Ipod Capability On Tape Deck

[toolie72 67 1 Cars]

Anybody tried wiring a hidden cable to run iPod etc INTO a Philips or clarion radio cassette

I've seen the diagram online before but I'm damned if I can find it now

My cunning plan (so cunning you could put a tail on it and call it a weasel) is to run a cable from inside unit, out the back then down into the cassette/oddments bin and iPods out of sight (still playing 80's obviously)

[Tom Fenton 1,526]

Probably the easiest way is one of the FM radio transmitter gadgets that takes the ipod signal and transmits it on an FM frequency that the head unit can then receive.

[allye 530 3 Cars]

Just buy a good head unit! Joking aside I don't really understand the fascination with outdated stereos?

[iPlod999 143 1 Cars]

Or go Old Skool of you have a 3.5mm socket on the stereo.

 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/IOMAX-Car-Cassette-Adapter-Black/dp/B001AZKRQ6

[Tom Fenton 1,526]

Just buy a good head unit! Joking aside I don't really understand the fascination with outdated stereos?

I do agree. I have kept the original Clarion in my laser because the rest f the car condition warrants so. But it's really s*it!!

 

In my Miami I bought £80 worth of new Sony, it's mustard, links to phone, does Bluetooth phone calls and music, plug phone in and control it off the head unit etc. Unless you are hell bent on originality, and plan to show the car, take out the original head unit, keep it safe, and fit a decent modern unit.

[dcc 855]

I have a cassette with audio jack, works perfect

[iPlod999 143 1 Cars]

Or go Old Skool of you have a 3.5mm socket on the stereo.

 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/IOMAX-Car-Cassette-Adapter-Black/dp/B001AZKRQ6

As it goes thinking about it you don't need a socket on your stereo.

[lightflow 59 1 Cars]

Something like this perhaps...?

 

It may void your warranty

 

http://www.instructables.com/id/Auxiliary-Port-for-Any-RadioCassette-Player-Monsoo/

[nomis 12]

I would go with the old fashioned tape with a lead option. I used them until our most recent family car when we finally no longer had a cassette slot.

Get a good one and they work well and sound good.

 

That said previous owner stuck a new stereo in my GTI that has CD slot, USB and 3.5m socket. I just use the USB to connect iphone etc.

They don't cost much but it depends if you are wedded to the idea of the look of the original stereo.

[tartanbloke 35 1 Cars]

Or have this, which appears to do all that is needed.

 

http://www.johnlewis.com/ion-bluetooth-cassette-adapter/p1375109?sku=233374308&kpid=233374308&s_kenid=59ab5a0a-d912-45c8-85d8-a8b90c9f34ed&s_kwcid=402x360712&tmad=c&tmcampid=73

[GLPoomobile 958]

In my old Alfa 166 I tried both the cassette adapter that you can buy and the FM transmitter and both were crap. These products are a lottery, some people get lucky with them but I tend to think they are mostly cheap Chinese tat. And personally I'd struggle to justify spending £30 on such a product in the hope that it might do a passable job. Thing is, I suppose if you are bound by using a crappy old headunit then there's no point looking for a high fidelity input solution, so both the above cheap-tat product types might be fine for you. Another option - though I've not tried it so can't comment from experience - is an adaptor that plugs in to the aerial input. It's like the FM transmitter and you tune the radio in to the signal, but as it's a direct input instead of over the air it should in theory be better quality. Means you'd lose the radio functionality though.

 

Personally I'd just say replace the headunit with something more modern.

Edited February 11, 2016 by GLPoomobile

[stumpyjag 6]

I had one of those Bluetooth cassette adaptors. It worked quite well but only ran for about an hour and then needed recharging so it was constantly flat. In the end it was just too much hassle to put it on charge all of the time!

[SweetBadger 91]

They should have used the tape spools as mini generators to power the cassette adaptor!

 

I used to have one years ago with a 3.5mm jack attached to a cable, lived in my 205 for quite a while and did a reasonable job to be fair.

