Motoring Discussion > Playing CDs in a car Miscellaneous
Thread Author: L'escargot Replies: 44

 Playing CDs in a car - L'escargot
My 2003 Focus has a 6 disc CD player, but I understand that modern cars will only take one CD at a time. How will I be able to play CDs without having to keep inserting a different one?
 Playing CDs in a car - Bromptonaut
The CD, at least for in car, is going the way of the 8track and compact cassette.

Music is stored in MP3 or similar compressed formats and lives on a player or a pen drive. Modern car stereos have docks, USB sockets and a last resort aux inputs.
 Playing CDs in a car - Zero
>> My 2003 Focus has a 6 disc CD player, but I understand that modern cars
>> will only take one CD at a time. How will I be able to play
>> CDs without having to keep inserting a different one?

You wont. The world has moved on from traditional CDs. You can rip all your traditional cds into MP3, then burn them to CD. Each Mp3 cd will have 300+ plus songs. You wont need to keep changing that.
 Playing CDs in a car - Bromptonaut
As Zero says, another option is MP3 on CD.
 Playing CDs in a car - a900ss
I haven't played a cd in a car for years. An MP3 player linked to the car (ideally by USB rather than aux in) is so much better. I link up my iPod and have over 9,000 tracks with me to choose from. Or I could carry around 900 CD's.....
 Playing CDs in a car - Crankcase
I downloaded that free Dr No audiobook thing the Telegraph offered a week or two back, daringly sussed how to put it on a cd and put it in the car, not assuming it would work. For one thing it told me it wanted 8 CDs to copy it all over (so much for zillions of tracks per cd. There are only 20 to copy in total) and for another, it sounds awful. As if the narrator has his head in a tin bucket. Not impressed.

And if the answer is " ah well, you should have disabled the check box in tools options preferences advanced other whilst reducing over the 200 sample rate and did it have mode 3 on" then forget it. Better off buying it commercially or not bothering.
 Playing CDs in a car - Shiny
This is sad, as I know of no cars that support lossless formats such as FLAC or allow you top rip the CD without re-encoding it.

mp3s sound crap on a premium sound systems, as bad as DAB radio, even at high bitrates the high frequencies stop at 15000Hz compared to CD's 20000Hz.

Crankcase, you can only get 79mins on a CD and up to 99 tracks, hence it is no good for audiobooks which are about 20 hours.
Last edited by: sooty tailpipes on Sat 29 Sep 12 at 17:57
 Playing CDs in a car - Zero
>> mp3s sound crap on a premium sound systems, as bad as DAB radio, even at
>> high bitrates the high frequencies stop at 15000Hz compared to CD's 20000Hz.
>

Most adults over the age of 35 cant hear above 12000 hz.
 Playing CDs in a car - a900ss
>> >> mp3s sound crap on a premium sound systems, as bad as DAB radio, even
>> at
>> >> high bitrates the high frequencies stop at 15000Hz compared to CD's 20000Hz.
>> >
>>
>> Most adults over the age of 35 cant hear above 12000 hz.
>>

Pardon?
 Playing CDs in a car - R.P.
Half past two.
 Playing CDs in a car - John H
>> mp3s sound crap on a premium sound systems, as bad as DAB radio, even at
>> high bitrates the high frequencies stop at 15000Hz compared to CD's 20000Hz.
>>

How does your hearing rate on these tests:
www.car4play.com/forum/post/index.htm?t=11893&m=266064&v=e

 Playing CDs in a car - Shiny
How does your hearing rate on these tests:
www.car4play.com/forum/post/index.htm?t=11893&m=266064&v=e

Thanks for the links and the info about hearing degradation.
My lows are fine, tops peter-out at about 17000Hz, I am 38.

Maybe the DSP has less information to separate the different parts of the music and send it to specific speakers. It certainly sounds that way.

I suspect the mp3s I have were encoded by other people, but from what I read a 320kps 44k sampled LAME should be good.
I might give them another go.
Last edited by: sooty tailpipes on Sat 29 Sep 12 at 20:23
 Playing CDs in a car - spamcan61
oh dear I can't even hear the 12 KHz tone :-/

Whether that's due to being 51 or too many waay too loud gigs in my 20s who knows.

