Peasant.
My CD player had an FM transmitter that I tuned the car radio to.
My Nokia N97 had that too it was so sweet
What I wouldn’t give for a modern N series. Those phones rocked.
And I just broadcast my own radio station…
This shit blew my mind back in the day, much like how I can plug a dongle into my cigarette lighter and somehow Bluetooth my phone to my old ass stereo.
My first car had a cassette storage tray on the transmission hump. I made a mount for my portable CD that fit there, and ran the adapter wire underneath the dash. So fly…
The cassette player in my old car had a cover that was also a display panel. It folded out, then you put the tape in and flipped the cover back so it locked, then you could play.
Got one of these adapters to plug in an iPod. Stuck it in, then went to close the panel. The wire got in the way so it couldn’t lock. No way to jam it without damaging the cable.
No return policy back then. It sat in the dashboard until the car died many years later.
These were so much better than the radio transmitters. That brief period where cars only had CD players, no AUX or Bluetooth was the worst.
I literally just got my first portable CD player on Sunday. The sound quality is way better than my super cool DRM-free digital library.
I always thought these things were brilliant but was never sure how they worked. They basically had a recording head that sat against the playback head of the tape player and sent a signal into it, right? I was never even sure of that.
So normally the magnetic tape would spin by the reader in the player. However instead of a tape they put an electro magnet there. Then they use the same technique to simulate a magnetic tape. Tadaa you made digital audio into electromagnetic audio
That’s what I always thought - I think it would work to use a recording head as the electromagnet, treating the player’s playback head like tape.
There’s actually no digital audio involved anywhere in this process. It’s all analog.
A magnetic tape cassette holds raw wave data of the sounds it records. Just like a vinyl record, except the groove is in the magnetic field instead of physically etched into the surface of the tape, and the needle is an electromagnet instead of, well, a needle.
An audio cable using a standard 3.5mm jack also transmits raw wave data. It has to, because the electromagnetic pulses in the cable are what directly drive the electromagnets in whatever speakers they’re hooked up to. If it’s coming out of a digital player, the player has to convert the signal on its own using an onboard digital-to-analog converter (a DAC).
The neat part is that since a tape deck read head is looking for an analog wave signal, and an analog wave signal is what an aux cable carries, the two are directly compatible with one another. If you actually crack one of these tape deck hacks open, you’ll find the whole thing is completely empty, save for the audio cable wires going directly to the write head that mimics the tape. Beyond that, there’s no conversion equipment, no circuit board, nothing. It’s a direct pass-through.
The body of the thing is nothing more than an elaborate way to trip all the mechanisms in the tape deck to trick it into thinking it’s holding a valid cassette, while simply holding the write head fixed in the proper spot.
I’m sure you already know all of this. I just think it’s really cool and I enjoy talking about it. Analog tech is amazing.
And the best part is, because the signal is so clean, and there’s no crappy tape grinding across the head adding noise, the audio quality is damn near on par with just connecting the aux directly to the amplifier.
This is my favorite thread of the day. I learned something, and it brought back memories of plugging one of these into my parents '87 Buick LeSabre wagon. Complete with wood grain panels. Yeah, I didn’t date much back then.
Gonna drop this here for those interested.
I saw that thumbnail of the table and immediately knew what channel it was.
I had a Bluetooth cassette adapter as recently as like 2021, I like old cars
These comments are blowing my mind. It’s like no one here knows that you can easily upgrade the stereo to a modern one. Plug and play in most cars with the right adapter.
Ha! Nope actually, not in my old Cadillac or my Mercedes. Those both had anti theft. That would have been nice though.
The “anti-theft” feature merely disables the stock radio if it’s stolen. It doesn’t stop you from replacing the stereo completely.
I used to install stereos as a hobby for 20 years; there’s not a single vehicle I’ve seen that couldn’t have the stock unit replaced. Not a single one. In rare cases you may have to occasionally do something weird like install it in the glove box or under the dash, but literally every car can have the stereo replaced.
I drive a 2001 which is in that dead zone after cassettes but before aux plugs. I still had to be burning CDs a few years ago but eventually stumbled across an adapter that tricks the car stereo into thinking my phone is a 6-CD changer in the trunk.
Used this in an 05 Jetta until earlier this year. It handled calls too.
…how about bluetooth in an '81 98?..
Still use this to this day in my car - although the Bluetooth variant. The only downside is that you need to recharge it from time to time. That problem has been recently solved by the purchase of a second one :)
Wouldn’t it be easier to have Bluetooth but have it plug into the cigarette lighter plug and run into the player like the other ones do? I feel like that could have been easily done by the designers
Technically an option for sure. With the Silkroad-special model sold through Amazon the manufacturer decided to have the adapter turn off during charging. So listening to music while the adapter being plugged in is not possible unfortunately.
keep it steady? did you neglect to install the shock absorbing plate?
My new hotness has a 30-sec anti-slip feature!
I always loved this Penny Arcade comic about the first iPods and CD players.
Not gonna be anti-slip when girls see it 💦
Damn I remeber my dad built it’s own shock absorber plate with springs and everything…
I was still using one of those til 2012. That’s what I get for having an old car. I did upgrade to a mini disc player tho.
Why didn’t you just upgrade the radio? A decent head unit with an aux jack and bluetooth can be purchased for as little as $40-50, and takes less than an hour to install in most cars with the right adapter. Literally plug and play in most vehicles.
It was one of those times when you already have something that’s working for you just fine and it wasn’t important enough to change it.
Gotta Velcro that bitch to the dash!
I had one of these and somehow it also picked up a radio station, so no matter what I played it’d be mixed with some random techno music
Na, forget CDs and check out my sweet minidisc player! Waaazaaaaaaaa!!??!
Get a poorly made one and it doubles as an AM radio too, or I should say it is only an am radio since you get nothing over the speaker but Am interference.
