Adding cassette player to Accord Hybrid?

Hi folks:

I am considering placing a refundable deposit for the new Accord
Hybrid. I have many, many cassettes I've accumulated over years and I
would like to have a cassette player installed in my new car.In the
'04 Accord (all gas engine), there is a large space for storage right
under the radio. I am hoping that this same space might be available
on the '05 Hybrid Accord for installing a cassette player. But, I am
not sure whether to request that this be installed at the Honda
factory before shipping or to go to a car stereo dealer after delivery
to have this installed?

If it is possible for the Honda factory to install the cassette player
prior to delivery and I decide for some reason not to purchase the
Accord Hybrid after seeing it in person, I am concerned I will be
liable for the cassete player cost. However, bc I have never had a car
stereo dealer add a component like this, I am also concerned that the
car stereo dealer might not install the cassette player in a way that
integrates well into the rest of the car stereo system or that
comprimises the quality in some way.

Any recommendations on whether to request the Honda factory to install
the cassette player or whether to have a car stereo dealer do this?
Have people had any negative things happen by having a car stereo
dealer install a cassette player or am I needlessly worrying about
this?

thanks for any tips!
Craig

 

No big deal.

The factory doesn't do it. The dealer installs factory options. It's a
nice system.



I'm guessing you're new to Honda and their philosophies.

 

The factory does not take requests for add on accessories. If it were my
new car I wouldn't have a stereo shop anywhere near my new car. They will
cut and splice and probably cause electrical problems that warranty won't
cover. You may even jeopardize the warranty on the original sound system in
the car.
The dealer can install a Honda Accessory cassette player in the car that
will not only look good and appear original, but will be totaly compatible
with your vehicle.
Good luck, and enjoy your new car when you get it.
Howard

 

Craig wrote:
| I am considering placing a refundable deposit for the new Accord
| Hybrid. I have many, many cassettes I've accumulated over years
| and I would like to have a cassette player installed in my new car.

I don't know anything about the Accord Hybrid. However, here's an alternate
suggestion - did you ever think about converting your tapes to CDs (regular
or mp3s)? This would help you make the jump to modern technology, and once
your tapes are digitized, they are "safe" from rotting/degrading, as analog
tapes happen to do after a while.

 

Dear Howard:

This sounds like very good advice. I appreciate hearing this....
thanks very much!
Craig

 

HI:

This is a creative solution-- but unfortunately I have so many
cassettes it wouldn't be practical to try to convert all of them....

but thanks anyway!
Craig

 

Fact is that magnetic tapes have a far longer life expectancy than do CDs..

JT

-

 

Grumpy au Contraire wrote:
| Fact is that magnetic tapes have a far longer life expectancy than
| do CDs..

Oh yes? I have had several tapes go bad on me, no CD so far (unless I
scratched it).

Besides, once the content is in digital form, it can be preserved, backed
up, duplicated etc without any loss of quality, which is certainly not the
case with tapes!

|
| JT
|
|
|
|
| Craig wrote:
||
|| HI:
||
|| This is a creative solution-- but unfortunately I have so many
|| cassettes it wouldn't be practical to try to convert all of them....
||
|| but thanks anyway!
|| Craig
||
|| ||| Craig wrote:
|||| I am considering placing a refundable deposit for the new Accord
|||| Hybrid. I have many, many cassettes I've accumulated over years
|||| and I would like to have a cassette player installed in my new
|||| car.
|||
||| I don't know anything about the Accord Hybrid. However, here's an
||| alternate suggestion - did you ever think about converting your
||| tapes to CDs (regular or mp3s)? This would help you make the jump
||| to modern technology, and once your tapes are digitized, they are
||| "safe" from rotting/degrading, as analog tapes happen to do after
||| a while.

 

1. Properly stored tapes have an indefinite lifetime.

2. Tapes are analog thus much more information is stored.

3. CD's are plastic and have a fixed lifespan of less than twenty years.

Big thing here is "If" they are duplicated...

 

I have a few music CD-Rs that are almost 10 years old, still perfectly
readable in any CD reader (car/deck/CDROM), with no signs of aging. But
I have also had some CD-Rs that peeled off after just two years. It
really matters how well they are stored and how often they are used. So
number 1. from your post applies to CDs/CD-Rs just as much as it does
to tapes. Number 2. does not make much sense, because even the best
metallic tapes had far worse fidelity than CDs. If you had talked about
vinyls, then yes, there is more information there than on CDs, but not
on tapes (unless you count hiss as valuable information).

