Still in the process of pricing a CTS lease.

The first big blow to me was no bluetooth.

Now, just getting off the phone with the dealer, I find out
that if I get the navigation system I lose the 6CD changer.

What I get left with is a single CD changer.

Is this true?

I am sure there are some who will argue it's no big deal
since the CTS has a hard drive to hold all the music one needs.

While that is true, there is still much controversy about the
fact that when copying a CD to the hard drive that it dumbs the
audio down to a 128kb bitrate, which is only a fraction of the
original CD audio quality.

Anyone coming from a vehicle with a 6-CD changer want to
comment on now having one instead?

I had a CD changer in the truck that was my daily driver before I bought the CTS.

I do miss the changer a little, but since mine wasn't an in-dash changer, it's not that big a deal because it's not like I could change CDs while in motion anyway. Also, having the HDD with so many CDs ripped to it has lessened the pain.

If I keep my CTS, I may buy a changer - or I may just put that money towards a massive USB drive or external HDD connected via USB.

Not On My Watch,

Nice to meet you. I am new here and see your posts often.

Listen...you are the guy who can answer this....

Saw your reply in a former thread concerning bitrate when
ripping CDs to the CTS hard drive.

Do you notice a difference between the ripped CD music and the original?

In other words, is it confirmed that the CDs that are burned to the hard
drive are dumbed down to 128kb?

You should notice a drop in music quality if that is the case.

I have the 6 cd player but it's not that big a deal to me. Between XM radio, regular radio and ability to hookup mp3 player, there is so many music options. If I only had one cd slot I wouldn't care. I wish I had the HDD.

I have a 6-disc changer (not in the CTS) and compared to the HDD in the CTS, it blows. In the CTS, I ripped a ton of CDs to the HDD, and I don't have to worry about which 6 CDs I like that day or wait for the changer to swap between CDs or try to remember whether Disc #4 is Gwar or Yanni. The quality of the ripped music is excellent (better than XM, IMHO).

Buy an Apple Ipod. Put your entire collection in it. Plug it into the port. It works seemlessly on the Nav screen. Just touch and play. Artist,album, title. 6 cd players are like 8 track players now.:cool2:

Not On My Watch,

Nice to meet you. I am new here and see your posts often.

Listen...you are the guy who can answer this....

Saw your reply in a former thread concerning bitrate when
ripping CDs to the CTS hard drive.

Do you notice a difference between the ripped CD music and the original?

In other words, is it confirmed that the CDs that are burned to the hard
drive are dumbed down to 128kb?

You should notice a drop in music quality if that is the case.

Hey there, NJRonbo - nice to meet you too.

All CDs ripped to the HDD are ripped at a relatively low bit rate. There is difference between the ripped CD music and the original - your ears will tell you that the first time you listen to a ripped track.

Whether it is acceptable is very subjective. At first I could hardly stand listening to ripped tracks due to the lower fidelity, but after listening to them and subjecting myself to the low fidelity XM radio for two months, it isn't too bad.

Not the kind of thing that makes me want to crank up the volume and blast the music, but for daily commutes and long road trips at low to moderate volumes, it's fine. If I want to really crank a song, I will still use the CD.

In my opinion, in the CD era, changers were probably the preferred method. If you want the highest quality, the way to go now is to rip your CDs onto your computer in Apple Lossless format. Download to your iPod plug into the CTS and you're ready to go. No CDs to keep up with. Same quality as a CD. It does use more memory on your computer and iPod.

Don't you have the hard drive to store your music and an ipod hookup ?
Why do you need a cd changer ? The bluetooth to me is a valid complaint but the cd changer is obsolete that is like asking for an eight track tape player.

at first i was suprised to learn there wasn't a changer included in the nav.. but then i thought about it and since y ou have the ipod hookup and hard drive it's far better then having a changer.. i personally have a few hundred albums on my ipod/hdd so it works out better for me
bluetooth is valid like dwight j. carter said, but that's been brought up many many times on this forum

you know i have ripped about 600 plus songs to my hdd, and the quality is excellent!! I honestly can not tell the difference. When im ripping a cd im listening to it at the same time, and then i go to the hdd to put the proper songs in their playlist and it sounds as good or even better to me. My last car had the 6 disc in dash and that was cool but it is nothing compared to the beauty of the hdd! You never have to swap cds or wait for it to switch to the next disc its BAM!! Right there all the time you can have up to 6 different playlists for whatever mood you are in, disc changer doesnt do that! With 6 disc indash you are limited to roughly 90 songs give or take. Did you just hear me when i said i have 600+ songs? And im sure some members have more than that. Now as far as the xm radio goes, that quality is terrible, but tolerable.

I have the 6 cd player but it's not that big a deal to me. Between XM radio, regular radio and ability to hookup mp3 player, there is so many music options. If I only had one cd slot I wouldn't care. I wish I had the HDD.

My thoughts exactly. I had a 6-disc in dash cd changer in my 03 Mustang. I was hoping to get a 6-disc in the 08 CTS, but instead only got the single disc. The way I see it, with XM and the ability to plug in an mp3 player (which I did not have with the Mustang) I pretty happy so far. I'm going to take the money saved from the cd changer and upgrade my iPod to the 80GB classic.

to ST4422. Do you know what the memory versus minute conversion factor is for Apple Lossless? How many minutes of music ber Gigabyte or whatever?

I don't have to worry about which 6 CDs I like that day or wait for the changer to swap between CDs or try to remember whether Disc #4 is Gwar or Yanni.

GWAR to Yanni - now that's some eclectic musical taste!

GWAR to Yanni - now that's some eclectic musical taste!

I think they should get together for an album

I could be mistaken, but I think that the other tradeoff is that the single disc player comes with the Bose Premium sound system, while the 6 disc player comes with the standard system. If you have the Nav system and the single disc, you also have the DVD player as well. Great for watching movies while stuck in traffic! IMHO it is a great tradeoff. The premium sound system comes with the 300 watt amplifier and 10 speaker surround sound system including subwoofer. I believe the other system is only 6 speakers. I think that the premium sound system sounds terrific especially when you focus the center point on the driver's seat. You will enjoy whatever system you get so jump in!

Great for watching movies while stuck in traffic!

Well, that's a stretch. You can't watch a DVD while the car is not in PARK.

Folks, I understand the benefits of the hard drive.

Being a music purist I can't fathom ripping my CDs to the CTS hard drive at 128 bitrate.

Now, if I could copy to my Apple iPod in LOSSLESS (not a problem) and copy the entire
contents to the CTS hard drive WITH NO COMPRESSION BEING DONE then that would be ideal!

to ST4422. Do you know what the memory versus minute conversion factor is for Apple Lossless? How many minutes of music ber Gigabyte or whatever?

Apple lossless uses about 5 times the memory that 128 kbps AAC or MP3 uses. So, figure about 5 MB/Min of music for Apple Lossless and 1 MB/Min for 128kbps.

Can't you just convert your CD's to a higher bitrate mp3 then transfer them to the HDD via the USB port? I've got all my CD's sampled at higher bitrates and then plan on mass transferring them over once my car arrives.

Twig

Yes! Absolutely! That's the ideal way to do it.

The only question I had concerning that method is whether
the CTS further compresses anything you upload to it directly
from another hard drive or iPod.