Start saying your goodbyes to your car’s CD player

[kkt]

I was an early adopter of mp3's.  So, I haven't bought an audio CD in about 10 years, and for almost 20 years, the only CD's I've listened to in cars were audio books; other CDs acquired were immediately ripped to mp3.

I feel old.

You can feel old if you remember when long-playing records were the latest thing.

[vdeane]

Won't be long until we say goodbye to wired aux ports and USB ports.

They'd better not get rid of wired aux ports.  How else is one supposed to hate music?  All of the car media interfaces are complete junk.

I remember trying to find my iPod's "on the go" playlist in my Mom's car once when I was navigating for a family vacation.  I could never figure out how to get the car's media controls to play the playlist and wound up manually going through each and every song to find the album I wanted to play; it took half an hour to find and played the second disk of the album before the first disk!

[roadman]

I still prefer buying CDs and ripping them to mp3 files instead of downloading music in mp3 format.  For one thing, should your computer completely crash (which happened to me once), you still have your source material without having to re-purchase it.  Even back in the days of copying LPs to cassettes, I was always told by audiophile friends "Always keep your source material, as you never know when you'll need it."  This point was verified to me years later by a co-worker who, having dumped all his LPs after copying them to the cheap "3 for a buck" cassettes prevalent in the 1970s, commented about how PO'ed he became when those cheap cassettes began failing and he no longer had the albums to make new tapes.

[roadman]

Won't be long until we say goodbye to wired aux ports and USB ports.

They'd better not get rid of wired aux ports.  How else is one supposed to hate music?  All of the car media interfaces are complete junk.

I remember trying to find my iPod's "on the go" playlist in my Mom's car once when I was navigating for a family vacation.  I could never figure out how to get the car's media controls to play the playlist and wound up manually going through each and every song to find the album I wanted to play; it took half an hour to find and played the second disk of the album before the first disk!

Most cars' media systems don't like playlists.  It took me a long time to get my Focus's SYNC system to recognize the playlists on my mp3 player - the key is a) in the settings you use when creating the playlist and b) insuring that the albums the songs in the playlist are from are also loaded onto the player.

[seicer]

I still prefer buying CDs and ripping them to mp3 files instead of downloading music in mp3 format.  For one thing, should your computer completely crash (which happened to me once), you still have your source material without having to re-purchase it.  Even back in the days of copying LPs to cassettes, I was always told by audiophile friends "Always keep your source material, as you never know when you'll need it."  This point was verified to me years later by a co-worker who, having dumped all his LPs after copying them to the cheap "3 for a buck" cassettes prevalent in the 1970s, commented about how PO'ed he became when those cheap cassettes began failing and he no longer had the albums to make new tapes.

I remember having about 20 GB of mp3's at one point, but after switching to music in the cloud and having Spotify (and other services) manage my music, I ended up dumping the files and saving space. The only bit is that since Spotify can sync my music to my personal computer (or iPhone/device), and since I listen to so much more music due to their discovery functions, I now have a collection over 80 GB

[Pete from Boston]

I still prefer buying CDs and ripping them to mp3 files instead of downloading music in mp3 format.  For one thing, should your computer completely crash (which happened to me once), you still have your source material without having to re-purchase it. 

Yes and no — iTunes, for example, keeps all of your purchase history.  You can download your purchased songs onto whatever device you are running iTunes on.  I suppose the only danger of losing the source material, as you put it, would be if the artist or label pulls the material from iTunes, which I suspect would be an infrequent occurrence.

[1995hoo]

I still prefer buying CDs and ripping them to mp3 files instead of downloading music in mp3 format.  For one thing, should your computer completely crash (which happened to me once), you still have your source material without having to re-purchase it.  Even back in the days of copying LPs to cassettes, I was always told by audiophile friends "Always keep your source material, as you never know when you'll need it."  This point was verified to me years later by a co-worker who, having dumped all his LPs after copying them to the cheap "3 for a buck" cassettes prevalent in the 1970s, commented about how PO'ed he became when those cheap cassettes began failing and he no longer had the albums to make new tapes.

I remember having about 20 GB of mp3's at one point, but after switching to music in the cloud and having Spotify (and other services) manage my music, I ended up dumping the files and saving space. The only bit is that since Spotify can sync my music to my personal computer (or iPhone/device), and since I listen to so much more music due to their discovery functions, I now have a collection over 80 GB

Bit of a threadjack: Using something like Spotify, how much cellular data might one burn through? I'm thinking of, for example, if you connected an iPhone or iPad to Spotify while at the office and piped it through an integrated amp. (Assume the office prohibits accessing these sorts of services via your office PC.) I was reading an article in The Absolute Sound about it being a great way to discover new music, but I'd be concerned about burning through cellular data too quickly.

