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Tape deck

Old Feb 20, 2003
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Tape deck

I still have my stock deck, but i also got a tape deck from the factory which was installed under the cd deck, i need a tape deck i have too many tapes, anyways i was planing to get a good cd deck and speakers and all, but people are telling me that if i get another deck then the tape deck will be useless, is there anyway i can connect my stock tape deck to the aftermarket deck or get around this problem, u can see a pic of decks in my members ride page, thanks
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Old Feb 20, 2003
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I would agree it won't work. You would need an aftermarket adapter that would output the signal to a 1/8" jack or something. Likewise you would need a deck that had inputs for such a jack.

I say realistically you have 2 options.

All in one .... something like this might be best ......Sanyo FXCD-500 ($270)

Or just get a tape deck with a remote CD changer. I used to have one back in the day. It worked really well. I had a full-logic tape deck that interfaced with the CD changer which was under the front seat. This way you can control the CD changer from the tape deck. Like the 6 radio presets in turn accessed the 6 cds directly when in CD mode. I kinda miss it in a way. Man it was bad *** when I was in highschool ...... wow ... that was almost 8 years ago ..... Pioneer KEH-P4020 ($130) + Pioneer CDX-P680 ($160) or Pioneer CDX-P1280 ($180)

For the money I would definately get the Pioneer w/ the 6-Disc Changer ..... if you wanna look all these products are on the Crutchfield website with pictures.
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Old Feb 20, 2003
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i guess i will go with a tape deck, but will a tape deck offer the same power as a cd deck, i mean will the sound be as good? also whats specs should i look for in a tape deck, what amount of watts is good .....
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Old Feb 21, 2003
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Here goes .....

A Tape deck and a CD deck will have equal sound quality. Internally the amplifiers of either decks are just as good. Hell all the amplifiers from any one company are probably all the same no matter if you buy a tape, cd, or dvd deck. However the difference that you hear will be the difference in getting the signal from a tape or a cd. Obviously a CD will yeild a much better signal.

As far as the amount of power that comes from a CD / Tape deck ..... it is all way over-rated. None will ever compare to the power an external amplifier puts out. Anything reletively current should have enough power to give you some good volume.

You said you wanted to upgrade the speakers ......

If I were you ...... I would upgrade the front speakers and I would suggest a small external amp to push them. It will be night and day difference. Screw the rears, they will only serve to screw up imaging. Fronts on an amp will do 10x more than upgrading the rear.

Imaging is a major component to sounding good. You get this the most be having the music come from in front of you. This is why most people recommend going ***** out on the front speakers and forgetting about the rears.

Think about this ..... in any quality home stereo setup .... have you ever seen more than two main speakers. No. Do receivers have more than 2 hookups for speakers .... generally yes. But if you read manuals its for multi-room applications or surround sound (another matter altogether). Rears in a car are essentially for rear passengers (unless your doing surround sound in a car).

I have Diamond Audio M6's 6.5" components up front on a Kicker 150.2 amp. I also have Pioneer 6x9's in the rear. I was running them off deck power. To kinda blend equally I had the fader +7 favoring the fronts. Using the fader though in the end I came to the same conclusion. I basically don't even have them running anymore. I have it faded all the way to the front. It is much better.

Why an external amp for the fronts ???????

Hell my deck does 45x4 ..... yet I power my components off a 35x2 Kicker amplifier .....

Deck Rating
Power: 45 watts per channel
THD: 5%
Freq: 50-20,000Hz

Amp Rating
Power: 35 watts per channel
THD: 0.05%
Freq: 20-20,000Hz

At the point that deck is outputting power at 0.05% distortion you are looking at like maybe 5 pure watts if you are lucky. Plus conceptually 0.05% vs 5%, the deck has 100x more distortion than the amplifier at it's rated power.

A lot of this is a numbers game. There are always ways to twist the numbers to make equipment look much better than it really is ......
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