Topic: mp3 players, ancient stereos
in Forum: C3 Electrical
i mean lets face it- those fm tuners suck, and im not going to use an old radio shack 8-track to cassette adapter to a cd to cassette adapter. kinda redundant!
anyone ever come across anything? lots of stuff for newer radios, but not much for the older stuff. who wants to pay 500 bucks to play your ipod on your 8-track? and im not too crazy about the custom autosound units either!
Lifetime Memberyeah, thats my point- those damn fm transmitters really suck most times, and forget it if you live in a busy metro area- lots of radio congestion and signal drift. in new jersey, they are almost useless. id love to jack directly into my old 8-track player. theres gotta be a way to solder some wires into it and make an input jack.
Sorry I can't be of more help. It is definitely possible to solder in an adapter that feed a signal into the amp, but knowing it can be done and knowing how to do it are two different things...MP3 mode, the music's already been compromised in quality. MP3 is a
compression technology, which results in less than CD-level sound. So
you'd already be starting out with degraded quality, then running it
through an underpowered amp in the original deck, with quarter-
century-old circuitry and other less-than-optimum components. Using
OEM speakers/speaker wiring compounds the problem. You'd already be
so far into the hole in terms of sound quality that an additional
degradation in terms of using an FM adapter, or the 8-track to cassette
etc. adapter idea would probably be pretty much academic at that point.
(You can use an iPod to achieve CD quality sound, but most people don't
because a) they tend not to know about the choice available and b) it
means that you can't carry around quite as much music, because the
built-in "lossless" recording technology in the iPod requires more storage
than MP3 tracks do).
Sorry I can't suggest a solution for you--sad to say, but retaining your
original equipment pretty much precludes getting anything resembling
decent-quality sound, by today's generally-accepted standards anyway.
I had an Awia in mine, it has a jack on the front panel just for that kind of thing, also our new Dakota has the same provision, don't sound too shabby at all. I concur with SF on the idea to modify an old set.
Dave
in our Nissan Sentra, and it's a great piece of equipment. As you say, it
has the AUX jack right there on the front panel. And more than enough
built-in power to handle four aftermarket speakers (6.5 " JBL 3-ways in
the rear and 6.5" Bazooka 3-ways--only because they were dirt cheap
from the dealer going out of business!--in the front.)
Stevep316, I completely understand and respect the desire to keep things
stock. I'm just too much of a music and audio equipment lover to be
happy with anything less than the very best I can build in, on a very
limited budget. That's why an Alpine deck and amp and JBL, Infinity or
Boston Acoustic speakers front and back with Monster Cable wiring will
be going into the '78 Silver Anniversary when it's finally ready for this
system. Even though the side pipes may drown it partially out, it'll still be
a pleasure to listen to!
Good luck with whatever solution you ultimately decide on for your '79. In
my totally prejudiced opinion, I think you'd be amazed and delighted with
the results if you do decide to move on and up to some modern
aftermarket gear. And the great part is, these days you can do so without
having to shell out major $$. Unlike so many other parts of our beloved
Sharks!
Steve, There was a posting a few days ago by Ten15 about a company in PA who does internal upgrades to older radio's with new circuits etc. We have a friend with an 67 Mustang who had it done to his factory radio, and he's happy with the results, but he's not a audio nut like some of us. It's still a non CD unit, and as far as Autosound is concerned I've heard too many complaints about their quality. It all comes down to what kind of sound you want, and are willing to spend. I purchased a radio bezel and installed an Alpine head unit with an Alpine 360 AMP with 6 Infinity Kappa speakers, topped it off with Monster cables and I must say the system plays awesome 
If you're interested, I have a deal for you. My Alpine was given to me by my Son-in-Law, just before he gave it to me I had gotten an Alpine from E-bay (This is a very good, almost new unit) I paid $135. for it. I tested it but never used it, I've had it sitting around for a year. I'll bring it with me to BM, take a look at my setup if you like the unit you can have it for $50. Bear in mind, no matter how good a radio is, it's only as good as the speakers, and visa versa. I can tell you were to get a good deal on speakers in Jersey.
Steve, There was a posting a few days ago by
Ten15 about a company in PA who does internal upgrades to older radio's
with new circuits etc. We have a friend with an 67 Mustang who had it
done to his factory radio, and he's happy with the results, but
he's not a audio nut like some of us. It's still a non CD unit,
and as far as Autosound is concerned I've heard too many complaints
about their quality. It all comes down to what kind of sound you
want, and are willing to spend. I purchased a radio bezel and installed
an Alpine head unit with an Alpine 360 AMP with 6 Infinity Kappa
speakers, topped it off with Monster cables and I must say the system
plays awesome
If you're interested, I have a deal for you. My Alpine was given to me by my Son-in-Law, just before he gave it to me I had gotten an Alpine from E-bay (This is a very good, almost new unit) I paid $135. for it. I tested it but never used it, I've had it sitting around for a year. I'll bring it with me to BM, take a look at my setup if you like the unit you can have it for $50. Bear in mind, no matter how good a radio is, it's only as good as the speakers, and visa versa. I can tell you were to get a good deal on speakers in Jersey.
[/QUOTE]yeah, most likely ill end up doing something like that. ive got a bezel i bought a couple of years ago, so i might just cut that and save the stock unit+bezel from my car. i still want to rig up a jack to that 8 track, but i dont think theres anything online to tell me how to do it. i know theres alot of radio restoration guys out there that can do it (like wonderbar man) but i would like to do it my self- im a bit of a tinkerer not afraid to mess with things like this.
definately bring that unit- i might be interested