In Lieu of CDs, what are you using?

[Fromsfca]

I already have 500+ CDs ripped in MP3 and AFLAC (lossless) formats.

I've copied them to a 32G stick and it works fine. However, the 520+ albums equal about 130G of music, which equates to 5 or so 32G sticks. I tried a 256G super fast (and small) stick which the car didn't recognize. I prefer sticks over an MP3 player for a couple of reasons: on a stick, I'm controlling which album/track through the entertainment interface, rather than through the player and, I want to avoid cables and other effluvia.

What are you using and what your advantages/disadvantages?

 

[dcottrell6]

I have a 1T WD Passport USB drive with about 500 ripped cd's in FLAC Format.
Was able to find a USB cable with an inline on-off switch so I can just leave it attached since the power always seems to be active in that port.

 

[Fromsfca]

Good idea...there's a 2TB on Amazon which is 1.5 inch wide and 3.5 inches long...easily fit in the little cubby. Do you remember where you got the USB cable?

 

[dcottrell6]

Got it from Amazon:
USB With Power Switch

 

[EdP]

I already have 500+ CDs ripped in MP3 and AFLAC (lossless) formats.

I've copied them to a 32G stick and it works fine. However, the 520+ albums equal about 130G of music, which equates to 5 or so 32G sticks. I tried a 256G super fast (and small) stick which the car didn't recognize. I prefer sticks over an MP3 player for a couple of reasons: on a stick, I'm controlling which album/track through the entertainment interface, rather than through the player and, I want to avoid cables and other effluvia.

What are you using and what your advantages/disadvantages?

If I'm taking a trip I take a couple of sticks. Around town just listen to SiriusXM. Advantage of sticks is portability and can hold a good chink of music.

 

[DarinG90]

I'e just been using Bluetooth off my phone.., easy/lazy.., and okay quality for my car ride.. You do this to get FLAK quality? Okay, I get that. For those doing all this to play MP3s.., umm... why?

I am a musician. I dont consider my car a place where the extra quality of FLAK will even be noticeable (unless parked in your garage while you are listening}. For my commute to the office and back my phone's Bluetooth is about as good as I can perceive in a moving vehicle anyway. The background noise, even in a car as quiet as the G90, more than voids the dynamics and clarity gains of FLAK. (Sadly).

 

[Fromsfca]

The flak is meant for my portable player....dual dac with studio headphones ( and yes, I get strange looks while exercising, but, man, what great sound!....and yeah, I’m also a musician)....when I buy music, I buy on cd and immediately rip to flac to listen on my player while wifey watches TV.

About half my music is mp3 and half flac. I’m using a 1 tb mini hard drive which fits in the audio cabinet of the car.... I’ve only just started playing with the in car system and haven’t figured out the nuances or differences tween mp3 and flac.

 

[Wyldstyle]

I have uploaded all of my CDs to Google Play Music, and I use Google Play Music via Apple CarPlay. I am sure the quality is not as good as a CD, but I am not a serious audiophile. All of my music is wherever I am.

 

[carguy75]

I have been using mainly XM radio stations and streaming music through Bluetooth on my LG phone. I also use my Ipod Nano every so often, but not much since my phone does the same job with less audio quality unfortunately. My Ipod has the best sound, but is a pain to use do to having to create playlists for newer songs.

XM radio and streaming music is easier to use for a variety of songs on the fly, but sound quality is bad compared to my Ipod and my CD's higher bit rate sound quality.

 

[Riouxgrande]

Spotify is and has been my go to for many years now. Premium of course. Can change the playback quality, download to phone for offline use (for those road trips through the mountains or BFE with no cell service, or airplanes), create and share custom playlists or save full albums to a playlist or "liked songs".

They have a free version as well that's still pretty feature packed. I can't speak to the differences from premium but at 10 bucks a month I am happy keeping the subscription. You can also get a family plan for 15 a month that allows 4-5 users with their own profile if IIRC. Student discounts also but anyone who is a student more than likely already knows about or has spotify.

Ripping cds....I havent done that since I was like 15. Yall are old school lol

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[StarPower]

I have about 573 albums taking up 39.6 GB on a Sandisk Ultra 64 GB stick (estimated from the file/folder information). Most of my songs were ripped in 320 kbps variable bitrate. Quality is good enough for the car, meaning that I think I notice a difference if I listen to the same song on MP3 and CD back-to-back, but I may just be fooling myself. Even in a quiet car, I doubt I'd be able to hear the difference over road and wind noise.

If you're having trouble getting your car to read the USB stick, you may need to reformat it. My audio manual says USB drives have to be formatted in FAT 12/16/32 (p.14 of the big DIS/Navigation manual that came with my car). This is for a 2015 Hyundai Genesis Ultimate, so I recommend checking your manual to see if it has a similar requirement.

When I was 15, I owned a record player and a tape player (and no, I wasn't a hipster; it was the '90s). I also had an 8 track player at one point. I think I was 18 or 19 when I bought my first CD player. I guess I'm old school, too.

 

[videopho]

It was very nice that my old ride the '13 Genesis r-spec came with a Jukebox 50gb hard drive as well as a Bluray/DVDA/CD player.
Most of my favorite music CDs were stored in that hdd.
I wish my G70 came with that hdd feature but I careless about BR/CD player anymore.
Anyway I've currently listened or stream from Spotify via AA when my drive is typically an hour or longer.

 

[Fromsfca]

I've been driving older cars, where you plug in your MP3 player, but you still needed to manage what was playing though the MP3 player.

I copied my music onto a portable hard drive, plugged into the aux UBS port. The car's music interface acts as the MP3 player....and it works great. I'm very impressed with the integration between the hard drive and car acting as a player. Maybe all cars are like that now?