How to play CDs in new cars...

[Fishrrman]

I have a lot of CDs. Many hundreds of them. Thousands of them.

My 2013 Toyota RAV4 has a CD player as a part of the audio
system. No problems there.

But I looked at the new RAV4's, and they no longer have a CD
player available at all in any configuration.

Well, ok, my 2013 also has a USB port (suitable for a
flashdrive with mp3 files on it), along with a 3.5mm analog
input to get music in that way from any device with analog
out via the headphone jack.

But... the new RAVs have only a USB port. There's no 3.5mm
jack, so I couldn't even plug in a small portable CD player
(which I have).

That leaves no practical way to get CD-based audio into the
car's sound system.

I've heard that there are a few portable CD players with
bluetooth, but doesn't BT degrade sound quality "in the
transmission"?

Question:
Are there any small portable CD music players that have
DIGITAL OUT (via USB) as well as analog out? Although I'm
not sure how that would interface with the car's audio
system, which is probably programmed to look for mp3 files
with tagged metadata.

Looks like the only way to take your CDs along with new
cars, is to do what I used to do in the old days: Take the
portable player along with some headphones, and listen that
way...

[geoff]

On 10/06/2021 3:18 pm, Fishrrman wrote:
> I have a lot of CDs. Many hundreds of them. Thousands of them.
>
> My 2013 Toyota RAV4 has a CD player as a part of the audio system. No
> problems there.
>
> But I looked at the new RAV4's, and they no longer have a CD player
> available at all in any configuration.
>
> Well, ok, my 2013 also has a USB port (suitable for a flashdrive with
> mp3 files on it), along with a 3.5mm analog input to get music in that
> way from any device with analog out via the headphone jack.
>
> But... the new RAVs have only a USB port. There's no 3.5mm jack, so I
> couldn't even plug in a small portable CD player (which I have).
>
> That leaves no practical way to get CD-based audio into the car's sound
> system.
>
> I've heard that there are a few portable CD players with bluetooth, but
> doesn't BT degrade sound quality "in the transmission"?

Not as much as being in a car does !

>
> Question:
> Are there any small portable CD music players that have DIGITAL OUT (via
> USB) as well as analog out? Although I'm not sure how that would
> interface with the car's audio system, which is probably programmed to
> look for mp3 files with tagged metadata.

It wouldn't. That's not what the car's USB port accepts. It expects a
memory stick with folders and files - not a 'live' streamed digital signal.

>
> Looks like the only way to take your CDs along with new cars, is to do
> what I used to do in the old days: Take the portable player along with
> some headphones, and listen that way...

Dangerous, and not at all the only way.

If you must use actual CDs, then get a FM transmitter dongle for your
portable player and listen on the car radio function.

Or the RAV system may play directly from an iPad.Or suck some or all
your CDs onto an iPad (lossless if you like). And/or copy them onto a
USB stick. Either way it is playing as files from a storage device.

geoff

[j...@mich.com]

I have a CD player as well as a USB input in my car. I listen to music and audiobooks. It is so much
easier using a USB flash drive I would never go back to CDs in the car. Each CD has it's own folder
and the radio controls let you easily choose albums and/or songs to play, plus it's safer than screwing
around with CDs while driving. You just push a button, cd changed.

You can use lossless formats, but the car is not a hifi listening room, so mp3s sound great in a car and I
suggest you go that way. The mp3s have more content than your car speakers can ever manage.

Best would be an 8G flash drive, or 16G if necessary. Many car radios and older Toyota systems in particular were slow in
loading the flash drive and some can't play large ones.

Here is a good portable CD to mp3 ripper. The program is contained in one folder, it doesn't install or change the registry.


https://portableapps.com/apps/music_video/cdex_portable

[Mike Rivers]

On 6/9/2021 11:18 PM, Fishrrman wrote:
> I have a lot of CDs. Many hundreds of them. Thousands of them.
>
> My 2013 Toyota RAV4 has a CD player as a part of the audio system. No
> problems there.
>
> But I looked at the new RAV4's, and they no longer have a CD player
> available at all in any configuration.
>
> Well, ok, my 2013 also has a USB port (suitable for a flashdrive with
> mp3 files on it), along with a 3.5mm analog input to get music in that
> way from any device with analog out via the headphone jack.
>
> But... the new RAVs have only a USB port. There's no 3.5mm jack, so I
> couldn't even plug in a small portable CD player (which I have).

Welcome to the world of pre-obsolete technology. My 2003 car has both a
CD and Cassette player, and I use an adapter that goes into the cassette
slot to plug my phone (and before that, a portable MP3 player) into the
car's audio system.

