Best Cassette Adapter?

[WILLYumAZN]

(Sorry about this being in General Discussions, I don't think it would fit in Home Theater or Mobile Devices so well.)

 

My parents have 3 older cars (1998-2002) and soon I'll get my license, be able to drive, and one of the most important things to me is music while driving.

The cars are too old for playing DVDs or auxiliary USB, and I'd rather not buy a bunch of 700MB CDs and have the changers awkwardly change CDs or wait for the eject to switch cars.

 

Basically: I looked into things and all of the cars have a cassette player and need to know which cassette adapter is the best.

I see Monster, Philips, and Belkin as the major brands with many good (and a considerable amount of bad) reviews.

 

Has anyone tried these? Which ones should I get?

[Askew]

You mean the cassette tape on a wire with a 3.5mm jack?

 

Yeah I've used them before, they don't sound so great all round but they do the job and it's a hell of a lot cheaper than buying new gear.

[WILLYumAZN]

You mean the cassette tape on a wire with a 3.5mm jack?

 

Yeah I've used them before, they don't sound so great all round but they do the job and it's a hell of a lot cheaper than buying new gear.

Yeah, and I don't expect them to be CD quality but they're relatively inexpensive and convenient so I'm just wondering which one to buy.

[Quest]

You mean the cassette tape on a wire with a 3.5mm jack?

 

Yeah I've used them before, they don't sound so great all round but they do the job and it's a hell of a lot cheaper than buying new gear.

I agree. Way better than buying new stuff.

Any generic little thing from, say, Walmart or whatever should work perfectly well. I don't even know the brand of mine, I just know that I have it, and my friends need to constantly borrow it. Makes for good birthday presents as well, apparently  B)

[Askew]

Yeah, and I don't expect them to be CD quality but they're relatively inexpensive and convenient so I'm just wondering which one to buy.

 

I wouldn't worry too much about brand, just buy one with a known brand on it like Sony/Philips/Panasonic ect and it should be good enough quality.

[KeltonDSMer]

I've had at least 3 of those over the years, definitely worth 5-10$ IMO.

 

Another option is a radio transmitter adapter. They can be had also for 5-10$ and broadcast a signal that you can pick up on your FM radio. I find the quality of these is great if you live in an area where the FM band is not totally saturated so you can find a good frequency to broadcast on.

 

Note, the tape adapters are passive but the FM transmitter needs battery or USB power.

 

I'd probably go with the tape adapter, but the FM transmitter is a little more versatile and I thought I would mention it in case you have not seen them before.

[techswede]

Wow. I've never heard of those things before now. That's pretty cool  

Get one of those if you want to

 

Although you could pick up a newer car stereo for not much money with an aux jack and cd player. 

Installing them takes about 20-30 minutes and is quite easy.

[WILLYumAZN]

Quest and Askew:

Yeah I looked around some more and saw that most brands have the same quality seen by consumers, I'll probably eenie-meenie and pic one lol.

KeltonDSMer:

I know those are an option but some of my friends tried that and they live close by and they say there's a lot of interference so I assume most of the frequencies are occupied or overpowering. But thanks for the idea.

techswede:

I should since one of the cars has a bad LCD but they're pretty old approaching 175k and 300k miles lol so I'd just spend a little bit of money for the time being with a quick and easy install.

Thanks for all the input guys, looks like any cassette adapter shall do.

[Askew]

When you write people's names, put the @ symbol in front of it and they will be tagged and receive a notification.

 

@WILLYumAZN

[techswede]

Quest and Askew:

Yeah I looked around some more and saw that most brands have the same quality seen by consumers, I'll probably eenie-meenie and pic one lol.

KeltonDSMer:

I know those are an option but some of my friends tried that and they live close by and they say there's a lot of interference so I assume most of the frequencies are occupied or overpowering. But thanks for the idea.

techswede:

I should since one of the cars has a bad LCD but they're pretty old approaching 175k and 300k miles lol so I'd just spend a little bit of money for the time being with a quick and easy install.

Thanks for all the input guys, looks like any cassette adapter shall do.

Alright^^ My car stereo has a bad LCD as well 

Might do a "How to install" guide if i can get the money together for a new stereo.

[chilicheeseburger]

I've always wondered how these things work.

And I've never used one but from what I can tell from what I've seen in friends cars any cassette adapter will do

[mr moose]

If I were you I would buy a cheap head unit that only does usb/sd aux and radio (cheaper because they have no disc loader).  They can be had for 20$ and will sound better than a cassette/radio converter.  Install is easy, just take your time use plenty of heatshrink/electrical tape.

 

You can always remove it from the car if you are going to sell it or scrap it later on.

[Kyuubixchidori]

being used in a 2000 escort with aftermarket speakers, with stock radio, using the FM transmitter was MUCH better then cassette adapter. It blew me away honestly. and they have came a long way, My dad bought a fm transmitter for 90$ a few years ago, I got one for 20$ a few weeks ago. sounds way better. 

 

I would highly recommend buying a Fm transmitter. Or, go to a store, buy both, try both, then return the one that sounds worse.

 

the key for fm transmitters, pick the lowest frequency that's not on the station. by me theres a local station 88.7, My transmitter could transmit over 88.7 with almost no interference just fine.  

[mr moose]

being used in a 2000 escort with aftermarket speakers, with stock radio, using the FM transmitter was MUCH better then cassette adapter. It blew me away honestly. and they have came a long way, My dad bought a fm transmitter for 90$ a few years ago, I got one for 20$ a few weeks ago. sounds way better. 

 

I would highly recommend buying a Fm transmitter. Or, go to a store, buy both, try both, then return the one that sounds worse.

 

the key for fm transmitters, pick the lowest frequency that's not on the station. by me theres a local station 88.7, My transmitter could transmit over 88.7 with almost no interference just fine.  

 

I have found that with fm transmitters it is heavily dependent on the car, I have one that worked a treat in my pajero and xr6 but useless in my frontera.  It just depends on the radio type in the car and where the aerial is etc.

[Kyuubixchidori]

I have found that with fm transmitters it is heavily dependent on the car, I have one that worked a treat in my pajero and xr6 but useless in my frontera.  It just depends on the radio type in the car and where the aerial is etc.

Really? hum. well, I only tried it in fords. 95 escort with aftermarket headunit, 2000 escort, and 2003 f-150.

 

I guess the best bet for him would to just buy both and try it, I mean both are so cheap.