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Newer cars without cd players-what now?

Since I'm considering buying a new SUV in the near future, I'm learning real fast that cd players are no longer available. Since I'm not computer savvy on transferring cd's to MP3 to USB thumb drives, I thought I might solicit some help from you "experts". I saw an article on Google on how to do this and the suggestion was to purchase a Teac CD-P650 cd player that could do this in one easy step, but I need some answers on what to do. I downloaded the manual, but it doesn't address my questions. When you have transferred the first cd to USB, do you continue to keep on transferring cd's until the thumb drive is full? I'm assuming you can then access the various cd's through the infotainment center on the vehicle?

I'm an old "geezer" and still love my flip-phone and cd collection, so this new tech stuff is a bit bewildering to me. Any advice would be appreciated.

Alan (sid42)

sid42
effischer
553 posts
 
If you already have a computer with a CD drive, you don't need anything but some patience and maybe some software.  It will take time to copy all of your CDs to the computer hard drive and that's where the patience comes in.  Took me a 4 or 5 days to get my 200+ discs copied.  Once they're on the hard drive, you can copy them to USB or SD (phone card) drives.  You'll want to make sure you copy everything into your computer in either MP3 or WAV because not all car stereos are compatible with all the other file types.  I personally prefer WAV because it's full red book CD standard at 16 bit 44.1 kHz, but it means that you use up more storage space.  Could be an issue if you have a lot of discs.

You can search the digital forums here to get info on software, but JRiver is one that's readily available and fairly inexpensive that folks have recommended to me in the past.  Runs about $50 if I recall correctly.  Lots less than the TEAC.

Good luck & happy listening!
hifiman5's avatar
hifiman5
1,826 posts
 
The loss of CD players in cars can be a bummer.  I don't often listen to music in the car as I prefer talk radio there on Sirius XM.  However, I do have an Apple iPod Classic 160 Gig. connected to my infotainment system via USB.  It shows up on the infotainment screen displaying artist and title and I can play my own tunes when desired.  All songs were imported onto my 1 Gig. iMac in AIFF, CD quality, so the sound quality is quite good.  Also use the iPod with my Shure 535 in-ear phones.  Sweet.

If you're not up for hunting down an iPod, then @effischer 's approach sounds reasonable.
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