I want a CD player

[garyji]

Dmitry, if the Jeep is doing 11k songs in 2 minutes that's amazing. My last 4k Library took way longer!

G.

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[multicam]

Yes, you are correct. I poorly explained my thinking & goal initially.

When I said I wanted to know what was playing, I meant when I put in a CD, I know what's going to be playing (the chosen CD). And I can start singing the next song on the CD before it even starts (usually I'm driving solo). A lot of my favorite CDs I've played over and over and over....

Pandora shows me the album cover and the song title on the radio screen (which is cool). But by then the song's already started and 98% of the time I recognize the song (70's light rock, Eagles, whatever station I've got picked). And I really do enjoy having choices between my Pandora and Sirius stations/channels (whatever you call them).

With my streaming stuff (Sirius, Pandora, etc.) they play songs I like, but I don't know what song's coming next. Sometimes it is a song I loved in the past that hadn't heard in a while (great!) or some song I never really cared for (not so great). I don't get to choose.

But like there's comfort food, I've got comfort CDs I like to listen to when driving long distances (which I do sometimes - we're talking days of driving). James Taylor, John Denver, Bob Seger, Fleetwood Mac, The Seekers, etc. I don't need to see it on the screen. For years I've been listening to CDs while driving, and maybe the radio dash will show me what track number I'm listening to (i.e. "8/20").

This is why I made the following suggestion:

1. Place your CD binder on your passenger seat

2. Flip through it until you see the album you want to listen to

3. Open Spotify, search for that album, and play it

4. ?

5. Profit

When you tell Spotify to play an album it plays that album. In the same order your brain expects so you can start singing the next song three seconds before the current one ends. It’s great

 

[AFD]

Doesn't it though? There are plenty of speakers front and rear on even the most basic models.
All you're missing is a subwoofer.

Even with the appropriate front, rear and sub speakers installed, I've never found a head unit, whether factory or aftermarket, that would properly split the audio channels from a 5.1 source. My last stereo was a fairly pricey Alpine navigation unit with DVD from about a decade ago and afaik, it just wasn't programmed to route multi-channel audio in this way (just downmixed everything to 2.0, iirc), even though it technically should have been possible. Always thought it'd be really cool if could though.

 

[zrickety]

Even with the appropriate front, rear and sub speakers installed, I've never found a head unit, whether factory or aftermarket, that would properly split the audio channels from a 5.1 source. My last stereo was a fairly pricey Alpine navigation unit with DVD from about a decade ago and afaik, it just wasn't programmed to route multi-channel audio in this way (just downmixed everything to 2.0, iirc), even though it technically should have been possible. Always thought it'd be really cool if could though.

Thank you, this is good feedback.

 

[ArmyRN]

This is why I made the following suggestion:



When you tell Spotify to play an album it plays that album. In the same order your brain expects so you can start singing the next song three seconds before the current one ends. It’s great

I will try that. Siri wasn't doing exactly what I was wanting her to do when I tried it earlier in the week.

 

[ArmyRN]

Ok, here's my real-world review on both the portable CD player and Spotify. I did a 180-mile round-trip today, and gave both the CD player and Spotify a workout.

CD player: Really no issues. I had one CD where it didn't want to play the first song (I think it was telling me it was corrupted) but it played the rest of them on that CD just fine. Other than the issues with that one CD all the rest played fine. Select which USB port you're using (I used #2 - the one in the center console), put in a CD, give it a few seconds to load and read it, and then it'll start playing. You can bounce between tracks if you want just like you can on any CD player (the control buttons are on the radio screen). I had the CD player on the passenger seat while driving; right now the player is in the bottom of my center console. I unplugged it when I got home - don't know if that's really necessary or not, but I don't know when I'll be using it again anytime soon. But glad I've got it and that it works just fine.

Spotify: Had some issues with it.

But first off, if I'm listening to a mix on Spotify (like John Denver or Carly Simon) it'll play one of their songs, and then a random song Spotify thinks you'll like. I enjoyed it. I could see me listening to this a lot on my upcoming trip to FL (WA to FL, and then back to WA - lots of driving).

However, I had some issues with Siri (android phone if that makes any difference). She's cute and all, and bless her heart she tries. Sometimes she gets it, but other times she misses the mark. If you ask her to play a specific album, usually (I'm being generous here saying "usually") she'll get it right. But ask for something like "The best of Gordon Lightfoot" (or whatever the disc cover is titled), she'll sometimes start playing random songs by that artist. I guess some artists have multiple "Greatest Hits" or "Best Of" kinda albums, so my "Greatest Hits" CD might be different from yours. Or Siri might just think you want to hear a lot of that artist's songs. I asked for the specific album "Belladonna" by Stevie Nicks, and I got Stevie Nicks, but they weren't songs off that album, even though it was showing a picture of that album.

