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Jul 24, 2013 22:29:01 GMT
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Could somebody give me some pointers on how I could convert an old skool head unit so I could plug my mp3 player, if theres a site you could point me too or any advice would be greatly appreciated. I've currently got a late 80's sierra head unit I can experiment with, it hasn't got any amps etc is this suitable?
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Jul 24, 2013 22:48:28 GMT
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several options - one is fm transmitter for the mp3 and the other is if you have a cassette deck you can buy a cassette which has a lead that goes to the mp3 headphone plug
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Built to a standard ready to be modified to perfection
1995 Charcoal Rover 220 GSIT (WIP)
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Jul 25, 2013 16:15:17 GMT
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You need to work out where the cd deck signal is connected to the board, de solder those connections and solder a female jack socket to them. You can leave this hanging from the case, route it through the glove box or drill a hole in the front of the head unit to mount it.You then need a male/male lead to connect to your mp3 player. It's a bit more involved than that obviously but with every head unit being different it would be inpossible to give precise instructions. The fm transmitters in my experience are pretty rubbish.
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Jul 25, 2013 16:47:49 GMT
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yea i agree to a extent - its all dependant where your areal is located as ive found some clear as day and others useless. maybe convert to a newer head unit (not the modern day but say about 15 years or so becasue the old sonys had the aux inputs on the tape decks
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Built to a standard ready to be modified to perfection
1995 Charcoal Rover 220 GSIT (WIP)
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Jul 25, 2013 16:51:38 GMT
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Having said that you can get newer used units with front aux in and usb for £20 to £30 now.
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Copey
Posted a lot
Posts: 2,845
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Jul 25, 2013 22:17:21 GMT
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you can get some proper 90's looking ones with AUX, USB and SD slots exhibit A
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1990 Ford Sierra Sapphire GLSi with 2.0 Zetec 1985 Ford Capri 3.0 (was a 2.0 Laser originally)
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Jul 26, 2013 20:30:35 GMT
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You need to work out where the cd deck signal is connected to the board, de solder those connections and solder a female jack socket to them. You can leave this hanging from the case, route it through the glove box or drill a hole in the front of the head unit to mount it.You then need a male/male lead to connect to your mp3 player. It's a bit more involved than that obviously but with every head unit being different it would be inpossible to give precise instructions. The fm transmitters in my experience are pretty rubbish. Could I do the same with a tape deck? As I don't own any tapes any more also will the radio still work?
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Copey
Posted a lot
Posts: 2,845
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Jul 26, 2013 21:55:28 GMT
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1990 Ford Sierra Sapphire GLSi with 2.0 Zetec 1985 Ford Capri 3.0 (was a 2.0 Laser originally)
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Jul 26, 2013 23:19:59 GMT
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Yeah but in my experiance the sound quality is awful, even through a car stereo...
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Copey
Posted a lot
Posts: 2,845
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Jul 26, 2013 23:34:10 GMT
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tbh thats as much the stereo, old standard units are hopeless tbh, even a cheapo £20-30 ebay jobbie would sound a hell of a lot better
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1990 Ford Sierra Sapphire GLSi with 2.0 Zetec 1985 Ford Capri 3.0 (was a 2.0 Laser originally)
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kabman
Part of things
Posts: 348
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Jul 28, 2013 20:32:05 GMT
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Could somebody give me some pointers on how I could convert an old skool head unit so I could plug my mp3 player Have a search at instructables.comI converted an old blaster so I could play an ipod through it; soldering a headphone jack to the cassette input.
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wolop
Part of things
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If its a quality sound your after then your best bet in my opinion is to amp the system using a decent 4 channel with two sets of inputs and run a jack to wherever your putting your phone/mp3. You will have full use of the head unit and quality sound from your mp3s.
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sweaty palms slip off joystick
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If its a quality sound your after then your best bet in my opinion is to amp the system using a decent 4 channel with two sets of inputs and run a jack to wherever your putting your phone/mp3. You will have full use of the head unit and quality sound from your mp3s.
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sweaty palms slip off joystick
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g40jon
Posted a lot
Posts: 2,569
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Could somebody give me some pointers on how I could convert an old skool head unit so I could plug my mp3 player, if theres a site you could point me too or any advice would be greatly appreciated. I've currently got a late 80's sierra head unit I can experiment with, it hasn't got any amps etc is this suitable? Having converted many types of old headunits I can say you need to be pretty good at desoldering, soldering and have a reasonable knowledge of electronics. every radio is slightly different but basically you need to find where the input is for the amplifier circuit is, tap into it and hey presto you have a line in. You will however need to make sure the I/p is at the correct level for the amp else you will end up with naff sound quality, this is done using a suitable resistor to lower the input signal. Depending on the unit, if you find the right part to connect to the radio will cut out on its own so you can retain the functionality of the cassette player and radio (normally late 80s/early 90s stuff) Others you need to tape into the i/p used by the cassette deck, but using this method you need to carefully match the i/p level as the cassette uses a much lower i/p signal than an mp3 player, even after the cassette deck pre amp. On stereos which only have a tuner and no cassette or cd deck you use the radio i/ps, but with this method you are playing the mp3 over the top of the tuner signal, so you need to detune the radio from any stations or you will risk break out (radio noise over the top of the mp3 signal Read more: www.retrorides.proboards.com/thread/153545/ipod-ready-retro-radios-various?page=1&scrollTo=1820189#ixzz2bPmumOhHfm modulators will comprimise sound regardless as to whether it is wired or not Cassette to 3.5mm jack adaptors vary wildly in quality, thus sound quality can vary, some sound reasonable, some are total gash. They also have a nasty habit of ruining the tape mechanism, so I wouldn't recommend them The argument that old stereos have poor quality imo doesn't stand up. granted they don't have as much power, usually somewhere between 5 watts rms and 10 watts rms per channel. Ford used blaupunkt to make their headunits back in the 80s, so they were actually pretty good quality. Far superior to those cheapo modern units you can buy for £30 Spandellys idea is a good one. Blaupunkt used to make straight 4 channel power amplifiers that were designed to take speaker level input (some high spec fords came with ford branded ones and give 4x25 watts (pleanty of power for some decent quality speakers) they also had line level inputs too, so you could run the head-unit on two of the channels via the high level din inputs and the mp3 player straight to the amp on the other two inputs. The key to getting good volume and quality from old low power stereos is to match the speakers to them. i.e. you don't want to use power hungry speakers when you don't have much to begin with. A set of 20 watt rms speakers with a high sensitivity e.g. 91db@1 meter run off a headunit putting out 10 watts rms per channel will go louder and sound better than a set of 40 watt rms speaker which have a sensitivity of 85db@1 meter. hope that is of help
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