Analyst: Target should drop CDs

[sidewinder]

I use a USB flash drive in the car, with a choice selection of current music. Even put Mosaic box sets on there, together with the big box cover art on the dashboard nav display. 

[Scott Dolan]

You mean a FM transmitter? 

[Kevin Bresnahan]

8 hours ago, catesta said:

Can you skip over tracks and get to one in particular? Or is shuffle the only option?

I can play all songs in order or shuffle them. I can also hit the "Browse" button and sort by genre or artist. I can also drill down to individual albums. So if I want to to hear "Soul Station", I just click Browse>Artist>Hank Mobley>Soul Station. I can play all the tracks in order or I can shuffle them.

BTW, the only way that I can get the tracks to play back in album order is by naming the tracks "01 - Remember", "02 - This I Dig Of You", "03 - Dig Dis", etc. Most players play back in alphanumeric order. Starting the track name with a number takes precedence. Be sure to use 01, 02, 03, etc. If you use 1, 2, 3 instead, track number 10 will play after track 01.

Also, the reason I drop in individual tracks instead of keeping them in their perspective folders is because of filename length restrictions. Some car players limit filenames to 72 characters. You would think that is enough. But if you put Dexter Gordon's track "Until The Real Thing Comes Along" from the album "A Swingin' Affair" onto a USB stick in folders, the actual track name the player sees is "Dexter Gordon/A Swingin' Affair/01 - Until The Real Thing Comes Along", which is 70 characters.

Edited March 7, 2017 by Kevin Bresnahan

[Dmitry]

9 hours ago, rostasi said:

I wanted to mention too (since I'm using it again in my car starting today),
that I had installed - many years ago - a cable that's inside the central
armrest compartment and goes to a classic iPod on one end and directly
to the radio on the other. I tune in the radio to a specific station that is not
being used and the iPod plays thru that. It's nice, cause the iPod is hidden
and the music is instantaneous without having to fiddle with anything.
It may be an ancient idea, but I still drive a car that's almost 16 years old.

Years ago I had one of those gizmos, a wireless fm transmitter where I'd pug my discman, and use a vacant fm frequency to reproduce the sound. It wasn't very good. I imagine that your mode isn't that much better.  Have you thought about purchasing a new, modern head unit that would allow Bluetooth connection for your phone, along with a usb plug? 

On 3/4/2017 at 3:17 PM, catesta said:

They got to you too? All that time in the fresh air of Rhode Island must have warped your brain.

Maybe I'm just lazy. I use my cell phone to make calls, receive calls, check emails and occasionally text. The thought of putting a bunch of music on it just does not interest me at the moment and seems to be a hassle. Now, with the new truck I'm going to be forced to have to do just that or use a usb flash drive. Otherwise I'm at the mercy of Sirius XM all the time.

At home I do sometimes use Bluetooth to stream from the iPad to a speaker source. Works fine but I still prefer my self-burned compilation discs.

I'll give an update after I experiment with streaming while on the road. I'll either like it or be reporting back that I installed an after market CD player or junked the RAM and went back to Ford or Chevy.

The convenience of not schlepping cds to the car, and futzing around with stuff is out of the ballpark when using the BT for audio. If you are really into having just about everything available out there, there's the Amazon Unlimited music streaming service, which costs around $5-$10/mo., I think. You get access to millions of songs, hundreds of thousands of albums, any time you want , in the car, at the office, or by your pool.  I might sign up down the road,  but at this juncture I'm mostly all set with what's available for free with the Amazon Prime. They got like 5 or 6 Horace Parlan albums there, streaming for no charge. Takes seconds to hook up the phone to BT, and off you go. To drop a cd into ITunes on your phone takes about 5 minutes, nothing terrible. But I don't even bother with that, just shuffle stuff on my Amazon Music app, it's more fun imho.

[Scott Dolan]

I used a FM transmitter in my old work van, and I can confirm that while they're a really neat gadget, they sound like shit. 

[Dmitry]

rostasi, I'm curious how much a new head unit would cost to retrofit in your old Prius. Something that'll allow BT and USB connections. Could really transform the way you do things.

[JSngry]

http://www.target.com/s/car+cd+player+ipod

They're trying to try!

Ohio Players!

[Hardbopjazz]

On 3/3/2017 at 2:52 AM, David Ayers said:

Remember that they continued to fit cassette players alongside CD for many years. The CD player is gone from new designs now. 

Yup. Recently on Freecycle.org someone was offering this. I wonder this was available for cars.