Attn anyone with car CD players - does cold affect your player?

[Jeff7]

I had a CD-player in the car when I bought it, then I upgraded to a Koss MS518 player, and both have problems with the cold.
The original player just refused to read any CD's - I'd put a CD in, it'd spit it out; most days once it dropped below 40F I'd just not bother with it.
Now the Koss player is doing it too, but not as much. It started playing the CD (MP3's on a CD-RW) about halfway into the disc, played a whole song, then when it tried to go to the next one, it spit out the CD. Put it back in, it played the first song, then halfway through the next one it spit the CD out. It continued like this, sometimes playing, usually stopping partway in, or just refusing to accept the CD at all.
Are all CD-players problematic in the cold, or is it just that the electronic devil is hanging out in my car?

 

[Vette73]

I have heard most MP3 headunits have a hard time when it is realy cold. Try a reg. Non-Mp3, Non-CDR cd and see if that works. If so play one of these for a minute before you try a MP3 disk.

 

[kherman]

My Eclipse used to turn off if it overheated. If I remember correctly, it actually ejected the CD. Protection baby! Are you using the head unit amps? High volume? This will cause the player to oveheat.

Isn't Koss one of those Walmart brand Heads? Go get an Eclipse or Alpine. Those are awesome!

 

[Jeff7]

Originally posted by: kherman
My Eclipse used to turn off if it overheated. If I remember correctly, it actually ejected the CD. Protection baby! Are you using the head unit amps? High volume? This will cause the player to oveheat.

Isn't Koss one of those Walmart brand Heads? Go get an Eclipse or Alpine. Those are awesome!

Eclipse? You talking about the car, or a kind of CD-player?

I don't know what head unit amps are; as far as I know, it's a basic speaker setup - one that's designed to just play music, not cause nearby structures to collapse.
Volume is such that if you get more than 3 feet from the car, you can't hear it. It's not even at half what it's capable of.

 

[Scarpozzi]

I used to notice that cold weather would affect the cds more than the player. They would get condensation on them and fog up due to the moisture and temp conditions in the car. That caused some issues. Trying running your heater for a few mins and get the air temp up in your car and see if you have issues.

BTW- I'm still using the tape adapter/portable Sony that I bought in 1997. Still sounds clear.

 

[Jeff7]

I was about halfway home (16 miles total) before the thing started working, with the heat running by the time I pulled out of the parking lot where I work. (I don't just leave the car run for the heck of it; started it up, then scraped ice off the thing.)

BTW- I'm still using the tape adapter/portable Sony that I bought in 1997. Still sounds clear.

Yes, but can you fit 180 songs on one tape and navigate to them easily?

 

I have a 10 disc Sony in my VW Bus, when it drops below 40 F, it skips on bumps

 

[kherman]

Originally posted by: Roger
I have a 10 disc Sony in my VW Bus, when it drops below 40 F, it skips on bumps

This is just becasue the dampening system is getting stiff in the cold. The CD Platter is susupended using spring and shock type mechanisms. That's why they don't always skip when you hit a "big" bump. When the shocks get cold, they get stiffer, thus making it more likely to skip.

 

[kherman]

Originally posted by: Jeff7

Originally posted by: kherman
My Eclipse used to turn off if it overheated. If I remember correctly, it actually ejected the CD. Protection baby! Are you using the head unit amps? High volume? This will cause the player to oveheat.

Isn't Koss one of those Walmart brand Heads? Go get an Eclipse or Alpine. Those are awesome!

Eclipse? You talking about the car, or a kind of CD-player?

I don't know what head unit amps are; as far as I know, it's a basic speaker setup - one that's designed to just play music, not cause nearby structures to collapse.
Volume is such that if you get more than 3 feet from the car, you can't hear it. It's not even at half what it's capable of.

Eclipse is a manufacturer of head units (your in-dash radio/CD player). They are among the best and start at maybe $200? Mine is like $300 or so. Just guessing on the entry price. They go up to $1000+ They are known for their sound quality and shock prevention. Alpine headunits (not Alpine amps) are also very good.

All head units have amplifiers in them, even head units. They cause heat jsutlike any other large amp.

If you are listening at "normal" listening levels, heat shouldn't be an issue.

 

[bmacd]

the LCD motion/activity on my JVC units moves kinda slow in really cold weather. Otherwise, they perform flawlessly

-=bmacd=-

 

[kherman]

Originally posted by: bmacd
the LCD motion/activity on my JVC units moves kinda slow in really cold weather. Otherwise, they perform flawlessly

-=bmacd=-

That's normal

 

[kherman]

Originally posted by: Scarpozzi
I used to notice that cold weather would affect the cds more than the player. They would get condensation on them and fog up due to the moisture and temp conditions in the car. That caused some issues. Trying running your heater for a few mins and get the air temp up in your car and see if you have issues.

BTW- I'm still using the tape adapter/portable Sony that I bought in 1997. Still sounds clear.

While you are the only one that has to like the sound produced, I think the defintion of "clear" is debatable. All that matters is that you liek the sound though.

 

[ontoyouAgain]

The lens on any cd player is gonna have issues with cold weather. It is not designed to defog itself shortly before you pop a disk in. It may even take a while. If the lens is not clear, then the laser cannot read the disk, same for the disk if it is not clearly readable and something is reflecting the beam, issues come up. Best thing to do, let your car warm up for about 10 minutes before you get ready to leave. It is even better for your engine as well. Kill two birds with one stone.

 

[scorp00]

the only koss product i've seen in a car was worthless. Both of my pioneer cd players i've owned haven't had a problem yet in the cold weather. The old one's LCD screen was a tad slow in extremely cold situations, but was back up to speed when the car was warmed up. Neither skipped in cold weather.

 

[0roo0roo]

no probs here either, but then again my old panasonic unit seems to warm itself up just fine, unnaturally hot considering its using preamp outs

 

[Anubis]

no problims with the unit itself when its cold. but it does have problims if i leave my CDs in the car overnight and they are freezing. it just wont read them till they warm up. non MP3 Cds. when its really cole and i bring a cd to teh car from teh house its fine. so i figured cold CDs= Bad

 

[arcas]

Not to thread hijack but along similar lines...has anybody run into problems with temperature extremes on hard drive-based car mp3 players?

 

[SCSIfreek]

Nope not at all. plays perfectly fine on mines