Is it just me or are car stereos dropping the CD?

[mitsuru]

As My mothers new Daily Driver doesn't have a work stereo,
I started looking on the usual cheap search place Ebay.

You know how the cheap stuff from the orient is
usually ahead of what we get over here be it tv's, phones
or other media stuff!

As laptops dropped the cd rom drive and renamed them net
books. And the new TV mam bought has a usb outlet on the
side for recording programs.

So is it just me or are the car stereos following suit?

I found that the new cheap car stereos don't have the cd
option and only usb with memory card.

Example



from
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/180865282443?ssPageName=STRK:MESINDXX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1436.l2649

[mitsuru]

As a result of no cd or tape there is very little depth.

[Renrut]

Its not surprising tbh, the cd player and associated mechanisms would be adding a large cost to the unit - complex parts, optics so cleanliness right up to final assembly is essential and of course it'll be much bigger so shipping and packaging will be more.

I expect it'll be like a lot of other stuff, if you actually WANT a CD player then you'll end up paying quite a bit for one.

[hillbillyracer]

Yeah I think it's the way it's going to go, if you're into music enough to want to take CDs into the car then these days you've probably got an ipod* & just want the means to hook that up easily & a decent radio. I'm not the most technologicaly advanced fella & have had an ipod for 3 years or more, best part of 3000 tracks on it & nothing like full. There's folk that will say the sound qualty aint as good & fair enough but the car is not the best place to listen if you're that fussed about that anyway.

There are car radios made to use an ipod but I'd like a DAB for the car that works the ipod well but not found one yet, dont want to pay extra for the CD that I wont use













*other MP3 players are available

[OilyFingers]

I have never bought an mp3 in my life. I put a load of stuff on a pen drive for my head unit but it just sounds guff. You're far better off with a CD player, far better sound quality especially when there is a lot going on like there is with driving music. You cannot compress a file without losing something about the experience.

As far as I can see CD's will be available for a long time yet and most new, well the stuff NME listen to, is still available on LP and besides what else are you going to put in the glove compartment?

@Hillbilly.
They are out there Clarion, Blaupunkt and Alpine do them iirc.

[Renrut]

Sound quality on a good MP3 is as good as CD. CD is 44kHz which is all 99.99% of the population can hear, so as long as the compression method doesn't impinge on that and the amplitude has similarly enough modulation levels then sound quality won't be affected. On most MP3s its rubbish though as its 64 or 96kb/s which isn't anywhere near enough and thats the common size. 256kb/s is usually plenty though.

But then on most music there isn't that much to hear and as HBR says there aren't many cars that have a good enough audio setup to appreciate it.

I looked at getting an MP3 headunit for the jag but its a stupid non-standard size hole. Its a faff putting a new CD in, the old school changer is in the boot. It would save a few kgs as the changer isn't a light thing and the head unit could be half the size too. Sound system is pretty good but nowhere near as the standard fit on my old Primera which for a nominally cheap car was awesome in standard form.

[hillbillyracer]

I've no idea of what kb/sec etc my ipod uses, I just followed the instructions & loaded all my CDs onto the computer & it stuck them on the ipod. I cant really tell the difference! I dont think more complex music suffers more than simple stuff when being compressed, it just takes up more memory in the storage device. I know I'm not going to get anwhere near number of songs on it they told me I would when I bought it, 25% full now at 3000 tracks & they reckoned I'd get 20000 on.
I've never bought/downloaded an MP3 yet either, I buy em all on CD the upload them myself, I hope the CD is around for a long while yet too!

Even if you do have a top notch sound system in your car, it's got to be a fairly refined motor to make the best of it what with engine & tyre noise etc in the background

[Smiler]

I ditched C.D.'s in my car a few years ago. O bought a head unit from Lidles with both usb port and an SD card reader. One 4gb SD card later and I have a suitecase full of CDs in mp3 format (it's in a car remember)on an unobtrusive oversize postage stamp.

Reading information from a spinning disc when a solid state alternative is available is very backward.

[Renrut]

I dont think more complex music suffers more than simple stuff when being compressed, it just takes up more memory in the storage device.

It does, simple music like the usual chart dross is very refined with often simple tunes and a quite limited selection of sounds so compresses easier. The difference isn't that obvious until you hear it on a really good system where the tiny details of the music aren't drowned out in background noise and poor system response. Which is very rare / impossible in a car (car background noise is usually >>70dbA). Best non-professional sound system I've heard was a 1970s Quad system which is amazing but with each speaker being ~3ftx4ft and even the manufacturer recommending a minimum room size (bigger than most people's house's biggest room) its not really suitable for cars. But as you say there is plenty of space on the SSDs so there isn't really any need to use a lossy compression so it will be as good as CD.

I think CDs will hang around for a long time. They have many advantages that SSD don't have (degradation over time being the main one) and until someone comes out with something else you can take home from the music shop they'll still be around.

[Relentless Rob]

I only have one issue with these. If some thieving scumbag were to lift the stereo out of my Panda they'd get a tape (remember those?), and if they can find the changer six CD's. If they were to take someone's hard drive head unit they could take anything from 3,000 to 5,000 tracks. No only is that more expense; it's also the amount of time it would take to replace them.

A tape and six CD's would be £30 to £60 to replace and take about ten minutes on eBay. Even at 10p each from any legitimate music download site 3,000 tracks would be £300 or if you store them all on your laptop and transfer the files to the new head unit it's a good few hours watching the animated egg timer.

If I were driving a CIT van then I'd consider it but knowing several hours and possibly hundreds of Pounds of money and time I could do better things with are a broken window away; I wouldn't bother and get a memory card or stick reading one instead.

[OilyFingers]

I top notch stereo, iPod and satnav will keep a local junkie in credit for at least 2 days.

[hillbillyracer]

I wouldn't have a hard drive head unit either, use an ipod & the music goes where I do & can take it with me easily enough instead of leaving it in the car for the drugie/pikey etc. Either way even if it does get nicked they take that copy of your music, I've still got it all loaded up on itunes in the computer & the big stack of CDs where it all came from in the first place. To be fair though I wouldn't want to load them all from scratch from CD!
Each to their own but for me it works fine, I've never had a sound system good enough to hear the difference & mabye for my ears wouldn't be worth the outlay anyway!!

[Smiler]

Well as I said, the SDcard is like an oversize postage stamp. I also use it in te camera and as a general store files etc.. (nothing important).

If I leave the car anywhere I slip it in that little pocket in the front of my jeans. (yes, I finaly found a use for it!)

[Renrut]

Bit of a misunderstanding there - I wasn't suggesting a hard drive - an SD card or flash stick is an Solid State Drive, just not a very big one.

I have music on my phone - usb lead would do the output work but I don't have anything to plug it into except the tape player...

[MrT]

I've got something like this:



Not the best quality but handy all the same!







You can't beat vinyl but I haven't worked out how to get that working in the car