It is time to buy a music player...

...and am uncertain what to do.

As noted in a previous thread, I purchased a 2018 Mazda 3 that while possessing a 9 speaker Bose sound system, does not come with a CD player.  So what options exists outside of CD's?

What exactly is a 'music player' and how does it work in terms of car audio?  I did a Google search for 'best music player for car' and 'digital music player' and still do not have a clear understanding of the concept.

So how do digital music players work?  So do you 'rip' the songs off a CD onto your computer and then import or download them onto the music player?  Once on the music player can you organize them?  For example, one folder might hold all albums from artist A.  Another folder might include favorite songs from artist B.  Another folder might hold favorite albums from a specific decade?

What are some of the better music players?  What are some of the features to look for?

Finally, how does a music player sound in comparison to a CD?

I use my phone as a music player.  Yeah, you basically either buy the digital files or rip your CDs and import.  The digital files have a way to tag them with the song information (artist, title, album, track number, genre, year, etc.) and you can search your player by those tags.  Digital files sound different depending on what format and what bitrate you use.  The higher the bitrate, the closer to CD quality you get, but also the larger the file size.

A digital file with a great player can sound every bit as good as a CD.  I have been using the FiiO 5 for several years after my old Zune died.  It was a workhorse, and so has my FiiO.  The FiiO is a high def music player that can handle Mp3, FLAC, WAV, whatever.  You have two different micro SD card slots in it.  While FiiO recommends nothing more than two 128 GB cards, I know of people who are running much larger cards to hold all their tunes in.  With the FiiO, I have Christian and secular separated by card just to save on scrolling through artist names to find what I want to hear.  I take it everywhere.  When it dies, I will do everything I can to have another.

I still use my old Black Berry when I will listen to music in the car or so.
I still refuse to use iTunes.

I'm old fashioned, I still have a CD player in my car.

I use my iPhone, CDs or a USB thumb drive with my music loaded on to it.

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A digital file with a great player can sound every bit as good as a CD.  I have been using the FiiO 5 for several years after my old Zune died.  It was a workhorse, and so has my FiiO.  The FiiO is a high def music player that can handle Mp3, FLAC, WAV, whatever.  You have two different micro SD card slots in it.  While FiiO recommends nothing more than two 128 GB cards, I know of people who are running much larger cards to hold all their tunes in.  With the FiiO, I have Christian and secular separated by card just to save on scrolling through artist names to find what I want to hear.  I take it everywhere.  When it dies, I will do everything I can to have another.

Chris, I did further research and a FiiO 5 appears to be the way to go.  Very reasonably priced.  Do you hook the player up to the car using a USB port?

I have Pioneeer CD Deck in my truck but have Bluetooth hooked up to it with one of these:


I also have one hooked up to my desktop stereo that acts as a transmitter and sends a signal to my BT headphones so I can listen to records on my turntable.

As for my truck, this works great with my phone and my iPod, mainly i use my iPod with it unless i am listening to podcasts then I'll connect my phone to it. The only pain is when the phone rings and I answer, the other person on the line can't hear me very well.

Like I said in the car thread my car has a flash drive port...so I load up my CDs  as decent quality MP3 files and play them through my stereo that way.  I can use the stereo to scroll through folders but i dont tend to do that.  I usually just number the folders (01, 02, 03 etc) in the order that I want to listen to them.  I do it with music and mp3 dowloads of podcasts both.  I load up the flash drive from my desktop computer at home.

Dynamis wrote:

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A digital file with a great player can sound every bit as good as a CD.  I have been using the FiiO 5 for several years after my old Zune died.  It was a workhorse, and so has my FiiO.  The FiiO is a high def music player that can handle Mp3, FLAC, WAV, whatever.  You have two different micro SD card slots in it.  While FiiO recommends nothing more than two 128 GB cards, I know of people who are running much larger cards to hold all their tunes in.  With the FiiO, I have Christian and secular separated by card just to save on scrolling through artist names to find what I want to hear.  I take it everywhere.  When it dies, I will do everything I can to have another.

Chris, I did further research and a FiiO 5 appears to be the way to go.  Very reasonably priced.  Do you hook the player up to the car using a USB port?

With the FiiO 5, it connect s via a aux. in jack.  Some of the other FiiO models do have Bluetooth connectivity, though.  

I have one of those MPoW devices that Mike showed, but it will not transmit to my Nissan stereo.  The stereo in my truck requires a 4 digit code to be entered for pairing to any device, and the MPoW has no way to do that that I can see.

Today during lunch I walked to the nearby Best Buy and purchased a 128 GB Flash Drive (I read online it can hold up to 16k to 22k songs!  That should be enough to hold at least part of the collection...). 

So this afternoon I ripped a CD at random and then copied each song onto the Flash Drive, started up the car, inserted the drive and it played just fine!  Sound was of comparable CD quality.

QUESTION, however, is prior to Ripping the CD you also need to select the correct format.  What do you recommend?  MP3? WAV (Lossless)? Or perhaps another format works better?

This is SO awesome!  I ripped a different CD (by a different artist) and imported the tracks to the Flash drive.  Then I set up separate folders for each artist and then sub-folders for each album.  When I placed the Flash Drive into the car's USB port, I selected Folder and then each came up.

