Unless this is just for a "hey this would be neat to do" factor then there are easier ways to skin this cat. You would have to modify a place to put another stereo. You would have to wire it up. You'd have 2 stereos to turn on.

#1 I would just use a Walkman-type cassette player and plug it into the aux in of your current stereo.

#2 I would record the cassettes to .wav on a PC and then convert them to mp3 or FLAC if you want to compress them to save file space and play them back by USB on your current stereo, or if it doesn't have USB then put the songs on your phone and play them by AUX.

#3 Pay the monthly fee to YouTube Music or Amazon Music and just play whatever song you want to hear from one of your cassettes by streaming to bluetooth, or by phone to AUX.

 

thanks. I have spotify etc and most of the time will be phone bluetooth to HU. But, The goal here is nostalga, not just the music, I realize its crazy and extra gear for no real reason, but thats the project.

 

Well if you had a stereo with rear aux input then you could take a cassette receiver and run line out to the aux in of the "new" receiver. You could do it with a front mounted aux in; it just wouldn't look as clean with the cable coming out and around and into the front of the receiver.

 

You wrote
cassette receiver and run line out

So that's that's question. Did the old school car cassette decks have line out. ?

 

You wrote
cassette receiver and run line out

So that's that's question. Did the old school car cassette decks have line out. ?

I guess it depends on what model or timeframe of cassette deck we're talking about. I'm thinking of more modern ones from the 90s that would have full functionality of today's receivers, just with cassette instead of CD. In which case, if it was one of those type then you'd use the preamp outputs that would normally be connected to an amplifier. But in your case it would go to an AUX in instead.

If you're talking about an older type cassette deck, then yeah you'd have to get creative with an LOC. But I don't know what it would sound like.

 

If you wanted to just pay cassettes through your modern stereo.....

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But most cassette decks I remember (late 80's in) had line out.

My Eclipse from 91 had a touch screen.

 

I believe 80s era cassette decks had pre out to drive an amp, its reasonable. But why would an 80s cassette deck have line out that implies the line out is going into some pre amp/ controller. I don't think they existed in cars of thst era.

In other words , the cassette deck of the 80s was the main head unit , it might have had pre out to control an external amp but I can imagine it had line out.

The LOC might be the answer but again, I see some advertised as line out and some as pre out. For my requirement pre out (ie the tape deck acts as pre amp and controls volume) is no use because I need to go into head unit which then is a 2nd pre amp and there will be sound degradation. I need pure line out so om researching which LOC have pure line out.

 

I believe 80s era cassette decks had pre out to drive an amp, its reasonable. But why would an 80s cassette deck have line out that implies the line out is going into some pre amp/ controller. I don't think they existed in cars of thst era.

In other words , the cassette deck of the 80s was the main head unit , it might have had pre out to control an external amp but I can imagine it had line out.

The LOC might be the answer but again, I see some advertised as line out and some as pre out. For my requirement pre out (ie the tape deck acts as pre amp and controls volume) is no use because I need to go into head unit which then is a 2nd pre amp and there will be sound degradation. I need pure line out so om researching which LOC have pure line out.

You're overcomplicating it. All the preamp output is is a line out. It doesn't matter if you're using it to an amplifier or to an AUX in. The only thing is with a cassette stereo to the AUX in of another, you'll have to play around with volume of the cassette stereo to get the voltage right. I've used devices in the past where MAX volume to something else caused it to distort but turning it down one notch made all the difference.

Think of it like this, you can plug a phone's 3.5mm output to a 2 channel amplifier and it will play through your car speakers and sound pretty much the same as a head unit. Or you can take that same phone and plug it into the AUX of the head unit that's connected to that same 2 channel amp and you're going to get sound through the speakers. It works either way.

 

Why can't a line out from another HU drive it? As long as it's not an 8v output and the HU only takes a .5v there's no difference in signal than that from a 3.5mm jack.

 

My daughter was asking for a tape deck after the industry milked me for a thousand bucks in album purchases and record players the last 3 years.

For the record player, I got on board with it, thinking sq was potentially better (Nirvana unplugged does sound amazing) but I straight told her no way for the tape deck. She’s too young for any sort of nostalgia and it definitely ain’t about the sq.

Good luck with your project though OP. It would be interesting to hear that satisfying clicking sound as you push a tape in again - if only to hear RBL posse or N2Deep one more time.

 

My daughter was asking for a tape deck after the industry milked me for a thousand bucks in album purchases and record players the last 3 years.

For the record player, I got on board with it, thinking sq was potentially better (Nirvana unplugged does sound amazing) but I straight told her no way for the tape deck. She’s too young for any sort of nostalgia and it definitely ain’t about the sq.

Good luck with your project though OP. It would be interesting to hear that satisfying clicking sound as you push a tape in again - if only to hear RBL posse or N2Deep one more time.

I used to obsess with features like Dolby noise reduction and every player I ever used sounded worse when Dolby was activated.

 

My nad is 95% cd quality