MP3 players for the car?

[US71]

I get my music on CDs and use my car's built-in CD player.  If an album is only available as a digital download, I write it to CD, as that's a legal means of media transfer as long as I don't distribute it.  My previous car only had a tape deck, so I recorded my CDs to cassette tapes to listen to them in the car.

How does one even use an MP3 player in a car without having to awkwardly fumble with a damn touch screen?

Some, newer cars allow you to simply plug the USB flash drive directly into the radio system.  That's what mine does (2017 Jeep Renegade).  I plug in the flash drive and it plays automatically.  After that, I can control much of it through the buttons on the back side of the steering wheel and, if I need to, control it via the radio touch screen.

That's close to what I have now. The port is in the glove box and I can use the radio controls on the steering wheel to adjust volume, skip forward or go back.

[Ned Weasel]

Some, newer cars allow you to simply plug the USB flash drive directly into the radio system.  That's what mine does (2017 Jeep Renegade).  I plug in the flash drive and it plays automatically.  After that, I can control much of it through the buttons on the back side of the steering wheel and, if I need to, control it via the radio touch screen.

That almost sounds like the ideal way to play MP3s in a car, except nothing in a car should involve a touch screen (yes, new car designers, I'm talking to you).

[SSOWorld]

Some, newer cars allow you to simply plug the USB flash drive directly into the radio system.  That's what mine does (2017 Jeep Renegade).  I plug in the flash drive and it plays automatically.  After that, I can control much of it through the buttons on the back side of the steering wheel and, if I need to, control it via the radio touch screen.

They won't listen.

That almost sounds like the ideal way to play MP3s in a car, except nothing in a car should involve a touch screen (yes, new car designers, I'm talking to you).

[SectorZ]

Some, newer cars allow you to simply plug the USB flash drive directly into the radio system.  That's what mine does (2017 Jeep Renegade).  I plug in the flash drive and it plays automatically.  After that, I can control much of it through the buttons on the back side of the steering wheel and, if I need to, control it via the radio touch screen.

That almost sounds like the ideal way to play MP3s in a car, except nothing in a car should involve a touch screen (yes, new car designers, I'm talking to you).

Seconded. I love my Mazda, where you use buttons and a scroll-wheel to control the infotainment center. The screen is disabled at speed, and I don't even use it stopped as it is.

[hbelkins]

Some, newer cars allow you to simply plug the USB flash drive directly into the radio system.  That's what mine does (2017 Jeep Renegade).  I plug in the flash drive and it plays automatically.  After that, I can control much of it through the buttons on the back side of the steering wheel and, if I need to, control it via the radio touch screen.

What kind of display and navigation does it have? Does it read album artwork and track tags off the file data (preferred) or does it navigate the folder hierarchy of the source media? I'd much rather have a player that groups by artist and album, which would allow for individual tracks to be placed anywhere, than one that reads file name data. One reason is because you can end up with a display like Van Halen -- 1984 -- 05-Hot for Teacher.mp3. A long band name and a long album name means sometimes you have to wait for a lot of letters to scroll across the screen to pick your song.

I'm not crazy about touchscreen controls on vehicles -- I'd imagine there's a lot of expense required when repairs become necessary -- but it's my preferred method of selecting music.

I replaced the factory stereo on my old Toyota truck with one that had an iPod interface that allowed the head unit to control the device. I disabled that and continued to use the iPod because I didn't like the scrolling track names.

[US71]

Some, newer cars allow you to simply plug the USB flash drive directly into the radio system.  That's what mine does (2017 Jeep Renegade).  I plug in the flash drive and it plays automatically.  After that, I can control much of it through the buttons on the back side of the steering wheel and, if I need to, control it via the radio touch screen.

What kind of display and navigation does it have? Does it read album artwork and track tags off the file data (preferred) or does it navigate the folder hierarchy of the source media? I'd much rather have a player that groups by artist and album, which would allow for individual tracks to be placed anywhere, than one that reads file name data. One reason is because you can end up with a display like Van Halen -- 1984 -- 05-Hot for Teacher.mp3. A long band name and a long album name means sometimes you have to wait for a lot of letters to scroll across the screen to pick your song.

I'm not crazy about touchscreen controls on vehicles -- I'd imagine there's a lot of expense required when repairs become necessary -- but it's my preferred method of selecting music.

