I want a CD player

[AlgUSF]

LOL, I pulled the 8-track out of my bitchin camaro in the 80s and replaced it with a crappy cassette deck and Jensen speakers. Wish I still had the 8-track and the camaro.

Yeah, I remember Jensen. When you absolutely needed the cheapest car audio. Thanks for the trip into the way back machine. My folks bought a 1992 Geo Metro the year before I started driving and it didn't come with a stereo. They had the dealer add a cassette deck and some Jensen speakers. When you closed the hatch the first time it dented the speaker grilles and directed most audio right into the trunk section. Good old days. I still got a ton of action in that car.

No wonder why I don't mind the 5" stereo in my 2021 JLUS.

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[Reinen]

You do know that it is Gen Z driving the resurgence of vinyl, right? There was also a WSJ article a few months ago how the demand for new manual transmission vehicles is coming from Gen Z as well.

I'm a Gen Xer and I enjoy dropping the needle on vinyl sometimes and also going on a Saturday morning drive rowing my own gears. It is also nice to grab a CD from my collection slide it into the stereo and throw the CD case on the passenger seat.

Yup, knew that. We GenX and their GenZ progeny (that paid attention) know that sometimes analog works better than digital. Vinyl is the apex of analog and it wont go away anytime soon for that reason.

But I'm not on board with CDs. You can easily put lossless music files on a micro thumb drive. Just as good quality and you’ve shrunk crates of CDs down to a micro USB drive that's easier to search through. There is no good reason for CDs beyond boomer stubbornness.

Take that manual trans data with a grain of salt as well. Yes, GenZ nearly doubled MT demand which is noteworthy. But it's from the Millennial "clutches are hard" low, 0.9% to 1.7%. Not exactly enough to declare a comeback of the MT, but maybe they won't die out just yet.

 

[efreyman]

I am not a boomer, I guess technically I am a Xennial and I still occasionally like CD’s. There is just something about them to me, listening to mixes I made….so I got one of the old school Jeep boom boxes. Was able to find one that was new in the box.

 

[PatriotX]

I had the silver version of that boombox, with a tiny TV lol.

OP, depending on your CD player, there are battery eliminators.

example for 3xAA. https://www.amazon.com/TINGLI-Batte...ocphy=9016237&hvtargid=pla-1466415880968&th=1


Heres one for 2 cells or 4.
https://www.amazon.com/Lenink-Power...uPWNsaWNrUmVkaXJlY3QmZG9Ob3RMb2dDbGljaz10cnVl

 

[Kyanche]

I have a few suggestions if you actually want to play CDs:

0. Buy a regular cd player that happens to have really good shock protection

1. Look for CD changers/players on ebay - a lot of them come with a harness that uses a 'cd changer aux' kinda input that I doubt our radios have. You might be able to find one that just uses a regular minijack - or a minijack to cd changer adapter or something. They often have a remote for controlling the cd player itself.

2. Chrysler made Uconnect 8.4 add-ons for those screens that go in the back seat. Those add a DVD player to your system and it can play CDs. I can't find any examples

Also up there - just digitize them into AAC or FLAC or whatever and put them on a good USB stick or SSD and then plug that in. It should work fine.

Also for laughs: You could try plugging in a USB cd/dvd drive and see what happens. I doubt anything happens. And even if it did, every time you hit a bump it'd skip. But you can get external DVD drives on amazon for like $25 lol.

 

[NCIC105]

Transfer your CD's to digital files and put them on a mini USB stick. I use mine with over 3500 songs in the center console usb port. Works great.

G.

Works great. I have two usb men sticks. Switch out as needed. Plug into center console.

 

[mnjeeper]

It's just called youtube music now. Though I assume you know that and just want to be pedantic.
just go to music.youtube.com and drag whatever you want on the screen. Then you can find it under your library. I have like 20GB on there.
Supported file formats for uploads include FLAC, M4A, MP3, OGG, and WMA.

I thought it was a paid service now. Will check. I downloaded my music before it died.

 

[ArmyRN]

This was the most fascinating read of Boomers Playing Music I've ever read.
Can the struggle be more epic? Will it ever end? ?

Ok fellow Boomers, I'm taking one for the team here since I'm the one who started this thread.

Before I go ripping/zipping/dipping (whatever) onto a thumb drive, I've ordered one of these:

USB Integrated Add-On CD Player for 2018+ Jeep Wrangler – Ensight Automotive Solutions

When it gets here I'll post it up and give you my thoughts and tell you how it works.

But keep your comments coming.

 

[thance]

I'm unfamiliar with where in the Spotify app you insert your CD, please enlighten me.

You don't have to insert it, you just ask siri to do it for you ... "Hey Siri play Pink Floyd, Dark Side of the Moon" ... and Siri puts it in for you. Never skips or gets jammed either. She,s really good.

 

[Bayrat]

I have the one on the right and it's covered many miles attached to my belt while running

 

[Spank]

Ok fellow Boomers, I'm taking one for the team here since I'm the one who started this thread.

Before I go ripping/zipping/dipping (whatever) onto a thumb drive, I've ordered one of these:

USB Integrated Add-On CD Player for 2018+ Jeep Wrangler – Ensight Automotive Solutions

When it gets here I'll post it up and give you my thoughts and tell you how it works.

But keep your comments coming.

You mentioned wanting to know what was playing, which I'm assuming means you wanna see album art and info on the UConnect screen. You're not going to get that with any of these devices. It's either BT, USB stick, or bust.

 

[ArmyRN]

You mentioned wanting to know what was playing, which I'm assuming means you wanna see album art and info on the UConnect screen. You're not going to get that with any of these devices. It's either BT, USB stick, or bust.

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").

 

[ecomguy]

Alright, this thread made me realize that my Wrangler will be the first car I have without a CD player. Got a cheap external USB CD player and started ripping all of my CDs through itunes. Have a stack of CDs next to the computer; whenever I walk by I take the last ripped disk out and put a new one in.

We’ve got lots of cellular dead zones here in WA so it’ll be nice to always have something to listen to when the streaming services can’t get a signal.

 

[Almost]

The streaming services will play an entire album. But you need to be online with good cell coverage which kinda defeats the purpose of owning a jeep.

Spotify lets you both play the album of your choice and download albums/songs for offline use. I use this feature to avoid issues in tunnels.

 

[Zissou]

Call me a dinosaur. I had a hard time switching from cassettes to CDs back in the day (I still have a lot of cassettes stashed somewhere). And now (while I love my new 23 JLU) I don't have a CD player. I like to go on road trips and listen to CDs. I have Sirius, and I have Pandora, but I'd like to be able to know what I'm listening to.

Does anyone know of a CD player you can connect to your 8.4 radio like you can do with your phone and have it play through your speakers.

Okay dinosaur haha

Cancel Sirius XM and get a Spotify subscription and you'll have endless music available. You can pick your own and see what you're listening to. You can also download as much as you want to listen to offline. You will thank us.

I have a CD player in my 2021 BMW; the guy handing it over to me said it was likely one of the last cars you could get with one. I have used it exactly 0 times.

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