Do you know anything about car audio?

[Wasatch Rebel]

I have the stock radio in my 2000 4runner. I won't upgrade to an aftermarket stereo because I've had too many vehicles broken into to steal them...well I have installed an aftermarket cassette player in my Accord because I figured if the thieves were paying attention, they wouldn't bother stealing that because no one would buy it from them.

Anyway the one in the 4runner has both a cd and tape built in to it. In the past in my Accord, I've used one of those tape adapters to play mp3s off of a diskman. It went well. But now, in the 4runner, I've tried both a newer MP3 player, my old diskman, and now my laptop hooked up to the tape adapter. With about half of the songs, I get a very bad vibration coming from the rear speakers, so much so that I can't stand listening to the songs--almost like they've been blown out. But when I listen to the radio, AM or FM, that doesn't happen. At first I was thinking it was the speakers and that I need to replace them, but if it were the speakers, wouldn't that sound happen when I'm listening to the radio as well as MP3s? Does anyone know if those tape adapters have been known to have such issues as this? Or do you definitely think it's the speakers?

[DOSS]

I have a friend that is in the car audio business and when I complained about the same thing in my subaru pointed out to me that from the little tape player thing I was actually getting more base and higher DB's due to the fact that it is a powered item not just a read only item. That basically when the radio was doing its own thing it couldn't put out the same amount of power as when it had the added DB's from the ipod on the tape jack thing and the only way around it was.. turn down the Ipod or get better speakers :)

[Sombeech]

Yeah, sounds like the volume is up on your device too much before it hits the stereo. Also if it has it's own equalizer running, or bass booster, then it hits the stereo and amplifies that signal too, your speakers are going to be distorted. So turn off the equalizer on your device and just use the stereo controls.

[Deathcricket]

42107

Do you use one of these things? I found that when I used one of these in my civic, it would not properly sit on the tabs in the radio unit and make some strange sounds. Try sticking your finger in there (with it playing) and moving the plastic cassette around a bit, forwards backwards, up or down. See if the problem goes away. I actually had to stick a piece of cardboard on top of it permanently to apply slight downward pressure and it would play perfectly. But just sitting in there it would sound like crap.
:2thumbs:

[denaliguide]

i have the same thing in my 90 4runner. use the cassette adapter to play my mp3 player and cd player. it is a balancing act of the volumes between the two.
also my cd player had a thing called mega bass. turned it off and it helped too.

can you adjust the balance between the front and rear speakers?

[Wasatch Rebel]

42107

Do you use one of these things? I found that when I used one of these in my civic, it would not properly sit on the tabs in the radio unit and make some strange sounds. Try sticking your finger in there (with it playing) and moving the plastic cassette around a bit, forwards backwards, up or down. See if the problem goes away. I actually had to stick a piece of cardboard on top of it permanently to apply slight downward pressure and it would play perfectly. But just sitting in there it would sound like crap.
:2thumbs:

Yep. That's what I'm using. I'll give your suggestion a try, and also turn down the volume on my MP3 player to see what happens. Thanks, guys!


can you adjust the balance between the front and rear speakers?

Yeah, it has a fader control. That really doesn't seem to help all that much though because even with it turned fully to the front, I'm hearing the feedback from the back speakers, and the front ones sound like crap by themselves.

[accadacca]

The ole tape deck to iPhone is what I use. :lol8:

[ratagonia]

I have a radio broadcaster hooked into my ipod, into the cig lighter. Works like a charm. Not so good in the big cities where almost all the channels are taken.

T

[Wasatch Rebel]

So, I ran it with the device turned down way low today, and that feedback was gone. The sound was bad though, with the instruments sounding way louder than the vocals on many songs. I think it's just a matter of adjusting things correctly...maybe turning up the device a bit, but not all the way, so there won't be the clipping.

[ratagonia]

So, I ran it with the device turned down way low today, and that feedback was gone. The sound was bad though, with the instruments sounding way louder than the vocals on many songs. I think it's just a matter of adjusting things correctly...maybe turning up the device a bit, but not all the way, so there won't be the clipping.

The fake cassette player is a really lo-fidelity way of going about the transfer. I know you are fascinated by the struggle to get this technology to work, but...

