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I appreciate my 2011 vehicle that only has a car radio with FM tuner and CDs, and yes, I know that I could easily swap it but I didn't on purpose, let me explai

I appreciate my 2011 vehicle that only has a car radio with FM tuner and CDs, and yes, I know that I could easily swap it but I didn't on purpose, let me explain why: - all the controls that I need, that are basically volume, radio station or CD track, are easily accessible trough physical buttons and knobs, that I can use without taking my eyes off the street - I get in the car, insert the key and the radio turns on instantly and start playing music, no things that have to boot, no things that have to connect, etc. I usually listen to the radio and I stay up to date with news, listen to programs, listen to music without the need to create a playlist, or not and always listen to the same songs, or worse paying a subscription to just listen to music - if I want to listen something different I can just put in a CD, and considering it supports mp3 CDs a CD can contain up to 100 songs without a noticeable loss in quality - the UI of the radio in general is well designed, no useless functions, everything is easy to reach, no distractions. The radio is well integrated into the car dashboard, the design has something to say, not like a boring 10' tablet - no distractions, notifications from my phone stay on my phone, calls don't pop up, simply when I arrive at destination I recall saying I was driving, or respond to the message - finally, the sound quality is good, much better than most of integrated infotainment in modern cars that have 2000 useless functions, a shitty touchscreen, and a very poor sound quality. If I turn the volume all way up it shakes the car, the quality of analog FM radio is much better than modern digital radio that have the quality of a low bitrate MP3, and we are talking about the stock radio of a VW Golf 6, a normal car (when I bought it in 2011), not something fancy.

