Music on the road

[Wendy]

What do you all do for music on the road? Sirrius? MP3? Local stations? Do you take your favorite CDs and tapes with you? Should I start selling off all CDs and tapes we have or try to make room for them in the motorhome?

Wendy

 

[Phil]

What do you all do for music on the road? Sirrius? MP3? Local stations? Do you take your favorite CDs and tapes with you? Should I start selling off all CDs and tapes we have or try to make room for them in the motorhome?

Wendy,

I put all my CDs on a Nomad Jukebox.  I also use a Sirius satellite radio.  After some serious pressure from Russ I purchased an iPod to replace the Nomad Jukebox.

Phil

 

[DougJ]

I'm not a fulltimer so there is no pressure on me to find a way to get my 400+ music CDs into my home.

We have a nice stereo system in our motor because I need a "music fix" on pretty regular basis.  My tastes are eclectic so my collection runs from JJ Cale and other pop, jazz, and blues artists to classical in almost all forms.

So what I do is pick out about 50 CDs to take with me in a holder (ie, they are no longer in their cases) for a given trip.  The selection reflects how I'm feeling at the time and the length of the trip we'll be going on.  In addition, I keep a smaller more or less unchanging collection in the motorhome--these often work for me regardless of what mood I'm in.

Ciao,

Doug

 

[caltex]

I put all my CD's on the computer and select some to carry on the ipod.  The ipod plugs directly into the stereo system and will play for two weeks without repeating a song. Direct TV now has sat radio for the music channels so if you have an in-motion antenna for your vehicle you can bypass the extra payment for satellite radio.

 

[Tom]

Russ didn't get to me yet, although I've seen his huge collection of music. I use the Nomad Jukebox for MP3 and a Delphi XM receiver. Both plug directly into the surround sound on the coach and the systems at home.

 

[Bob Buchanan]

What do you all do for music on the road? Sirrius? MP3? Local stations? Do you take your favorite CDs and tapes with you? Should I start selling off all CDs and tapes we have or try to make room for them in the motorhome?

Several years ago, I came close to buying one of those CD changers with a remote that I could move between my jeep and my rig. I'm a full timer. Fortunately, I chatted with a young fellow at Frye's Electronics first. He pointed out that CD's will soon be obsolete -- and that the technology of the iPod was a better direction. I wound up buying a poor man's iPod, loaded all the CD's I own and began downloading tons of tracks from the Internet -- plus borrowing CD's from friends long enough to copy them to my Player. The Player will go for days without my hearing the same track twice.

I can play it thru my Jeep FM or the rig FM radio -- or just plug in a head set while riding my bike or walking. That's while underway in either vehicle or on the bike. If I am parked, all the tracks are on my computer -- that is rigged to play through my on board stereo system. The computer is a much better sound source if there is no need to be mobile otherwise.

So my advice is to check out some kind of player. I would suggest looking at the competition and help in my efforts to put Apple out of business once and for all  . There are a number of excellent units on the market that are just a good as the iPod at a much better price. Apple stuff has always been overpriced and incompatible with the rest of the world -- and the only thing keeping them alive is their success with the iPod (probably the only item they've ever produced that IS compatible). And that will be short lived now that so many others are making comparable but lower priced  units.

And yes -- do get rid of those CD's  .

 

[John From Detroit]

The dash radio in my rig plays CD's including MP3 cd's.  I record a number of radio shows using the station's internet feeds (Time shifting the shows in fact) for listening to later.  At "medium" quailty I can put 24 hours worth of music on one cd,  That is more than I can drive in a day.

Of course, once I go full time this may now work so well

XM would be my choice for broadcast just now however since what I'm doing costs me far less (RW's are reusable after all) and has other advantages.

I also have MiniDisc players

 

[DougJ]

Oh Bob I couldn't do And yes -- do get rid of those CD's  Smiley.  I've still got most of my LPs, particularly the classical stuff.  For both classical and pop I've got stuff on LP that I still can't find on CD--early Joan Baez and some stuff of Bjoerling. 

Mind you, I did get rid of my stereo equipment that used tubes rather than transistors--with some difficulty 'cause I couldn't get replacement tubes.  I say this only partly with tongue in cheek.  As I understand it, tubes are making a come back.

