My daughter has about 50 CD cases rattling around on the floor of her Fit. It's like 1998 in that car.
My daughter has about 50 CD cases rattling around on the floor of her Fit. It's like 1998 in that car.
I am of the opinion that it is nice to actually own my music. So I am pro-CD player, especially for roadtrips
RevRico said:why limit yourself to 74 minutes max, when 750MB of mp3s can be 10-12 hours.
Sound quality.
Wife's car is a 2014 top model, and did not come with a CD player. That's 7 years ago. It took us about a week to get over it and she's way more old school than me. My 2016 still came with a CD player and I do use it occasionally for music I don't and won't have on my phone
I recently boxed up all my CD's from the house and cars and took them to the shop where I still have a player and a good system. It's been fun working my way through almost 40 years of CD's.
I likely would not install a CD player in a new installation, but if one came in the head unit I'd consider it a bonus.
wae said:The upside to CDs is that you'll always have them and they'll always work. And these days I can't imagine you have to worry too much about someone breaking in to your car and stealing them. So keeping the CD player is the right choice if you don't want to do any work other than carrying CDs with you. Assuming you can still get those cases to carry CDs around in the car.
The flip side is that you have to have a physical thing to listen to them. Which means you have a space limit to the size of library you can listen to in your car. And the Miata is a poster child of space limitations.
I like having the option to play CD's in the car. I would be bothered if I purchased a car that did not have the ability to play CD's.
ProDarwin said:fatallightning said:Not to hijack, but what head units do we like for 80s/90s stuff that doesn't look like an Ibiza night club?
What style of car? There are some good options here if you have something domestic: https://www.retromanufacturing.com/collections/radios
80s/90s german type stuff. It'd actually be in a japanese car, but those head units were starting to get pretty obnoxious by the 90s already with the in car entertainment craze.
alfadriver (Forum Supporter) said:wae said:The upside to CDs is that you'll always have them and they'll always work. And these days I can't imagine you have to worry too much about someone breaking in to your car and stealing them. So keeping the CD player is the right choice if you don't want to do any work other than carrying CDs with you. Assuming you can still get those cases to carry CDs around in the car.
The flip side is that you have to have a physical thing to listen to them. Which means you have a space limit to the size of library you can listen to in your car. And the Miata is a poster child of space limitations.
You can carry 400 CDs in a Miata. That's what the space behind the passenger seat is for :)
In reply to Peabody :
Meh, I can't tell the difference between an Audio cd and an mp3 file. Where I notice a difference was having social distortions discography take up one disc instead of 20.
Error404 said:I am of the opinion that it is nice to actually own my music. So I am pro-CD player, especially for roadtrips
It's not just ownership, it's also availability. It's great to have the ability to play something that hasn't been licensed by a streaming service. A lot of my favorite music came out of small local bands. You're not going to find the Angstones or the Jivewires or the Bourbon Tabernacle Choir on Spotify. This isn't a hipster thing, it's just that this is music I experienced when I was younger and it stuck with me. If I was stuck with what Spotify chose for me, I'd never be able to listen to them and of course I have their stuff on CD or on tape. So you need some way to access that music, whether it's on CD or stored on some magic digital device.
And with that, it's time for some BTC.
Keith Tanner said:alfadriver (Forum Supporter) said:wae said:The upside to CDs is that you'll always have them and they'll always work. And these days I can't imagine you have to worry too much about someone breaking in to your car and stealing them. So keeping the CD player is the right choice if you don't want to do any work other than carrying CDs with you. Assuming you can still get those cases to carry CDs around in the car.
The flip side is that you have to have a physical thing to listen to them. Which means you have a space limit to the size of library you can listen to in your car. And the Miata is a poster child of space limitations.
You can carry 400 CDs in a Miata. That's what the space behind the passenger seat is for :)
If I were on a trip that needed 400 CD's, the space behind the passenger seat would already be full of stuff. BTDT.
