Got something W/ a headphone jack? play it in your stang for $100

jlangholzj · Jul 31, 2007

has anyone else been frustrated by only having an AM radio? I couldn't play my Ipod so i set out to chang that. If you have anything that has a headphone jack, you can play it in your stang for less than buying a specialty radio for $200 +!

i made a new deck for my speakers and intalled them in the back window. After that I bought a simple 200 Watt amp (which is plenty for this) and hooked it up according to the manufactures specs. But because our old radios dont have an aux. remote switch, i wired the remote line for the amp to a switched power source, in this case, my radio power (A). NOw you have to convert the headphone jack to RCA cables, but its really simple; because both are low output, the RCA and headphone cables are the exact same, so just cut and splice. and then, viola!

the sound quality is suprisingly good! and you can play anything with a heaphone jack now; satelite radios, Ipod's, CD's ect. And you keep the look of original everything (except the speakers). Depending on where you put the amp, you might not even see it.

I'll try to get some pictures

-john

stangman16 · Jul 31, 2007

Got any pictures of this project? Sounds interesting!

DissFigured · Jul 31, 2007

I got a 200 watt amp, and a RCA to 1/8 female adapter. Wholla $60 and I can play my ipod.

Works great.

suki243 · Jul 31, 2007

Ya, i did this too, it works amazingly, and its simple.

ron67fb · Aug 1, 2007

I did this to my daily beater car. I almost bought a "cheap" $120 Sony with an auxiliary input, but decided I don't need a CD player or FM radio head unit when I already have an MP3 player. To minimize distortion install a "line output converter" between the jack and amp, since most cheap amps only use line-level inputs.

NasaGT · Aug 1, 2007

People have been doing this kind of thing for years. I remember a friend who did this in the 80s with his Sony CD Walkman.

freddyfender · Aug 1, 2007

Ok. I am an audio idiot. it all sounds greek to me. does somebody have a picture or diagrams of this? It sounds like a great idea, but i just have no clue when people are talking amps and their inputs/outputs.

68blackv8 · Aug 1, 2007

freddyfender said:
Ok. I am an audio idiot. it all sounds greek to me. does somebody have a picture or diagrams of this? It sounds like a great idea, but i just have no clue when people are talking amps and their inputs/outputs.

yeah like he said...

sound slike a good idea, i just cant picture it in my head

lets get some pics/drawings

jlangholzj · Aug 1, 2007

greek translation

ok so here's the deal , The AMP basically boosts your exsisting signal ie. making it louder. so I made a new cover for the deck where the speakers sit in the back (between the rear seat and window) and installed two 6X9 speakers . Realatively speaking amp's are measured by WATT's (how much power they put out) and 200 is small, but plenty for two speakers. So I installed the amplifier to the manufactures specs. However in most new radios, there is an auxilary connection that you hook up to the amp so it only comes on when your stereo is on. but since our AM radio's are old, I just spliced in into the (+) power line that runs into the radio {(A)}; {(B)} is power comming from the battery and {(C)} is a ground.

now most new radios have RCA cable outputs ( the white and red wires that come out behind your TV) and these are a low output (low power) and relatively speaking the headphone jack that plugs into anything is also (because the speakers are in your ear). so bothe the wires in the RCA and Headphone cables are the same, so instead of having to mess around with converters, ect. you can just match red w/ red, the ground w/ ground ect. and so you now have a custom made RCA to 1/8" headphone jack converter! ( you can pull the headphone jack from some old headphones or something) {(D)}

in conclusion, you can now run anything that has a headphone jack in your stang w/o spending $200 on a special radio. and it retains the classic look of the original interior ( baisically looks like you just put in new speakers in the rear)

btw, i got the speakers and amp from Wal-mart!!!!

make more sense??

68blackv8 · Aug 2, 2007

makes perfect sense

but what is {C} for?

enferno · Aug 2, 2007

i used 300 watt PC speakers!

8" sub, and 4 satellites. just used an AC to DC converter and bam! it's loud, crisp, and i can plug my ipod into it.

plus, it was $50 w/ mail-in rebate from fry's!

Rusty67 · Aug 2, 2007

Does know where I can get a stereo mini connector that I can mount into a bezzle ? I've been wanting to put a stereo mini connector in my car since like 1998. At one time I almost built a PC and put it under the passenger seat but I was in high school and the cost of the inverter and touch LCD put the project out of my price range. I still havn't seen a stereo mini connector that I can mount into anything and I don't want to do it the cheesey way.

jlangholzj · Aug 2, 2007

{C} is the ground wire

ron67fb · Aug 2, 2007

Rusty67 said:
Does know where I can get a stereo mini connector that I can mount into a bezzle ? I've been wanting to put a stereo mini connector in my car since like 1998. At one time I almost built a PC and put it under the passenger seat but I was in high school and the cost of the inverter and touch LCD put the project out of my price range. I still havn't seen a stereo mini connector that I can mount into anything and I don't want to do it the cheesey way.

I've seen those at Radio Shack, look for "panel mount".

OK here:
http://www.radioshack.com/search/index.jsp?kwCatId=&kw=panel mount jack&origkw=panel mount jack&sr=1

With 40+ gigs available for portable MP3 players I don't see the use for a PC-based car MP3 player nowadays. Sure, 500+ gigs and WiFi would be nice but with the costs what's the point unless you just like to tinker with electronics for the heck of it.

SadbutTrue · Aug 2, 2007

can this technique be made more elaborate (ie use a more aggressive amp and hook it to some subs/more speakers) or is it limited my the mp3 player/headphone jack type cable/etc? Sounds like something I might do in my daily driver instead of getting a 1000 dollar system installed if i can (i've been using a casette adapter in my 89 caddy, but the stock stereo has a blown fuse or something and repeatedly spits the tape out when it gets hot... really irritating, especially since I drive the thing on 6 hour trips between LA and the bay area frequently).