Ciao,

Doug

 

[quasi]

We have purchased a 400 disc player/changer that plays most types of discs. Also, DirecTV is eliminating their music channels and replacing them with 67 channels of XM radio. Plus, I hum a lot and the voices in my head sing along....
Q

 

[rhmahoney]

We have purchased a 400 disc player/changer that plays most types of discs. Also, DirecTV is eliminating their music channels and replacing them with 67 channels of XM radio. Plus, I hum a lot and the voices in my head sing along....
Q

I hope you do not plan to take this along with you in the RV!  Been there, done that...a few of the CDs got badly scuffed due to vibration. Much better to rip them to high bit rate MP3 files on computer and manage them with iTunes.

 

[Terry A. Brewer]

Wendy

I copied all our music to an Ipod & have it plugged into a Ipod Bose unit that sits on my dash...I no longer use the radio or 10 CD changer.<G>


Terry
At Yuma, AZ

 

[Cliff Boyd]

We downloaded about 2500 songs on a gateway digital jukebox and connect it to the Bose Wave in bedroom area and to the main system up front. No cds to hassel with.
Cliff

 

[Wendy]

Thanks for all the advice. Sounds like the CDs and tapes need to go out at the next yard sale although there may be some that I just can't part with (Jimmy Buffett springs to mind). I seem to recall doing this the last time we moved into the RV...took all our vinyl to Recycle Records. Got a fair amount of money for them but I sure do miss some of them...Fire House +2 springs to mind and Joan Baez (why did you have to remind me, Doug????). But in those days there was no easy way to load up on music other than tapes.

I'll cetainly look into some system other iPod if it's Apple owned. I won't touch an Apple product. They lost me totally back when the Apple II GS I bought was guaranteed to be the best and greatest.....until 6 months later when they did away with all compatible software. I believe I paid $3500 for the thing. Sooooo, no more Apples for me, ever.

Wendy
p.s. We're packing up for a 2-week trip to southern California and every load I take out to the motorhome makes full-timing look even better.

 

[Tom]

I won't touch an Apple product. They lost me totally back when the Apple II GS I bought was guaranteed to be the best and greatest

LOL Wendy, I was there too. But I have to say that the iPod is by far the slickest MP3 player on the market. Actually there are several iPod models and all of them are slick machines. I current have a different brand (Creative Technologies) but, when it's time to upgrade, I'll be getting an iPod.

 

[Tom]

....Ipod & have it plugged into a Ipod Bose unit

That's a really nice unit Terry. I recall you receiving it in the mail while at Moab.

 

[quasi]

Question for the iPodians,
How long should it take to rip 400 CD's worth of music to your PC or iPod? I'm 51 now and I'd like to do something with my retirement years...

Q

 

[Chet18013]

Depending on the CD and your computer, it can take 10-15  minutes per CD to rip them.

Chet18013

 

[Cliff Boyd]

Wendy,
Don't toss the CDs after loading them to a music device....you never know when it will dump the info. The Gateway has never given us any problem but there is always a chance. When you get your player I will send you some RVing songs.
Cliff
http://home.earthlink.net/~rvparkmusic/

 

[rhmahoney]

It took me 3 months to load 3,000 CDs to my computer. That took up 200 Gig of space (192 mbit MP3s).

Do store the originals in a safe place and don't discard them! Data destroying computer disasters are a fact of life. My backups have prevented disaster TWICE, so far.

The audiobooks on cassette tapes took longer to transfer and have run the total size of my collection up to 350 Gig. Couldn't have done it without my Mac computer and the easy functionality of iTunes and Applescript to massage the label info. Most of my music is classical and there is no consistent data entry scheme.

 

[JohnSandyWhite]

Being as we are Full-Timer's, we usually make our own Music on the road. I play the Guitar and we have a sing song. We do have a few CD's which we play occasionally. But for the last 6 months. I have been burning 121 Laser Karaoke Discs (3000 songs) on  to Hard Drives. We used to do Karaoke for a living at one time. Occasionally during our travels we are asked to do a Karaoke for our friends or the Old Folk. Since we retired. We don't carry our Karaoke equipment with us so by burning the songs onto Hard Drives we have the best of both worlds. Compact but still the fuly operational. My Son is a DJ/Karaoke Compere and he is about to invest in a Laptop with MP3 DJ software. Much easier than carrying all those CD's with him.