Cd Players In New Cars

[Barsel]

Now that record players and CD players are seemingly old hat, do they still put CD players in new cars ?

[Buenchico]

Not in most (all?) models for about the past decade or so.

[evadora]

I have a new car (20 plate) - no cd, the space is just balnked off. Dealer said most people use their mobiles and connect to that?. I could have a cd player but it would need to be wired in. However there is a radio that changes stations available when ever you go to different areas, it is a touch screen and it has my favourite Classic radio so that is the only station I use. It also has a built in Sat Nav. personally I would rather of had a cd player than a Sat Nav.

[Buenchico]

As an example of what's offered in cars these days, start here
https://shop.ford.co.uk/collections/audio

Go to Filter By > Category > Subcategory, put a tick next to 'Audio System' and then click 'View Products'. Those are the audio systems that Ford is currently using in different models across its range.

[Barsel]

Have just had a look on Argos and you can still buy portable CD players and even cassette players! Wonder what the sound is like on them.

[roopower]

We have a 67 plate Mokka and that doesn't have a cd. If I'm on a long journey and want something other than the radio, I plug my ipod in.

[Barsel]

Thanks for the link Chris.
Do you know what sort of sound you would get from a portable device, I've never owned one.

[Buenchico]

'CD walkman' type players aren't really suitable for in-car use, as they don't have built-in speakers, meaning that you have to wear earphones. That has road safety implications, as it's then harder to hear external sounds and the earphone cable might get in the way when you're driving. Also, because they've got a motor spinning the CD around inside them, they tend to get through batteries at an alarming rate!

[Barsel]

I would love a really good sound system in my car as it's the only place I can play my music loud.

[Buenchico]

If your car audio system accepts an incoming Bluetooth connection (as many/most do these days), you might be able to use a portable CD player that has a Bluetooth output, such as the one below.

However you wouldn't be able to easily skip over a track that you don't like, as you can when a car has a proper CD player built in, because you'd need to take your eyes off the road, and your hands off the wheel, to be able to fiddle about with the player:
Amazon.co.uk User Recommendation

[Barsel]

Thanks Chris, it's worth looking into.

[Buenchico]

Your options depend, to some extent, upon your budget and whether you're prepared to replace the audio system that comes with the car. For example, the Kenwood audio system below includes a CD player but it will set you back £160, plus fitting costs. (Halfords charge £75 to fit an audio system but you might find an independent garage offering a cheaper price):
Amazon.com User Recommendation

[Barsel]

Problem is, I have a Motability car due to my disability and you can't make changes without permission, and then you have to change it back when you hand the car back.
The car I have at the moment has a USB socket but it means I have to convert my CD's to a USB stick why is a bit of a pain.
When I change this car either next year or the year after, I was hoping some cars might still come with a CD player.
I don't suppose there's a CD player that has a USB lead is there? :-)

[Giggsie]

Well worth putting your cd’s on to a stick so easily done. And can get loads on a stick depending on size.

[Barsel]

That's the thing though Giggsie, I don't know how many CD's I can get on a USB stick.

[bhg481]

Just to give you a rough idea, I can get 256 music tracks on a 700MB CD in MP3 format. A 32GB memory stick is going to hold 30+ times that, although there may be a limit as to how many tracks the music player can cope with one one stick.

[Buenchico]

Although an audio Cd contains about 700 Mb of data, that gets compressed when you rip files into MP3 format to put them on a memory stick. So the entire contents of a CD might take up no more than, say 50 Mb. (The actual figure will depend upon how many tracks are on a CD, the lengths of those tracks and the level of compression used during the ripping process).

Taking that 50 Mb per CD figure as a staring point, that would give you 20 CDs per gigabyte. So a 32 GB memory stick, for example, might be able to store the contents of 640 CDs. That's a VERY rough estimate but it does still how that you can get a hell of a lot of CDs onto one memory stick!

[bhg481]

To give you another example, I have nearly 5000 music tracks on a card which use 12.8 GB of space.
The chances are a car player will have a limit of 32GB, so you're looking at 10,000 tracks.

[gingejbee]

My 19-plate car has an "infotainment" system and (apparently) no CD-player. However, on perusing the manual, I find it does have one!
Open the glove-box and there is a long slot at the top for feeding in the CD (not very clever when you are driving, eh?) and it's voice-controlled - like several other features of the car.

[Barsel]

Wow I had no idea you could get that many CD's on a USB stick.
gingejbee, I've never had a proper look in the glove box, it would be great if there was one in mine.

[Barsel]

I've got a Cruzer Glide 32GB stick, so I should be able to get all my favourites on that.