48k MP3s for me!
 Playing CDs in a car - Zero
>> oh dear I can't even hear the 12 KHz tone :-/
>>
>> Whether that's due to being 51 or too many waay too loud gigs in my
>> 20s who knows.

Bit of both I suspect.
 Playing CDs in a car - spamcan61
>> >> oh dear I can't even hear the 12 KHz tone :-/
>> >>
>> >> Whether that's due to being 51 or too many waay too loud gigs in
>> my
>> >> 20s who knows.
>>
>> Bit of both I suspect.
>>

Yeah, quite possibly. At least I know what real instruments played live sound like, plenty of folks I know have never been to a live gig (in the broadest sense of gig).

I suppose from the car manufacturers' point of view 'MP3' is seen as a selling point and a single drive CD player / USB connector is cheaper to make
Last edited by: spamcan61 on Sat 29 Sep 12 at 21:36
 Playing CDs in a car - bathtub tom
Get your ears syringed.

It seems most cars have an exhaust blow afterwards.
 Playing CDs in a car - Crankcase
12? Can't hear the 10.
 Playing CDs in a car - Shiny
Maybe it's the speakers? I can't hear 16k today with laptop speakers, but could last night with £4.50 earphones.
 Playing CDs in a car - spamcan61
>> Maybe it's the speakers? I can't hear 16k today with laptop speakers, but could last
>> night with £4.50 earphones.
>>

That was my theory, but I did it with various offspring in the room and they could hear the 12K.
 Playing CDs in a car - spamcan61
>> Get your ears syringed.
>>
Done two weeks ago guv. Proper 'old school' nurse who did it properly rather than the usual quick squirt and 'come back next week' :-)
 Playing CDs in a car - L'escargot
>> >> Get your ears syringed.
>> >>
>> Done two weeks ago guv. Proper 'old school' nurse who did it properly rather than
>> the usual quick squirt and 'come back next week' :-)
>>

How did you know it would be the solution to your hearing problems?
 Playing CDs in a car - TeeCee
>> This is sad, as I know of no cars that support lossless formats such as
>> FLAC or allow you top rip the CD without re-encoding it.
>>

Most support WMA lossless, which is just as good. Besides, if you can tell the difference between 320kbps MP3 and FLAC / WMA lossless / CD in a car, you must be parked up, have a spent a small fortune on the audio system and remodelled the interior to provide better acoustics.

You will always have to re-encode CDs when ripping them as the error-correction system in CD audio to handle optical read errors becomes unnecessary bulk for digital files. Note also that CD encoding is a lossy format, so you'll never get as good a result using a lossless format from a CD rip as you will with one provided directly from the digital masters.

 Playing CDs in a car - L'escargot
Well, I've got the Owners Manual (all 410 pages of it) for my currently favourite next car downloaded onto my computer, and I've been having a gleg at the Infotainment System section. I've spotted that I could plug an MP3 player into the USB connection, so presumably I would have to copy my CDs onto an MP3 player. I now have to investigate MP3 players (I've never had one before) and find out how to copy CDs onto one. I think I'm getting there. Any recommendations for a good MP3 player?
 Playing CDs in a car - spamcan61
I've always liked the Sony and Sansa players, but one thing I would say is navigating an MP3 player whilst on the move can get distracting, so either stick to pre-saved playlists or look for one with a big, easy to use display.

Having said that, if it's plugging in to the USB rather than an analogue 'AUX IN' then hopefully track navigation will be via the car's display, which makes life easier - assuming the chosen player is compatible with teh car radio and the MP3 files are tagged properly.
 Playing CDs in a car - CGNorwich
"Any recommendations for a good MP3 player?"