[bandit957]

I've copied much of my record collection to MP3's. I created a very simple (and user-unfriendly) program in FreeBASIC to sort them and play them in the order that I would if I'd have a radio station. For instance, I might play a hit from 1978-84, followed by a hit from 1985-91, followed by something from another era or an album cut.

[seicer]

I still prefer buying CDs and ripping them to mp3 files instead of downloading music in mp3 format.  For one thing, should your computer completely crash (which happened to me once), you still have your source material without having to re-purchase it.  Even back in the days of copying LPs to cassettes, I was always told by audiophile friends "Always keep your source material, as you never know when you'll need it."  This point was verified to me years later by a co-worker who, having dumped all his LPs after copying them to the cheap "3 for a buck" cassettes prevalent in the 1970s, commented about how PO'ed he became when those cheap cassettes began failing and he no longer had the albums to make new tapes.

I remember having about 20 GB of mp3's at one point, but after switching to music in the cloud and having Spotify (and other services) manage my music, I ended up dumping the files and saving space. The only bit is that since Spotify can sync my music to my personal computer (or iPhone/device), and since I listen to so much more music due to their discovery functions, I now have a collection over 80 GB

Bit of a threadjack: Using something like Spotify, how much cellular data might one burn through? I'm thinking of, for example, if you connected an iPhone or iPad to Spotify while at the office and piped it through an integrated amp. (Assume the office prohibits accessing these sorts of services via your office PC.) I was reading an article in The Absolute Sound about it being a great way to discover new music, but I'd be concerned about burning through cellular data too quickly.

Depends.

You can stream music over three quality settings, the lowest being radio quality. It's great for the radio and browse functionality.

If you play the song a lot, you can sync it at any of the three quality settings, which stores a physical copy on your phone. Of course, you should go with the "extreme" or "normal" settings for the best quality setting.

It's recommended to sync over WiFi as to not use your data. By default, it won't sync over cellular. Streaming can occur over cellular or WiFi. Personally, I connect to my work's WiFi and play all day.

[MikeTheActuary]

You can feel old if you remember when long-playing records were the latest thing.

Fair enough.

But I did donate a bunch of 8 tracks to a local museum.

[vtk]

Why should I say goodbye to my car's CD player? Is it going somewhere? I don't plan to replace it anytime soon, even though it won't play CDs anymore.

I really don't want to get involved in this thread, but I couldn't keep ignoring the stupid title.

[Pete from Boston]

"Ever see a guy say good-bye to a shoe?"

"Heheh... Yes, once."

[1995hoo]

You can feel old if you remember when long-playing records were the latest thing.

Fair enough.

But I did donate a bunch of 8 tracks to a local museum.

My wife has some 8-tracks in a drawer upstairs and we have a player in our storage unit, though we have not played any of them since we've known each other (we met in 1999).

[formulanone]

Won't be long until we say goodbye to wired aux ports and USB ports.

They'd better not get rid of wired aux ports.  How else is one supposed to hate music? 

I've rented a 2014 VW Jetta and a Mitsubishi Outlander which did not have AUX ports. They both had 30-pin connectors for iPods, but that's it. The former had a unique patch cable on one end, so the USB cable was worthless. The latter example still charged other devices, but wouldn't play them via USB.

Keep in mind neither car had an owner's manual, so it's entirely possible I was unaware of a setting to just plug-and-play. Maybe the AUX port was also located in some bizzare place (checked dash, glovebox, center console...nope).

I like the cars with options for AUX ports and USB connectivity, although many cars take this as an open invitation to play something from iTunes, even though you might already be on the phone, radio, or playing something through the said AUX port already (Dodge and Ford, of which at least the Sync Settings allow you to override this setting).

Ah, tech-no-logical breakthroughs.

[Stratuscaster]

I've rented a 2014 VW Jetta and a Mitsubishi Outlander which did not have AUX ports. They both had 30-pin connectors for iPods, but that's it.

That's odd. Every cable and pre-Lightning connector Apple device did have the 30-pin connector - but only on the device side, never on the "system" or "charger" side - those were always USB. I've never seen a "30-pin to 30-pin" cable.

VW's system uses an "MDI" interface on many models - not just the Jetta - perhaps that's what you saw.
http://vw10.drivergear.vw.com/Catalog/Vehicle_Accessories/CC/Communication/000051446B
I do have to say though that it should be a USB standard, few consumers are willing to drop $40 on an adapter cable.

Even then, a simple AUX jack provides basic audio connectivity to just about anything.

[1995hoo]

I've rented a 2014 VW Jetta and a Mitsubishi Outlander which did not have AUX ports. They both had 30-pin connectors for iPods, but that's it.

