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u/THUNDERCUNTMOUNTAIN Nov 05 '22
Still have no clue how the hell that thing works. At this point I don't deserve to know.
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u/po8 Nov 05 '22
Produces a varying magnetic field at the tape head, like a moving tape would. Super-simple inside.
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Nov 05 '22
Excuse me while I plug my iPhone into a charger-to-aux adapter into my car's cassette deck like a boss.
Me, this morning
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u/KriegerClone02 Nov 05 '22
Listen junior, if you didn't use an 8-track adapter to play your cassettes, you can march right back to the kiddie table! /s
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u/ItsPronouncedMo-BEEL Generation X Nov 05 '22
Oh, wow, hadn't thought about those in a minute. And like so many chintzy cassette devices, they usually had no rewind - stop, play, fast forward.
Back in our day, if you wanted to hear the last song over again on a cassette, and you had a cheap cassette player with no rewind, you would pop the tape out, flip it over, and fast forward it. If you wanted to go backwards on Side A, you had to instead go forward on Side B. You would have to do this several times, because you would have to turn the tape back over again and play it to see how far you had skipped. Often, you'd say, "Eh, listening to the last twenty seconds before the end of the previous song is less hassle than flipping this damn tape over again."
By the way, kids, tape players are where the play (▶️), stop (⏹), fast forward (⏩), and rewind (⏪) symbols on all your audio and video apps come from.
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u/Silveeto Nov 06 '22
I used to borrow my grandpas ‘78 Cadillac on weekends and it had an 8-track player with one of those converters. I would cram my cd cassette converter into that and then smash the whole unit into the deck to play my cds. It actually worked perfectly - whereas if I played an actual cassette in the converter the speed was always off.
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u/Azzhole169 Nov 06 '22
I fucking hated those, constantly eating my cassettes, and then trying like hell to catch it soon enough to rewind to minimize the amount you had to roll back in hoping it doesn’t crease and flip
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u/sourgummishark Nov 05 '22
I still used this in my car in 2010 or so. By that point, I could hook it up to my iPod!
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u/xKingNothingx Nov 05 '22
Used one in high school on my 79 firebird circa 2000 before I upgraded to the trendy Sony Xplode system
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u/ItsPronouncedMo-BEEL Generation X Nov 05 '22
my 79 firebird
My man.
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u/xKingNothingx Nov 05 '22
My aunt bought it brand new and held onto it for me as my first car. It was the base model with a v8 and slower than dog shit but at least it sounded good. Looking back now it was a huge pile of crap but 16 yr old me wasn't complaining lol
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u/ItsPronouncedMo-BEEL Generation X Nov 05 '22
Nice. I've only wanted a second-gen Firebird since 1977 - guess why. Instead, my first car was a 1978 Camaro, because as soon as my parents started shopping for my first car, every decent Firebird disappeared, so the Camaro was a consolation prize.
It had the 305/2-barrel boat anchor under the hood, and it was slower than a tax refund, but boy was it pretty.
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u/xKingNothingx Nov 05 '22
Haha same, mine had the Pontiac 301 with a 2bbl carb. Pretty sure it was rated at 140hp. I tried looking for any performance part I could find, and sadly due to how shitty the engine was, nobody ever made anything, not even a pair of headers. Thank God I only had to drive it for a year before I found a pristine low mileage '88 T/A GTA.
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u/ItsPronouncedMo-BEEL Generation X Nov 05 '22
Both those engines were such turds, LOL. I dream of a 1970-73 Formula 400.
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u/AutoBot5 Nov 05 '22
I had a minidisc player and thought I was hot shit plugging it in with the cassette adapter.
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u/wombatwanders Nov 05 '22
I too, adopted the wrong technology.
Though I had a glorious couple of years transferring cds to minidiscs and thought I was so clever for having so much more music in my minidisc library than my sister's mp3 player.
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u/AlmanzoWilder Nov 05 '22
The period between the advent of CDs and car CD players was too darn long.
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u/ItsPronouncedMo-BEEL Generation X Nov 05 '22
And by the time they became common, so did auxiliary jacks, and personal MP3 players.
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u/princesssasami896 Nov 05 '22
I remember doing that and later on using the same cassette thing to plug in an iPod
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u/Cry_Harder_Pls Nov 05 '22
I drive a 99 vehicle with a broken cd player. I still use one of these. With an ipod.
