Playing my CDs in the car?

[vafoodie]

I have some obscure CDs that I’d like to play in my car, but my newest car does not have a cd player. I know I can stream some of the cds but not all are available to stream. Anyone figure out a solution to this boomer conundrum?

 

[jimbee]

I ripped my CDs to a USB flash drive and play music from that.

 

[Jerry1]

I ripped my CDs to a USB flash drive and play music from that.

^^This^^

I have a CD player in my truck, but with a flash drive all my CDs fit on one drive and can be plugged in and played much easier than dealing with individual CDs.

 

[RunningBum]

I ripped my CDs to a USB flash drive and play music from that.

+1. Rip to mp3 format with Windows Media Player if you want to do it more quickly. Unless you have a really good ear and really good car stereo, you don't really need a lossless format, but if you'd rather preserve the original format I'm sure someone here will recommend a tool for that. Make sure your car can play that format before investing too much time.

I have all the music I'd want to listen to on a 16GB USB stub drive that sits unobtrusively in my center console. So much better than swapping CDs.

 

[Car-Guy]

I ripped my CDs to a USB flash drive and play music from that.

^^^^


Agree, that's the answer.... Worked for me. I've got well over 1000 songs on my memory stick many of which were ripped from CD's...

 

[vafoodie]

When I asked my pandemic squatting millennial if she could help me with this cd conversion process, she said, “I haven’t done that since 2004.” Tis sharper than a serpent’s tooth to have a thankless child.” I’m sure I can find a tutorial on Youtube.��

 

[Jerry1]

When I asked my pandemic squatting millennial if she could help me with this cd conversion process, she said, “I haven’t done that since 2004.” Tis sharper than a serpent’s tooth to have a thankless child.” I’m sure I can find a tutorial on Youtube.��

I would ask the squatting millennial again. This time with a little more force. It’s a good and easy project and if they haven’t done it since 2004, they’ll learn something. Not to mention that they need to learn to be more helpful. Good luck.

FWIW, if that fails, it’s pretty easy. I used a program called dbpoweramp. It’s free for 21 days, which is plenty of time to do a large library of CDs. I went ahead and bought it just to support the product. One thing I really liked about it is that I could create a lossless version (basically not compressed, very large file) and a compressed file at the same time. I stored the lossless version in one folder and the compressed file in another folder. The compressed files all fit on one flash drive and play well on my truck radio.

https://www.dbpoweramp.com/cd-ripper.htm

 

[Midpack]

I ripped my CDs to a USB flash drive and play music from that.

I ripped my 425+ CDs to iTunes at least 10 years ago, and just plug my iPhone or iPad into my car when I want to hear any of them. I haven’t unpacked my CDs (all in boxes) since then. And I’ve downloaded any new music since. Sold our last home CD player a long time ago. I haven’t even seen CDs for sale in years, but then I’m not looking for them either, who still sells them brick-n-mortar? Not all boomers are clinging to CDs...

 

[easysurfer]

I have a CD player in the car, but think have only used it once or twice.

Like others mention, I instead choose to rip many of my CDs to a flash drive then just play from that.

 

[EastWest Gal]

My CD player jammed many years ago. There's still a CD in it that we haven't been able to remove. I usually listen to podcasts for longer trips.

 

[NewEnglander]

I'm just finishing ripping my 800 CDs to flac format using the excellent free Exact Audio copy. It's time consuming so I didn't have time to do this until I returned a couple of months ago. It's so nice to have my whole collection easily accessible. I've created numerous playlists which I load to USB thumb drives for use in our newer car or load onto a music player to play in our older cars that don't have USB. There are some nice simple music players on Amazon that you can connect through an audio connector to your car audio. If your car is old and doesn't have an audio connector input you can get a Cassette adapter or use an FM modulator to get it into the car audio.

 

[disneysteve]

I would just put the music on my phone and play from there.

 

[harley]

You can use MediaMonkey (free) to rip your CDs. Easy as pie, and you can download the track information and all that stuff from freedb with one click. You can rip it to flac (lossless) if you want to preserve the original quality, and/or mp3 if your car won't play flac. But most newer ones do. Keep the original on your computer (or backup drive), and put whatever you want to listen to a flash drive for the car.

