Looking for portable CD player that can talk to car via bluetooth or usb

[IronWing]

My Buick doesn't have a CD player or an aux port so I'm looking at a way to connect a portable CD player. The reviews for the few bluetooth CD players I've looked at say they play well with bluetooth speakers but are hit or miss with car audio systems.

Would plain old external CD drives designed for PCs be recognized?

I don't need/care about getting song info on the car display or controlling the CD from the car display, just that the music plays.

Cheap is also way more better as the only reason I'm looking for one is that we are planning a long road trip and we like to hit up used music stores when we travel. <sheepish mode>We bought a fistful of CDs in LA last spring, hopped back in the new car, and, "well, crap."</sheepish mode>

 

[zinfamous]

 

[Viper GTS]

Why on earth would you want to do this? It's almost 2020.

Rip your CDs to FLAC, pick a portable format if you're space limited, put them on your phone.

I too still buy CDs (and have done the used CD thing buying dozens at a time). They all get ripped to FLAC and never touched again.

Viper GTS

 

[CZroe]

Wait. Your car stereo has BT but no AUX jack? Weird.

The only reason to have BT built-in to a portable CD player as opposed to a dongle is to have one less accessory to power, but that's niche enough that I'm surprised anyone makes a BT CD player. You just get a BT adapter and be done with it. Like FM transmitters used to be, these things are everywhere as USB powered, rechargeable, powered through iPod dock, etc.

What makes a lot more sense is to replace the car stereo with one that has a CD player, BT, and AUX.

 

[allisolm]

I used an FM transmitter along with a plain old external personal CD player . Worked fine. I used it for a long trip to play books.

Not this particular one, but along these lines: https://www.amazon.com/Transmitter-...coding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=XT99GQTGCFC2KDVEVB9E

 

[manly]

Wait. Your car stereo has BT but no AUX jack? Weird.

The only reason to have BT built-in to a portable CD player as opposed to a dongle is to have one less accessory to power, but that's niche enough that I'm surprised anyone makes a BT CD player. You just get a BT adapter and be done with it. Like FM transmitters used to be, these things are everywhere as USB powered, rechargeable, powered through iPod dock, etc.

What makes a lot more sense is to replace the car stereo with one that has a CD player, BT, and AUX.

I don't think this is so weird. Most late model cars have Bluetooth, but in general stock head units don't come with an AUX jack. If yours does, consider yourself lucky. For aesthetics or other reasons, late model cars have customized head units or infotainment systems so swapping it out with aftermarket is not always a reasonable option either.

https://forums.anandtech.com/threads/which-sounds-better-fm-or-cassette-deck-adapter.1344325/

This thread is a blast from the past! Most people hated FM transmitters due to interference, but I used an original Belkin Tunecast (ran on AAA batteries), and later a Griffin iTrip Auto with good results for many years.

We don't know how old OP's car is, but if it has Bluetooth but no CD player, there's almost no chance it has a tape deck. BT and cassette deck are probably mutually exclusive features.

 

[zinfamous]

+

 

[ondma]

Do you have a usb port for the audio system? (not a charging port). I have a Suburu Impreza with no CD player. Just ripped my CDs to USB on a PC and play from the USB.
Are you sure you dont have an aux in plug? It could be in the center console or something. Annoyingly, my Impreza has both the audio USB and aux inputs inside the center console.

 

[zinfamous]

Why on earth would you want to do this? It's almost 2020.

Rip your CDs to FLAC, pick a portable format if you're space limited, put them on your phone.

I too still buy CDs (and have done the used CD thing buying dozens at a time). They all get ripped to FLAC and never touched again.

Viper GTS

He wants to buy CDs on the road while traveling and play them back during the trips. Apparently ripping CDs isn't a road trip/vacation activity.

 

[zinfamous]

Do you have a usb port for the audio system? (not a charging port). I have a Suburu Impreza with no CD player. Just ripped my CDs to USB on a PC and play from the USB.
Are you sure you dont have an aux in plug? It could be in the center console or something. Annoyingly, my Impreza has both the audio USB and aux inputs inside the center console.

