Adding outboard CD player

My 2025 SR5 has the factory radio/audio, which is surprisingly good. The RF performance on FM is as good as other car devices and the audio--frequency response and clean power--is better. But I'd like to add a USB CD player. I bought one online that looked compatible but I've only been able to make the radio recognize it once by random button-pushing and haven't been be to replicate it since. I also can't get it to recognize my iPod. It does recognize USB thumb drives.

Has anybody found an outboard plug-in device that works? Is there some secret handshake to get the devices talking to each other?

 

Can’t let go of 1990’s? J/K.

I have a thumb drive with my music installed and use that instead of a cd or a iPod

 

If you have a CD drive connected to a computer, it is smarter to rip the CDs to mp3 tracks. Then you can just use the tracks from a USB stick. Much easier in the long run.

 

I was hoping the infotainment system would have a HD storage to store mp3 files so that I can listen to music without the usb stick.

 

Some people don't like the compression of music when you convert to mp3 . You can rip your CDs into lossless audio files such as flac, if you don't want to loose audio quality. The head unit will play them. That way you can leave the CDs at home. If you really want to use your CD player, there are aux Bluetooth transmitters out there that you can plug into the CD player headphone jack.

 

I bought this little thumb drive on Amazon. You can not even tell its plugged in.

$37 SanDisk 512GB Ultra Fit USB 3.2 Gen 1 Flash Drive - Up to 400MB/s, Plug-and-Stay Design - SDCZ430-512G-GAM46, Black

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BY2X88LD?th=1

 

I have the same.

 

Can you really hear the difference between CD, flac, mp3, etc in a Tacoma with stock speakers?

 

I had to fly out to VT to get my new truck, so out there my brother made up a stick of tunes for the drive back to MI.

My Dell computer stopped recognizing my Dell CD-R drive, but now I have the CD player that won't work in the truck that could load the CDs onto the computer. Problem is, I have LOTS of CDs and life woud be easier if they would play in the truck... grab'n'go.

 

I was going to comment the same. Our Tacoma sound system is subpar. My 10 years old BMW X5 with Harmon Kardon sounds 100% better.
nothing premium about our JBL system IMO.

 

grab & go, free Spotify....
get with it..

 

I went out to try again on the CD player. The truck acknowledges a USB device and goes into "loading"but never gets beyond that. So while I was searching "settings" I came to the voice command option, which I have never used. Let's try it. "Hey Toyota." Yes? "Play the CD player." "Sorry, I cannot find that device." OK, try again. "Hey Toyota." "Play USB device." Bingo, the CD was playing.

Then I tried to go back to the radio. It selected the station but there was no sound (on any station I selected). The only way to get radio audio back was to turn the truck off and back on. That would be inconvenient going down the road....

 

I’d love to see the double blind study showing anyone can truly differentiate lossless vs compressed in a pickup truck driving down the highway.

 

I had one car stereo where I could notice it, my then-wife thought I was nuts. I think it was a product of the stereos compression software though.

Now I couldnt imagine going back to discs and worrying about bitrates. I carplay and go.

 

Can relate there, I have about 1500 discs and when I still had a computer with a CD drive I backed up to the hard drive and a USB drive the rare ones I own, but that would be a mother to do with the library I have.

 

https://thebrennan.com/collections/frontpage/products/b3

 

Next time long press the volume knob. It will reset the unit without powering down the truck.