Want CD player for new truck

How many CD’s do you play? May be time to switch to another media. There are several ways you can copy CD’s to usb thumb drives, copy cd’s to iPhone or other smart phone and then play them through the dash entertainment system either via blue tooth or perhaps direct cable.

Not to long ago I had the same issue and decided to opt to ditching the CD’s I still listen to and just buy the songs on the CD’s I actually like and download them from Apple. You might be surprised how many songs on anyone CD you really like. Especially if you have some older “Greatest Hits” and there will be some you say that song was never that good. If you’re not a Apple user I suspect Android phones have similar features.

Once on the phone I bought a blue tooth enabled speaker which a can take anywhere an play from my phone.

Good options out there.

First.. When I got my jeep that's what I thought. but I finally found where they hid the CD player (Trust me well hidden)

However I have a couple of FM stereo transmitters lying about that plug into a portable DVD player (I recommend a DVD player over a CD.. Will explain (I hope)

And there is the AUX in as well (I have patch cords)

On older gear there was no AUX in by default but there was an optional plug in aux in (or CD or Satellite or _______) moduel and I plugged.

Now why the DVD over a portable CD... Better buffering.. It's takes one super rough road to shake up the DVD enough to skip (Same as an in-dash type) but most walkman style CD players if the driver sneezes with the player on the passenger seat.. SKIP time

Can you guys recomend how to hook up my 8 tracks?
Yea, unfortunately, I too have gone away from cds, and most of the ones i have from when they first came out are starting to degrade. Mostly i use the pandora through the phone.

wildwood: We listen to classical music (symphonies, complete operas), and will take 50 or 60 CD's with us on a extended trip. Thumb drive may not be the right idea for us, but it may a good solution for somebody out there. Thanks for the suggestion.

60 CDs with 15 songs each is 900 songs. Wouldn't even fill half of a 16G thumb drive I have 700 songs on a thumb drive. Just drove from Illinois to Georgia and didn't hear the same song twice.

I feel your pain! :(

One way is a small watt inverter in the cig lighter to plug a CD player and a set of 2.1 speakers into, but there is no where to mount them and operate it all except the passenger seat. If DW along, the one in the passenger seat can be the operator.

Had Sirius radio briefly which somehow used the truck speakers. Didn't like their way of doing things. But there might be a clever way to still use your truck speakers instead of your own 2.1 set, don't know.

Note- a thumb drive is fine but you have no control over selection, skip and go back etc. If you just record from whatever playlist "they" have (like from Stingray) and don't like it all, just some of it. Plus it takes hours to do up a "play list" of only what you like, which could be better spent.

Another way is to get an older radio with a player from a junk yard and swap it in . :)

BFL13 wrote:


Note- a thumb drive is fine but you have no control over selection, skip and go back etc. If you just record from whatever playlist "they" have (like from Stingray) and don't like it all, just some of it. Plus it takes hours to do up a "play list" of only what you like, which could be better spent.

Another way is to get an older radio with a player from a junk yard and swap it in . :)

Your doing it all wrong if you have no "control" over the selection.

You do not need to build a "list" either.

The secret to making USB and MP3/WMA files play nicely is understanding how to properly setup the files.

Number one, don't dump all the files on the "root" of the drive.

Number two, create folders for your files, name folders in the order you want to play (hint, this goes in numerical and then alphabetical order).

If you do this correctly, the player will play the folders in order and the files in each folder in the alpha/numerical order.

For instance folder named with 1 will play before a folder named with A..

Same goes for your tracks..

To keep albums to play in the order of the CD you can name the files like AT1 through T10 and then the name of the song..

A for artist name or album name, T1-T10 is the track number.

And then you can add the song name.

Doing it that way the player will now play that in the proper order..

If you don't like all the songs in the album, just don't include them on the flash drive.

I name the folders by the album name and it will play them in alphabetical order.

You can easily make your own "mix tapes" by creating a custom folder and drop in your files, you may need to change the "T" numbers but overall it will play fine..

The beauty of this is you can carry hundreds of hrs worth of music on one single flash drive, it is like a huge "juke box" in your vehicle.

You do need to make sure your flash drive is formatted as "Fat32" file system which is default of drives smaller than 128GB.. Never tried 128GB drives in my radio yet but those typically will be formatted NTFS which may not be compatible with many car radios..

As far as getting "older radios from a junk yard" to work in newer vehicles..

GOOD LUCK at that, they are not "plug and play" any more, with newer vehicles the radio unit is highly integrated into the vehicle and removing it and replacing it with a different radio not specifically designed for that vehicle is a very expensive hassle..

I have a 2019 and 2020 F250s, and with those, the camera is integrated into the radio display, there is a very expensive aftermarket face plate and adapter system that sort of hodgepodges the camera in to a aftermarket system but it isn't perfect and you lose some features and functionality..

That is unlike our 2013 which was easy and cheap to toss an aftermarket radio in..

RoyF wrote:
I'm excited about my 2021 Ford F350 diesel, but it has no CD player. I suppose that only old folks listen to CDs, but that's what we like to do.

I have the Lariat entertainment system with a USB input, but do NOT have SYNC. I'll see what my local automobile stereo store has, but I welcome a suggestion.

CD players are pretty much extinct, hate to say it but it is true.

Very few OEMs offer CD and even the aftermarket radio market has pretty much sent them out to pasture and finding one limits your choices.

There was for a while a aftermarket CD player designed to plug right into Fords USB port, but it was very model specific and the unit cost well over $250! I think it was only offered for only certain 2019 Ford radio models, not sure if they are still in business..

Rip your CDs to MP3s and place the files on a USB flash drive, follow the basic rules I mentioned in my post above..

I have a USB CD / DVD player I bought years ago for my PC.

I wonder if that could be plugged in the the USB port on the factory stereo...
I haven't tried it, but if it works, it's a simple solution. The cable is only about 6 inches long, but there are USB extension cables.
It could be set anywhere convenient for you.

There are relatively cheap Bluetooth and FM transmitter portable CD players available:

https://www.amazon.com/cd-player-fm-transmitter/s?k=cd+player+fm+transmitter