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Has anyone added a CD player to a Prime Advanced?

Discussion in 'Prime Accessories and Modifications' started by SHDL, Dec 10, 2017.

  1. SHDL

    SHDL Junior Member

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    Has anyone added a CD player to a Prius Prime Advanced? Where was it mounted, and how was it tied into the amp/speaker system? A picture showing where it was mounted would be great, too.

    Why? I have hundreds of book-on-CD discs that I listen to on long drives. Ripping them onto flash drives would not be cost-effective or time-effective. Before going to a BestBuy or CarToys shop, I'd like to hear about what anyone else might have done to add a CD player.
     
  2. VTBIGDOG

    VTBIGDOG Active Member

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    I wonder if the car would recognize a portable USB cd player plugged into the USB port,

    Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.
     
  3. Mark57

    Mark57 2021 Tesla Model 3 LR AWD

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    I have a portable BluRay/CD player. I just plugged it in and it DID power up, BUT the vehicle did not recognize or see the player, much less the CD I had in it. The USB audio source selection never illuminated. It stayed grayed out.
     
    #3 Mark57, Dec 10, 2017
    Last edited: Dec 10, 2017
  4. SHDL

    SHDL Junior Member

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    Thanks for the ideas. A portable CD player would be an ugly kludge, but would allow listening to CDs. It would require a loose CD player, maybe stuck with Velcro some place in the car, plus a power cable and audio cable cluttering up the car. A cursory search on Amazon showed that there are portable CD players that are powered by USB and have a headphone output. Does the Prime have a 3.5mm audio input jack? (I'm planning to buy a Prime Advanced trim soon, but don't have access to one so I can check). In my quick search, I did NOT find a portable CD player with USB power and Bluetooth output (not input). That would at least eliminate the audio cable.
     
  5. Mark57

    Mark57 2021 Tesla Model 3 LR AWD

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    Yes, it's right in the middle console area just behind the cup holders next to the USB port and 12V power.
     
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  6. SteveMucc

    SteveMucc Active Member

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    you might want to get one that's made for jogging (e.g. on a suspended transport) in order to soak up the bumps otherwise you may have an inordinate amount of skips (although the prius tends to be a bit cushy it's not a caddy)
     
  7. The Electric Me

    The Electric Me Go Speed Go!

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    Not to sound snarky, but I'm wondering why ripping them to flash drives isn't the easiest and best answer?

    You don't have to do them all....rip a couple you want to listen to....listen...move on.

    Even with a CD player..you can only listen to one at a time.
     
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  8. stevepea

    stevepea Senior Member

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    I bought the Plus version on purpose (I actually like the smaller screen and the CD player) but to answer your question, get a portable CD player. If you don't want to add to landfills with lots of dead batteries, plug it into the cigarette lighter area. To pump the sound into the car there are a few options (bluetooth, etc) but you can go low tech. Buy an "FM transmitter" which are made exactly for this kind of thing, and plug it into the headphone jack of the portable CD player... the sound will then come out of your car's FM radio.

    Years ago in my 1984 Toyota Corolla I wanted to pump the sound from my portable Sony shortwave radio into my car, so I used a cassette adapter to get the sound into the speakers (and let the long antenna wire hang out the window)... but since cars don't have cassettes anymore, if you're going low-tech, they still sell FM transmitters you can just plug into your portable CD player to have the sound come over your car's FM radio.
     
  9. cproaudio

    cproaudio Speedlock Overrider

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    you can get an AV input adapter harness and hook up a portable dvd player. the audio would be as good as CD quality, not degraded FM quality.
     
  10. Salamander_King

    Salamander_King Senior Member

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    I have to agree with @The Electric Me here. Ripping them onto flash drives seems to be the easiest, the cheapest, the safest, and most error free way to go. By doing so, you are in effect backing-up all of your CDs. You can play all 100+ books from your console and never have to fiddle with CD or player while driving. The car even remembers exactly where you left off if you stop the car in middle of a book. I don't think those features are available on a portable CD player. With physical disks in a car, they are so prone to damages by heat, by handling, and other elements. That's just my two cents.
     
    #10 Salamander_King, Dec 22, 2017
    Last edited: Dec 22, 2017
  11. stevegoldfield

    stevegoldfield Junior Member

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    I have thousands of CDs, and I listen to them while driving. I'm not going to spend a year ripping those to mp3s. I find it bizarre that the Advanced doesn't have a CD player but the cheapest one does. I see that in the specs on Toyota's page for the Prime. I'll find a solution, but it's annoying to not have a built-in CD player. I'm picking up my new Prime Advanced tomorrow. The salesman says CD are out. They aren't out for me. I will still be listening to CDs 10 years from now and beyond.
     