Edited February 11, 2016 by SweetBadger

[JamPug 22]

Wasn't there a guy on here who put a modern head unit in the compartment near you right knee so he could retain the original look of the clarion?

[welshpug 1,627]

modern stuff is so garish though!

 

in my 205 I went half way and used a Phase3 306 CD headunit, i've used a Tunecast thing from maplin with reasonable success.

[toolie72 67 1 Cars]

I've got an old Peugeot tape/radio-f@@k it I'm gonna give it a go-all I can do is blow it up

Always have an old now that's what I call music tape on show!!

Gonna run it into radio/amplifier interface, I think it'll work

Anybody interested in outcome? If not subject is closed (unless it goes pfffffft lol)

[barneys66 120 1 Cars]

I'm listening / watching!

[toolie72 67 1 Cars]

Done! Sorted! Bought a haly decent cable and soldered it onto volume pot (hardest bit was finding correct terminals on multifunction pot)

Works like a dream as its not going through tape or radio-only thing is its really chuffing loud compared to radio-near s@@t myself when I plugged iPhone in, happy days

[GLPoomobile 958]

So in effect, is the signal going straight to the unit's amplifier?

[will1991 11 1 Cars]

Wasn't there a guy on here who put a modern head unit in the compartment near you right knee so he could retain the original look of the clarion?

 

That was probably me, detailed in the thread in my signature.

[toolie72 67 1 Cars]

Yeah, bypasses all other audio input, radio is usually on all the time and tape just drowns it.

I could have put lead onto tape head wiring but lets face it it would probably sound guff and I would have to fool machine into thinking a tape was inserted

The only reason I wanted to try this is I have iPod, iphone3s,iphone4s,iPad and wife's got an iphone6 so one lead does all

I had a little fm transmitter for iPhone but interference was a pain-I also had little cassette thing but it was noisy to

At the end of the day it's a Philips (1989 phase 1.5) 27 year old head unit which was never designed to play the highly compressed music you get from iPod etc but as long as I can play my old s@@@e I'm quite happy

Are friends electric??

[GLPoomobile 958]

Cool. Reason I asked is it's similar to what some Alfa 166 owners do. They have an integrated (ICS) system with a tape deck and optional CD changer but good solutions for extra inputs are limited. So some people have wired into the tape deck like you have. Difference being that they had to have the tape deck running for the ICS to see that input as "live". I often think I may get another 166 some day and the crappy ICS was always a bug bear so I thought this was interesting.

[GLPoomobile 958]

Cool. Reason I asked is it's similar to what some Alfa 166 owners do. They have an integrated (ICS) system with a tape deck and optional CD changer but good solutions for extra inputs are limited. So some people have wired into the tape deck like you have. Difference being that they had to have the tape deck running for the ICS to see that input as "live". I often think I may get another 166 some day and the crappy ICS was always a bug bear so I thought this was interesting.

[SweetBadger 91]

Many, many years ago I tried putting the signal straight on to the tape head wiring on the head unit of my mini (straight out of my minidisc player, ahh I miss minidiscs they were cool!), it worked but the gain was far too high so you had to turn the output of the player right down. The signal was quite noisy too due to the high gain so it sounded crap.

Edited February 25, 2016 by SweetBadger

[Dukey 1]

Interesting. I'm having a few problemos with my radio atm, due to a leaky heater matrix connection, boohoo :'(

 

The radio was quite a nice, not too flashy alpine one that you could plug a usb pen in, or wire in an aux in to the CD changer plug. It seems to work ok, it turns on and plays CDs but there's no audio output to the speakers, but the rca jacks on the back do work. So I'm guessing the water has dripped in on to the amp side of things and wreaked havoc - without blowing a fuse!

 

I'm tempted to get in and have a poke at the broken bits, but then after reading this I'm tempted to solder a line in for an old Philips pull out tape deck I got a few years ago...