2021 external cd

I do not lose my stuff, and I do not damage my CDs. Thank you for your concern.
There are also Scoop/No scoop and Oil weight/Oil change interval threads for you to put your 2 cents in.

 

CDs are digital files. You can rip them to FLAC which is lossless. Also, the Tacoma setup doesn't exactly lend itself to high quality audio.
I ripped a couple hundred CDs over a few months (did a few a day), and now I have all my CDS available to play on all my devices.

 

So no one can smash and grab stuff out of your truck or steal your truck outright? that amazing

 

Some people are stubborn and hate convenience.

I expected someone to have linked the thread where the guy installed the USB cdrom drive in his glove box by now. That’s the most economical solution to this desire for an unnecessarily convoluted audio experience.
I’ll dig it up and edit it here in I guess

edit: pic, no details here and here, apparently this is the unit

 

Entune transplant.

Then you can finally jam. To your Pearl Jam.

Good luck.

 

So I'm one of those guys that hates convenience but I'm willing to try new things. Let's say I have 300 CDs ripped to a thumb drive, how do I find a particular album/song on that drive when driving? Admittedly it was several years ago but what I saw was disk 1, disk 2, disk 3 and so on and it was a PITA to navigate. If you didn't know what disk was what you just kept skipping around until you found the album you wanted. Not exactly what I would call convenient. Do you have a picture of what it looks like on the radio when in use? Thanks

 

Not everybody lives/works/drives in cities, so no. Farm is fenced, gated, full of cameras. Local sheriff does not take kindly to car break ins either. Unless coyotes and deer learn to break in, I am good.

 

I am in the same boat re CDs, I have about 1500 or so.

I had previously ripped about a dozen to my laptop a while ago (my rare/expensive ones) to make backup discs. In 2021 my truck was at the dealer for 3 months and the rental shitbox had no CD player so I made do with the USB then.

 

And USBs are a pain to navigate from headunit. Being there done that, do not want to do it again.
It has being amusing to read the advice on ripping the CDs. I went thru school using IBM XT, Pascal, Fortran (majority of posters is now running off to Wiki to see what IBM XT or Fortran were). Not all middle age people are computer illiterate. Some of us just like certain things and we are willing to work to make it happen. That's why Microsoft still keeps Lotus 1-2-3 shortcuts in Excel. You just need to know them.

I think I found a used headunit that will work. Just need to confirm the part number.

 

The struggle of having to stop and get in the trunk to swap out discs was real.

 

I don’t have pics because I don’t use a thumb myself, but you navigate a folder hierarchy from what I understand and can select whatever you want to listen to with steering wheel controls.
IMO thumbing through menus when you are stoped or can otherwise safely do so is 100 times more convenient than physically juggling two discs to change music.
No one is ever going to be able to convince me to go back to physical media in a vehicle. Discs are fragile and skip. No matter how much care you take with them, they will inevitably get scratched if you actually play them. Even if you use white cotton gloves and store them in chinchilla fur, accidents happen. Pass.
However I’m not trying to sell anyone on using a thumb, that’s why I provided links to the external I’ve seen discussed here. That’s the most cost effective method I’ve seen to inconvenience yourself for the sake of nostalgia or laziness, whichever it may be. Other reasoning is pride or is moot.

 

Not worth the effort to convince. Barsoom has decided and he has the right to juggle discs ... at least NOT AROUND ME.

 

I only had about 10-12 discs worth on mine but can see if it was more that could suck. Let's say I have a single DIN radio as well in my truck. I still use that stick I made just so I don't use my expensive discs in the truck.

Long ago I learned to program the Apple II computers haha.

Never had one of the changers myself but I know what you mean

 

Seems like a lot of hostility to people who are just trying to help.

 

so I traded my 2017 for 2023, and lost my CD player with the ability to enjoy my road trip tunes. I ripped my favourites to a thumb drive and the file system is easy to navigate but the trick is getting a good program to do the ripping, so that the song title, artist, album info are part of the file. I used a free program and it didn't add that stuff so I had to do it manually which was a royal PITA... so if anyone has a better ripping program, I'm all ears. Otherwise, yes, you get disc 1, 2 etc. and song 1, 2... and it's impossible to navigate on the truck multiscreen.

 

I feel your pain. Learned this the hard way when I was trying to digitize my collection in the early 2000s. Adding artist, album and track info manually was an absolutely mind numbingly tedious endeavor.
Now I’m frustrated that I even wasted the time, as I stream lossless in the noisey cab of the vehicle and listen to vinyl on the hifi at home where it’s actually quiet and worthwhile.
I haven’t touched that HD in over a decade and there’s some digitized unobtainium on there!

 

iPod touch for the win , I have so many cd’s it would take a month listening 24/7 to get through half.

 

I have approximately 2,000 CDs and ripped them all through iTunes and keep about 10-12,000 songs on my iPhone. I have access to all of them with cover art through CarPlay. I am a physical media enthusiast, but ripping as you purchase and using Carplay is a great route to go when listening in the Tacoma. I love it.

 

3.5mm to USB audio cable and discman?

 

You select MP3 audio icon. It brings you to a screen where you can Search (scroll) by artist or album through an alphabetical list.
I usually go to Artist, then select from the list of their albums.
NOTE: the search screen is disabled when the truck is moving.