Or to borrow a line from the show Seinfeld, maybe "It's not you; it's me". Maybe I'm not asking Siri the right way. Is there a correct way to ask Siri to play a specific artist and album while driving? Is it even "Siri" I'm talking to? She responds when I call her "Siri".

The last part of my drive home I put in a Molly Hatchet CD, and transported myself back in time to my more redneck days.

Molly Hatchet - Gator Country - Bing video (Florida's official state song - or maybe not)

Edge Of Sundown - Bing video

 

[zrickety]

How large is your library, and how long does it take to digest it? Does it do the digesting each time you start the Jeep? I have a 256GB flash with about 11K songs on it, it all works fine BUT, each time when I start the car it takes the player about 2 minutes for the 'browse' to become available. Not a huge deal but annoying, I wonder if I'm doing something wrong and whether there's a way to make it start faster (save for using a smaller flash with less songs on it).

My usb (microsd) takes a couple minutes the first time I plug it in, after that the Jeep 'remembers' and I can browse instantly every time. This is many many albums, some number of gigabytes. I would have to look.
Spotify, pandora, google etc all work fine on my 7" uconnect.

 

[whitechocolate]

Maybe these will make a comeback too.

LIve at Leeds is stellar

 

[whitechocolate]

My usb (microsd) takes a couple minutes the first time I plug it in, after that the Jeep 'remembers' and I can browse instantly every time. This is many many albums, some number of gigabytes. I would have to look.
Spotify, pandora, google etc all work fine on my 7" uconnect.

can you make playlists on the drive

 

[Zissou]

Ok, here's my real-world review on both the portable CD player and Spotify. I did a 180-mile round-trip today, and gave both the CD player and Spotify a workout.

CD player: Really no issues. I had one CD where it didn't want to play the first song (I think it was telling me it was corrupted) but it played the rest of them on that CD just fine. Other than the issues with that one CD all the rest played fine. Select which USB port you're using (I used #2 - the one in the center console), put in a CD, give it a few seconds to load and read it, and then it'll start playing. You can bounce between tracks if you want just like you can on any CD player (the control buttons are on the radio screen). I had the CD player on the passenger seat while driving; right now the player is in the bottom of my center console. I unplugged it when I got home - don't know if that's really necessary or not, but I don't know when I'll be using it again anytime soon. But glad I've got it and that it works just fine.

Spotify: Had some issues with it.

But first off, if I'm listening to a mix on Spotify (like John Denver or Carly Simon) it'll play one of their songs, and then a random song Spotify thinks you'll like. I enjoyed it. I could see me listening to this a lot on my upcoming trip to FL (WA to FL, and then back to WA - lots of driving).

However, I had some issues with Siri (android phone if that makes any difference). She's cute and all, and bless her heart she tries. Sometimes she gets it, but other times she misses the mark. If you ask her to play a specific album, usually (I'm being generous here saying "usually") she'll get it right. But ask for something like "The best of Gordon Lightfoot" (or whatever the disc cover is titled), she'll sometimes start playing random songs by that artist. I guess some artists have multiple "Greatest Hits" or "Best Of" kinda albums, so my "Greatest Hits" CD might be different from yours. Or Siri might just think you want to hear a lot of that artist's songs. I asked for the specific album "Belladonna" by Stevie Nicks, and I got Stevie Nicks, but they weren't songs off that album, even though it was showing a picture of that album.

Or to borrow a line from the show Seinfeld, maybe "It's not you; it's me". Maybe I'm not asking Siri the right way. Is there a correct way to ask Siri to play a specific artist and album while driving? Is it even "Siri" I'm talking to? She responds when I call her "Siri".

The last part of my drive home I put in a Molly Hatchet CD, and transported myself back in time to my more redneck days.

Molly Hatchet - Gator Country - Bing video (Florida's official state song - or maybe not)

Edge Of Sundown - Bing video

Why on Earth would you use Siri when you have an Android? That is insane. Just use the Google Assistant, it's far better than Siri. Just say "hey google play the album belladonna by stevie nicks" or "ok google play gordon lightfoot radio on spotify".

Spotify will play albums if you want it to, will play a radio based on a song choice if you want it to.
It's can do everything a CD player can do and far, far more. You just have to use it properly.
For this to work you have to have Spotify premium, they don't just give these features away for free of course.

 

[ArmyRN]

Why on Earth would you use Siri when you have an Android? That is insane. Just use the Google Assistant, it's far better than Siri. Just say "hey google play the album belladonna by stevie nicks" or "ok google play gordon lightfoot radio on spotify".

Spotify will play albums if you want it to, will play a radio based on a song choice if you want it to.
It's can do everything a CD player can do and far, far more. You just have to use it properly.
For this to work you have to have Spotify premium, they don't just give these features away for free of course.