In reply to alfadriver (Forum Supporter) :
Before mp3 discs I carried a 440 disc holder, that was double or triple stacked.
But I liked having my entire music connection with me all the time cause I never knew what I was going to feel like listening to.
Haha, I think all the music I own would fit on 2 MP3 CDs.
I cannot stomach the monthly cost for a streaming service. But then again I do subscribe to Audible.
Yes! I still want the physical CD. No Smart Phone. No streaming in the car.
I love vinyl, Cds are good for the car. Trailing Edge Technology all the way!
alfadriver (Forum Supporter) said:Keith Tanner said:alfadriver (Forum Supporter) said:wae said:The upside to CDs is that you'll always have them and they'll always work. And these days I can't imagine you have to worry too much about someone breaking in to your car and stealing them. So keeping the CD player is the right choice if you don't want to do any work other than carrying CDs with you. Assuming you can still get those cases to carry CDs around in the car.
The flip side is that you have to have a physical thing to listen to them. Which means you have a space limit to the size of library you can listen to in your car. And the Miata is a poster child of space limitations.
You can carry 400 CDs in a Miata. That's what the space behind the passenger seat is for :)
If I were on a trip that needed 400 CD's, the space behind the passenger seat would already be full of stuff. BTDT.
It is clear that we do not share the same priorities when packing ;)
I do. I never figured out MP3s.
I'll stream from my phone once in awhile while on trips, but never music.
I've been streaming-only for years. Once you get used to that and then listen to CDs, the sound quality is noticeably better, but not worth it to me for the additional bulk. I have enough crap and I'm trying to pare back on all the extra stuff laying around.
Dropped off a cardboard box full of 100s of CDs at Goodwill a few years ago.
I have two ways of looking at it: if you are looking to build a period correct retro audio system, go for it. Retro car audio is big right now, and I don't blame anyone for going old school. Otherwise, the new crop of Bluetooth digital media receivers work really well.
I installed this JVC KD-X360BTS in the Power Wagon about a year ago. It works great, sounds great, and the buttons change colors to match any dash lighting you can think of. Another bonus of these is they are shallow depth and a lot lighter than ones with mechanical parts. Add lightness!!!
RevRico said:Cds were replaced by mp3 discs in 2004, and completely replaced by streaming in 2010.
Mp3 discs were awesome though, why limit yourself to 74 minutes max, when 750MB of mp3s can be 10-12 hours.
Uh - because mp3s sound like crap? Good enough for a modest system in a noisy environment like many cars, but nowhere near a high resolution source.
CDs in a car are an inconvenience. If I am traveling cross country I load up an iPod with a lossless format and listen via the input on my car stereo. That gives decent enough sound for me not to wince while listening on the way home to the real audio system(s).
I still buy CDs but then I rip them (in flac format) to my network drives for play wherever I want in the house. Anyone want to buy a few thousand CDs...?
And I also keep and listen to vinyl, which can sound superb if the LPs are in good shape and you have a sufficiently good playback system (unfortunately they usually cost about what a new Miata does)..
"Add lightness" to a Power Wagon. Nice :)
So here's a serious question for those who are younger than I. It's very likely that college is when you're exposed to the most new music, and a high percentage of that will not be major label acts. Like in my examples - the Bourbon Tabernacle Choir. A regional band that was great live but never broke into the mainstream, just the sort of stuff you hear (heard?) on college radio. How do you listen to that at the time, and how do you listen to it today? Not through Spotify, that's for sure.
In reply to Keith Tanner :
That's a good question. All I can say is that when I was a DJ at my college's radio station (circa 2017), a majority of the music we played came to us through bands sending in their CDs, which was then converted to a digital file (I don't recall which type). However, most of the acts we played could be considered "mainstream indie," and were more often than not already on Spotify.
Curiously enough, there's actually a playlist on Spotify called "Bourbon Tabernacle Choir," but it just looks like a random playlist.