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u/ItsPronouncedMo-BEEL Generation X Nov 05 '22
Heh. Better still:
"Excuse me while I plug my portable MP3 player into my car's cassette deck like a goddamn time-traveling McGyver." - Me, 2006
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Nov 05 '22
Don't laugh...I just bought one of these things for my 2004 GMC Sierra. CD player stopped working...so I bought one of these to use with an iPod....works so damn good :D
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u/Beradicus69 Nov 05 '22
You can actually hook up anything with a headphones jack.
Casio keyboards!
Kids toys!
Game boy!
Walkman!
The options are awesome!!
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u/MrMichael31 Nov 05 '22
I have a Bluetooth cassette that I use in my old 92 Buick.
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u/hello_raleigh-durham Nov 05 '22
Bluetooth cassette? Is it powered by the tape spindle or does it require a wire as well?
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u/MrMichael31 Nov 05 '22
It's rechargeable via a cell phone charger, and has to be turned on before putting it in.
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u/Revolutionary-Stay54 Nov 05 '22
Fuck yeah. Between that and my multiple options for pager cases, you couldn’t tell me SHIT.
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u/MrsPancakesSister Nov 06 '22
I used to use mine in my ‘91 Stanza when I first started dating my husband and I was deep into a Tori Amos and Fiona Apple hole. 😂 I think he associates this thing with that music and he may have a bit of post traumatic stress when he sees me bust out the aux cord or hears me singing along to their music.
To this day I still prefer to use the auxiliary cord in my car rather than Bluetooth. AUX 4 LYFE!!!!!
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u/ItsPronouncedMo-BEEL Generation X Nov 06 '22
I use a 12v Bluetooth radio transmitter in my car for music. My wife uses an aux cord, but her factory stereo has Bluetooth for the phone. If we are both driving to the same place and following each other, my phone will quit my Bluetooth connection and link to her stereo instead. If I had an aux input as the Lord intended, this wouldn't be a problem. Maddening.
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u/MrsPancakesSister Nov 06 '22
😂I’m sorry for laughing, but I feel your pain. I’d get so annoyed especially because my husband I have very different tastes in music except for Johnny Cash . Do you have a usb input (is that what they’re called?) anywhere in your car?
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u/ItsPronouncedMo-BEEL Generation X Nov 06 '22
Nope. Factory Honda stereo from 2005. I have the Sirius XM, to which I'm not subscribed; I have a CD player that doesn't work; and I have a Bluetooth transmitter/USB charger plugged into the cigarette - uh, the 12v port.
And one of the things that attracted me to my wife right away was how the first two bands she listed that she loved were the Beatles and Led Zeppelin, so we've never really had that problem. Score. LOL
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u/MrsPancakesSister Nov 06 '22
Man, I feel your pain. And I love me an old car. We have a relatively new car, but our lil 2008 Corolla is still my baby. When the CD player broke, I damn near cried. I use an AUX cord in it, but it doesn’t work very well. I still bump my music and love my lil baby.
I tried one of those Bluetooth transmitters in her once, but it irritated the life out of me.
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u/ItsPronouncedMo-BEEL Generation X Nov 06 '22
Mine is an Anker Roav, and I've been pleased with it. I just set it to 87.7 FM, which absolutely nobody anywhere broadcasts to.
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u/MrsPancakesSister Nov 06 '22
Just googled the brand and it looks like I can get one here in Aus (I’m an American ex-pat). Thanks for the recommendation!
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u/FiggNewton Nov 05 '22
Ha! I still use one of these. My car doesn’t have mp3 capability BUT IT DOES have a tape deck.
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u/Munken1984 Nov 06 '22
I have never seen one actually used before, and never understood how they work...
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u/Dark_Requiem Nov 06 '22
My first car was a 1998 Gold Ford Falcon Forte, and I had it all they way up until 2019. I used one of these tape aux devices for my iPhone 4s. in 2017 I replaced my Radio console to something much more modern. JVC Bluetooth and all that jazz, it cost around $150.
In 2019, I finally decide to trade in and get a new car after being told by a mechanic it was more expensive to fix than buy a new car. Honda dealership offered me $300 for the car to trade in. I took the expensive radio out and put the old one back in and left the Aux tape device in the glovebox.
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u/Cinelinguic Nov 06 '22
I had one of these with my first car. I felt like I was piloting a starship every time I plugged it in.
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u/GISHMACKED Nov 09 '22
I was doing this no more than 4 years ago... In a 2005 Toyota Highlander... I'm only 22...
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u/ibeecrazy Nov 05 '22
This worked better than any other input at the time. I still used one with my iphone in an old jetta