MikeDods 3mo ago
who asked?
- zapzupnz 3mo ago
  Your comment got downvoted for being flippant but I agree. It's an interesting discussion but it really comes off as grandstanding. Doesn't address the main thrust of the article nor the comment to which it replies.
RealityVoid 3mo ago
On the other hand, you are limited by having CD's which compared to streaming stuff from Spotify is much much less convenient, take up space and you need to create/buy them, your playlist don't synch up with your other devices. CD experience is much less streamlined than a smartphone. Perhaps nostalgia makes them seem cooler for you, but I am not sold.
- skydhash 3mo ago
  Not GP. But a decade ago, my brother’s car didn’t have bluetooth. We burned down a few mixes on CD and that was ok for long trek during town. He replaced that unit but we still used those CD from time to time. It was simpler than deciding which phone to connect. Even today, while I use spotify on my work computer, it’s basically the same albums every day (around a dozen). Playing CDs would be probably better than switching to the UX disaster that is Spotify
  - RealityVoid 3mo ago
    I have a car that doesn't have bluetooth, and trust me, when it's not there, you miss it.
  - embedding-shape 3mo ago
    > Even today, while I use spotify on my work computer, it’s basically the same albums every day (around a dozen). Playing CDs would be probably better than switching to the UX disaster that is Spotify Why don't you switch to CDs then? Something is telling me this isn't quite the full story. I'm sure lots of people who don't really need to use Spotify use Spotify all the time, if you really do listen to just a few albums, why not buy those off Bandcamp/Beatport/Whatever then listen to those and stop paying Spotify? I'd easily switch away from Spotify if I no longer saw/agreed with the convenience, but hard to beat it for discovery right now.
    - rpdillon 3mo ago
      The full story is that CDs have a physicality to them that can be somewhat inconvenient. But the concept holds. I have a directory in a copyparty share that I stream music from constantly. It's probably 20 albums worth of music, and it's just in a mix that I put on almost every day, whether I'm driving or I'm working. I tend to tune into livestreams on YouTube for the discovery aspect.
skydhash 3mo ago
> the radio turns on instantly and start playing music, no things that have to boot Currently my bane with the smart TV I have. Takes so long to boot and to wake from sleep that I’d press the power button, go to make my coffee and then get back to it. Otherwise I’d be halfway through my breakfast when all I wanted to do is watch a few videos on Youtube.
- xp84 3mo ago
  Seconding this. Who knew that the time an old CRT took to warm up would seem like an instant compared to the boot time of a 75” flatscreen introduced 35 years later? :[ I miss dumb TVs so much.
kenjackson 3mo ago
Your use case sounds like exactly the opposite of what I’d prefer. And, I personally find the quality of YouTube Music Premium (256kbps AAC) superior to FM radio.
- deleted 3mo ago
  [deleted]
- embedding-shape 3mo ago
  > And, I personally find the quality of YouTube Music Premium (256kbps AAC) superior to FM radio. When it comes to playing music from phones in cars, connection type seems to matter more than the source, and iOS has some weird built-in sound normalization only for CarPlay that drives me crazy. In my Audi A3 (2018), if I connect my iPhone 12 Mini via AUX or Bluetooth, sounds works perfectly fine. Same when playing via CD or USB stick inserted into the car, no problem. FM radio also works well, regardless of volume. However, if I play music via CarPlay (Spotify [lossless], YouTube, on phone .flac files, etc) some built-in sound normalization seems to kick in and suddenly it ruins the music when playing even slightly louder. I've tried for years to figure out what the hell is going on, tried every setting under the sun, but cannot get it to work so only thing left is some built-in sound ruinification ("normalization") that Apple does, only when played via CarPlay, not when playing via AUX or Bluetooth. Seems to happen with every car I try it with, but I never tried a different phone. So right now I'm choosing between being able to have GPS or listen to music properly, as I cannot do both at the same time...
  - topgrain2 3mo ago
    Maybe it’s trying to split the output into more than two audio channels when in CarPlay mode? If it were only Apple Music doing this I’d be sure this was triggering its Atmos output, not sure how it’d be affecting other players, but maybe.
    - embedding-shape 3mo ago
      Tried every conceivable player, Spotify, YouTube Music, YouTube, Apple Music (local files), Soundcloud and more, all of them leading to the same thing, via USB+CarPlay the sound get normalized somehow but if using AUX/Bluetooth, works normally. > Maybe it’s trying to split the output into more than two audio channels when in CarPlay mode? I hope so, most of what I play is stereo, and works fine via AUX/Bluetooth.
lilhenry 3mo ago
I’m in a similar situation, my car does have Bluetooth, but I mostly use cd’s and radio, the one thing I wish I had was a map in a convenient spot, I have to have my phone set up in some awkward holder to view it, I’m dependent on using the maps app on my phone
- WorldMaker 3mo ago
  My 2012MY car has Bluetooth, but only for calls/interruptions not for music so I've been using USB sticks still. It has a navigation system but the map DVDs are so weirdly expensive that I have never updated the maps. I'm at the point where I don't always trust the nav system to get me somewhere and use my phone. I leave the car's map up if I want to glance at it to double check, but also assume some of the roads are wrong now. The biggest thing I miss is "next turn info" in the driver cluster, but the Apple Watch has a version of that. It's still less convenient to glance at my watch instead of the driver cluster, but still better than glancing at my phone or having to mount my phone somewhere. CarPlay sounds fantastic but right now all the manufacturers I'm looking at for "next car" don't support it. I keep thinking if I never experience it first hand I'll not be disappointed if the "next car" doesn't have it. Bluetooth for music might be enough of an upgrade for me. It seems interesting to me this pendulum swing in "every car has CarPlay" to "manufacturers don't trust CarPlay" has happened within the time period of me owning a single car. It probably says something about the car life cycle.

MikeDods 3mo ago

who asked?

zapzupnz 3mo ago
Your comment got downvoted for being flippant but I agree. It's an interesting discussion but it really comes off as grandstanding. Doesn't address the main thrust of the article nor the comment to which it replies.

RealityVoid 3mo ago

On the other hand, you are limited by having CD's which compared to streaming stuff from Spotify is much much less convenient, take up space and you need to create/buy them, your playlist don't synch up with your other devices. CD experience is much less streamlined than a smartphone. Perhaps nostalgia makes them seem cooler for you, but I am not sold.

skydhash 3mo ago
Not GP. But a decade ago, my brother’s car didn’t have bluetooth. We burned down a few mixes on CD and that was ok for long trek during town. He replaced that unit but we still used those CD from time to time. It was simpler than deciding which phone to connect. Even today, while I use spotify on my work computer, it’s basically the same albums every day (around a dozen). Playing CDs would be probably better than switching to the UX disaster that is Spotify
- RealityVoid 3mo ago
  I have a car that doesn't have bluetooth, and trust me, when it's not there, you miss it.
- embedding-shape 3mo ago
  > Even today, while I use spotify on my work computer, it’s basically the same albums every day (around a dozen). Playing CDs would be probably better than switching to the UX disaster that is Spotify Why don't you switch to CDs then? Something is telling me this isn't quite the full story. I'm sure lots of people who don't really need to use Spotify use Spotify all the time, if you really do listen to just a few albums, why not buy those off Bandcamp/Beatport/Whatever then listen to those and stop paying Spotify? I'd easily switch away from Spotify if I no longer saw/agreed with the convenience, but hard to beat it for discovery right now.
  - rpdillon 3mo ago
    The full story is that CDs have a physicality to them that can be somewhat inconvenient. But the concept holds. I have a directory in a copyparty share that I stream music from constantly. It's probably 20 albums worth of music, and it's just in a mix that I put on almost every day, whether I'm driving or I'm working. I tend to tune into livestreams on YouTube for the discovery aspect.

