There's always the Analog push button AM radio.

 

this is just my opinion on it....

The cd changer seems pointless. Putting a cd changer in isn't going "retro" it's putting in an old and outdated piece of equipment in a vehicle that already does this function a 100x better. The cd player in your hhr is going to play any cd you give it better a cd changer that old. I don' even understand the allure of the 6 cd in dash changer. Ipod or one cd with mp3s on it solves all of those situations.

For the cassette deck. That makes a little more sense to add it if you love cassettes. Personally i hate them. But your hhr doesn't have a way to play those so adding it might give you something you wouldn't otherwise have.

The 8 track idea is pretty cool. Retro car with a truly retro music player. Cassettes aren't retro enough for it but 8 tracks are. Love going to car shows and seeing an 8 track player and then stack of cartridges for it.

So those are my thoughts, the cd changer just seems pointless.

 

The nice thing about the in dash 6 disk changer is that you can have multiple MP3 cds and have tons of music available. I have several different mp3 cds with a different mix of music. I just select the disk that suits my mood at the moment.

 

I've done the same with my iPod. Several play lists depending on what my mood is. Rock, Classical, World, Jazz, Blues, even some Podcasts. There's also the artist and Album play lists so if you want to listen to a specific artist/album you can do that. The 6 Cd changer is nice but I have yet to use it. I suppose the kid's Cds can go in there on road trips.

 

I never understood the Ipod or, in general, the portable MP3 player.....until they came out with an 80 Gig model. The thought of having an entire lifetime's music collection, all in a box smaller than a pack of cigarettes boggles my mind. I have a wall full of vinyl records, stacks of CDs on my desk, and all could be totally useless and obsolete. I don't need the material product, I only want the music.

 

if you have that much music how did you not understand the ipod before they had an 80 gb.? Yes, before you couldn't carry your entire collection, but even with the original ipod you could carry a ton. Even now it's not enough space for audiophile collections.

The original 5gb ipod, the size of a couple cd cases tacked together, could carry over 1000 songs (at around 4mb each, i generalized, the exact number would be 1,250, but you need to account for formatting the drive and song size variation etc.) To carry that same amount of music on cd (lets say 15 tracks per disc) you would have to carry 66 cd's.

I have a 40 gb ipod and it changed my life when i got it. I'm not exaggerating. I had all of my music on it, and could carry huge design files around with me at all times. Perfect.

Sorry for being so off topic, your comment just seems crazy to not see the allure of a product like the ipod until it reaches the point where it could hold 20,000 songs...

 

That was my first thought but I often carry bulky audio gear and couldn't find an out-of-the-way location to mount the beast.


Here are some pics of my layout that may help:

 

With the cassette deck, there is no integrated means to play CDs other than with the changer. Plus I like to load several discs so I can compare, review, and critique mixes of client projects. Mixes of a single client song can fill more than one 80 minute disc. And its good to ensure mix consistency across different songs.

As an audio engineer, I have to have a place to perform QC on the go.
As a DJ, the cassettes are for me so I can enjoy to the turntable werk I do with my vinyl collection.

 

In the studio I mix client audio in 2.0, 2.1, 5.1, 7.1 & 2, and 9.2 @ 24/96 and 32/192. Its bad enough that CDs won't allow greater than 2.0 @ 16/48 resolution. I do critical listening as I drive, and furthur compressing the audio to that of iPod, MP3 or WMA etc is not an option.

 

Vinyl will never become obsolete. I too have a large collection and now that retailers are selling them again, my collection will continue to grow. HERE is the article.

I prefer vinyl warmth over tape hiss, and tape hiss over the squeal and whine of mp3.