Portable CD players with USBs to connect to new cars without CD players

[Ken Dryden]

I finally took the plunge and bought the first new car for my use in my lifetime. The lack of a CD player is a pain and I wonder if anyone has a recommendation of a good CD player with USB to connect to the vehicle.

 

 

[JSngry]

Doesn't the car have a USB port?

[medjuck]

26 minutes ago, Ken Dryden said:

I finally took the plunge and bought the first new car for my use in my lifetime. The lack of a CD player is a pain and I wonder if anyone has a recommendation of a good CD player with USB to connect to the vehicle.

 

 

I've bought one on Amazon that works with both fm radio and/or  Bluetooth. Pain in the ass but better than nothing and sound is fine. 

[Ken Dryden]

45 minutes ago, JSngry said:

Doesn't the car have a USB port?

Of course, that’s why I mentioned it. 

[mjzee]

I don't have any first-hand experience for an informed opinion, but I do have a suggestion: Go to a computer superstore, such as MicroCenter, or an electronics retailer, such as Best Buy.  The problem with Amazon is they basically sell only no-name Chinese devices, and don't sell more established consumer brands.  I experienced this when I needed an external CD drive for my iMac.  I bought a Chinese no-name from Amazon, and the thing was loud, pokey, and not assembled very well.  I returned that and went to MicroCenter, where I bought an LG drive that's worked flawlessly.  Amazon doesn't carry LG.  It's hard to notice an absence.  You might be pleasantly surprised at the selection (and perhaps the knowledge) at a retailer.

[JSngry]

20 minutes ago, Ken Dryden said:

Of course, that’s why I mentioned it. 

Why not just load a buttload of CDs on to a USB drive then?

22 minutes ago, mjzee said:

I don't have any first-hand experience for an informed opinion, but I do have a suggestion: Go to a computer superstore, such as MicroCenter, or an electronics retailer, such as Best Buy.  The problem with Amazon is they basically sell only no-name Chinese devices, and don't sell more established consumer brands.  I experienced this when I needed an external CD drive for my iMac.  I bought a Chinese no-name from Amazon, and the thing was loud, pokey, and not assembled very well.  I returned that and went to MicroCenter, where I bought an LG drive that's worked flawlessly.  Amazon doesn't carry LG.  It's hard to notice an absence.  You might be pleasantly surprised at the selection (and perhaps the knowledge) at a retailer.

MicroCenter is totally cool with me. Plus, a few times a year they send out mailers to where you can get a free 128 GB USB drive just for showing up, no purchase required!

[Stompin at the Savoy]

Most recent cars are set up to work by attaching a phone to the USB port or connecting via wfi.  Consult your owners manual or do some searches online for music solutions for your model.  A lot of cars can use Apple CarPlay or similar software.  This is better than a portable cd player, IMO.  You load up a good few cds worth of music on your phone and away you go.

Edited December 20, 2023 by Stompin at the Savoy

[JSngry]

It's even easier than delivering mail! 

[Ken Dryden]

There are times I want to hear a specific cd and don’t have time to load it onto a flash drive, especially new purchases. Then there’s the problem of having to take time to enter track titles and such.

i was suspicious of the no name brands on Amazon and suspected many were junk. LG has been reliable for electronics in the past.

Edited December 21, 2023 by Ken Dryden

[jazzbo]

I went to a car audio store and tried five different USB equiped cd players that they offered to see if one would work in my wife's Honda.

All skipped with the car sitting in a parking lot within ten minutes of use. The owner said that is not uncommon at all--it's very hard to find one that works and one that works well in one car may not in another.

Gave up. My wife doesn't mind not having a cd player. I listen to NPR instead.

[JSngry]

1 hour ago, Ken Dryden said:

Then there’s the problem of having to take time to enter track titles and such.

It's a flash drive, it's not a permanent data source. It's just for the ride, nothing else. Totally a temporary device of convenience. You need to do nothing but rip, load, and then drive the car.

It's easier than delivering mail. Don't overthink it. 

 

 

[rostasi]

Yes, I’ve heard that about USB CD players skipping
and being practically worthless, but I haven’t tried one,
since it would only be used in a rental car.

I remember it being disheartening to find
rental cars without disc players, but that’s
why having a home digital collection is so nice!
I used to transfer to the flash drive a couple of times,
but I just went straight over to the iPod (or phone, if you have one).
All of the tune info is there shown in the display on these newer cars.

If you think that’s too labor-intensive, then the easiest is
to Bluetooth with an online collection (Spotify, for instance)
and you can listen to individual discs (even new ones).
The suggestion of Apple CarPlay is something I’d consider
if I were able to do that in my old car.

Still, in my current car, I just bought a six-disc
built-in changer to replace the one that went out,
but I find myself playing homemade discs 90% of
the time compared to commercial discs because I
get concerned that I’ll lose one in the player if it breaks
(just like what happened to the last player).
I still have a working cassette player that I try to keep clean.
 

