I was out looking at cars this past week and was told by several dealers that cars manufactures have been doing away with cd players in lieu of streaming services. I know I'm old fashioned, but this was a shock to me. I play probably 90% of my music in cds in the car. This seems to be true. I even asked if it's possible to pay for a cd player installed and they said no. I guess this is the future of automobiles.
Rick
We bought a new car in 2014, and in five years never used the CD player once, except as a place to install a phone mount. Last year I replaced the head unit with a new one that has no CD slot. We had a 2005 Scion which likewise never saw any use of the CD slot.
Prior to that, in our 2002 vehicle, the "CD wallet" full of MP3 CDs was a critical accessory. Indeed, I had replaced the original head unit that only played audio CDs with one that could play MP3s so I could rip my collection and use CDs that held many house of music each.
It was that early adoption of CD-ripping that led to the obsolescence of physical discs in our cars. Having 32 or 64GB of music on a thumb drive, or even more on a phone, is just better in every way. The tiny quality edge of uncompressed music on an audio CD over a 320kbps MP3 in the noisy environment of a moving car is a distinction without a difference, and audio CDs have no other advantage in a car.
Today we have a nice Sony head unit with Android Auto in our 2015 Subaru, and we also keep a 64GB thumb drive full of music in the Sony's secondary USB port. It's about as good as automotive infotainment gets, especially with the great-sounding Focal speakers we also installed, IMO.
As long as I can get a USB port for a thumb drive I'll be happy.
Ian
Host of the Post-Avant Jazzcore Happy Hour on progrock.com
https://podcasts.progrock.com/post-a...re-happy-hour/
Gordon Haskell - "You've got to keep the groove in your head and play a load of bollocks instead"
I blame Wynton, what was the question?
There are only 10 types of people in the World, those who understand binary and those that don't.
This is what several people have told me they do. Without much loss of quality how much music can you fit on a thumb drive? Is it easy to access what you want to hear also. My one big problem is that I mostly pick out what I’m in the mood to hear in the morning before leaving for work and that could be anything within my thousands of cds.Originally Posted by NogbadTheBad
As I said I know that I’m out dated when it comes to technology and I’m not going to deny it.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
It's not about what the people want, it's about what they can make us settle for. Every time I try to test drive a new car, I am reminded of the Genesis song "Get 'Em Out By Friday," because I am well over four feet tall. Doesn't matter what music format you can or can't play when you can't drive the tiny vehicle.
We're trying to build a monument to show that we were here
It won't be visible through the air
And there won't be any shade to cool the monument to prove that we were here. - Gene Parsons, 1973
I adapted to the world of driving around with only a USB port for music. The car came with a free XM radio subscription for a few months, but aside from one of the jazz channels they don't have a damned thing worth listening to on it, and the Boston area has zero music channels that cater to anyone outside of those who settle for whatever's popular. Spare me the lecture about college stations where they might offer something interesting, but you have to make a career out of trying to find it. My only gripe about the USB route is that it only gets about half as loud as the radio, for some reason.
Cough
I have a CD player in my car but I mostly bluetooth my phone to the car and stream music. I'm still glad I have a CD player in my car as a backup.
I use a 64GB thumb drive, or the 80+GB of music on my phone. That's many hundreds and hundreds of complete albums.
Different head units have different ways of finding/organizing. Browsing is a different kind of experience than it is with shelves of physical media, but if you know what you're looking for finding and playing it is simple.
For me, with my own collection, playlists have been the solution.
I bought a new car in 2018 and when I was shopping around there were very few that had CD players. Part of the reason I ended up buying the car that I bought was that it did have one (along with a great sound system). Although I also have an MP3 player that I use in the car, I still like to listen to CD's and in my opinion they have better sound quality.
Bought a new car last year (2019 Honda Passport) and they did offer the CD player as an option and I added it with hesitation, I'm not about to start burning my 2,000 Cd's onto thumb drives and blank CDs are still like 25 cents, so it's easy to burn new playlists in iTunes...