That's odd. Every cable and pre-Lightning connector Apple device did have the 30-pin connector - but only on the device side, never on the "system" or "charger" side - those were always USB. I've never seen a "30-pin to 30-pin" cable.

....

They weren't exclusively USB. 30-pin to FireWire was available as well. I have an old Gateway PC somewhere with a FireWire connector and the only time I ever used that connector was with my first iPod.

But I've never seen 30-pin to 30-pin either.

[Duke87]

My 2011 Sentra has USB and aux jacks. It seems to have some ability to control what plays from the car console itself but my impression is this is clunky and it's easier to control from the plugged in device. Impression, mind you, since I do not own a device to plug into the system and therefore this feature is only ever used by passengers in my car.

My girlfriend's 2013 Focus has some fancy sync feature where she controls her music and her phone with voice commands. I find this disorienting since I'm a button presser and controlling things with my voice rather than my fingers is just weird.

Although I would be more accepting of it if all voice commands began with "Computer, " or possibly "Go go gadget".

[formulanone]

I've rented a 2014 VW Jetta and a Mitsubishi Outlander which did not have AUX ports. They both had 30-pin connectors for iPods, but that's it.

That's odd. Every cable and pre-Lightning connector Apple device did have the 30-pin connector - but only on the device side, never on the "system" or "charger" side - those were always USB. I've never seen a "30-pin to 30-pin" cable.

VW's system uses an "MDI" interface on many models - not just the Jetta - perhaps that's what you saw.
http://vw10.drivergear.vw.com/Catalog/Vehicle_Accessories/CC/Communication/000051446B
I do have to say though that it should be a USB standard, few consumers are willing to drop $40 on an adapter cable.

Even then, a simple AUX jack provides basic audio connectivity to just about anything.

Yeah, that's the one. A right-angle doohickey that only works on VAG products.

I don't like voice activated things; not yet at least. You can't just say one or two words and get back to driving, with many of them (Nissan included), you have to say "dial" then pause for permission to say "contact/number/emergency", then "wait"...it would be so much nicer if you could program a keyword or a secret word to immediately perform the action you'd like. Instead of waiting, I can press a button quicker. And in some cases, a quick double-tap will simply redial. I think some people like giving orders, and there's a power to that for some folks. But to me, it feels a bit uncomfortable and rather hollow...you're just ordering around a computer.

I'm sure we'll get there eventually, but I don't think we're there yet.

[seicer]

I thought Apple's Siri was pretty darn good until I got iOS 8 (or something else happened during that timeframe). I could once switch albums/playlists, send messages, make calls and have everything read out with Siri, but I can't even get the feature to send out a message without -every- word being miscommunicated.

[D-Dey65]

It's funny how 25 years ago a CD player in your car was considered superior to a cassette player. Now the cassette player is better because you can us a cassette adapter and plug it into your MP3 player or your phone.

I do that now, because my car has a combined CD/Cassette player. But I'd still like to hook up a device that lets me play flash drives, card readers and SD cards.

[Laura]

I have a 2003 Chevy Cavalier, which came out right at the point when cassette players were phased out of cars. I have a CD player that usually has something in it; otherwise, I use my old iPhone 4 with an international FM transmitter to play music. I have an international one so that I can use 87.7 and 87.9 as stations. I live pretty close to TV Hill in Baltimore, though, so it doesn't work within a mile from home, so I'll listen to the radio or my one CD for quick trips. I really wish my car had an AUX port; it would make things much easier. My husband loves listening to AM radio, which my car has a pretty decent one of, which is good.

Anyway, as for music purchasing, I choose to purchase CDs and then import them because I can get them much cheaper than on iTunes (thank you, used CD market). I've picked up many at yard sales, too. If I want instant access to a single, I will purchase it on iTunes, though.

I have a vinyl record collection as well. I love classic rock. I love the crispness of listening to music on a record player - it's a whole 'nother experience.


iPhone

[Pete from Boston]

I asked at some point upthread why the hell Apple wasn't making car systems, and sure enough, the next battleground is set.  This article also features a sidebar on mostly-recent dashboard technology that is being rendered obsolete mostly by smartphones

Google and Apple Fight for the Car Dashboard

After years of being treated as an interesting side business, autos have become the latest obsession for Silicon Valley, with Apple assigning about 200 people to work on electric vehicle technology and Google saying it envisions the public using driverless cars within five years.

But nowhere is that obsession playing out more immediately than in the battle to develop the next generation of cars' dashboard systems. In the coming weeks and months, dealerships around the country will begin selling vehicles capable of running Android Auto, Apple CarPlay, or both.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

I have a vinyl record collection as well. I love classic rock. I love the crispness of listening to music on a record player - it's a whole 'nother experience.

Plus there are scads of good records out there for a dollar!