• ZeffSyde@lemmy.world
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    1 小时前

    “Let me put my my burned CD of mp3s into my discman that is connected to a tape adapter.” Me, until about when Zunes hit,Woot for$99.

  • LovableSidekick@lemmy.world
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    7 小时前

    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.

    • Johanno@feddit.org
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      6 小时前

      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

      • pixelscript@lemm.ee
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        32 分钟前

        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.

      • LovableSidekick@lemmy.world
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        6 小时前

        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.

  • NigelFrobisher@aussie.zone
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    9 小时前

    I was using one of these, and then later a short-wave radio to play on my car radio that was too old for USB but didn’t have AUX-in either.

  • AgentGrimstone@lemmy.world
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    13 小时前

    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.

    • Psythik@lemmy.world
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      12 小时前

      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.

      • AgentGrimstone@lemmy.world
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        10 小时前

        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.

  • IninewCrow@lemmy.ca
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    20 小时前

    1995? … I keep this adapter for my old 2004 GM Truck … and no I don’t want bluetooth. The atrocious sound quality is nostalgic to me and reminds me of being a teenager.

    • HonkyTonkWoman@lemm.ee
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      19 小时前

      Yup! I have a drawer of these things because my brother & I used to fight over them. Still use one in my dad’s truck when I steal it from him.

      Leave those air pods in your pockets kids. Nothing brings the heat like the annoying clacking of the auto reverse on a cassette deck, constantly trying to flip over a cassette that doesn’t flip, while matching the rhythm of your current jam.

      • IninewCrow@lemmy.ca
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        13 小时前

        … or the faded degraded sound of ‘Appetite For Destruction’ from the worn down cassette you’ve been playing over and over again for the past ten years.

        • HonkyTonkWoman@lemm.ee
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          11 小时前

          noo… you’re not moving the wire right. You have to move it back left when it does that & then hit the ff button twice.

          fuckinghingworksjuatfinedroveacrossthreedamncountiestofindafyckinradioshack25goddamndollarsassholewouldnttakediscover

          See. Told you it works!

          shitbirdbettersitstillandnotjostlethatdamnwireifuckinlovethissong

    • ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world
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      16 小时前

      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.

    • Psythik@lemmy.world
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      12 小时前

      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.

      • Bizzle@lemmy.world
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        6 小时前

        Ha! Nope actually, not in my old Cadillac or my Mercedes. Those both had anti theft. That would have been nice though.

  • stupidcasey@lemmy.world
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    16 小时前

    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.