Check these out: http://www.amazon.com/gp/search/ref=sr_nr_n_1?rh=n:172282,k:mp3+player+with+fm+rad io,n:!493964,n:281407&bbn=493964&keywords=mp3+player+with+fm+radio&ie=UTF8&qid=1299223186&rnid=493964

Tom :moses:

[Wasatch Rebel]

Thanks, Tom! Yeah, I guess I'm fixated on making something work that I think should work. Well, for the most part my point of view is that you only need to have great sound up to a point in any vehicle I've ever owned. The reason being is that with road noise and engine noise, sometimes noise from rolling down windows---well you're only hearing low quality sound anyway. But I'm hearing it well enough to know that I'm not hearing it correctly, thus my fixation. I save the really good sound for my home system with a great set of headphones. I like your idea of the transmitter though. I'm trying to find one that will work with my laptop since I lost my MP3 player and can't afford another one right now...and I don't like to buy anything when I think I still have it hiding around the house somewhere.

[Sombeech]

I use the tape adapter in both of my vehicles, and in a stereo in my garage. I can get very good quality out of it.

It's not only adjusting the volume on your original device, but disable the equalizer. Any bass boost or "concert mode" or whatever is only going to over amplify once it goes through your stereo.

Plus it could be that your tape adapter has a short in the cable, or like Deathcricket said, wiggle the tape around as it's playing to find that sweet spot.

[Deathcricket]

Yeah yeah what Sombeech said. I also have gotten great (nearly perfect) sound out of those little cheap adapters, something is wrong and expensive solutions aren't the best idea IMO. Those adapters that play a radio frequency sounds worse IMO anyways. I wish you lived closer so I could drive over and help you troubleshoot it hehe. We could swap it with my Zune and see if it goes away. Change out the adapter and see if that goes away. Do you have a friend nearby who uses the same setup and maybe borrow theirs just to test? I'm sure once you get it narrowed down to which component is screwing up, it will be a simple fix. Worst case, in your shoes I might even be tempted to buy a new adapter and see if it works. They are under $10 right?

You said when you use the laptop or the diskman or the mp3 player it sounds like crap, but the radio works fine. So that connector seems most suspicious to me. It's the only thing the same in all your test scenarios. Have you tried moving the same setup back into the Accord and does it still sound like crap there? Maybe even cleaning the tape contacts (in the 4 runner cassette) with some rubbing alcohol and qtips? Maybe there is a spider nest in there or something? Just gotta pinpoint it IMO.

[Wasatch Rebel]

Yeah yeah what Sombeech said. I also have gotten great (nearly perfect) sound out of those little cheap adapters, something is wrong and expensive solutions aren't the best idea IMO. Those adapters that play a radio frequency sounds worse IMO anyways. I wish you lived closer so I could drive over and help you troubleshoot it hehe. We could swap it with my Zune and see if it goes away. Change out the adapter and see if that goes away. Do you have a friend nearby who uses the same setup and maybe borrow theirs just to test? I'm sure once you get it narrowed down to which component is screwing up, it will be a simple fix. Worst case, in your shoes I might even be tempted to buy a new adapter and see if it works. They are under $10 right?

You said when you use the laptop or the diskman or the mp3 player it sounds like crap, but the radio works fine. So that connector seems most suspicious to me. It's the only thing the same in all your test scenarios. Have you tried moving the same setup back into the Accord and does it still sound like crap there? Maybe even cleaning the tape contacts (in the 4 runner cassette) with some rubbing alcohol and qtips? Maybe there is a spider nest in there or something? Just gotta pinpoint it IMO.

I started thinking about what Sombeech said. I thought, well maybe I don't have the sound on the device turned up enough now . So earlier today, I experimented. I plugged my laptop into my home stereo and started playing the MP3s. I noticed that when I had the volume on the device turned way down low, the sound quality was worse. Since I had made sure the equalizer was off, that was ruled out as the culprit. I adjusted the level on my home system to where it sounded great, then unplugged the laptop from the home stereo and headed out to the 4runner. It sounded near perfect. I drove around for about 40 minutes and it was great. So I'm thinking that A) the equalizer caused the original problem with distortion, and B) the second problem of poor sound was caused by having the volume on the device turned down too low.

I'm thinking I would have problems again if the device volume was turned up too high as well...so that relates back to what Denaliguide said in his response, that there's a fine line in there somewhere. I think I may have discovered what that line is. I sure appreciate all of you for your suggestions. It saved me some bucks on buying some speakers which likely would've just pissed me off, because it wouldn't have solved the issue.