I replaced the factory stereo on my old Toyota truck with one that had an iPod interface that allowed the head unit to control the device. I disabled that and continued to use the iPod because I didn't like the scrolling track names.

Some of the tunes on my memory stick have long names, so I edit them on my computer before saving to the stick.

[hotdogPi]

Some, newer cars allow you to simply plug the USB flash drive directly into the radio system.  That's what mine does (2017 Jeep Renegade).  I plug in the flash drive and it plays automatically.  After that, I can control much of it through the buttons on the back side of the steering wheel and, if I need to, control it via the radio touch screen.

What kind of display and navigation does it have? Does it read album artwork and track tags off the file data (preferred) or does it navigate the folder hierarchy of the source media? I'd much rather have a player that groups by artist and album, which would allow for individual tracks to be placed anywhere, than one that reads file name data. One reason is because you can end up with a display like Van Halen -- 1984 -- 05-Hot for Teacher.mp3. A long band name and a long album name means sometimes you have to wait for a lot of letters to scroll across the screen to pick your song.

I'm not crazy about touchscreen controls on vehicles -- I'd imagine there's a lot of expense required when repairs become necessary -- but it's my preferred method of selecting music.

I replaced the factory stereo on my old Toyota truck with one that had an iPod interface that allowed the head unit to control the device. I disabled that and continued to use the iPod because I didn't like the scrolling track names.

Some of the tunes on my memory stick have long names, so I edit them on my computer before saving to the stick.

The longest track on my iTunes:

Bach: Cantata #202, BWV 202, "Weichet nur, betrübte Schatten" (Wedding Cantata), BWV 202 - Aria: Sich Üben Im Lieben

(116 characters, 118 bytes)

[Brandon]

Some, newer cars allow you to simply plug the USB flash drive directly into the radio system.  That's what mine does (2017 Jeep Renegade).  I plug in the flash drive and it plays automatically.  After that, I can control much of it through the buttons on the back side of the steering wheel and, if I need to, control it via the radio touch screen.

What kind of display and navigation does it have? Does it read album artwork and track tags off the file data (preferred) or does it navigate the folder hierarchy of the source media? I'd much rather have a player that groups by artist and album, which would allow for individual tracks to be placed anywhere, than one that reads file name data. One reason is because you can end up with a display like Van Halen -- 1984 -- 05-Hot for Teacher.mp3. A long band name and a long album name means sometimes you have to wait for a lot of letters to scroll across the screen to pick your song.

I'm not crazy about touchscreen controls on vehicles -- I'd imagine there's a lot of expense required when repairs become necessary -- but it's my preferred method of selecting music.

I replaced the factory stereo on my old Toyota truck with one that had an iPod interface that allowed the head unit to control the device. I disabled that and continued to use the iPod because I didn't like the scrolling track names.

It's a 3"x5" (I think) screen.  It doesn't show scrolling names, but keeps them stationary, such as:

Van Halen
Hot for Teacher

If you want to see more of the file name, say it's a long song title or group name, you can hit the info button to see the whole thing.  However, it doesn't show the whole filename as you have above.
I can group the flash drive files by group, and even type of music (rock, pop, country, etc.)  It's a fairly smart system as far as I've seen.

[hbelkins]

An epilogue to this post: I ended up getting one of the little $50 Onn 7-inch tables from Walmart. The native music player for native files is YouTube Music, believe it or not. I ended up downloading a bunch of free players including Rocket Player and VLC, but ended up spending the $3 or so for the ad-free version of Rocket Player. The tablet uses USB-C (which means I had to invest in some cables, because I had expected it to take micro USB cables, and I have a bunch of them) and the Micro SD card slot will take up to a 256 GB card, which should hold anyone's music collection.

I had a few issues getting everything copied over to it. An Android device won't mount on a Mac as an external drive like it will a PC. You have to have a third-party app to transfer files from a Mac to an Android device. The Mac version of the Android file transfer app is buggy as all get out. Most of the time, it won't even mount the device so you can copy files to it. And when I used the micro SD cards I had with a full-sized SD card adapter and put it in the card slot in the Mac laptop, oftimes the files would not copy. I'd drag a folder onto the card, let it whir and clunk to copy a few GB of data, and then find out the new folder wasn't on the card. I think I had some bad cards. And the lone 256 GB card I had suddenly stopped being recognized by the tablet. I can format it on the Mac as a FAT-32 device just fine, but out of the blue, the Android quit seeing it. And for what I did manage to get copied, for some reason, the player wouldn't recognize all the songs when I copied them to the card. When the player apps scanned for new songs, it would only see a few of them.