If they are used, tapes degrade even faster than CD-Rs because they
develop that anoying hiss and they generaly lose sound quality. Once
they do, they are pretty much garbage, and need to be re-recorded, just
like CD-Rs. And this is the real drawback to tapes, re-recording them.

I have a few thousand albums in mp3 format, but only about 300 album
CD-Rs for my car (I don't carry all at once though). If they should ALL
fail, it would take about 5mins/CD to reburn (about 25h). Soon I won't
even need to do that, because I am planning on buying a car mp3 deck.
That will mean I can carry all the music I'll realisticaly listen to on
about 30 MP3 CD-Rs.

If i were to re-record 300 albums on tape, it would take at least
150-200 hours. Factor in the cost of a CD-R vs. a tape, and CD-Rs are by
far more economical. A CD-R costs about 20-40c, while a tape is at least
twice that if you can still find them, since they aren't manufactured
anymore.

You may disagree, but tapes should just go the way of the dinosaurs.

Cosmin

 

Not intending to get into the "analog vs. digital" argument, but I couldn't
resist answering once more...

Grumpy au Contraire wrote:
| 1. Properly stored tapes have an indefinite lifetime.

Nothing is forever. Eventually everything will rot. Does "properly stored"
imply "not ever being played"? The big difference between optical media such
as CDs and tapes is that there is physical contact, wear and tear between
head and tape that will wear out the tape (if listened to).

| 2. Tapes are analog thus much more information is stored.

Go to read Shannon and Nyquist, then come back and explain how there's more
information on tapes. Note - the CD's odd sampling format (44.1kHz) comes
from the fact that the first digital studio recordings were stored on VHS
recorders. VHS recorders were used because a linear tape (such as audio
tape) just does not have enough bandwidth to carry the data. The VHS tape,
with it's staggered diagonal recording, manages a much higher data rate, and
(including error correction codes) this worked out to a practical maximum
sampling frequency of 44.1kHz.

So there. VHS tapes have much higher bandwidth ("information/second") than
audio tapes. VHS tapes could be considered around the same as CD audio data
rate bandwidth.

| 3. CD's are plastic and have a fixed lifespan of less than twenty
| years.

What do you think tapes are made of? Metal? Nope, my friend, they are
plastic tapes that are coated with magentic material. How this plastic tape
(thinner than CDs, mind you) would be of infinite lifespan while the plastic
of CDs will rot away is beyond me.

Here's an interesting read:
http://www.itl.nist.gov/div895/carefordisc/CDandDVDCareandHandlingGuide.pdf


| Big thing here is "If" they are duplicated...

Anything that's important enough to you should be backed up in some what.
Which, on an analog medium like tape, always entails quality loss.

I'm off the soap box now

 

I hope that you didn't stumble when jumping off. Because I'll take
experience over the pseudo theory advocates any day.

Enjoy you life...

 

Do you really prefer cassettes over CDs, or are you simply trying to figure
out how to extend the life of your collection?

I'm old enough to have gone through reel tapes, 8-track, and cassettes. I
guess I was lucky to have never fallen for any tape media and couldn't wait
to abandon those technologies to go to CDs, being an early adopter. Problems
that have not been mentioned here is how badly they reproduce soft passages
like piano, largely due to the difficulty of controlling the cassette speed,
dirty heads, mispositioning of the tape on the head, etc. You have the right
to fight for continued use of your cassettes, but if you haven't felt the
wonderful cleanliness of music every time you play it with CDs, you are
missing a wonderful experience... Al

 

All of my serious collection is on reel to reel tapes. Many are over
thirty years old and are perfect.

Comparing analog to digital is like comparing film to digital. When
push comes to shove -- No comparison!

JT

(Who uses digital cameras almost daily but the serious stuff is still
done with Leicas)

 

Grumpy au Contraire wrote:
| tomb wrote:
[excess snippage]
|| I'm off the soap box now
|
|
|
| I hope that you didn't stumble when jumping off.

Naw, I'm rather talented. Never broke a bone (except the collar bone when I
was a small kid)

| Because I'll take
| experience over the pseudo theory advocates any day.

Cool with me, whatever makes you happy!

| Enjoy you life...

Thanks, you too!
TomB