How to listen in the car without an installed stereo?

August 9, 2006 4:57 AM

I have an old car with no radio and would like to start listening to books on CD and music on the way to work. The car is on its way out, so I don't want to install a CD player if I can avoid it. What are some other convenient, inexpensive options to would allow me to listen without being dangerous.
posted by GernBlandston to Travel & Transportation (14 answers total)

When my car stereo got stolen, I took an old pair of computer speakers and mounted them on the dash (you can get an adapter that will power them from the cigarette lighter for under $10 at Radio Shack). Then I just plugged my iPod into the speakers. I don't see any reason this wouldn't work just as well with a portable CD player.
posted by myeviltwin at 5:05 AM on August 9, 2006

Small speakers (either battery operated or not) that plug into the headphone jack of your CD player seems an obvious one. Any reason you don't want to go that route? You likely already have a portable CD player, a DC power cord is cheap, and the speakers can likely be had for $15 or so. Quality isn't great, but you don't need great range for voice.
posted by GhostintheMachine at 5:06 AM on August 9, 2006

iTunes Music Store has audiobooks you can listen to via an iPod Shuffle for $69 and up.

Other audiobooks available as well.

You can "rip" CDs you own into iTunes and listen to them on your iPod, in addition to audiobooks.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 5:07 AM on August 9, 2006

I'm currently doing exactly what myeviltwin did, as my stereo was just stolen. I have portable speakers and just listen through them. They kinda suck though, quality-wise, so I usually use my headphones instead.
posted by Mach5 at 5:08 AM on August 9, 2006

The OP did not actually mention mp3 or iPod, so I'm assuming that really only CD playback is needed.

In that case, just get a boombox. It's a cheap, self-contained solution.

Also, don't use headphones in the car, it's dangerous.
posted by intermod at 5:12 AM on August 9, 2006

Also, don't use headphones in the car, it's dangerous. posted by intermod

Also illegal in many states.
posted by buggzzee23 at 5:26 AM on August 9, 2006

When I was in college oh so many years ago b.c.d (before cds) I bought a pair of $20 speakers that run on four AA batteries and took an exacto knife and cut a flap through the vinyl covering my armrest and proceeded to dig out the foam that was inside until I could fit the speakers and my walkman inside. Then I was able to close the flap with a piece of velcro. This worked well because it hid the speakers from view so I could leave them in my car. It worked great and actually sounded better than the car stereo of my 81 Ford Granada.
posted by any major dude at 5:42 AM on August 9, 2006

What intermod said.

My first car didn't have a radio, but I had a great, cheap little boombox. It would suck down batteries, but nowadays, an inverter for your cigarette lighter is inexpensive.
posted by zerokey at 5:50 AM on August 9, 2006

Rockbox is a replacement operating system for many mp3 players (such as iPod, iRiver, or Archos) and comes with a rather nifty car mode that starts up and shuts down when it detects current through the 12V adaptor.

Therefore, the suggestion above to rig up some speakers would go well. The cheapest option is probably one of the old Archos players - these are quite large relative to current players but that's not really an issue in the car - and they are cheap on ebay. They come in up to 20 GB versions, but you can drop in your own disk up to 130GB if you really want every audiobook on hand.

Rockbox will also bookmark mp3 files, which most other players do not. It supports resume on startup, and lets you press to mark your own bookmarks during playback so you can make a "stack" of goto points.
posted by meehawl at 5:51 AM on August 9, 2006

In that case, just get a boombox. It's a cheap, self-contained solution.

...that will probably have your CD's skipping with every rotation of your wheel.

Hopefully you already have a portable CD player with at least 60 seconds of skip protection. Anything less than that is an exercise in frustration for car usage. That's pretty standard on "walkman" type players you would need to play through speakers, as suggested earlier, but if you're going for super-cheap, it's still possible to miss.
posted by ferociouskitty at 5:51 AM on August 9, 2006

Libraries have books on cassette as well as books on CD. I use an old monaural cassette player plugged into my cig lighter for listening to books that are not available on CD.
This could get you by until you get another car.
posted by Raybun at 7:25 AM on August 9, 2006

Audio books are typically mono. Grab a pair of open air ear buds, put one in, and leave the other ear open. Listening to an audio book is not like listening to rock music. There is a lot of quiet in there, really, and the sounds of traffic and whatnot will overpower the sound of the voice.
posted by jeversol at 7:49 AM on August 9, 2006

As long as you don't have fancy sound-canceling or earplug-style headphones they're really OK to use.
posted by Mr. Gunn at 4:47 PM on August 9, 2006

Mr. Gunn, they're really not. Assuming that you're speaking from experience, you apparently don't realize how you are endangering yourself and those around you.
posted by intermod at 5:25 AM on August 10, 2006