After buying a couple of new 128 GB cards and a couple of USB card reader sticks, I got the problem solved. i was able to set up the card for use on an Android, copy about 123 GB of MP3 files onto the card using the Mac, and Rocket Player finds all the albums. (I haven't tried VLC Player or YouTube Music yet to see how well they do.) Unlike a lot of the standalone MP3 players that read file names, this one reads embedded tags and puts the songs in the correct album order. I have a couple of 256 GB cards on order so I can add even more music to my collection.

With this method working, it leads me to believe there is a market for a standalone Android-based music player. I'd even call it AMP (Android Music Player) and it would perform like a mini-tablet with a form factor and functionality similar to an iPod Touch. An alternative might be to acquire an Android phone with a large SD card capability and use it as a wifi-only device as a dedicated music player. I had identified a couple that would work, including one from AT&T that I could use as a backup phone if necessary. I might still end up investing in it since it's only around $40 or so.

It cost more than I anticipated because I had to buy some more cards and a couple of card readers, but it seems like this is going to be a workable replacement for my iPod Classic. And I don't have to worry about dealing with iTunes anymore, either.

[hbelkins]

And another followup. The little ONN tablet works fine, but it's a bit too big for good use in a vehicle, so I found a Motorola E6 Android phone that accepts a 256 GB MicroSD card. Got a refurbished Tracfone model for $20 on eBay.

But I continued having issues with getting files copied to a couple of 256 GB off-brand cards I'd bought from Walmart.com. So I bit the bullet and bought a SanDisk card and also an ONN-branded card from Walmart. Apparently those cheap cards have issues, and if I hadn't let the return window expire before I figured out the problem was with the cards, I would have sent them back for refunds. Both the SanDisk and ONN cards work just fine, and the copy speeds are much faster with them than the other two cards, plus the files reliably copy.

I still can't find a good solution to copy files to the cards directly from the Mac to the Android device. The official Android software is buggy, and all the other alternatives I've found aren't freeware or shareware. So I've developed a workaround. I process all my MP3 files on the Mac. In my case, I'm copying gobs of old albums I downloaded from Usenet over the years and saved on DVDs, or downloading MP3s of playlists off YouTube via the WonderShare AllMyTube Downloader software. I'm processing the files, renaming and tagging as needed using the MP3tag Windows software that's wrapped up in a "wine bottle," and then copying them to a portable drive. Then I have to use a PC to strip out all the extraneous files the Mac creates on a FAT-formatted drive -- files that start with ._ or .DS_Store files -- and then copy from the PC to the Android device or the card itself.

The result is that I have a functional MP3 player that will hold a huge collection of songs and functions much like an iPod Touch.

[Roadgeekteen]

Spotify is the best way to listen to music

[Scott5114]

I still can't find a good solution to copy files to the cards directly from the Mac to the Android device.

My solution has always been to use a USB SD card reader (you can either get one that works with Micro SD cards or get an adapter that allows you to insert the Micro SD card into a full-size SD card reader) and just copy the files over directly.

Spotify is the best way to listen to music

Unless you like listening music you already bought and paid for and don't want to pay a monthly fee to listen to it again. Or you like music that isn't on Spotify. Or the music that you listened to on Spotify has been deleted because of contract disagreements. Or you live somewhere with spotty cell service, like, I dunno, Kentucky.

[Roadgeekteen]

I still can't find a good solution to copy files to the cards directly from the Mac to the Android device.

My solution has always been to use a USB SD card reader (you can either get one that works with Micro SD cards or get an adapter that allows you to insert the Micro SD card into a full-size SD card reader) and just copy the files over directly.

Spotify is the best way to listen to music

Unless you like listening music you already bought and paid for and don't want to pay a monthly fee to listen to it again. Or you like music that isn't on Spotify. Or the music that you listened to on Spotify has been deleted because of contract disagreements. Or you live somewhere with spotty cell service, like, I dunno, Kentucky.

You can download music off of Spotify if you have premium. The other points are good, however.

[zachary_amaryllis]

Spotify is the best way to listen to music

unless your commute includes 15 miles with no service...

