Will CDs die

[janneppi]

I had a look at what it would would take to install a bluetooth audio dongle into my Civic which doesn't even have a audio jack on the front. Looking at how much of the dashboard I have to rip apart, I'd say CD's won't be replaced any time soon in my car.

Someone needs to create a cd-version of this.

[555-04Q2]

[schmenke]

Original music recorded directly to digital format will sound much better than cd and far better than vinyl. Music transferred or “ripped” from another format to digital requires compression that relies on processing by algorithms resulting in a loss in sound quality. The compression and resulting audio quality is only as good as the complexity and thoroughness of the algorithm used.

Nowadays uncompressed audio files are available with fantastic (“lossless”) sound quality however the file size is huge. Some bluray movies are now available with uncompressed audio formats, although to experience it requires an audio playback device (receiver or bluray machine) that recognizes the format.

[schmenke]

I still use CD's in my car but at home its the iPhone steamed via Wifi to speakers around the house. ...

Is your car not equipped with Bluetooth audio? This is what I use to listen to my iPhone music in my car (when no listening to satellite radio)

[henners88]

I still use CD's in my car but at home its the iPhone steamed via Wifi to speakers around the house. ...

Is your car not equipped with Bluetooth audio? This is what I use to listen to my iPhone music in my car (when no listening to satellite radio)

My car is a 58 plate so no it's not.

[Dave B]

Even a £50 aftermarket head unit will support bluetooth and/or USB, and most can control iPhones directly. I don't even have to get my phone out of my pocket, it just syncs automatically and I use the steering wheel controls. I could use voice control but screaming "OK Galaxy" tends to make one look a bit of a twunt.

[airshifter]

My CDs aren't going to die. Beyond the tactile element, I hate lossy formats. As Schmenke mentioned above, most lossless formats these days sound really good, but they take so much space there is little if any advantage to them. For me the tactile thing is more just quickly and easily looking through some CDs vs scrolling up and down on the computer to find what I'm in the mood for. For any mobile application this gets even worse, whether it be phone, car audio, etc.

As for digital formats, most original music these days is recorded with the CD quality output as the standard. Though there are formats that allow higher sampling rates and such, once again many if not most PC, car audio, or other mobile platforms don't have the hardware to take advantage of it. So essentially you could get a recording with a sound quality level your equipment can't handle regardless.

As for vinyl, I'm not one that gets that warm fuzzy feeling from it. I still have some around, mostly in hopes that at some point someone who loves vinyl will grossly overpay for it because it's vinyl. In terms of sound quality it gives me nothing I can't hear on a CD unless the CD conversion was complete crap, which does sometimes happen with the older music. Remasters from original recordings IMO have a lot more dynamic range and impact on CD vs vinyl. I have some of the gold remasters that will expose sounds I never knew existed when I had the recordings on vinyl.

[Alexamateo]

I had a look at what it would would take to install a bluetooth audio dongle into my Civic which doesn't even have a audio jack on the front. Looking at how much of the dashboard I have to rip apart, I'd say CD's won't be replaced any time soon in my car.

Someone needs to create a cd-version of this.

I used to have one of these!

[airshifter]

That is just another example of all this fancy new tech stuff.


I used to have one of these....

[henners88]

Even a £50 aftermarket head unit will support bluetooth and/or USB, and most can control iPhones directly. I don't even have to get my phone out of my pocket, it just syncs automatically and I use the steering wheel controls. I could use voice control but screaming "OK Galaxy" tends to make one look a bit of a twunt.

My phone syncs via bluetooth to the hands-free built into the car and if I decide not to trust the sat nav in the dashboard, I can use it on the phone and it seems to speak through the speakers in the car. Not sure if a bluetooth dongle would interfere with all this? I tend to listen to the radio in the car these days as most of my travelling is to and from work. For a car that has pretty much all the gadgets, auto wipers, sat nav, climate control, cruise control, parking sensors.. why has it not at least got an AUX port built into the radio? I bought the car second hand obviously and its an ex demonstrator, and the radio/sat nav was a £1200 optional extra when new, you'd think it would be iPod capable.