Keith Tanner said:"Add lightness" to a Power Wagon. Nice :)
So here's a serious question for those who are younger than I. It's very likely that college is when you're exposed to the most new music, and a high percentage of that will not be major label acts. Like in my examples - the Bourbon Tabernacle Choir. A regional band that was great live but never broke into the mainstream, just the sort of stuff you hear (heard?) on college radio. How do you listen to that at the time, and how do you listen to it today? Not through Spotify, that's for sure.
Most of what I listen to is considered niche, and almost all of it is on Spotify. Small bands that don't tour nationally need that exposure. It seems not terribly hard to get published if you're a small indie artist on Spotify now. If you're not doing it, you're setting up for failure. It's only about $10 to get a single, or $30 for an EP to get up on Spotify. With older legacy niche things, the monetization probably isn't there. Or straightening out rights from defunct labels and artists.
When I was a DJ at my college radio station (back in the early 80s) we would get new music on quarter track reel to reel tape. Remember the lyrics from that Sugarloaf song, "Could you relate to our quarter track tape, you know the band performs in the nude, He said uh-uh, don't call us, we'll call you". Yeah. That kind of quarter track tape.
We would also get stuff on cassette using decks with Dolby C noise reduction. We would plug those high end cassette decks into the board and put stuff right out on the air. Yeah. Cassettes. Remember those.
We would get stuff on vinyl from the record companies as well.
I don't think there was a computer anywhere in the station although at the time I had my own Apple 2c that I never used for playing music.
I still have a couple of Ampex reel to reels that I kept from the old days and I still have CDs. My new Mustang still plays them too when it's not pairing up with my iPhone or tracking satellite radio. I listen to stuff every way I can.
In reply to Keith Tanner :
Pandora has been very surprising, but I go to live shows when I can as well. Downloading from YouTube sometimes helps.
In very rare and special cases I'll order something used.
Funny ish story, back in 2012 I came home to the Pittsburgh area for a month for Xmas. Could not find an old album from local band The Clarks. Their first live album that was the only placed they released "last call" with the sesame street interlude. Anywhere. Get back to CA in January and head to a used CD store, they had it to me 4 days later.
Keith Tanner said:"Add lightness" to a Power Wagon. Nice :)
So here's a serious question for those who are younger than I. It's very likely that college is when you're exposed to the most new music, and a high percentage of that will not be major label acts. Like in my examples - the Bourbon Tabernacle Choir. A regional band that was great live but never broke into the mainstream, just the sort of stuff you hear (heard?) on college radio. How do you listen to that at the time, and how do you listen to it today? Not through Spotify, that's for sure.
Hey, when you have 5000lbs of 40+ year old leaky 'Merican chungus, every bit helps!
On the music thing, that could almost be its own thread. Back in my college days (the early 2000's), I was in a band. I learned of new, local stuff by playing gigs and being involved with "the scene". Found lots of new bands that way. Somewhere in the middle of that, Pandora and Last.FM showed up. Last.FM was especially good at tossing new, obscure stuff I'd never heard of into my eardrums. Again, found lots of now-favorite bands that way.
Today, many of those old local favorites and new ones are up on Bandcamp.com. Take for instance the band Irepress. When I was in my band, we used to hang out with these guys; they had a rehearsal space in the same building we did. When they lost their singer and decided to go full instrumental, I couldn't wrap my head around it. Turns out they were ahead of the curve, as there are a ton of bands that share the same sound now. And last year, they went on Bandcamp and offered a limited press reissue of their biggest release digitally and on vinyl. And you know I bought that!
Honestly, I wish Bandcamp was around when I was in the band. Getting our name out there was HARD. Bandcamp makes it a lot easier.
My bought new 2016 Ford Pickup has a factory CD player. I have a fair collection of books on "tape" CD's that keep me awake on long trips. If I've tired of listening to them I go to my local library and get another batch.
As a certified card carrying Luddite I understand how to put in a disk etc. In order to get proper certification as a curmudgeon I need 13 more cross country trips.
You'll need to log in to post.
