[sygazelle]

I already know that CDs are old technology and everybody streams now. But, its my wife's car and she loves her CDs. When we bought the G05 they said it was pre-wired for a CD player in the glove box. At the time we purchased in February, there was no CD player available. I figured my wife would get used to Sirius XM or Amazon Music and forget about the CD player. I figured wrong. She still wants it.

Question: Has anybody used the CD prewiring on the G05 to successfully install a CD player? If so, can you share info on CD model number, where you bought it, installation issues, etc.

Thanks!

[LexxM3]

Originally Posted by sygazelle

I already know that CDs are old technology and everybody streams now. But, its my wife's car and she loves her CDs. When we bought the G05 they said it was pre-wired for a CD player in the glove box. At the time we purchased in February, there was no CD player available. I figured my wife would get used to Sirius XM or Amazon Music and forget about the CD player. I figured wrong. She still wants it.

Question: Has anybody used the CD prewiring on the G05 to successfully install a CD player? If so, can you share info on CD model number, where you bought it, installation issues, etc.

Thanks!

We won't kill you, we already killed the last guy that asked. Most of us want our 8 track back, or at least a decent turn table.

ObTopic: perhaps you can transfer her CDs to USB or internal storage. There are plenty of good options for this in the car.

[Paladin1]

About 360 CDs will fit on this:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07857Y17V...ing=UTF8&psc=1

And plug into the USB A slot in front of the wireless charger, still allowing the cover to close. No storing CDs in a hot or cold car, no changing CDs, no skipping on rough roads, no moving parts to wear out, no lost space in the glove compartment. And if she has more than 360, another mini-flash costs less than $40. Ten of them will hold 3,600 CDs. With virtually no loss of quality. And ten would fit in the glove compartment without anybody noticing. Or twenty.

[sygazelle]

Originally Posted by Paladin1

About 360 CDs will fit on this:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07857Y17V...ing=UTF8&psc=1

And plug into the USB A slot in front of the wireless charger, still allowing the cover to close. No storing CDs in a hot or cold car, no changing CDs, no skipping on rough roads, no moving parts to wear out, no lost space in the glove compartment. And if she has more than 360, another mini-flash costs less than $40. Ten of them will hold 3,600 CDs. With virtually no loss of quality. And ten would fit in the glove compartment without anybody noticing. Or twenty.

I'm no technical so forgive me. Do you get album art and other info? Is the experience as if a CD player were integrated with the car's stereo system?

[Ninefourteener]

Here's the CD player you are looking for:
https://www.shopbmwusa.com/PRODUCT/7...PLAYER-CHANGER

Not sure if it's a "straight-forward" install.... or if it requires some sort of "coding" from the dealership. I wouldn't be surprised if BMW gets your for $1000 for this thing.

And.... I may actually pay it. I'm in the same boat. I love all my old CDs, and was pretty pissed that the new ones aren't coming with a CD player.

Before trading in my last (2016) BMW, I played, and downloaded all my old CDs (about 110 of them) onto my car's hard drive. Then, I exported all the music onto a USB drive...... now I'm waiting for the new car to arrive.

But.... I'm one of those weird people that still buys CDs. What do I do when I buy another CD? Stick it in the old laptop in the basement, download it onto a USB, then walk the USB out to the car and upload it? That's the answer?

Maybe I'm old... whatever. I still have all my cassettes from high school, and even a few hand-me-down records from the 70s. Music sources are only "outdated" in my opinion... if the music quality is lower..... which ISN'T the case with CDs. In fact, the quality is higher than most streaming services.

I may get the CD player for myself. Haven't decided yet. I'm also researching which streaming services are best, and I'm "probably" going to go with the paid version of Spotify... again, not sure yet though.

[sygazelle]

Originally Posted by Ninefourteener

Here's the CD player you are looking for:
https://www.shopbmwusa.com/PRODUCT/7...PLAYER-CHANGER

Not sure if it's a "straight-forward" install.... or if it requires some sort of "coding" from the dealership. I wouldn't be surprised if BMW gets your for $1000 for this thing.

And.... I may actually pay it. I'm in the same boat. I love all my old CDs, and was pretty pissed that the new ones aren't coming with a CD player.

Before trading in my last (2016) BMW, I played, and downloaded all my old CDs (about 110 of them) onto my car's hard drive. Then, I exported all the music onto a USB drive...... now I'm waiting for the new car to arrive.

But.... I'm one of those weird people that still buys CDs. What do I do when I buy another CD? Stick it in the old laptop in the basement, download it onto a USB, then walk the USB out to the car and upload it? That's the answer?

Maybe I'm old... whatever. I still have all my cassettes from high school, and even a few hand-me-down records from the 70s. Music sources are only "outdated" in my opinion... if the music quality is lower..... which ISN'T the case with CDs. In fact, the quality is higher than most streaming services.

I may get the CD player for myself. Haven't decided yet. I'm also researching which streaming services are best, and I'm "probably" going to go with the paid version of Spotify... again, not sure yet though.

Thanks!

[randybobandy]

Does anyone use a USB-C flash drive inside the center console? I was wondering if that may be overkill, but it is out of site out of mind. Looking at some of the drives, they look like they might get in the way.

I always liked the idea of using the internal HD, but have no idea what else is stored on there. Another reason why connecting the car to home WiFi would be nice to do WiFi transfer versus brining your drive back inside.

[LexxM3]

Originally Posted by randybobandy

Does anyone use a USB-C flash drive inside the center console? I was wondering if that may be overkill, but it is out of site out of mind. Looking at some of the drives, they look like they might get in the way.

