YARQ: Yet Another Radio Question

I have gone Googling and found nothing in this group that might help me with an issue I have with my truck's sound situation. Here's what is bothering me: I have mentionned in other posts that my wife drives a 2001 Camry and that I drive a 97 Tacoma. Her Camry is equipped with a radio that has a CD player AND a cassette player and it's about double the height of a regular radio. My truck has an AM/FM cassette player that is normal height. I want to play CDs in the truck, but I don't want to change the radio for one that only plays CDs and give up my ability to play cassettes. I notice that some people have had those double-height radios for sale on eBay, and I've wanted to consider getting one but there's a few things standing in the way: I'm not sure if the plugs in the back would fit in the dash and if they did, how much I have to modify the center console to get the thing in there and if I could, I'm not certain we have enough money to go out and buy one. The last one I saw on eBay went for $200 and I need a REALLY good line to fly that one by my wife.

But I do have a portable CD player and a portable MP3 player, so I thought I'd get one of those FM radio transmitters from Radio Shack. I can't get the thing to work. I put batteries in it and set the frequency to transmit and plugged it into my player and it won't come through on the radio. Probably because we're in north central California and the dial is really full. But then I started thinking... What if I could put a small stereo jack in the dash board ? I'm talking about the kind that would accept a 1/8" stereo plug like those on headphones. And what if I could wire that jack to a preamp input on the existing radio ? What I could do then would be just to plug in a patch cord with a stereo plug into the earphone jack on the CD player (or MP3 player) and plug in the other end into the dashboard. I'm not quite certain where the dashboard jack should be wired to, and that's why I'm here. Anyone have any ideas ?

Eddie

Reply to
Otter
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Lots of them, but I can't begin to guess what radio you have in the truck, you may have to pop it out of the dashboard and get the model numbers. If someone has access to the paperwork for that radio model they can tell you more.

There are radio head units that do have preamp inputs on the back panel, for use with remote mounted CD changers in the trunk - if you have one of these radios, you'll have to buy or build an adapter cable that fools the radio into thinking it's connected to a CD Changer and play the external inputs....

Some aftermarket radios have an 'Aux Input' jack right on the faceplate and an Aux button for source selection, all you need then is a male-to-male 1/8" stereo patch cord. (But since you didn't mention seeing one, I'll assume your radio doesn't have one.)

Or there are radios that have an Aux Input setting and a simple set of female RCA Phono connectors on a short cord sticking out the back of the radio, for those you'll need to get a male 1/8" stereo plug to twin RCA Phono plugs patch cord, and tuck it away under the dashboard when not in use.

If you don't have any of the above, you can get an FM Modulator. I would NOT suggest opening up the radio to modify it, it would be a lot of work, you really have to know what you're doing (or pay someone who does) and the modifications would make the radio a pain to repair later. Aftermarket radios with Aux Inputs are easily available at many price points, from cheap to premium.

And remember, if your portable CD or MP3 player doesn't have line level outputs, turn the volume way down before using the headphone jack. Turn the car stereo up pretty loud (roughly 3/4) before you try raising the portable volume above around 1/4. You can overdrive the car stereo with the power amplifier in the portable, and toast something in the preamp section of the car stereo.

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Reply to
Bruce L. Bergman

I should have mentionned that from the get-go. The radio I have is the stock AM/FM cassette radio from the factory.

This is probably the solution I'd be looking for if I could get something that was inexpensive enough. I don't really need an Alpine or Blaupunkt.

I think I'll find a couple and start giving my wife Christmas hints ;-)

Thanks for all your help Bruce. The effort and depth of knowledge is much appreciated.

Eddie

Reply to
Otter

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