Edited December 21, 2023 by rostasi

[Kevin Bresnahan]

I looked into buying a portable CD player with USB output capabilities but like Lon says, most of the reviews say that most of them skip fairly easily. Also, buying a known name is no guarantee that you won't get the exact same drive if you bought a cheap, no-name drive. There are only so many manufacturers making these things today. Even the big names just rebrand these junk drives as it cheaper for them than designing/building their own.

I do understand it when you get a new CD in and you want to simply spin that disc, but it's not that hard to rip it to mp3 (I use VBR Q0) and copy those files onto a USB thumbdrive (~$5 for a small one these days) and bring that out with you. As an added benefit, no skips.

[Ken Dryden]

3 minutes ago, JSngry said:

It's a flash drive, it's not a permanent data source. It's just for the ride, nothing else. Totally a temporary device of convenience. You need to do nothing but rip, load, and then drive the car.

It's easier than delivering mail. Don't overthink it. 

 

 

It wouldn't be a problem for me without it, as the music would play straight through. When my wife joins me, she likes to skip around and untitled tracks are of little help.

The other issue is when I trips taken on short notice,(like when my wife says "You drive"  at the last minute), i don't always have time to load unheard music onto a flash drive. It's not the cost, I have a bunch of them, including a few that I received as an Amazon Vine reviewer.

The funny thing is I have never activated a Sirius trial with a new car. I like choosing the music, not allowing someone else to program it. Plus I don't want to have to remember to cancel the damned thing.

[JSngry]

Just sayin', there are very viable options that don't involve the distractions that come with a portable CD player. Distracted driving is a very real thing. 

[kh1958]

i gave up on car CDs and just listen to either the Sirius/XM Real Jazz channel or stream from Bandcamp.

[AllenLowe]

is this not an LG? https://www.amazon.com/LG-Electronics-Portable-External-GP65NB60/dp/B00ODDE33U/ref=sr_1_3?hvadid=410064049890&hvdev=c&hvlocphy=9003316&hvnetw=g&hvqmt=e&hvrand=8175745949517881726&hvtargid=kwd-12602840&hydadcr=18001_11412140&keywords=lg%2Bcd%2Bdrive&qid=1703177982&sr=8-3&th=1

[Kevin Bresnahan]

46 minutes ago, AllenLowe said:

is this not an LG? https://www.amazon.com/LG-Electronics-Portable-External-GP65NB60/dp/B00ODDE33U/ref=sr_1_3?hvadid=410064049890&hvdev=c&hvlocphy=9003316&hvnetw=g&hvqmt=e&hvrand=8175745949517881726&hvtargid=kwd-12602840&hydadcr=18001_11412140&keywords=lg%2Bcd%2Bdrive&qid=1703177982&sr=8-3&th=1

It's likely just a rebranded drive from some Malaysian manufacturer.

Also, that won't work as a car player. It's only for hooking up to a PC as an external drive. There's no way to play audio drives with this drive in standalone mode. There are no play/pause/stop/skip buttons or a display to show what track is playing.

[Kevin Bresnahan]

I just searched around Amazon and it's gotten really bad for these things. I've never heard of any of the top rated players and most of them have no shock protection, which means they'll skip.

[Dan Gould]

I am so not looking forward to any new car, if I could afford one.

And I say that even though I have adopted to a certain extent the use of a thumb drive in my 2014 Kia. It works for d/ls that I occasionally purchase and recordings from the Smithsonian that are still only a hard drive - I convert to MP3 for car listening on longer trips.  

But with the number of CDs purchased and in the stacks .. it will suck not to have a simple way to play in the car

[mjzee]

2 hours ago, AllenLowe said:

is this not an LG? https://www.amazon.com/LG-Electronics-Portable-External-GP65NB60/dp/B00ODDE33U/ref=sr_1_3?hvadid=410064049890&hvdev=c&hvlocphy=9003316&hvnetw=g&hvqmt=e&hvrand=8175745949517881726&hvtargid=kwd-12602840&hydadcr=18001_11412140&keywords=lg%2Bcd%2Bdrive&qid=1703177982&sr=8-3&th=1

That does look like the one I have (I have it in white), but they didn't have it when I was looking.

[rostasi]

I bought that black one on Feb 3, 2018 - for a different purpose tho.

[mjzee]

Another possible solution is to buy a CD boombox, and plug it into the car's sound system using the aux port (or just play the boombox).  You can run the boombox either off batteries or the car's cigarette lighter.  If you get a boombox with a remote control, you can keep it in the back seat.

[Stompin at the Savoy]

You shouldn't have to type in any track names or other metadata.  The program you use to rip the cd to disk - itunes, for example - gets all the metadata from online databases (so you do have to have internet connectivity while you rip disks).  For single cds you generally don't have to do anything: insert the cd, say yes to your player program asking if you want to import this cd, let it run, and  copy the resulting files to a usb drive, phone, etc.  For sets, like Mosaic, there are some choices depending on how you want the multi-disk set to display, but you can still just go with the default settings and copy the resulting files. 

This all may seem complicated or difficult if you are not accustomed to working with digital audio files.  But once you get into it, it's actually a cinch and the benefits are huge.

Edited December 21, 2023 by Stompin at the Savoy

[rostasi]

Also, if the Mrs. really likes to skip around,
I would think she could do that easily with
her phone in her hand.