No need to sweat degradation of audio quality through Bluetooth - road
noise does a better job of that.

There are a number of Bluetooth adapters designed to be used in cars,
most of which also include an FM transmitter for cars (like mine) that
don't have bluetooth.

Here's one for $13. Take a gamble on it, learn from it, use it if it's
OK, return it if it isn't good enough for you.

https://tinyurl.com/3nph4hkn (a link to Amazon.com)

--
For a good time, call http://mikeriversaudio.wordpress.com

[Tobiah]

On 6/10/21 7:22 AM, Mike Rivers wrote:
> On 6/9/2021 11:18 PM, Fishrrman wrote:
>> I have a lot of CDs. Many hundreds of them. Thousands of them.

It's definitely time to drop the CD's. There is really no need
for mechanical storage anymore. I would suggest that you start
ripping them to .flac, but I seriously think that the way to go
now is to just have a paid Spotify account. It's worth well more
than $10/month to have access to a massive library (probably
encompassing everything you have on CD) without the need to
manage and back up the music. You can download as much as you
like to your device for offline listening.

[Chris K-Man]

__________
How to play CDs in a new car? I don't!...

Last year I just CarGuru'd the exact car I wanted - a 2010 Honda with
exactly the features I wanted(a moonroof, Aux jack, none of the
nonsense asscoiated with electric power steering, just good old
conventional/hyadraulic), and naturally, a CD changer was
standard on the trim level I sought. I scored a great car with well
under 100,000miles on it - about to kiss 80,000mi this month.

Rivers, with his 2003 whatever he drives is even MORE future-proof
(cassette and CD), and provided he keeps on top of whatever
maintenance is needed at his mileage segment

For me, CDs represent roughly 40% of my driving soundtrack, with the
smartphone taking up the remainder - TuneIn podcasts, and of course
much of the music I ripped from my CD collection.


I don't believe in streaming, Spotify, as I cannot control the
edition or issue of the albums I listen to, either from CD or
ripped to the phone. Most of my CDs(of everything from 'Please
Please Me' to 'Nevermind' to 'Future Nostalgia'), are original issue,
and few if any 'remastered' issues. I like it that way, as I control
the sound wuality of what I play in the car - or at home.

[geoff]

Not as lot of use if you are driving beyond interweb coverage.

geoff

[Mike Rivers]

On 6/10/2021 12:23 PM, Tobiah wrote:
> It's definitely time to drop the CD's.  There is really no need
> for mechanical storage anymore.

Sure there is. You can take it with you and you know where it is. Take
care of your CDs and they'll last the rest of your life. No need to
access the Internet to put data there and then take it out.

Copy 100 hours of music files to your phone and you'll be entertained
for a long, but without a good data base you won't be able to find a
specific song if you want it. That's easier to do with CDs. And, as
someone else said, if you use cloud storage for your music, you need a
reliable Internet connection, and depending on what kind of data plan
you have, the meter might be running while you're groovin'.

[Fishrrman]

On 6/10/21 12:23 PM, Tobiah wrote:
> I seriously think that the way to go
> now is to just have a paid Spotify account.  It's worth well
> more
> than $10/month to have access to a massive library

A good portion of the stuff I have isn't going to be found
on Spotify. You'll have to trust me on that. I'm not going
to pay $10 a month for music in the car anyway. That's why I
have an astounding bluegrass music collection on CD's.

[geoff]

So select what you are likely to want to listen to in your card, extract
the CDs to your phone or a memory-stick, and you'll have 2 or 3 methods
of getting the music played.

Use a reasonably high rate MP3 or Apple-whatever, or FLAC or ALAC if you
want to use these files for actual hi-fi listening.

geoff

[Trevor]

I simply cant *believe* anyone who obviously has a computer, would want
to stuff around with CD's in a car in this century!! Simply transferring
the CD's to a USB stick will let you play 100's of wave files, or
thousands of MP3 files. The more usual problem is people with older cars
wondering how to play their digital files and ditch the CD's!!!

[Trevor]

On 11/06/2021 8:36 am, geoff wrote:
> On 11/06/2021 4:23 am, Tobiah wrote:

>> You can download as much as you

>> like to your device for ***offline*** listening.

>>
>
> Not as lot of use if you are driving beyond interweb coverage.

Did you really miss this or just not bother reading?

[Trevor]

On 11/06/2021 10:58 am, Mike Rivers wrote:
> On 6/10/2021 12:23 PM, Tobiah wrote:
>> It's definitely time to drop the CD's.  There is really no need
>> for mechanical storage anymore.
>
> Sure there is. You can take it with you and you know where it is. Take
> care of your CDs and they'll last the rest of your life. No need to
> access the Internet to put data there and then take it out.