[Scott5114]

Unless you like listening music you already bought and paid for and don't want to pay a monthly fee to listen to it again. Or you like music that isn't on Spotify. Or the music that you listened to on Spotify has been deleted because of contract disagreements. Or you live somewhere with spotty cell service, like, I dunno, Kentucky.

You can download music off of Spotify if you have premium. The other points are good, however.

Well, I mean, like, I have a CD of Dark Side of the Moon that my mom gave me for Christmas 2005. If I want to listen to "Time", I could pay however much a month for Spotify Premium and download it from there...or I could pop the CD into my computer and copy the MP3/OGG/FLAC over to my phone and listen to it for free because my mom already paid for it as my Christmas present when I was 15.

In general I look with suspicion upon any sort of subscription model, preferring a pay-once-and-you're-done approach, because my financial exposure has a finite limit when I buy something and it is infinite with a subscription. The same reason is why I prefer to own a home rather than rent (at least I know the payments on my house will stop in May 2047, whereas they'll continue until the day I die if I rented the whole time).

[Roadgeekteen]

Spotify is the best way to listen to music

unless your commute includes 15 miles with no service...

You can download music on Spotify if you have premium.

[Takumi]

I still can't find a good solution to copy files to the cards directly from the Mac to the Android device.

My solution has always been to use a USB SD card reader (you can either get one that works with Micro SD cards or get an adapter that allows you to insert the Micro SD card into a full-size SD card reader) and just copy the files over directly.

Spotify is the best way to listen to music

Unless you like listening music you already bought and paid for and don't want to pay a monthly fee to listen to it again. Or you like music that isn't on Spotify. Or the music that you listened to on Spotify has been deleted because of contract disagreements. Or you live somewhere with spotty cell service, like, I dunno, Kentucky.

Or if you don't like how Spotify's pay structure works. Spotify is basically nothing more than exposure for independent artists.

[Takumi]

Spotify is the best way to listen to music

unless your commute includes 15 miles with no service...

You can download music on Spotify if you have premium.

Until the music becomes unavailable on Spotify for whatever reason.

[Roadgeekteen]

I guess that you guys could be right.

[jakeroot]

My Spotify is a mix of local .mp3 files and "subscribed" tracks. Spotify and other cloud-based music services are full-blown music applications ... to a point. Although local file support beyond just the computer is often behind a paywall (Spotify is like this).

I personally prefer the subscription model because local files are not available on every device, even with Spotify Premium. My local files are on my computer and my phone, but they are not supported on all devices. For example, neither my Apple TV or Amazon Echo support playback of "local" files, even those within the same playlist as subscribed music.

In the screenshot below, we see three songs. The first two were subscribed via Spotify, and the third is a local .mp3 file. The first two will play on all Spotify-supported devices, but only the .mp3 file plays on my phone and computer.


Spotify "Soundtrack" Playlist by Jacob Root, on Flickr

So as it how it helps someone like HB: you can use Spotify to manage local files, but unfortunately you would need to pay for Spotify Premium to play them back on your phone. But you then have the advantage of being able to play them over the cloud without downloading them. This seems like a fairly minor difference, especially if you live somewhere with intermittent data coverage. But that does mean you could have your entire local library on your iPhone without taking any storage.



Reading through the thread, my gut told me that an older Android phone or tablet was the way to go, so good purchase there.

[hbelkins]

I'm not a fan of music subscription services for a number of the reasons listed above. Plus, I listen to very little new music and instead rely on my collection that mostly spans the years 1970-2000something.

I once attempted to use a free trial of Spotify, streamed the albums and captured them with software (Audio Hijack, I think) and then tried splitting up the long album files into individual tunes. But I found the sound quality to be lacking so I didn't re-up when the trial ran out and I needed to start paying.

My brother is an Amazon Prime member (I'm not) and he's been streaming music on Prime and capturing and converting them to files locally stored. I think he's had better luck than I did with Spotify.

It's not as rich of a source as it used to be, but once upon a time Usenet was a great place to obtain music if you had access to the binary newsgroups.

And then of course, there was Napster and the Hotline client and its various servers.

Plus, I have some music that was never released digitally that I'd like to preserve. I recently used a Mac app called Vinyl Studio to digitize a cassette recording I had of a recently-deceased friend's band from 35 years ago. They recorded several songs at a studio and I had a cassette copy of it. Upon his death, I digitized that tape, saved the files as MP3s, and shared them with his friends and relatives, and even a couple of his bandmates who didn't have copies of the tracks they cut. I also have a number of albums that never made it to cassette, much less CD.

