I still have my original sony walkman. As professionals back then, we did NOT use cassettes because of the poor audio and reliability. I spent many years dealing with broken tape, buying cassette repair kits, bad splices, etc. We would make mix tapes at work saving us from buying a lot of cassettes. Our personal collections went in the trash a few years later because..... In 1986, we went DVD (exception already noted). My first DVD was/is Dire Straits "Money for Nothing" in full DDD and it still plays exactly the same 39 years later. The DVD is packed away but I listen to its perfect copy in my iTunes library in any modern vehicle I get in, including a gen 2 prius. Crutchfield may have some suggestion on how to adapt a used Toyota DIN cassette deck including steering wheel controls. Good Luck!
Digital and Analog are 2 different formats. So easily it all falls on a person preference. I have a few CD maybe around 200 or less but non comparable to my magnetic media library which is over 10,000 reels and cassette tapes. Long before the CD took over, I already know the format that I need to use. If you really look closely in today's high fidelity, Why would people spend anywhere from $250 to $10,000 for a DAC converter just to convert the digital to analog sound. This is not just once, I know thousands of people doing this. If you had a chance to own even the basic Nakamichi Deck from (1979 to 2004) and a minimum of Super Ferric or up tapes, you wouldn't be talking about hiss. Because in the category, Dolby NR becomes an option. Not a necessity. So going back to the cassette deck for car, This is what I been threading for a while. I want to double check from time to time if anyone has already made an additional cassette feature on the 2007 with navigation system. If not, I will just have to keep on using the walkman plugged into the 3.5 adaptor. And possibly just put an housing for it. Besides the Prius is just my everyday point A to B driving. Its an old car and nothing special.
It has been done: The bumpy story of vinyl record players in cars - Shop Press One of the few advantages of hearing loss is that at a certain point you can nope out of the "this medium is better" arguments for good. Everything from HiFi to an old fashioned land line sound the same to me now. There is no hiss on anything (too high a frequency for me to hear), but unfortunately tinnitus replaces it, so instead there are odd pure high pitched notes and the occasional wild clicking, like a crazed insect playing castanets inside my ear.
