Tech
How To Listen To CDs Without A CD Player
In the Year of Our Lord 2022, apparently CDs are still being produced. I have been brushing up on my foreign language skills recently, and most textbooks you can buy online boast that they come with an audio component to practice your listening comprehension. For some, that means recordings that can be accessed via QR code or URL. For others, it means they stick a CD in a pouch attached to the back page of the book.
Why they do this I have no idea. Presumably they do not want to pay hosting fees to maintain a website with the audio files. Whatever the reason, it is extremely annoying. How do they expect their customers to use the CDs? These days, people are more likely to own a record player than a CD player. Unless you happen to have an old PS3 lying around, the only place you might have a CD player is in your car. These publishers can’t honestly think people are going to drive around every time they want a language lesson, right? In addition to being a big hassle, that also seems rather unsafe.
All of this is to say that I had to go to Amazon and purchase a CD player. At first I bought a portable CD player, perhaps in an unconscious nod to the good times I had growing up listening to my Sony Walkman.
When it arrived, I was excited to finally get back to my language learning. Unfortunately, the thing turned out to be a piece of junk. It does not work at all. I put in the batteries and my CD, and it turned on. But no matter what buttons I pressed it would not actually produce any sound. I tried both the cheap earbuds it came with as well as my own, both to no avail. In short, do NOT buy this CD player.
Back to the drawing board. I started searching again on Amazon and decided to try a different route. At first I was leery of buying a CD-ROM drive to attach to my laptop. I figured that already spend enough time each day glued to my computer screen, so why tether myself if I didn’t have to? But all the CD players with the best reviews were that type, so I bit the bullet and bought this one:
Thank God I did! The Amicool external CD-ROM exceeded all my expectations. I was worried about having to mess with some sort of installation software, but it turned out to be truly plug-and-play. Importantly, it comes with a USB-C adapter. (Watch out: A lot of the available options only have a traditional USB-A plug, useless if you are using a MacBook.) I was able to listen to the audio files as soon as I inserted the CD. Success!
If this were all the CD player did, I would give it my seal of approval. But I haven’t even mentioned the best part. As soon as you play a track from the CD, iTunes (or whatever Apple is calling its music software these days) immediately uploads and stores it. Remember how I said I didn’t want to have to sit in front of my computer more than I had to? That is not a problem if the sound files are always in your Music app. That means you can listen to them on your iPhone or iPad wherever and whenever you please. Happy listening!