CD changer placement

I've found at times I get better results using the Google machine and adding tacomaworld to the end when searching..give it a try

No clue what it is

 

You *should* be able to right-click on the file and look at the properties of that particular file. Unfortunately when I just tried that on this older MacBook Pro, it gave me the file size, the duration and the sampling rate of the file but not the bitrate of the file, but you should see it on a PC.

 

I’m a huge physical media person. I have a whole wall of all types of media from cds to the latest 4k stuff, and a dedicated theater room. That being said! I gave in to digital music a long time ago. It’s just too convenient to have the world of music at your fingertips everywhere you are. Seriously, just sign up for Spotify. If signal is an issue, just download whatever albums to your phone where you have signal or at home and play it Bluetooth on the truck. It’s as simple as that.

 

I asked and received responses to genuine questions.

 

Thanks for that. Still, quality is not my real concern ... just me. What does annoy me is that one part of the Bach Brandenberg Concert #3 conversion contains a bit-error that shuts down the SportClip *cold*. It comes back to life after an internal reset, but ...

 

Could also be the app that did the conversion.

 

iTunes converted. Only one file has shown it. If it REALLY mattered I would trash the bad one and re-convert. But I see some kids on my front lawn ...

 

By rule, stuff for sale needs to be in the BST forum, with 3rd gen parts in the 3rd gen marketplace. Its easy enough to go there and skim the headlines.

I suspect that people overestimate the size of the swap meet that goes on here. For a site this populated, the marketplace is relatively small part of it. I usually see things on Craigs more often then here. If its something I can live without, I'll just idly scan once in a while and wait several months for a deal to fall in my lap. If I can't live without it, I'll pay retail.

Good luck in your search.

 

I'm an old school CD guy as well. I still actually have my 6 disc alpine changer I had in one of my cars. I own thousands of CDs.

Rip your CD's and put them on a thumb drive. Here's a pic of a 64gb drive. Amazon has them for $12 bucks.



Here's an old 32gb I've had in my cars for like 15 years. I removed the plastic at the end so I could close the Tacoma's USB cover, which makes this thing almost invisible. Been using it in my Taco since the trip home from the dealership. They're so cheap I have a spare that every few months I duplicate my primary drive in case someone steals the one in my truck.



It would probably take less time to rip your entire CD collection than it would to install a changer and run the cables.

 

Ironically I still own an Alpine tape player..I forget model# but it did have internal changer controls.

IDK, 1500 CDs in my shelf and one at a time....

 

About 10 years ago I ripped all my CD's (one at a time with a laptop) and keep them on a HD at work so I can listen to whatever I want. At this point I'm at probably 5000 CDs (and about 2TB). I still buy everything on CD. After I got them all done, it's simple to rip the occasional CD I purchase. Takes just a couple minutes per CD. The most time consuming thing was adding/correcting the album art for every CD. In some cases I had to scan it personally.

The thumb drive in my truck only has about 1000 songs on it. I cycle stuff in an out randomly as I realize I'm not listening to something. Also, having a thumb drive in the truck at all times means if I'm going somewhere with someone I can grab it easily for riding in someone else's vehicle. I can't imagine using a changer again when USB is an option.

But man, back in the day Alpine was top shelf. I have no idea if their head units are still that good.

 

I too, have thousands of CDs and still buy them almost exclusively. I did the same as you and ripped them in 2003 and rip them incrementally since. I use my IPhone as the storage drive and have over 10,000 songs on it at any given time. It is great to use with CarPlay and no cell/satellite service is needed for my trips to the mountains.

 

First of all CDs are great! Way better than MP3 or FLAC. Common knowledge is that most people won’t hear the difference between FLAC and CD. Not because their ears can’t tell…it’s because most people don’t have a high resolution digital playback system. And, honestly, most people really don’t care.

I do care. And I have a hi-res digital playback system (home and auto). Maybe you’re not most people either. But why convert your CDs to FLAC? Memory is cheap and abundant nowadays. Save them as WAV files. No reason not to. Recently after buying my new Sony XAV-9000 HU solely for the excellent 32-bit ESS DAC chip, I bought this external CD drive to convert my CDs to WAV files:

$39 HP External Portable Slim Design CD/DVD RW Write/Read Drive, USB, Black (F2B56AA)

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00H2FTQEW?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details

I converted my CDs to WAV files. And then I bought 3 of these:

$50 Case Logic JDS-6 USB Drive Shuttle 6-Capacity-Black

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0009Y7AX2?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details

I keep these USB wallets in my center console and grab a labeled USB into my Sony USB port to listen to stunning hi res playback. They hold only 6 USBs but that’s actually perfect because 32 GB USBs can hold a lot of music and each wallet can represent your various genres.

