Hello everyone,
I registered here over a year ago and im back, this time to say that I finally bought a box...
JVC RC-656 LDII, what do you think?
It's one of the nicest looking ones that I have seen so far, dont know about how powerful it is or even if its working ok, I will find that out when I receive it...

Now my ideias for it... some of you will hate me for this but as I explained in my first post, I dont want to ruin it, just upgrade it...
I will incorporate a mp3 player and if possible make it run on a lithium battery...
I dont want to hack up the box, just place a mp3 player in it and make it blend in like it was meant to be there.
Some of you will say, why dont you just plug one in through the line in? I dont want any dangling wires etc.. I want it to look original, simple and functional.
The objective is for this thing to hit the streets and blast in some jam sessions and I dont want to carry a bag full of cassettes...

Welcome back outriding!

You have a nice box for your first one. As most of us have found we can't stop at just one so keep us posted as your collection grows.

Nice score outriding! One of my favorite boxes in my collection, and the horns are so very classic on that box. Yours looks awfully nice! Hope she arrives in all her glory. Amazingly loud for such a midsizer... AND JVC quality throughout! You'll be surprised how loud

That appears to be identical to my CII version of the same model number.I agree with you about its looks!This one is an absolute favorite of mine!Personally I would modify it only if you think you can keep its classic styling unaltered.Sound wise,I love it!The highs are nice and sharp without adjustment and it has nice tight bass.Though it can get really loud for indoor use (even in a fairly big room!),it's a mid range model JVC box probably not meant to make a big impression outside.However,it is just the perfect size to carry and feels wonderful to take along with you!Here's mine:



You might want to consider that line-in sensitivity isn't going to produce the same loudness of sound as does the tuner at a given volume setting.As I'm no techie,I'm not sure if this is an issue with cleaning or not on older boxes.Nevertheless,outside of the really big and powerful ones with volume to spare,I have yet to find an old boomboxes line-in to be sensitive enough to prevent me from having to dial in the boxes volume close to its maximum setting.For this reason,most of my line-in use is with a pair of outboard headphone amps between my player and the input jacks.If you are thinking of a permanent mod to the box,you may want to include this if you want output parity with the 656s tuner.Perhaps someone good with electronics knows of another way to get more sensitivity out of the box itself.Personally,I use two of the Boostaroo basic type headphone amps hooked up in a series to get the necessary input signal gain.This works great and I can't imagine not having them.Look here:

http://www.boostaroo.com/store_detail.php4?id=14

An FM transmitter might do the trick though I've never had success with them personally.It's also probably not the kind of thing you could build into your box.Interestingly,there was an MP3 cassette available for a while but it was discontinued.This was an mp3 player built into a free wheeling cassette shell and used a removable sd card to hold the mp3s.If you had a working tape switch and clean tape head,you were supposedly good to go.There is a much less expensive version of this discontinued product currently available from a Chinese company online.I ordered one of them and have been very unhappy with it.Compatibility was a big issue.It seemed to work for me with some tape mechanisms/switches and not with others.Also,you could skip from song to song but you could not scan through a particular cut.FF and Reverse were actually track to track skipping.Also if you happened to stop the player for more than 5 minutes it will automatically reset itself to its beginning.Not having an individual track scanning feature,this was particularly annoying while listening to hour long podcasts!Maybe someone will put one of these out that works well at a reasonable price.It was such a good idea!

Thanks for the tips Jovie,
Im not a electronic expert so I will probably get some help from one to put this together.

I seen those cassette/mp3 on ebay, not to expensive but dont know about how it would actually work. The heads would have to be working good and I dont know that yet.

I think I will go with a mp3 player, even if it is very basic and doesn't have a LCD dispay.

Those cassettes on ebay work GREAT! Judging by how nice the box looks, I'm sure the heads will be fine! Great score!!! I need to find me one of those now!

OK, so I finally received the box today.
The packing was good so there was no problems with anything braking during shipping.
I opened it up and cleaned it inside and out, looks good and has an amazing sound for a box its size.
It has no line-in so that worries me, how will I connect my mp3? Will I have to hack into the tape line? I dont know, It has mic L/R inputs put they dont seem to work as line-in.... it also has a REC/PB plug-in on the side pannel but dont know what that is for...

here is the side pannel:

The DIN jack is your Input, you either need a 5 pin DIN to RCA converter or you can tap into the lines on the back. I haven't actually performed this but it should be doable, maybe some others have input on how to do this. I also think there are diagrams on the web that can help, I've seen them before but don't remember where.

What masterblaster said!
the rec/pb din connection is the way to go.
I was just talking to danny about this yesterday and he knows the pin-outs. maybe shoot him a pm and he can help.
Nice find by the way, thats a great looking box.
kinda looks like my M-50

Great looking box, with elements of the M50 and of the M70. I hope your mods don't make permanent/irreversible changes to the box. One way might be to re-wire internally so that the input wiring goes (with appropriate connectors at the end) to the battery space: create a new replacement battery cover that allows you to put the iPod intoone end of the space where the batteries went. There should be room, since you plan to use lithium batteries which pack more power for their size. I can't say without measuring the actual space whether this would work for this particular box, but if so, it would be a relatively easy way to get the mods you want, yet still be completely reversible. Probably the trickiest part would be getting "locking tabs" on your replacement battery cover that would hold, but you could make them from sheet metal rather than plastic; that would be strong and easier to do.

Whatever you decide to do, good luck with it, and congratulations on a beautiful box acquisition!

Thanks for the comments,
I haven't done any modifications yet,
This box is actually in such great shape, cosmetically and functionally that I feel bad about "destroying" it... Not that the mods that I was planning were going to destroy the box, they would just probably be unreversable and the box would lose value if I wanted to sell it in the future...
Anyway, im going to look into a lithium battery pack that will fit inside the battery compartment and Im still thinking of a way to implement a mp3 player without making too much external mods.

i say find a mount a small mp3 player on the side of it something thing like a shuttle or nano. i mean i know you dont want wires but you could probaly hide most of it. you could use that double sided velcro tape stuff on the ipod.
alternitavely you could use a smaller battery pack in the battery compartment and stuff the ipod in there. wiring the conection internaly using a y cable to the ipod. the male connector being in the battery compartment. you can get some pretty small mp3 players now. i am sure you could do it so it could be reversed afterwards if you desired.

Hello all,

I have been checking this site sporadically for info when trying to by ghettoblasters off ebay, it seems a good source. However most of the purchases I tried to make were outbid. About a year ago i got a gf-555 and a gf-767 though so was quite happy.

Just won an auction for a JVC RC656 that looks just like this one, and it seems I made a good choice, you folks seem to rate it highly!
What I want to know is details about the line-ins. That picture of the side panel is just what I've needed to see, but I cant read what it says next to the DIN input, nor the inputs just above it. Can someone help please? I want to have the cables ready by the time the badboy arrives...

Im lazy.. I didnt make any mode yet or even get the DIN cable.. Anyway, here is the side panel amplified, good luck with your 656.