this customer. Hell, I spend more time on this board these days than I would in a car.