I still can't find a good solution to copy files to the cards directly from the Mac to the Android device.

My solution has always been to use a USB SD card reader (you can either get one that works with Micro SD cards or get an adapter that allows you to insert the Micro SD card into a full-size SD card reader) and just copy the files over directly.

Yep, that's what I do. With the added step of moving the files from my Mac (where I process my files) onto a separate card/flash drive and then using a PC to strip out the extraneous files (the aforementioned duplicates that start with ._ and the various .DS_Store files the Mac generates on a FAT-formatted drive). Now that my existing collection has been copied over, I'm batch-copying new additions in folders named for the date of the transfer. I'll work on 10-12 albums, get them ready to go, put them in a folder called "Copied to music player (date)" and copy that to the card that goes in the phone. I'm afraid I'll end up breaking the back case of the phone from popping it off and back on so many times, though.

So as it how it helps someone like HB: you can use Spotify to manage local files, but unfortunately you would need to pay for Spotify Premium to play them back on your phone. But you then have the advantage of being able to play them over the cloud without downloading them. This seems like a fairly minor difference, especially if you live somewhere with intermittent data coverage. But that does mean you could have your entire local library on your iPhone without taking any storage.



Reading through the thread, my gut told me that an older Android phone or tablet was the way to go, so good purchase there.

I've always been the one who preferred a separate device for separate functions: a phone for calls and texts and rudimentary Web browsing/app usage, a tablet for more advanced usage, a camera for taking pictures, a music player for playing music, etc. Plus, i wanted to get away from having to use iTunes to manage the songs on the device. And Apple really needs to get with the program and allow external memory cards in its devices.

With this setup, if I'm visiting my brother and he has a great new album he wants me to hear, I can merely copy the files onto the card that goes in my device and I'm good to go.

[jakeroot]

I've always been the one who preferred a separate device for separate functions: a phone for calls and texts and rudimentary Web browsing/app usage, a tablet for more advanced usage, a camera for taking pictures, a music player for playing music, etc. Plus, i wanted to get away from having to use iTunes to manage the songs on the device. And Apple really needs to get with the program and allow external memory cards in its devices.

I wouldn't even consider that too unusual. For years, my setup was some regular phone and a Zune. It was only about ten years ago after being robbed that I realized it was easier to replace one device than two.

There's no chance Apple will ever allow external memory apart from USB-C devices (iPad has a USB-C port). Many Android phones don't even have them anymore, and the trend is definitely not towards more external memory, as most people seem to prefer cloud backups and storage over local files (particularly a helpful setup when replacing the device).

[Takumi]

I've always been the one who preferred a separate device for separate functions: a phone for calls and texts and rudimentary Web browsing/app usage, a tablet for more advanced usage, a camera for taking pictures, a music player for playing music, etc. Plus, i wanted to get away from having to use iTunes to manage the songs on the device. And Apple really needs to get with the program and allow external memory cards in its devices.

I wouldn't even consider that too unusual. For years, my setup was some regular phone and a Zune. It was only about ten years ago after being robbed that I realized it was easier to replace one device than two.

I still use my old iPhone 6s as a glorified iPod, because other than battery life and the camera it still functions as good as it did when I first got it several years ago, and it still has a headphone jack. Getting a set of good quality wireless earbuds is low on the priority list for me right now, but I'm sure I'll have to do it eventually. Nothing lasts forever.

[Roadgeekteen]

I'm not a fan of music subscription services for a number of the reasons listed above. Plus, I listen to very little new music and instead rely on my collection that mostly spans the years 1970-2000something.

I once attempted to use a free trial of Spotify, streamed the albums and captured them with software (Audio Hijack, I think) and then tried splitting up the long album files into individual tunes. But I found the sound quality to be lacking so I didn't re-up when the trial ran out and I needed to start paying.

My brother is an Amazon Prime member (I'm not) and he's been streaming music on Prime and capturing and converting them to files locally stored. I think he's had better luck than I did with Spotify.

It's not as rich of a source as it used to be, but once upon a time Usenet was a great place to obtain music if you had access to the binary newsgroups.

And then of course, there was Napster and the Hotline client and its various servers.

