I was looking at the 2023 ES in Lexus website and it didn't seem to offer a CD player like the previous models. Am I wrong?

 

Along with the trackpad, the dvd drive is no longer a feature in the ES.

 

I have seen some 2023 ES's on YouTube and the CD/DVD player is absent for the US market.

 

It's a great cost and weight savings. I've removed them from the 7ES before and they are HEAVY. I mean heavy. i've torn them down too to see whats inside. lots of metal. that space can be used for other things. or not at all.

i have not even used the CD player in any car since the very early 2000s.

It's like the cigarette lighter port. it's so silly but today they're really only used for legacy chargers /accessories people MAY use. i feel that one may go away in the near future too.

 

Unfortunately for us, we love the CDs. They seem to put out better sound than music stored on a USB thumb drive (just our opinion). Do you know whether an aftermarket CD player is available that can be installed? I have seen separate CD player for laptop computers but have never seen one for cars.

 

I still play CDs every now and then because the flash drive sounds like crap in the ML system. I guess I have low quality MP3s. They sound fine though in my wife's RX sans ML.

 

The problem is that you're putting MP3 files on your thumb drive. If you copy the CD tracks to your thumb drive using a lossless format (WAV, FLAC, etc.) they will sound identical to the CDs. In these formats, the tracks take up a lot more space than MP3 files. But today's thumb drives are so huge, space is not an issue. You can copy your CDs to WAV files using Windows Media Player. The only problem is that sorting the tracks on the thumb drive to play in the order you want is a tricky process.

 

Agree with the above. If you convert your CD's to FLAC, you will not be able to tell the difference between CD and flash drive.

I'm actually surprised it took Lexus this long, as other manufactures have ditched the player over 10 years ago.

 

Wow I'm the complete opposite from you guys lol. Carplay and USBC for the win! Apple music and Spotify is all I use to hear music in my ES.

 

No, you're not.

I don't use my thumb drive anymore. I use CarPlay and Amazon Music. The sound quality is a step above CDs. But that's not what the OP was asking about.

What is USBC?

 

The cable connector.

 

That's what I was thinking, but it doesn't make any sense. My 2019 ES uses a standard USB-A to lightening cable for CarPlay. Do the newer ESs have USB-C inputs?

 

I believe they still use USB-A. I was thinking maybe cause they're using an Android, but they said CarPlay, so they must be just referring to the lightning cable which you could argue is USB-C, just for Apple products lol

 

On my 22 there are the usual usb -a ports with the aux jack above the shifter. For the rear, directly behind the console near the floor are 2 usb c charging(only) ports. For 23, the ES gets 1 usb c near the shifter. I believe it’s only 1. I didn’t look in the rear but I’m going to assume there are still 2 usb c charging ports for the rear passengers.

 

You can rip your CDs to digital media in high quality and save them to your phone or USB.

CDs have joined the cassettes and 8 tracks.