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  12. SHDL

    SHDL Junior Member

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    Congratulations on getting your Prime Advanced! You are going to love it! I've had mine for just about 2 months, and it is better than any other car I've ever owned (and I'm old enough to have owned a lot of cars). I've had to adjust to the lack of storage compared to my '05 Prius that I drove for over 13 years, but adding some stick-on mesh pockets in a few places has helped. I don't think I'll ever adjust to the lack of knobs to control the climate and the radio, but I hated the lack of climate knobs in my '05 Prius as well. Those dislikes are minor compared to all the great things I like about my new Prime Advanced. I can't charge the battery every day, and most days I drive 50 to 75 miles on mostly residential roads with lots of hills. That's far from ideal conditions EV driving, but I'm still getting more than double the gas mileage of my '05 Prius, and it was great. No complaints!

    I'm glad to hear that someone else is like me, with an extensive collection of CDs. Mine are mostly books or lectures. Before leaving on a trip, my wife and I can look at the shelf of CDs, grab something interesting, and head to the car. We are often in the car for several hours a day, and audio books & talks are great to have. It would take way too many hours to rip those books into MP3 files -- time that I don't have. Nor is it realistic to rip them off on an as-needed basis. I don't have that kind of idle time, either. And once ripped, I would either need to buy many dozens of USB flash drives to have a book ready to grab and go, or I would need to take the time to copy the MP3 files from a back-up server to a flash drive when I wanted to listen to that book on my next trip -- again time that I don't have.

    I fully understand that there are advantages to using flash drivers with USB files, but there are advantages to "old-fashion" CDs, too.
    When I started this thread, I wasn't complaining about having to use the USB port as an audio input. I have lots of material in digital format as well as lots CDs, and am happy my Prius Prime has a USB port. My '05 Prius didn't have that. What I want is ***both*** USB and CD! All I wanted to know when I asked my question was had anyone found a way to have both USB and a CD player in a Prime Premium or advanced (like a Prius Plus).

    I hate to feel like I need to add this -- but in any further replies, please don't make me feel like I am an idiot for even owning a CD, and please don't assume that because you have the time to rip CDs onto USB drives, I should also have the time. It's not that simple. We all have different styles and circumstances -- and that's a good thing -- so what works well for you might not work for me.

    I have the answer to my original question... based on all of the "why would you want to" and the "do this instead" answers, It appears that no one reading this thread has added a CD player to a Prime Premium or Advanced (with the 13" console). That's all I wanted to know.

    Thanks to everyone for your responses. I very much appreciate it!
     
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  13. CraigM

    CraigM Active Member

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    You’ve probably thought of this, and it wouldn’t be very elegant, but a “Diskman” style portable player would probably work? Think most have a 3.5mm output that would plug into the Prime’s 3.5mm input?
     
  14. SteveMucc

    SteveMucc Active Member

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    or something like: HOTT CD611T
     
  15. Rossandra

    Rossandra Junior Member

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    I just ripped a CD to a flash drive and tried it in my '17 Prius Prime Plug-in. Nothing. Nada. I'm going to try a COOAU Portable CD Player Bluetooth. Got the idea from SteveMucc for suggesting HOTT CD611T. Will see.
     
  16. Salamander_King

    Salamander_King Senior Member

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    What file format did you use? The car can recognize only MP3/WMA/AAC format on USB memory card.
     
  17. walterm

    walterm Active Member

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    Reading the reviews for units like this sound like they can only connect to Bluetooth speakers, not synch with multimedia car systems. I forget if the Prime has a audio-in jack you could plug in to.

    I have had success importing CDs into iTunes and then finding the downloaded songs directories and copying them to a USB drive. I import in MP3 format.
     
  18. Rossandra

    Rossandra Junior Member

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    That's what I did, copied from iTunes. The Prime has a USB port, which is where I popped my flash drive. So, here's a dumb question, was what I copied from iTunes in MPG3 format? How can I tell?
     
  19. walterm

    walterm Active Member

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    In iTunes if you right-click on a song and click the 'File' tab it will tell you information about the song file itself, what 'kind' it is (MPEG audio file in my case) and the format (MPEG-1, Layer 3) which means an mp3 file. I don't think that's the default fo rimporting, that's configurable under Edit->Preferences, the General tab, then there is an 'import settings' button where you can choose the import format.
     
  20. SHDL

    SHDL Junior Member

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    Please let us know how the COOAU CD player works out! I see mixed reviews on Amazon regarding the CD player's Bluetooth being able to connect to car Bluetooth.