Can somebody tell me how those adapters from CD to cassette work?
They look just like a cassette tape with a wire and stereo plug that you load into the cassette player and plug the other end to the discman. In my case I have a cassette/ radio in my vehicle but no CD player so it allows me to use CD’s now.
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5 Answers
1)
The audio sent to your speakers is an electrical signal – STRONG weak weak STRONG weak STRONG STRONG weak , etc.
Like this:
llll….l.l.l.l.l.l…...lllllllllllllll…..lllllllllllll….lllllllll…llllllllll..l.l.l.l…....lll..l.l.l.l…....lll..l.l.l.l…....llllllllll
(It’s not just strong and weak, it’s every medium point in between, but for simplicity let’s just say strong and weak).
2)
A tape recorder sends the signal to a magnet instead of a speaker. The recorder drags magnetic tape across the magnet (called a recording head) and the tape becomes a real long magnet imprinted with the strong and weak signals:
llll….l.l.l.l.l.l…...lllllllllllllll…..lllllllllllll….lllllllll…llllllllll..l.l.l.l…....lll..l.l.l.l…....lll..l.l.l.l…....llllllllll
3)
The cassette player reverses the process. It drags the tape across another head, the reading head – it “reads” the tape and turns the STRONG weak back into an electrical signal and sends the pattern to speakers.
llll….l.l.l.l.l.l…...lllllllllllllll…..lllllllllllll….lllllllll…llllllllll..l.l.l.l…....lll..l.l.l.l…....lll..l.l.l.l…....llllllllll
4)
The adapter cuts out the middle man. Forget the tape! Just put a writing head in a cassette-shaped box, and put the recording head directly against the reading head!!
Your discman sends an audio signal, the adapter emits a magnetic signal, the player reads it and voila MUSIC!!
Does that help? There is probably a much better explanation out there, but I wanted to give it a shot.
@jaytkay hey, no, that makes sense to me, sort of. I did notice inside the adapter a piece that looks like what is in a tape deck and was wondering how the signal got through. Those things are a life saver, short of replacing the in-dash system and probably screwing up part of the dash there is only F.M. or A.M. This is the only option. Don’t ya just love transitional technology?
Bravo to @jaytkay for a masterly answer!
I used such a device a few years ago to play a diskman into a cassette player built into my 1999 Ford Taurus. It’s OK for car audio, I’d say, but it’s not hi-fi enough for home audio / stereo / surround system. I don’t know what the specs are for the device, but I’d worry about various magnetic losses where heads meet, versus the usually-dependable voltage-based analog electronic transmission cables & connectors.
The device, which contains no moving parts, simulates a magnetic tape signal using electromagnets to transform electrical signals into changing magnetic fields. The tape head sees the same signal it would normally read from tape rolling past.
Classic kludge!
You can also use a tiny FM Transmitter to play your discman/laptop/phone/whatever through your car stereo, if you didn’t have a tape deck
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