Plus, I have some music that was never released digitally that I'd like to preserve. I recently used a Mac app called Vinyl Studio to digitize a cassette recording I had of a recently-deceased friend's band from 35 years ago. They recorded several songs at a studio and I had a cassette copy of it. Upon his death, I digitized that tape, saved the files as MP3s, and shared them with his friends and relatives, and even a couple of his bandmates who didn't have copies of the tracks they cut. I also have a number of albums that never made it to cassette, much less CD.

I still can't find a good solution to copy files to the cards directly from the Mac to the Android device.

My solution has always been to use a USB SD card reader (you can either get one that works with Micro SD cards or get an adapter that allows you to insert the Micro SD card into a full-size SD card reader) and just copy the files over directly.

Yep, that's what I do. With the added step of moving the files from my Mac (where I process my files) onto a separate card/flash drive and then using a PC to strip out the extraneous files (the aforementioned duplicates that start with ._ and the various .DS_Store files the Mac generates on a FAT-formatted drive). Now that my existing collection has been copied over, I'm batch-copying new additions in folders named for the date of the transfer. I'll work on 10-12 albums, get them ready to go, put them in a folder called "Copied to music player (date)" and copy that to the card that goes in the phone. I'm afraid I'll end up breaking the back case of the phone from popping it off and back on so many times, though.

So as it how it helps someone like HB: you can use Spotify to manage local files, but unfortunately you would need to pay for Spotify Premium to play them back on your phone. But you then have the advantage of being able to play them over the cloud without downloading them. This seems like a fairly minor difference, especially if you live somewhere with intermittent data coverage. But that does mean you could have your entire local library on your iPhone without taking any storage.



Reading through the thread, my gut told me that an older Android phone or tablet was the way to go, so good purchase there.

I've always been the one who preferred a separate device for separate functions: a phone for calls and texts and rudimentary Web browsing/app usage, a tablet for more advanced usage, a camera for taking pictures, a music player for playing music, etc. Plus, i wanted to get away from having to use iTunes to manage the songs on the device. And Apple really needs to get with the program and allow external memory cards in its devices.

With this setup, if I'm visiting my brother and he has a great new album he wants me to hear, I can merely copy the files onto the card that goes in my device and I'm good to go.

Separate devices? Seems like a pain to handle.

[vdeane]

The same reason is why I prefer to own a home rather than rent (at least I know the payments on my house will stop in May 2047, whereas they'll continue until the day I die if I rented the whole time).

Property/school taxes also continue until they day you die - and around here at least, they're high enough that even a homeowner with a paid-off mortgage is paying practically the same amount as rent for a decent apartment would be.  As such, I've never really bought the financial aspect to homeownership.  Seems the only way one comes out ahead (vs renting) is if they sell and downsize when they retire, especially after maintenance/yard work/snow removal (in the parts of the country where that's an issue) costs are taken into account.

I've always been the one who preferred a separate device for separate functions: a phone for calls and texts and rudimentary Web browsing/app usage, a tablet for more advanced usage, a camera for taking pictures, a music player for playing music, etc. Plus, i wanted to get away from having to use iTunes to manage the songs on the device. And Apple really needs to get with the program and allow external memory cards in its devices.

I wouldn't even consider that too unusual. For years, my setup was some regular phone and a Zune. It was only about ten years ago after being robbed that I realized it was easier to replace one device than two.

There's no chance Apple will ever allow external memory apart from USB-C devices (iPad has a USB-C port). Many Android phones don't even have them anymore, and the trend is definitely not towards more external memory, as most people seem to prefer cloud backups and storage over local files (particularly a helpful setup when replacing the device).

Heck, when I replaced my phone, the new phone wouldn't recognize the micro SD card unless it was reformatted, so I ended up having to re-copy my music library anyways.  I mainly use the card as a way to have the music there and take pictures without affecting the amount of space available for phone functions (though I wish I knew that it doesn't function the same way as native storage for the phone when I got my first smartphone and the card).  If I ever end up with a phone with not a ton of storage and no ability to expand, I probably would just go without the music library; I mainly use it when vacuuming the apartment, and half the time I deem the hassle of dealing with headphones while vacuuming to be more trouble than it's worth anyways.  I have an aux cable for the car, though I've never actually used it since I put my music library on my phone; around 2015, I started just going with silence when out of radio range, though I'm starting to question whether that was a good idea (I just changed my Syracuse station, resulting in a MUCH more enjoyable drive between Rochester and Albany, and filled out FM2 to significantly expand the area where I have radio coverage).