Sorry if this is a repost. It might even be a repost of a topic I brought up earlier, but I'm having trouble remembering... it's been a long year so far!
Anyway, I'm going to hunt for Cassette tapes when I get home (I'm traveling now) so I can have some stuff to listen to in the Viper when I'm driving around. We are listening to Dub Step out here at my office right now (Dead Mau5, etc.) and now I'm thinking I want that on tape. My course of action, now, should be to make my own tapes.
Does anybody here have any experience with this? I know for a fact that it's a stupid question because even the almighty Google thinks I'm an idiot and "corrects" my search for me. "MP3 to cassette recorder" returns the result "cassette to MP3 recorder". Great I can turn tapes that I don't have into MP3s which I don't care about. e-Bay only seems to sell the cassette to MP3 recorder too.
I am aware of and own one of the adapters that you shove into the cassette deck with a wire leading to an iPod or phone. I want the authentic low-fidelity sound that comes from "genuine" audio cassettes. I also know about the neat-o iPod adapters that plug into the antenna port on the radio, amplify the iPod signal, and have a cut-off for the antenna. Very cool, but too high-tech for this car for now.
Run a computer or MP3 player... or whatever into a tape deck with the capability of recording. The old stereos with the tape deck recorder have RCA input, so it should be a simple task. If you don't have one, you can find one in a second hand store or on ebay for a pretty low price.
I'd suggest running from a computer headset out to RCA to the tape deck unit.
That might work. I'll check your e-Bay link when I get off of work in the morning (e-Bay is blocked on my work computer).
My parents have an old Awia stereo (or is it Aiwa?), with a 3 disc changer and dual cassette decks, with a bunch of inputs. I discovered after three hours of messing with it that their unit only has the inputs so you can play music from an external source through the speakers. The cassette recording function only works to copy one tape to another. I was furious. 
The ebay link was just a suggestion from a quick search showing something cheap.
Good luck.
There are tons of quality vintage decks for sale on ebay and elsewhere. Any one of hundreds would do the job for you after a little cleaning and a de-mag operation. Biggest concern would be the condition of rubber parts such as drive belts and pinch rollers. My Denon deck from the mid-80s is still fully functional, but it sees use only rarely now.
That's pretty awesome. I bet they're pretty expensive now aren't they?
confuZion3 wrote:
That's pretty awesome. I bet they're pretty expensive now aren't they?
There are a few Dragons on ebay, and yeah, I'd say they're pretty expensive. Apparently, you can still get parts!
if you want to go for the actual honest to goodness "real" lo fidelity cassette tape experience, you have to record the songs off the radio.. half the fun is trying to not get the annoying talking radio guy as you try not to miss the first notes of the song that is about to start that you hope is a good one, otherwise you have to rewind the tape to the spot where you want to start recording before the next mystery song starts and hope it's one you like...
ahh, the life of poor people that wanted portable music that they could play whenever they wanted in the pre internet age.. i miss it.. it was a simpler time..
Find old stereo at thrift store with 2 tape decks, at least one that can record.
Find tape deck adapter with a headphone plug...so you can run your mp3 player on it. Or hell if you feel so inclined you can use this method for cds with your portable cd player.
Attempt to find blank cassette tapes. 
novaderrik wrote:
if you want to go for the actual honest to goodness "real" lo fidelity cassette tape experience, you have to record the songs off the radio.. half the fun is trying to not get the annoying talking radio guy as you try not to miss the first notes of the song that is about to start that you hope is a good one, otherwise you have to rewind the tape to the spot where you want to start recording before the next mystery song starts and hope it's one you like...
ahh, the life of poor people that wanted portable music that they could play whenever they wanted in the pre internet age.. i miss it.. it was a simpler time..
Vivid memory. 
I also discovered the microphone needed to be away from the body of the recorder, or it picked up the motor noise.
High Fidelity was quite a distance in my future, but I had music when I wanted it.
failboat wrote:
Find old stereo at thrift store with 2 tape decks, at least one that can record.
Find tape deck adapter with a headphone plug...so you can run your mp3 player on it. Or hell if you feel so inclined you can use this method for cds with your portable cd player.
Attempt to find blank cassette tapes.
Wal Mart has blank 90 minute tapes- they even have tape recorders at some stores... they even had a few blank VHS tapes..
but it all costs a lot more than they used to..
In reply to failboat:
This is a good idea. I think the Awia stereo at my parents' house can record from one deck to the other. I already have the adapter thingy. I'll give it a try when I'm in town next time.
I actually have a few blank cassettes. 
This old fart will argue that a good deck with CrO2 or so-called "Metal" tape can make a pretty damn good recording. I would not categorically say that all cassette recordings are "low fidelity."
Burn cd, use cd/ cassette stereo, record tape from cd?
Or do what we did back then:
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Appleseed wrote:
Or do what we did back then:
works good until you hit a bump... or drive within 10 feet of a bump..
novaderrik wrote:
works good until you hit a bump... or drive within 10 feet of a bump..
The good discman units had a few seconds of buffer that they read into -- that way if the CD skipped they could keep playing. Worked OK for occasional bumps, not so much dirt roads, I suspect.
Personally, I'm happy to leave the tape hiss, lack of direct track access, and tape-mangling-decks in the 1980s where they belong. :)
I remember having a couple portable CD players as a teen. The last couple I owned had a 40 second memory. Those will play under nearly any conditions.
Goodwill is your answer for an old tape deck. Mine has had several Denons, a couple Onkyos, and a Nakamichi. All under $5.