An ipod Touch.
 Playing CDs in a car - Zero
Please dont, we cant handle the additional millions of questions & technical support required to integrate you, your car and an MP3 player.
 Playing CDs in a car - CGNorwich
Good point. Perhaps one of these would be better.

gatheringbooks.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/1960recordplayer.jpg
 Playing CDs in a car - L'escargot
>> Please dont, we cant handle the additional millions of questions & technical support required to
>> integrate you, your car and an MP3 player.
>>

:-D
LOL
 Playing CDs in a car - Crankcase
You keep doing this L'es. A Gleg? Another new one on me. Ta.
 Playing CDs in a car - L'escargot
>> A Gleg?

tinyurl.com/8ucmlfp
 Playing CDs in a car - R.P.
Doesn't your new Volvo have an USB port ?
 Playing CDs in a car - R.P.
Just copy your music collection from CD to a holding program on your computer then export or drag them across to an empty USB memory stick/drive then you can have days of music playing from your infocentre. That is one feature I miss from my X1.
 Playing CDs in a car - L'escargot
>> Just copy your music collection from CD to a holding program on your computer then
>> export or drag them across to an empty USB memory stick/drive then you can have
>> days of music playing from your infocentre. That is one feature I miss from my
>> X1.
>>

Thanks RP. That's what I needed to know.
 Playing CDs in a car - DP
>> Just copy your music collection from CD to a holding program on your computer then
>> export or drag them across to an empty USB memory stick/drive then you can have
>> days of music playing from your infocentre. That is one feature I miss from my
>> X1.

+1. I do the same thing on the 320d.

With 32GB USB sticks now selling for a tenner or less, that's about 5000 songs (ballpark, depending on encoding settings) that you can leave permanently plugged into the car, and recall at the touch of a button. It makes farting around with discs seem so last century. Plus, at a tenner, it's cheap enough that you don't have to worry about theft.

I've never even used the CD slot in my BMW. I couldn't even tell you if it works.
 Playing CDs in a car - Zero

>> With 32GB USB sticks now selling for a tenner or less, that's about 5000 songs
>> (ballpark, depending on encoding settings) that you can leave permanently plugged into the car, and
>> recall at the touch of a button.

Its slightly more than the touch of a button to find your songs in the 5000, good planning description and cataloging of your stick is essential.
 Playing CDs in a car - DP
It was a figure of speech, but you make a good point. Folder structure is important. I have simply created artist folders on the drive, with albums in the relevant subfolders.

The BMW multimedia system is very good. As well as being able to navigate the folder structure on the drive, and select songs directly, it will also search based on title, artist or genre, assuming the meta tags are correct in the MP3 files themselves. You can also build and save playlists in a similar way to iTunes. If you are playing a track from a folder or a playlist, you can navigate within the folder using a clickable thumbwheel on the steering wheel.

I reckon I can find any track on the drive and have it playing inside of 10 seconds.

 Playing CDs in a car - L'escargot
>> Doesn't your new Volvo have an USB port ?
>>

It''s got ports to cobble dogs with. "Well, I've got the Owners Manual (all 410 pages of it) for my currently favourite next car downloaded onto my computer, and I've been having a gleg at the Infotainment System section. I've spotted that I could plug an MP3 player into the USB connection, .......... "

 Playing CDs in a car - R.P.
We had some problems with our V50's system - in the end my wife got it sorted - she has more patience than me. We even got some nice Volvo logo'd pen drives from the dealer. I'm sure if you have problems she'll remember how she went about it.
 Playing CDs in a car - Manatee
>> >> A Gleg?
>>
>> tinyurl.com/8ucmlfp
>>

So, are you a Geordie, a Yellowbelly, or just multilingual?
 Playing CDs in a car - zookeeper
Glegs? sounds like a chinese sandwich bar
 Playing CDs in a car - L'escargot
>> So, are you a Geordie, a Yellowbelly, or just multilingual?
>>

My Foreign Languages tutor at Collège-lycée Jacques-Decours in Paris was a Geordie.
Anyway, I've heard the word "gleg" used in Northumberland, Yorkshire, and Lincolnshire, which in total are 12% of the area of the UK. I'm surprised you don't all use it.
 Playing CDs in a car - PhilW
"I'm surprised you don't all use it"

Was in common usage where I came from - "Gi' us a gleg lass" in particular! (well it was a about 50 years ago!)
 Playing CDs in a car - Shiny
In Nottingham in the 1980's some people called spectacles 'glegs'.
 Playing CDs in a car - CGNorwich
"used in Northumberland, Yorkshire, and Lincolnshire,"

The word must have Skandinavian/Viking roots then. Interesting
 Playing CDs in a car - CGNorwich

and to confirm!

[Middle English, clear-sighted, from Old Norse glöggr;
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