Yep, CDs still useful backup AT HOME.

>
> Copy 100 hours of music files to your phone and you'll be entertained
> for a long, but without a good data base you won't be able to find a
> specific song if you want it. That's easier to do with CDs.

HAHA. FAR easier to query search for a song in an automatically
generated database of perhaps thousands of songs, than it is to search
through hundreds of CD's manually!!!

> And, as
> someone else said, if you use cloud storage for your music, you need a
> reliable Internet connection, and depending on what kind of data plan
> you have, the meter might be running while you're groovin'.

I simply cant imagine trying to live stream music in a car, or why you
would ever want to!

[geoff]

Not talking to you. Talking to the OP. This thread is not about you ...

geoff

[Mike Rivers]

On 6/11/2021 2:10 AM, Trevor wrote:
>>
>> Copy 100 hours of music files to your phone and you'll be entertained
>> for a long, but without a good data base you won't be able to find a
>> specific song if you want it. That's easier to do with CDs.
>
> HAHA. FAR easier to query search for a song in an automatically
> generated database of perhaps thousands of songs, than it is to search
> through hundreds of CD's manually!!!

How often to you (or anyone) search for a single song? When I want to do
that, maybe a few times a year, I go to the Internet. And usually the
song I'm seeking is something that isn't on CD, or at least on one of my
own CDs anyway.

But this is a matter of how you choose to listen to music.

>> And, as someone else said, if you use cloud storage for your music,
>> you need a reliable Internet connection, and depending on what kind of
>> data plan you have, the meter might be running while you're groovin'.

> I simply cant imagine trying to live stream music in a car, or why you
> would ever want to!

Oh, I do it all the time! It's called "listening to the radio." We have
a couple of good classical music stations and, at times, jazz stations,
that can keep my ears occupied and my brain not distracted from driving.

[Don Pearce]

On Fri, 11 Jun 2021 08:51:01 -0400, Mike Rivers <mm1...@yahoo.com>
wrote:

>Oh, I do it all the time! It's called "listening to the radio." We have
>a couple of good classical music stations and, at times, jazz stations,
>that can keep my ears occupied and my brain not distracted from driving.
>

I almost never listen to music when I'm driving. Plays and audio books
are my driving companions of choice. A four hour drive can pass
quickly that way.

d

--
This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software.
https://www.avast.com/antivirus

[Mike Rivers]

On 6/11/2021 9:21 AM, Don Pearce wrote:
> I almost never listen to music when I'm driving. Plays and audio books
> are my driving companions of choice. A four hour drive can pass
> quickly that way.

I listen to music on the radio when I'm driving locally, but for road
trips, it's always playback from files I've loaded on my phone for the
trip. I have a computer set up to record about five different weekly
streaming 2- or 3-hour radio shows that feature music that I enjoy, so
basically I listen to those shows when on the road or in the air. It's
an easy load-in since about 10 programs (each a single file) is
generally enough to keep me in music until I return home. It's not like
I'll be looking for a specific song there. One of the reasons why this
works for me is because the show hosts are very good curators and rarely
play something that makes me want to skip over it.

I find it difficult to concentrate on two things at once. If I tried to
listen to a book when driving, I'm likely to miss much of it. I don't
mind if I can't remember the last song I heard.

[Tobiah]

On 6/10/21 7:50 PM, Fishrrman wrote:
> On 6/10/21 12:23 PM, Tobiah wrote:
>> I seriously think that the way to go
>> now is to just have a paid Spotify account.

> A good portion of the stuff I have isn't going to be found on Spotify.

Fair enough. It's time to start ripping to .flac then.
Keep the data in at least two geographically distinct
locations. You could load your entire collection onto a
single SD card in your phone and stream to your car from there.

[Tobiah]

> Not as lot of use if you are driving beyond interweb coverage.
>
> geoff

As I mentioned, Spotify allows you to download as much as you
like for offline listening.

[Tobiah]

On 6/10/2021 5:58 PM, Mike Rivers wrote:
> On 6/10/2021 12:23 PM, Tobiah wrote:
>> It's definitely time to drop the CD's. There is really no need for
>> mechanical storage anymore.
>
> Sure there is. You can take it with you and you know where it is.
> Take care of your CDs and they'll last the rest of your life. No need
> to access the Internet to put data there and then take it out.

This might be fine if your want to take 5 CD's in the car and put
them in a visor case, but fumbling with a CD at all is really a
necessity of the past.