I guess I don't have Spotify Premium then.

I push on the mike button (circled in red below) and ask it to play something. Call her SirI, Google, Fred (although it does have a female voice) - whoever she is. She responds back to me repeating what I asked, but she doesn't quite get it right.

Today I asked her to play "Country Roads Take Me Home" by John Denver, and it started playing John Denver's "Rocky Mountain High". Close, but not what I asked for.

That's why I like CDs.

 

[Zissou]

I guess I don't have Spotify Premium then.

I push on the mike button (circled in red below) and ask it to play something. Call her SirI, Google, Fred (although it does have a female voice) - whoever she is. She responds back to me repeating what I asked, but she doesn't quite get it right.

Today I asked her to play "Country Roads Take Me Home" by John Denver, and it started playing John Denver's "Rocky Mountain High". Close, but not what I asked for.

That's why I like CDs.

It did that because you don’t have Spotify Premium. If you have Premium it will play exactly what you want, for the cheapskates you only get to make radios off a song suggestion.

And what you circled is the google assistant. It’s not that some people name theirs different names so much as Siri is specifically what Apple calls theirs.

Based on how this thread has gone I feel the need to explain that while the voice sounds feminine by default, it is not actually a human and is instead a computer program. Some of those programs are coded better than others; Google Assistant > Siri > Alexa > Bixby imo

 

[ArmyRN]

It did that because you don’t have Spotify Premium. If you have Premium it will play exactly what you want, for the cheapskates you only get to make radios off a song suggestion.

And what you circled is the google assistant. It’s not that some people name theirs different names so much as Siri is specifically what Apple calls theirs.

Based on how this thread has gone I feel the need to explain that while the voice sounds feminine by default, it is not actually a human and is instead a computer program. Some of those programs are coded better than others; Google Assistant > Siri > Alexa > Bixby imo

Cheapskates... ouch.

I think I'll call her... Alice. I think she and I really hit it off - she's got to be real. I mean... she might be cute and dumb, but I think we made a spiritual connection. I don't want some woman who thinks she's "Premium". Alice knows what I like. She tries darn-it and she's been there for me - that's good enough for me. I think I can make this relationship with Alice work.

Check this out: Facebook

 

[wjcubellis]

I didn't want to mess with physical media while driving nor did I want to listen to commercials. I just wanted to plug and play. Since my Wrangler, and two Ram trucks prior to the JL, had USB I ripped all my CDs and stored them on my computer.

Then, I formatted the USB drive to FAT32 and loaded individual songs, not album folders, to the USB drive. Currently that USB has 900+ song files on it, in lossless FLAC file format, and it will play for days without me having to touch any buttons, swap media or diddle dink around while driving.

I don't like storing music files on my phone as 1) it degrades the phone's performance, and, 2) the digital to analog converter in the phones suck. If you use a headphone out from the phone that's just one more damn cord to mess with in the cabin.

I let the OEM head unit (8.4N) decode the digital files. It does a fine job.

So if anyone wants some specifics on how to do this, just PM me. I'll be glad to help.

I didn't want to mess with physical media while driving nor did I want to listen to commercials. I just wanted to plug and play. Since my Wrangler, and two Ram trucks prior to the JL, had USB I ripped all my CDs and stored them on my computer.

Then, I formatted the USB drive to FAT32 and loaded individual songs, not album folders, to the USB drive. Currently that USB has 900+ song files on it, in lossless FLAC file format, and it will play for days without me having to touch any buttons, swap media or diddle dink around while driving.

I don't like storing music files on my phone as 1) it degrades the phone's performance, and, 2) the digital to analog converter in the phones suck. If you use a headphone out from the phone that's just one more damn cord to mess with in the cabin.

I let the OEM head unit (8.4N) decode the digital files. It does a fine job.

So if anyone wants some specifics on how to do this, just PM me. I'll be glad to help.

Hi Mike/JL Mad dog.
I just got a new 2024 JL and I want to do what you described.
I have a USB that is not being recognized by the unit.
It was NTFS. I formatted to exFAT and neither work.
I don't see FAT32 as a format option.
Any thoughts?
Thanks, -Bill

 

[JL MADDOG]

Hi Mike/JL Mad dog.
I just got a new 2024 JL and I want to do what you described.
I have a USB that is not being recognized by the unit.
It was NTFS. I formatted to exFAT and neither work.
I don't see FAT32 as a format option.
Any thoughts?
Thanks, -Bill

Bill,

Microsoft Windows does not include such FAT32 formatting tool in the operating system. Apparently they don't think people need to format a drive using FAT32.

To get around that I went online and downloaded a free formatting utility that does the job.

You can find it here:

https://pendriveapps.com/format-fat32-larger-than-32gb/

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