Rusty67 · Aug 2, 2007

ron67fb said:
I've seen those at Radio Shack, look for "panel mount".

OK here:
http://www.radioshack.com/search/index.jsp?kwCatId=&kw=panel mount jack&origkw=panel mount jack&sr=1

With 40+ gigs available for portable MP3 players I don't see the use for a PC-based car MP3 player nowadays. Sure, 500+ gigs and WiFi would be nice but with the costs what's the point unless you just like to tinker with electronics for the heck of it.

Thanks, I'll check that out.

Ya, thats why my daily driver doesn't have a computer in it under a seat or something right now. Back in the late 90s there was no such thing as a portable mp3 player. Now the cost doesn't equate to the gain unless I'm doing some retarded custom system (which I never will, at least not for myself).

I almost built my own mp3 player out of an Altoids tin. There is a project you could provably google called mintymp3 or something like that. Again, when portable mp3 players came out they were over priced and out of my leauge at the time.

SadbutTrue said:
can this technique be made more elaborate (ie use a more aggressive amp and hook it to some subs/more speakers) or is it limited my the mp3 player/headphone jack type cable/etc? Sounds like something I might do in my daily driver instead of getting a 1000 dollar system installed if i can (i've been using a casette adapter in my 89 caddy, but the stock stereo has a blown fuse or something and repeatedly spits the tape out when it gets hot... really irritating, especially since I drive the thing on 6 hour trips between LA and the bay area frequently).

You might need some sort of sound proccessor hardware or a custom cross-over board to make this worth it. I think the CD player I got for my daily driver was an inexpensive solution. I purchased it for about 200 bux. drop another 200 on a set of front and rear speakers and leave the amp at home. Your car will sound great believe me, no need for an amp and sub. A good set of rear speakers will give you enough bass and a good set of fronts will yield the correct highs and mids. Subs are completely unneccesary and IMO its a stupid fad in the car music world.

This is the head unit I got:
http://www.crutchfield.com/S-5UHou7vwy5W/cgi-bin/ProdView.asp?g=300&I=257KDHDR1

I've had it almost a year with only 1 minor hickup and that was caused by someone puting the face plate in backwards so the it didn't work until I reinstalled the face plate and turned the car off and turned it back on. When I bought it a year ago, it was the cheapest HD radio on the market. I don't know if there is a more affordable unit out now or not. I'm happy with it for the most part. My only complaint is that sometimes it will change display modes on its own (when I change the station) and I get the radio station that is playing instead of the time. When I put this in I also put a new set of Infinity speakers in the front. Great/clean highs, clean mids but no lows. I didn't replace the stock rears but I should. I basically have very little low end. Part of this may be due to the factory wiring, I don't know if they have any filters in the stock wiring or not. I would run new wire but its too much of a pain. I'll provably put a new pair of rears in early next year.

EDIT:
Exactly what I'm looking for, now to find it locally or cheap...
http://www.datapro.net/products/panel-mount-3-5mm-f-to-rcax2.html

jlangholzj · Aug 2, 2007

SadbutTrue said:
can this technique be made more elaborate (ie use a more aggressive amp and hook it to some subs/more speakers)

certanly!!!!!

but if you wanted to hook it up to the radio, you might need some more stuff. if it doesn't have a RCA out, you'll need a speaker wire (comming out of the radio) to RCA adaptor. they do have such a thing! but you wont be able to splice a speaker wire into RCA like i did b/c it would overload the amp since its already a high output source. either that or you can but a different radio w/ a RCA out.

either way, cheaper than $1000 and it more fun!

SadbutTrue · Aug 2, 2007

jlangholzj said:
certanly!!!!!

but if you wanted to hook it up to the radio, you might need some more stuff. if it doesn't have a RCA out, you'll need a speaker wire (comming out of the radio) to RCA adaptor. they do have such a thing! but you wont be able to splice a speaker wire into RCA like i did b/c it would overload the amp since its already a high output source. either that or you can but a different radio w/ a RCA out.

either way, cheaper than $1000 and it more fun!

I'd be willing to yank the radio altogether or just skip the thing. My mp3 player has a radio on it so i really wouldn't be losing anything...

jlangholzj · Aug 2, 2007

ah so if you have an mp3, you can ...yeah just skip the entire thing and do what i did only with a little beefier system. i guess i really don't know what you were getting at in your first post, if it was just a more elaborate system, then yeah, just do the same thing only w/ a 1000 watt 4 chanel & 600 watt for the sub or a 4.1 amp.

69gmachine · Aug 2, 2007

jlangholzj said:
certanly!!!!!

but if you wanted to hook it up to the radio, you might need some more stuff. if it doesn't have a RCA out, you'll need a speaker wire (comming out of the radio) to RCA adaptor. they do have such a thing! but you wont be able to splice a speaker wire into RCA like i did b/c it would overload the amp since its already a high output source. either that or you can but a different radio w/ a RCA out.

either way, cheaper than $1000 and it more fun!

I like the idea of leaving my Factory radio in place, but I'd like to be able to pump both the radio and the MP3 through the amp. I can't believe someone doesn't make an amp that will take a regular radio speaker output as an input. My "Factory" radio is actually out of a mid 80s Bronco, and plays AM and FM with 4 speaker outs. I took the rear speaker wire harness out of a late 70s T-Bird and ran it to the rear of the car in anticipation of installing rear speakers. The radio fits the opening of a '69-73 like it grew there. I put the 69 style knobs on and it looks great.

Got something W/ a headphone jack? play it in your stang for $100

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