cassette tape player

I can't tell you where to get a JBL head unit for your vehicle. But before you pass on this message please read the following.

The JBL system had an amplifier that sat under the passenger's seat. The amp drives the 5 speakers in the front half of the vehicle, the tweeter and midrange/woofer in the doors and the center speaker above the MFD on the dash. The internal amp on the radio itself drove the back door speakers, the tweeters and midrange/woofers.

This poses a problem for what you want to do because you can't just swap in a JBL head unit without also putting in the JBL amp and making the proper wiring connections between the head unit, amp and speakers.

The stock speakers with the regular radio are not as good, in general terms, as the JBL speakers. There are many out there that are not fans of the JBL system in the 04-05 models, and there is credibility in their opinions and I'm sure there are better aftermarket speakers out there, however the JBL speakers are a better grade of speaker than the stock speakers included with the standard audio system.

In short, just because the radios are the same form factor and size doesn't mean that they are fully interchangable, and they are not without the requisite changes in the entire audio system that will make this project very expensive and prohibitive in many other ways.

As much as I cringe to suggest this, an aftermarket head unit is your best bet to get cassette functionality. However, you will loose MFD and steering wheel control of the radio. My opinion, but that is a kicker for me, and I have yet to see an aftermarket radio mounting and bezel that looks good in the Prius dash.

 

Well, this may not be what you're looking for, but there's a device that plugs into a headphone jack of a portable CD or cassette player and broadcasts short range to a specified FM frequency. We have one from my father-in-law that was great when we were moving and the moving truck only had AM/FM radio. I think ours is called iPlay, but it's at home now and I'm not sure. If you're interested, let me know and I'll check on it.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(jtullos @ Jul 21 2006, 12:24 PM) [snapback]290069[/snapback]</div>

Yeah, that will do the trick.

 

Got it, it's called iRock. I found one on Circuit City's website for $40 that's a different model from the one we've got, but should still work just fine.

 

several other alternatives could include: getting a Dice or Vais or similar to get an aux-in for the stereo, then any old walkman could serve to play tapes Alternatively, you could hook up a tape deck to your computer (just take the line out and plug it into the mic in on the computer) and play/record your tapes to then burn on CD's.

I'd say the FM transmitter is the cheapest, leeast time consuming way to manage it, though

 

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...