Does anybody remember? What was the last year a cassette tape player was available in the Prius? And can a cassette player be added in a 2007 model? Thanks - Marvin
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Marvinh @ Nov 12 2007, 01:40 PM) [snapback]538463[/snapback]</div> Cassette Player???? What's a casette player? Is that simalar to a floppy drive? (Just kidding... On the 2005, you had to buy the upgraded radio package in order to get the cassette player. Kind of ironic, don't you think?)
Time for another threading resurrection. Has anyone added even a wired remote cassette deck in their system simply plugged in to the 1/4 input? Thanks...
Bump... Time for another threading resurrection. Has anyone added even a wired remote cassette deck in their system simply plugged in to the 1/4 input? or fully install a cassette deck / tuner. I have a 2007 fully loaded package 5 Nothing special in the cassette deck. I just prefer it. Here it is on a din chassis. Thanks...
Bump... Time for another threading resurrection. Has anyone added even a wired remote cassette deck in their system simply plugged in to the 1/4 input? How about adding just a cassette installed in the car then just plugging it in the 1/4 input. Anyone tried it? Thanks...
This will work: Portable Cassette player (like a Walkman) aux-jack to FM transmitter adapter (pick an unused FM station) working FM radio in car (tuned to the frequency selected above) Long ago we used to have one so that we could play CDs in our 2000 Subaru (head unit only had a cassette). We also had an adapter that was a modified cassette with a wire to an aux jack that could be plugged in. Didn't like the latter as much because for some reason it got very hot and we were afraid it would eventually damage the head unit. It looks like most of the adapters now have built in rechargeable batteries, the one we had back in the day took power from the cigarette lighter socket.
I'm pretty sure there is a direct aux input—no need to detour through FM. I think it uses a 1/8" / 3.5 mm jack, though, not 1/4. can be...
Ha, you whipper snappers with your new fangled cassette loaders. I had the "joy" of working with both punch card decks and rolls of punched paper tape. Both of which sucked but were better than the alternative, which was toggling the programs in manually on the front panel, which was still an option on many computers of that era.
I have a good walkman that sounds close enough for what I want and plug it into the 3.5 jack. It actually sounds good to very good which is quite fine with me. My problem with using it is I don't have a stationary placement or a docking station or mounting station. Its not really what I want to do in long term using. So if I can have a mounting place and bracket, that would be fine. Or if I can get something like this which is a 1/2 a size of a din chassis radio with wirings, I could possibly squeeze this inside the last open door bay. Or even get a din box and mount it under the lower dash. The problem with installing a head unit stereo cassette in my car it has a navigation and extras. No one in my area can replace the whole stereo unless its plugged into the 3.5 jack which is available in my car. This is nothing about better and best. I just prefer the cassette option. It has a working CD player and I don't use it.
Some of the FM transmitter adapters accept a USB drive and can play music from it. For instance, B07VFT4D6B on Amazon, claims that it can do that (I have no experience with this particular device, just reading its specifications). You would have to convert your tapes to whatever format these require. If navigating through a single drive loaded with all of your tapes is too awkward you could always buy a bunch of small cheap USB drives and use one drive per tape.
I would instead recommend the version that plugs into the 12V and uses local FM frequency and has multiple USB ports for charging. This also circumvents the bad grounding of the aux input and charging concept that creates distortions. That casette player used until 2006 annoys me aswell, but who uses any physical media nowadays?
I do. On any stop between legs of long trips when driving alone I pull 3 or 4 CDs out of the folder and set them down on the passenger seat, then feed them into the head unit sequentially. The advantage is that I can swap them without looking away from the road. On short trips, like around town, the radio is good enough. While I could rip all those CDs and put them on a USB drive, then I would be in the same boat as the OP, needing a device to get that information from the USB drive to the head unit. Also at home, we often pick up movie DVDs from the library. We still prefer the experience from the DVD to watching the same movie on a streaming service. It's not like going to the library is a big chore as we drive by the ones we use on the way to various stores at least once every week, and it doesn't cost anything to check these items out. I still use paper maps for navigation on long trips too. The phone is useful if there is somebody with me to handle it, but when driving alone on the highway I can't usually make out what it said when it gave a notice, and don't want to look away from the road to futz around with the phone to make it play the notice again. Having the little dot moving on the screen isn't particularly useful if you already know where you are.
The whole threading is about adding a cassette deck not circumventing them. There are people that wants to use them for their own purpose.
On Ebay there are ads for 86120-47030 which is identified as a cassette player for a 01-05 Prius. Presumably it will fit, whether it can be attached to the 07 head unit, I have no idea.
Thanks for the follow-up. That mechanism is one of the things I'm looking for. It has to have at least a PLAY and a STOP control. The rest I can probably wire it.
Amayama is your friend (Toyota's own parts web site, not so much): https://www.amayama.com/en/genuine-catalogs/epc/toyota-usa/prius/NHW20L/8935/electric/8601 Which shows that the head unit with a cassette is 86120-47100. It also has a CD. There are some on Ebay for $60ish. All that said, I don't know if it is compatible with the wiring in a 2007. Note the "JBL" in the description of the part on Amayama. It suggests to me that things might be easiest if the car originally had the "JBL" CD player head unit.
I am sorry, but I have never heard anyone liking cassettes since they have bad audio and deterioration factor. Why not add a vinyl player instead? (rhetorical question full of humor….) Naturally any aux output can be added to the 3.5mm input, but I will not interfere with this thread then, apart from stating avoid charging any device attached to the aux to create the dreaded ground loop. Better replace the CD (cassettes was removed since 06 facelift as stated).
Is that your best contribution being a newbie in this site? Doesn't it clearly state Adding a Cassette Player? Is that difficult to understand? It clearly states in the previous post that I have all the digital features. If I wasn't looking for a cassette I wouldn't be in this threading,
+1 Both the wife and I were radio dj's back then and had HUGE cassette collections. We only have one cassette left and it's of our wedding. Other than deeply personal stuff like that, I'm not sure why anyone would want to listen to hiss and breakage prone fragile tape. In 2025. Suggestion: portable cassette player (tons of used still around) to the 3.5mm input.