BTW, the new car is another Mazda, which has not only awesome electronics but also a 9 speaker Bose sound system.

What I appreciate about the Flash drive is you can import the better part of your music collection (if not all of it) and take it with you.  Previously, on an extended road trip I would take an extra carry on full of CD's, which can be quite cumbersome.

Another question?  Can you import cover art as well?  My only concern is using up unnecessary storage space.

Cover art takes far less space than a song.

I would not rip to WAV. I personally use FLAC and MP3 (pick whatever setting you want).

I use my phone via headphone jack and aux cable and use the Foobar2000 app so I have ReplayGain support (to normalize levels between albums).

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Cover art takes far less space than a song.

I would not rip to WAV. I personally use FLAC and MP3 (pick whatever setting you want).

I use my phone via headphone jack and aux cable and use the Foobar2000 app so I have ReplayGain support (to normalize levels between albums).

OK, MP3 sounds fine, so will stick with that.  Sounds like adding cover art to each folder should not be a problem then.

Yep, pick MP3 320 kbps. WAV is just too big. Cover art shouldn't be an issue at all.

IMHO, a Flash Drive is the best thing since sliced bread.  That said, I do have concerns:

1. It is so small (they do not call them 'thumb drives' for nothing) that if I drop between the seats in the car I might not ever see it again. 

2.  Starting immediately I am going to be in the habit of ripping the tracks of a new CD to the computer and then, well, promptly shelving the CD indefinitely.  I am going to miss the days of 'running errands on Saturday morning' and grabbing a CD at random off the shelf and saying, 'gee, I haven't listened to this in a while'.

The way I see it, it might not be practical or realistic to rip the ENTIRE music collection to a Flash Drive, just your favorite albums and/or favorite artists, because it does take time.  I am going to research how to play a portable CD player in a car, perhaps hooking it up to the USB port in some manner.

I like to use both.  If I'm going on a long trip, then the drive is better.  But for running around town, I play CDs.

Like Mike suggested I use 320 Mbps for all my CDs ripped to MP3.
And definitely back up your ripped Mp3 files because your thumb drive will crash...or you will lose it eventually.  The one I have in my 5 year old car is at least the second thumb drive, maybe even the third.

Yes, it is always good practice to have backups because you'll wish you did WHEN your disc (or thumb drive) crashes as they all will someday. I have 2 external drives that have copies of all my personal data. The backup drives are my second set after one of the first pair died.

I'm a Mac guy, so I've always used iTunes and an iPod/iPhone for music. There are rumors of a new iPod coming out later this year, which has me very excited.

My preferred format is AAC. At the same bitrate, the files are smaller than MP3, and some people say the quality is better too. Nowadays every player supports AAC, so that's not a concern like it was 15 years ago. I rip at 192 kb/s, which is more than good enough to sound decent in earbuds or car speakers. Even with high-end speakers I doubt the average person is going to tell the difference from CD.

I tag my music files pretty extensively. Genre (rock, metal, country, acoustic, etc), and sometimes sub-genre (hard, punk, thrash, etc), always get tagged. The release date of the song is usually already included, but if it's a parody I'll add a tag for the decade of the original. Sometimes I tag for the theme/subject for some of the common ones: christmas, resurrection, longing, tragedy, etc. I tag the gender of the lead vocalist, or choral/instrumental if that applies. If it's a solo instrument, I'll tag if it's piano, guitar, strings, etc. I tag the language if it's non-English. Naturally I have a tag for Christian. I have a freebie tag. I use the ratings. I've got enough information to build some pretty well-defined playlists.

After ripping, the CD and liner go into storage and I ditch the case. I kept them for a long time but they take up so much space.

What do you store them in?  A bag?  Some sort of sleeve?

While my FiiO works great, I am wanting a new music player.  I want one that supports Bluetooth so I can go wireless in the truck or car and use my wireless headphones without the MPow device.  The FiiO's that do this are EXPENSIVE.  So, I am looking at a smaller Sony unit and some other brand I can't remember (but have saved to a wish list in Amazon).  The more storage capability it has the better I will like it.  I have gotten very comfortable with carrying hundreds of albums with me and being able to grab those for a short or long drive.

I was reading an article yesterday that I will try to find that was predicting that dedicated music players are making a comeback.  People don't love the sound quality of phones.  Many phones won't accept larger GB micro SD cards.  There were other reasons, too.  So, there are several companies now introducing hi-def music players into the market.

alldatndensum wrote:

What do you store them in?  A bag?  Some sort of sleeve?

I'm assuming this was directed at me.  I have several of those "disk keeper" books. Much easier to manage than stacks/racks of jewel cases.

I crank everything on my PC via Google Play cloud, which imports to my new Pixel 3a phone.

I am about to drop a bunch of cash on the FiiO M9.  It has a large enough screen for me to read.  There are cheaper FiiOs out there but they can be rather small for people who have large hands and can't read small print anymore.  There are other brands that do what the FiiO's do, but they fall into that "too small" catagory.  So, I am gonna splurge and get what I want.