 

[jimbee]

I ripped my 425+ CDs to iTunes at least 10 years ago, and just plug my iPhone or iPad into my car when I want to hear any of them. I haven’t unpacked my CDs (all in boxes) since then. And I’ve downloaded any new music since. Sold our last home CD player a long time ago. I haven’t even seen CDs for sale in years, but then I’m not looking for them either, who still sells them brick-n-mortar? Not all boomers are clinging to CDs...

Not sure why this was directed at me.

 

[T-Minus]

I have about 30-40 CD’s that were ripped a long time ago to ALAC, and are stored on my computer and synced to my iPhone. I can play them either in the car via Bluetooth or at home on Sonos, and include some rare recordings that are not on iTunes Music, Spotify, etc. Sometimes, I really like listening to that music that is not available elsewhere, so the associated hassles were worth it.

 

[Jerry1]

Not sure why this was directed at me.

He did not direct it at you. He copied your post as a way to say that he did essentially the same thing.

 

[Markola]

Unless we’re talking about unpublished, Grateful Dead bootlegs circa 1977 or something, why not bypass the squatting millennials and all the work? Psssst Spotify (and Wellesley).

 

[Athermos4u]

I would ask the squatting millennial again. This time with a little more force. It’s a good and easy project and if they haven’t done it since 2004, they’ll learn something. Not to mention that they need to learn to be more helpful. Good luck.

FWIW, if that fails, it’s pretty easy. I used a program called dbpoweramp. It’s free for 21 days, which is plenty of time to do a large library of CDs. I went ahead and bought it just to support the product. One thing I really liked about it is that I could create a lossless version (basically not compressed, very large file) and a compressed file at the same time. I stored the lossless version in one folder and the compressed file in another folder. The compressed files all fit on one flash drive and play well on my truck radio.

https://www.dbpoweramp.com/cd-ripper.htm

Ask your helper about downloading from a torrent site as a .flac file. It's not stealing IP if you own the CDs. There is also a device that plugs into a walkman or other cd player that broadcasts on a fm frequency that your car radio can play. Don't know if they are easy to find, but used to have one.

 

[rt-texas]

Ask your helper about downloading from a torrent site as a .flac file. It's not stealing IP if you own the CDs. There is also a device that plugs into a walkman or other cd player that broadcasts on a fm frequency that your car radio can play. Don't know if they are easy to find, but used to have one.

This. In another country so I went and bought a blu tooth that you tune to an empty FM frequency. Have a 11 year old CRV.

Found at a local Radio Shack, surprised but few still exist. Amazon has plenty for under $15-$20.

Stream straight from our phones and as added bonus it broadcast the Waze directions directly thru the car speakers for us both to hear.

 

[harley]

Unless we’re talking about unpublished, Grateful Dead bootlegs circa 1977 or something, why not bypass the squatting millennials and all the work? Psssst Spotify (and Wellesley).

Actually, all my bootlegs (Dylan, NRPS, Cocker, Deep Purple, The Dead, etc.) are all on unlabeled vinyl. I do need to move them to digital format at some point. I don't even own a turntable anymore, so I foresee some problems with that process.

 

[teetee]

Get a usb powered portable CD music player for <$30 and connect its headphone jack to the aux port of your head unit.

Ripping CDs to mp3s are too time consuming and costs too much if you have large number of discs.

 

[DrRoy]

+1 on digital rip. I stopped acquiring CD's about 10 years ago and any added music since then was digital. I say new, but nearly all of it was older material that I just did not have.

 

[jim584672]

+1 for Exact Audio Copy.

 

[disneysteve]

Ripping CDs to mp3s are too time consuming and costs too much if you have large number of discs.

I'm not sure what you're referring to.


It costs me nothing to load a CD onto my computer and then transfer the music to my phone to play in my car. It also doesn't really take up any of my time as I just hit start and then can go on with my business.

 

[Music Lover]

I would just put the music on my phone and play from there.

That works too. I did both...music on my phone and a USB that stays in the car. The music on my phone is normally used for Bluetooth speakers.