> Copy 100 hours of music files to your phone and you'll be entertained
> for a long, but without a good data base you won't be able to find a
> specific song if you want it.

For me, it's just "Hey Google, play Dark Side of the Moon", and it's there.

Also, "play classic rock from the '70s", or "play lute music". The AI
is getting freakishly good, and it's time to embrace the new way.

[Chris K-Man]

___________

You 'embrace' whatever way you want to, and I'll embrace my
way. How's that sound, Mr. Y?

[Trevor]

HaHa. So you dont know how usenet works either then. Or how to use email
if you want a private conversation!

[Trevor]

On 11/06/2021 10:51 pm, Mike Rivers wrote:
> On 6/11/2021 2:10 AM, Trevor wrote:
>>>
>>> Copy 100 hours of music files to your phone and you'll be entertained
>>> for a long, but without a good data base you won't be able to find a
>>> specific song if you want it. That's easier to do with CDs.
>>
>> HAHA. FAR easier to query search for a song in an automatically
>> generated database of perhaps thousands of songs, than it is to search
>> through hundreds of CD's manually!!!
>
> How often to you (or anyone) search for a single song?

er weren't YOU the one who said you "won't be able to find a specific
song if you want it"?

> When I want to do
> that, maybe a few times a year, I go to the Internet. And usually the
> song I'm seeking is something that isn't on CD, or at least on one of my
> own CDs anyway.

Always check my own database first, have most of what I will ever want,
and takes me less time than checking the internet. The database is
updated with one click.

>
> But this is a matter of how you choose to listen to music.

Yep, in the car I just have a couple of SD cards and rarely search for
anything. I don't have anything on the cards I dont want to listen to.

>
>>> And, as someone else said, if you use cloud storage for your music,
>>> you need a reliable Internet connection, and depending on what kind
>>> of data plan you have, the meter might be running while you're groovin'.
>
>> I simply cant imagine trying to live stream music in a car, or why you
>> would ever want to!
>
> Oh, I do it all the time! It's called "listening to the radio." We have
> a couple of good classical music stations and, at times, jazz stations,
> that can keep my ears occupied and my brain not distracted from driving.

Well I'm happy with what I have already without having to pay data
charges, but we all get to make our own choices. CD's not usually my
choice though!

[geoff]

Try not to be a dick Trev.

geoff

[Trevor]

HaHa! YOU should take your own advice first. Prefer to pretend YOU
actually control usenet? LOL.

[geoff]

???

Just take a deep breath.

geoff

[Trevor]

On 16/06/2021 8:22 am, geoff wrote:
> Just take a deep breath.

And then killfile you where you obviously belong?
OK, done.

[Chris K-Man]

________

Hey you two - the summit was over hours ago!

[Tobiah]

> You 'embrace' whatever way you want to, and I'll embrace my
> way. How's that sound, Mr. Y?

Mr. T perhaps? Of course, use your CD's and flash drives
as long as you are able. I'll continue to snap my fingers
and be served my wishes :)

Look, I'm an old-school guy, but what's worked for me in the car
for the last several years is to stream music from my phone
over bluetooth. I ask Google for what I want, and she delivers.

Your mileage may vary.

[geoff]

In what way should this affect your fuel-consumption or tyre wear ?

Ha ha.

But you didn't see this, did you.

geoff

[Chris K-Man]

_______

That was Y as in Gen-Y.

I can't abide their media consumption style!

[Nonr]

On Thu, 17 Jun 2021 03:13:26 -0700, Chris K-Man wrote:

>
> That was Y as in Gen-Y.
>
> I can't abide their media consumption style!

Theckmah, the village idiot, likes to sort people into imaginary and
arbitrarily labeled "generations" based on some random manure percolating
inside his cranium. He has his petty little lame "insult" names for
millenials, and generation y, and generation x, and bomers, et stereotype
cetera. Many people may be unfamiliar with the terminology in his little
world, with all the initials and abbreviations.
When someone disagrees with Thekmah, the village idiot, he pigeonholes
them into some generation or other cultural group, gives his best (lame)
attempt at a dismissive label, and then he feels superior. The joke's on
him, though, since more often than not, he's completely wrong about what
"generation" someone is (an error which he never learns from, ever). More
than likely the disagreement is because Theckem, the village idiot, is a
retarded dumbfuck.
He's so retarded, he disables the clock in all his cars, so it cannot
accidentally be set to daylight saving time. DST would make his retarded
little head explode, and the shit-for-brains would be everywhere. A spill
of toxic waste. He "can't abide" anyone who doesn't think like a retard.

[Chris K-Man]

________

Come on, ya wusses - don't let some machine crash the conversation!