Hi folks, I have tried to rescue a philips d8434 with a knacked tape deck, it is not a nice box to work on and it was beyond help with lots of fragments of cheap plastic inside!  The radio works but the line in is so quiet you can hardly hear anything.  I heard you need to have the record button engaged to get sound on some Philips but the deck is so screwed I couldn't make this work. My last idea was just to run a pair of wires from the RCA (in) socket to the tape head output, this is where Ive hit a brick wall Yes I can play an mp3 player now but the signal seems to strong, I have tried ajusting the volume leval on both my mp3 player and the unit but the sound is distorted at all levals.

Should I have removed something perhaps? can you help me find where I mucked up! (apart from buying a philips D8434)

thanks

Cant you put the record switch on the board into record mode with a paper clip to activate the line in? 

might unsolder my handy work and try that Michiel, thanks!

What Michiel suggests is the way to go. The output from a tape head is very, very small (micro volts) A line output from an MP3 or any other device will just overload the tape head pre-amplifier. Just will not work. So locking the record play switch in record mode is what you need to do.

thanks Seb, your explanation makes sense of why my simple ham fisted approach had the results it did! I'll have another go at it next weekend

Well, you got to try these things!  My friend had a D8434 (this was years ago, he bought it new). Being a curious sort he took it to pieces, then couldn't get the eject mechanism to work properly. They are not the easiest machines to work on!

Yeah, you have to be careful, As soon as you open this unit things are ready to fall to pieces!

Would you ever able to add a line in on a box that doesn't have one? or will a signal from a MP3 player always be too strong for the pre amp?

they are awful things made of chocolate 

agreed! even my Discoshite oozes build quaulity compared to one of these!

 thats a terrible thing to say   

It all depends on the design of the boom box. Many boxes have a separate radio and amplifier PCB. The output from the radio PCB is often line level. To go down this road is messy as it involves hacking the box around and adding a switch. I wouldn't want to do this. Microphone inputs will suffer the same problem as the tape head input, they are too sensitive and you risk overload. Record inputs (normally via a 5 pin din or RCA phono inputs are your best bet, however you often have to put the machine into record mode, the machines motor will be running witch will needlessly consume batteries. In this instance you could disconect the motor (remember to put the machine in pause mode so as not to put a flat spot on the pinch roller. Again this is messy; you have to dismantle the machine every time you want to connect an MP3 player. Alternativly there are these neat little devices -

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Car-MP3-Player-Tape-Cassette-Adapter-for-SD-MMC-Reader-/130935858543?pt=UK_AudioVideoElectronics_PortableAudio_MP3PlayerCarKits&hash=item1e7c62a56f#ht_1818wt_1124

Or you could be radical, plug the MP3 player into a small battery powered FM transmitter and tune your boom box into it. If you set the transmitter to about 88 MHz it should be a clear channel. (These devices are available on ebay as well but are a bit heavy on batteries. I would take the later options rather than modify the boom box; unless of course the boom box was a beater.

Hope this helps

jeezus! got fed up with the light show pretty quick there Del?

again thanks for the info Seb! I have a 12v FM transmitter and I wanted to see if I could do without this but You're right about getting messy, I'm not confident enough to hack up and mod a box that is't a total beater yet. That cassette adapter is tempting though, have you tried one?

I have three of these cassette adaptors, they work very well in most boomboxes. Maxiumum capacity on the SD card is 2GB. They have an inbuilt re-chargable battery and a headphone output so you can use them as a stand alone MP3 player. For the money I think they are good.

Have to agree there chris...they should be known as discoshite permanently....they used to sell for £50 yrs ago...until madonna rubbed her muff on one....if i saw one id leave it there