My 2019 doesn't have an Auxilary port. It does have BT, USB (device/audio), SD slot, and CD player in the glovebox. ....I think auxilary ports have been disappearing for some time now. Strangely, though, the 12v cigarette lighter port remains in nearly all cars. USB makes way more sense, but I guess not the same power delivery?

 

[ondma]

My 2019 doesn't have an Auxilary port. It does have BT, USB (device/audio), SD slot, and CD player in the glovebox. ....I think auxilary ports have been disappearing for some time now. Strangely, though, the 12v cigarette lighter port remains in nearly all cars. USB makes way more sense, but I guess not the same power delivery?

Yea, I have been looking at VWs lately. Sort of wish I had bought an Alltrack instead of my Impreza. Not that much more expensive, and has more power. And damn, the Jetta GLI looks like a steal. Too bad reliability is suspect. Anyway, talking about audio, I had forgotten VWs have an SD card slot. Dont really see the point of that and USB audio as well. I still would like a CD player though, since I have only one USB port and if I am using Android Auto I cant play music from USB.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

My 95 Trooper LS has a 12-CD changer and a cassette player. I have one of the devices shown above, and I can connect it to something like a Sony Walkman CD player run off the cigarette lighter socket, or I can run a battery-operated mini-MP3 player and run it through the AUX jack.

There are so many possibilities, I don't care much to trouble over this or that option unless I'm traveling across country. For my errand trips to town, the 12-CD changer is just fine. The conventional AM/FM radio is just fine. And the quad sound system with fader is just fine.

I'm a 20th century man. I'm fine with my limits to what I choose not to bother with.

 

[IronWing]

I used an FM transmitter along with a plain old external personal CD player . Worked fine. I used it for a long trip to play books.

Not this particular one, but along these lines: https://www.amazon.com/Transmitter-...coding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=XT99GQTGCFC2KDVEVB9E

This is likely the cheapest option. I'll stop by the thrift store for a CD player and get one of these. I have one for the iPod that I use in my work truck because the AUX port broke. It works.

 

[Midwayman]

My 2019 doesn't have an Auxilary port. It does have BT, USB (device/audio), SD slot, and CD player in the glovebox. ....I think auxilary ports have been disappearing for some time now. Strangely, though, the 12v cigarette lighter port remains in nearly all cars. USB makes way more sense, but I guess not the same power delivery?

Look for a USB to headphone cable if he already has a CD player. They're all audio ports as well. Just most things that play audio will play AND charge at the same time now.

 

[Muadib]

Cheap, and will run on batteries:
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Jensen-P...hguid=0071b9c8-012-16cdd9a89690ff&athena=true

 

[mindless1]

^ lol seriously? That will sound like crap compared to the average audio system on anything except speakers so old that they have dry rotted to hell and fallen apart.

Rip the CD's to (whatever, flac would be ideal but has lesser support from budgetized Chinese players, 320Kb MP3 has almost universal support) and a TF/mSD and/or USB input player with an FM tuner.

A superior alternative is hack the stereo so an input like CD or cassette has a direct wired signal from an MP3/etc decoder module, BUT the amount of effort that takes is hard to argue when you can buy an entire new stereo with these features for a (very) few dozen dollars, but I can see the argument for it if you want it to look stock and/or have steering wheel controls for the stock stereo or something.

 

[Scarpozzi]

What year and model is your Buick? Have you considered checking eBay for factory radios for sale with CD options/upgrades?

When I used to drive a Jeep Cherokee back 20 years ago, I wanted a 6 disc changer... I ended up needing a different head unit to control the changer...I found it on eBay for about $120...I swapped it for my factory one and was able to sell it on eBay for about $60....so I was really only out $80... Just suggesting you might be able to find an integrated player without going aftermarket and making it look cheap. A major benefit was that the factory wiring harness worked for both radios...so the install wasn't difficult at all...just had to remove some plastic strips off the dash and a few bolts to pop that sucker out and the new one in.