skydhash 3mo ago

> the radio turns on instantly and start playing music, no things that have to boot Currently my bane with the smart TV I have. Takes so long to boot and to wake from sleep that I’d press the power button, go to make my coffee and then get back to it. Otherwise I’d be halfway through my breakfast when all I wanted to do is watch a few videos on Youtube.

xp84 3mo ago
Seconding this. Who knew that the time an old CRT took to warm up would seem like an instant compared to the boot time of a 75” flatscreen introduced 35 years later? :[ I miss dumb TVs so much.

kenjackson 3mo ago

Your use case sounds like exactly the opposite of what I’d prefer. And, I personally find the quality of YouTube Music Premium (256kbps AAC) superior to FM radio.

deleted 3mo ago
[deleted]
embedding-shape 3mo ago
> And, I personally find the quality of YouTube Music Premium (256kbps AAC) superior to FM radio. When it comes to playing music from phones in cars, connection type seems to matter more than the source, and iOS has some weird built-in sound normalization only for CarPlay that drives me crazy. In my Audi A3 (2018), if I connect my iPhone 12 Mini via AUX or Bluetooth, sounds works perfectly fine. Same when playing via CD or USB stick inserted into the car, no problem. FM radio also works well, regardless of volume. However, if I play music via CarPlay (Spotify [lossless], YouTube, on phone .flac files, etc) some built-in sound normalization seems to kick in and suddenly it ruins the music when playing even slightly louder. I've tried for years to figure out what the hell is going on, tried every setting under the sun, but cannot get it to work so only thing left is some built-in sound ruinification ("normalization") that Apple does, only when played via CarPlay, not when playing via AUX or Bluetooth. Seems to happen with every car I try it with, but I never tried a different phone. So right now I'm choosing between being able to have GPS or listen to music properly, as I cannot do both at the same time...
- topgrain2 3mo ago
  Maybe it’s trying to split the output into more than two audio channels when in CarPlay mode? If it were only Apple Music doing this I’d be sure this was triggering its Atmos output, not sure how it’d be affecting other players, but maybe.
  - embedding-shape 3mo ago
    Tried every conceivable player, Spotify, YouTube Music, YouTube, Apple Music (local files), Soundcloud and more, all of them leading to the same thing, via USB+CarPlay the sound get normalized somehow but if using AUX/Bluetooth, works normally. > Maybe it’s trying to split the output into more than two audio channels when in CarPlay mode? I hope so, most of what I play is stereo, and works fine via AUX/Bluetooth.

lilhenry 3mo ago

I’m in a similar situation, my car does have Bluetooth, but I mostly use cd’s and radio, the one thing I wish I had was a map in a convenient spot, I have to have my phone set up in some awkward holder to view it, I’m dependent on using the maps app on my phone

WorldMaker 3mo ago
My 2012MY car has Bluetooth, but only for calls/interruptions not for music so I've been using USB sticks still. It has a navigation system but the map DVDs are so weirdly expensive that I have never updated the maps. I'm at the point where I don't always trust the nav system to get me somewhere and use my phone. I leave the car's map up if I want to glance at it to double check, but also assume some of the roads are wrong now. The biggest thing I miss is "next turn info" in the driver cluster, but the Apple Watch has a version of that. It's still less convenient to glance at my watch instead of the driver cluster, but still better than glancing at my phone or having to mount my phone somewhere. CarPlay sounds fantastic but right now all the manufacturers I'm looking at for "next car" don't support it. I keep thinking if I never experience it first hand I'll not be disappointed if the "next car" doesn't have it. Bluetooth for music might be enough of an upgrade for me. It seems interesting to me this pendulum swing in "every car has CarPlay" to "manufacturers don't trust CarPlay" has happened within the time period of me owning a single car. It probably says something about the car life cycle.