You can scroll through the file structure on your HU screen into the albums and songs of your choice.

And it sounds just like a CD.

FLAC is about 60% the data of a CD. WAV is 100%. Like I said, you won’t notice a difference on an OEM HU. But you might with a 32-bit dual differential DAC in an aftermarket HU.

I don’t trust iTunes to manage my music. After the 2nd time it converted my music to lower res music without my permission, I switched to WAV files (and PCs) and never looked back.

Just a thought…or not…enjoy your CDs.

 

MANY head units can't read .wav files. I have a thumb drive dedicated for testing audio equipment. One folder is uncompressed .wav. One folder is .flac. One is 320k .mp3 CBR and another is 320k .mp4 VBR. Most of the time MP3 is all the player will recognize and it's a crapshoot if it can do VBR and CBR. In a vehicle nobody is going to notice the difference between WAV and MP3. You would have to rip the MP3 at such a low bit rate (below 128k) where you would get aliasing to notice the difference. Between vehicle sounds (AC, exhaust, engine, etc), road noise, any environmental sounds... it would be practically impossible.

 

I'm Gen Z and CD audio quality is superior to your phone. I don't exactly play a ton of CDs in the truck, but the difference is noticeable.

 

Sure, at your age, I'm sure there is a noticeable difference. At some point, the years will catch up with you. Now that I'm on the back side of 50, between the tinnitus and partial hearing loss from a lifetime of listening to loud music, riding dirt bikes, shooting guns without hearing protection, using power tools, and Lord knows what else I've done to abuse my hearing over the years, it's a wonder I can hear anything anymore, let alone being able to discern sound quality between MP3s, CDs, and vinyl. It all sounds the same to me and I find that MP3 audio is plenty good enough. Hell, I'm just happy I can still hear and enjoy it.

 

Sure, there is an effort to limit access to WAV files. I think mostly because FLAC can be 'managed'. Even my latest Windows Media player doesn't support WAV. Luckily, the premium HUs by Pioneer, Alpine and Sony do support WAV. Actually, the Tacoma OEM HU also supports WAV.

My point is, why lose 40% of your data when storage is cheap and abundant. When my truck comes to a stop, I can hear much more detail.

Would I be able to tell the difference between FLAC and WAV while driving? Nope. But 40% loss is probably enough for me to 'tell' while stopped. Now I can certainly tell the difference between WAV and MP3 on the freeway! A good DAC will show the difference. Maybe not with the OEM HU...but my Sony ES DAC is a gigantic improvement over the OEM equivalent.

In any case, why not start with the best source signal possible?

 

Nostalgia is having that 45 second pause when its on random and hearing your trunk changer rack up a different disc and spool it up before the next one plays. And then it's pulling over to a random parking lot halfway through the night so that you can stand behind your car in a totally not-suspicious way to load up 6 new CDs.

 

I hear this all the time regarding compressed digital files: nobody's gonna know the difference.
But that's because 90%+ people out there don't have a hi res playback system. It's not so much your hearing ability...it's your equipment. There is a palpable sonic difference between a $5 DAC chip and a $100 DAC chip.

I'm 56 and have some hearing loss in my left ear and I can tell the difference between WAV and MP3. It's not our ears...even with age related hearing loss we can discern quite a bit of detail...especially in the midrange.

 

I never checked. Good to know. Time to re-rip some of my stuff!

If it's ripped at a poor to medicore bitrate, most can. If the MP3 is ripped at a high bitrate, say 320k, or to lossless FLAC 99% of the people probably not. Encoders/decoders have come a VERY long way in 20+ years and the latest LAME encoder is leaps and bounds better than what we had just a few years ago. With disk space so cheap now, I would rip at the highest bit rate you can afford to store. My master collection is ripped at a mediocre bit rate because I use it at work, coming through computer speakers. I could probably rip it at 1/2 the resolution I'm currently ripping at and still not hear a difference. If I play those files on my home stereo system the aliasing is painful and unlistenable. It all comes down to storage and application.

As a test I have re-ripped some CD's that I ripped 10 years ago using the exact same settings and there is a pretty big difference in quality. I'm not going to re-rip my entire collection but it's at least good to know that my most recent purchases (and the most likely what I'll be listening to) will be in a better quality.