I had a hire car while mine was being fixed recently, it only had a USB socket. I have no problem putting in a memory stick but it is nigh on impossible to navigate the music stored especially while driving. It really sucks.
I suppose you could connect at portable CD-player to the usb port ?
If there still is portable cd-players around and a suitable interconnect...
That's the problem I have with thumb drives. It's ridiculous.putting in a memory stick but it is nigh on impossible to navigate the music stored especially while driving.
Bluetooth is the way to go. There are inexpensive Bluetooth MP3 players ($30-75 based on capacity) that will solve your interface problem if you don’t have a phone. Your phone can also stream Spotify or other services.
If your car does not have a Bluetooth interface, you can but an inexpensive Bluetooth receiver ($20) that plugs into your aux in.
WANTED: Sig-worthy quote.
We were in the market for a new car last September. It came down to the 2019 Honda CRV and the 2019 Subaru Forester. We went with the Subaru; it was cheaper and it had a CD player as standard equipment. No other manufacturer we investigated had CD players standard,
Lou
Looking forward to my day in court.
I expect to be in the market for a new car next year and have been hearing this. I am in the same boat as you, Rick. I guess they are going the way of the ashtray and lighter.
USB for MP3 is your only option. I have a bunch of 160mb IPODs that I use. Set it on shuffle, 18,000 of my favorite songs on my own personal radio station without loser talk jocks.
This is why I am still content with my 15-year-old Acura.
"The White Zone is for loading and unloading only. If you got to load or unload go to the White Zone!"
My last Company car didn't have a CD drive, which drove me nuts at first. Then I found out tht the Navigation System had a huge harddrive
with lots of free space and a well hidden Slot for SD Cards.
This also solved the Problem of CDs and Disc Cases flying around if I had to brake hard..
This discussion reminds me of the late 60's to late 70's era when the desire for better sound systems in automobiles created a whole industry of car audio sales and installations. A company called CMC, which sold home sound systems at first, developed a major product line that took advantage of the low quality sound systems being offered by auto makers and they would install a new radio, eight track tape player and upgraded speakers for about $50. This became a huge fad that spawned other companies to follow suit and it seemed that everyone was purchasing the high quality sound systems for their new and used autos. They were so popular that theft of the systems ripped from the under-dash or in-dash units ran rampant. Auto insurance policies excluded those add on systems unless you bought a special endorsement to cover them. When I became a claim adjuster in the early 70's, the volume of claims from theft of these systems was overwhelming. Later, CB units, radar detectors and cassette players were also a big rage and lead to a rash of additional theft claims (usually resulting in damages to the car itself). Auto makers finally got the hint and offered higher quality sound systems in new cars for an add on price.
I recall checking out the systems being offered when they first hit the market and the sample that CMC played in the "listening room" to attract new buyers was the 8 track recording of Iron Butterfly's "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida", the 17 minute album version, of course. Man, I couldn't believe the stereo separation and unworldly animal noises coming from those car speakers!
So, we've come a long way, baby...
Just as Apple told people they don't need a headphone jack on their Apple devices, automakers are telling us we don't need CD players in our vehicles. Doesn't matter if you still have or use or enjoy the older technology. Learn to live without it. Or don't buy new things.
The days of sliding the disc in the slot are over. Modern times are asexual.
We're trying to build a monument to show that we were here
It won't be visible through the air
And there won't be any shade to cool the monument to prove that we were here. - Gene Parsons, 1973
My car has a CD player hidden in the glove compartment which isn't very convenient. However, it also has an SD slot so I can load up with a zillion MP3s and listen to that. However, as with my now redundant iPod, I don't think the shuffle function is truly random.
2019 Mazda 3 with no CD option. I am forced to Spotify it in the car. I still buy CD/vinyl for the home hifi.
If it isn't Krautrock, it's krap.
"And it's only the giving
That makes you what you are" - Ian Anderson
That's never been a problem for me. I copy a bunch of albums to a thumb drive or SD card, and let them play through one after the other. No muss, no fuss.
"Well my son, life is like a beanstalk, isn't it?"--Dalai Lama
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