See here (links are to amazon.ca, but it's easy to find the same on .com: https://www.bimmerpost.com/forums/sh...php?p=25229127

In the center console, I use a right angle USB C cable for minimum box intrusion.

[Paladin1]

Originally Posted by sygazelle

I'm no technical so forgive me. Do you get album art and other info? Is the experience as if a CD player were integrated with the car's stereo system?

The albums will show up in Media on the list of output options as a device, labeled with whatever you named your flash drive when you formatted it (FAT 32), exactly the same - lots or ripping software to transfer CDs, just takes time to transfer. The additional advantage is that once you convert your CDs to digital, you don't have to worry about a melted CD (yes, had that happen), unrecoverable scratches, or Uncle Joe sitting on it, and you can have a copy in your car, your office, or your home. And they take up, literally, no space.

[randybobandy]

LexxM3 Thanks. I am snooping around the internet to see if there's anything I can use on the HD or using a USB Drive. I use CarPlay with Apple Music, so I am thinking there isn't too much. We had a previous discussion regarding driver's profiles on USB, but I guess that is a no go anymore.

[MatchboxM1]

Originally Posted by randybobandy

LexxM3 Thanks. I am snooping around the internet to see if there's anything I can use on the HD or using a USB Drive. I use CarPlay with Apple Music, so I am thinking there isn't too much. We had a previous discussion regarding driver's profiles on USB, but I guess that is a no go anymore.

I've used Google Play Music for years for a rotating 50K worth of songs. This weekend I want to look at Apple Music to see if it's any better. Right now Google is having their semi annual problem allowing uploads of new music, and in remote areas like we live the access with CarPlay can be a bit finicky, but it generally works and sounds great. I have a collection of 7,500+ LPs plus a few thousand more cassettes and CDs that I rip to my Mac then upload adding crap near daily as new things arrive. Google Play or Apple Music seeming to be the only personal library options for me. I have a few 2T SSD external drives I store this all on, but having one of those in car (if it worked) would be a hassle (as would be flash drives). These programs are dynamic databases and GP great 99% of the time. Anxious to see what Applemusic does to my library - reported issues if you use custom album tagging converting what you have with their database (assuming there's a match with non obscure titles).

[rmorin1249]

I loaded my entire iTunes collection in MP3 format onto a flash drive and then downloaded all 8000 songs to the hard drive in the vehicle.

You can search the entire collection by album, artist or genre and the album art also is visible.

[randybobandy]

Originally Posted by ZGASPEN

I've used Google Play Music for years for a rotating 50K worth of songs. This weekend I want to look at Apple Music to see if it's any better. Right now Google is having their semi annual problem allowing uploads of new music, and in remote areas like we live the access with CarPlay can be a bit finicky, but it generally works and sounds great. I have a collection of 7,500+ LPs plus a few thousand more cassettes and CDs that I rip to my Mac then upload adding crap near daily as new things arrive. Google Play or Apple Music seeming to be the only personal library options for me. I have a few 2T SSD external drives I store this all on, but having one of those in car (if it worked) would be a hassle (as would be flash drives). These programs are dynamic databases and GP great 99% of the time. Anxious to see what Applemusic does to my library - reported issues if you use custom album tagging converting what you have with their database (assuming there's a match with non obscure titles).

Jeez, you got quite the collection! You need to make some public playlists on Apple Music, since it sounds like you know what you're doing.

I love Apple Music, since I am all in on Apple...the iPhone to HomePod hand-off with iOS 13 is awesome! Essentially, I can take whatever is playing on the HomePod in the morning, be it podcast, radio station (iOS 13 gives you iHeartRadio and Radio.com stations!), or music and transfer it to your phone just by holding it close. Once in the car, it is awesome with CarPlay (shoutout to BMW for dropping the subscription!) as far as integration.

If you are on iPhone and prefer CarPlay, Apple Music is fantastic. There will probably be some nuances with custom work and Apple Music, but nothing that you can't fix with some tweaks. I would love for the option to stream directly to the car, but that would probably cost some serious $$$.

Welcome to the Dark Side!

[nosnoop]

Originally Posted by sygazelle

I'm no technical so forgive me. Do you get album art and other info? Is the experience as if a CD player were integrated with the car's stereo system?

Actually, the experience is MUCH better than a CD player.
You can now create multiple playlists of songs from all the CDs.
Or you can shuffle play your entire CD collections!

[randybobandy]

Originally Posted by rmorin1249

I loaded my entire iTunes collection in MP3 format onto a flash drive and then downloaded all 8000 songs to the hard drive in the vehicle.

You can search the entire collection by album, artist or genre and the album art also is visible.

Were these imported from CDs and purchases from iTunes? I don't think you can download Apple Music songs to a flash drive. I can download them for offline use on the iPhone, which is nice from a battery saving standpoint versus streaming.

[rmorin1249]

I downloaded CDs to iTunes in MP3 format. I then transferred all of the albums to a flash drive and used it to transfer everything to the X5 hard drive.

[Ninefourteener]

This thread, was enough for me to take the "plunge".

I called my dealer, and asked him to go ahead and order all the necessary parts for a dealer-installed glovebox CD player.

He's not sure what is required, what it's going to cost... nada. But, he's sent out emails to his service dept. and will be getting back with me shortly.

I'll post up when I get firm part numbers, cost, etc.

[sygazelle]

Originally Posted by Ninefourteener

This thread, was enough for me to take the "plunge".

I called my dealer, and asked him to go ahead and order all the necessary parts for a dealer-installed glovebox CD player.

He's not sure what is required, what it's going to cost... nada. But, he's sent out emails to his service dept. and will be getting back with me shortly.

I'll post up when I get firm part numbers, cost, etc.

Thank you!