Connecting Pandora to an old school home stereo

[blickcd]

I have an 80's vintage stereo in my garage / workshop. If you experienced the era of Scott receivers, Nakamichi tape decks, Bose speakers, you know what I am talking about. Envision that system at half-open throttle in a garage with all the hard reflective surfaces, yeah you are probably smiling.

Now the local classic rock FM station gets the job done most of the time but I am looking into possibly connecting this into some streaming music system like Pandora, and can't find any easy way to do this.

Seems like there should be a 'unit' with RCA outputs that I could connect to the receiver. This unit could either be hard wired or wifi off my home internet, and maybe have some small display screen on it. Can't find such unit. Any ideas.

PS - I have no interest in replacing the system with anything modern that might be wifi ready, even if that seems like the obvious way to go. Its about the vintage audio. Some people will understand.

Thanks.

[pdavitt]

Don't know about internet radio systems, but do you have cable/satellite TV? I have DirecTV and they have a lot of audio only channels. My direct TV receiver has different audio output connections including stereo (haven't used that word in a while) RCA.

Pat

[mojo]

Use a mini plug stereo cable from your cell phone headphone input connected to an RCA splitter to your stereo.

[rocco52]

Logitech makes a Bluetooth adapter ($35)that you can plug into your Stereo input jack and then connect to an iPad or iPhone to get Pandora. I have been using one with my 1970 Macintosh MA 5100 for years.

[blickcd]

Thanks for the great suggestions.

Pat, as a matter of fact I have DirecTV. Our system has a master DVR unit with several remote controllers in other rooms. One of these rooms is the basement man cave where I can easily test hooking the audio out to another vintage stereo system. If all works well I will then figure out how to best run a line to the garage.

Mojo, your suggestion is also good and I will be trying a variation of it first. My smart phone is a company phone so I can't burn up hours of data on it. However, I just now subscribed to Pandora and will try wife's old Samsung tablet as the source, as opposed to a cell phone.

Note that I have a Zune MP3 player and have tried connecting that with the headphone jack, so I already have a cord, however the sound quality just wasn't as good with that unit as I'd like. We'll have to see how it goes with the tablet.

I'll post an update later.

[DKB_SATX]

re: Your work phone not having unlimited data: Does your wifi signal not reach your garage? If not, you'll be challenged for having this as a long-term solution.

If you have wifi signal and don't mind putting $100 or so toward the solution, there are a number of this sort of unit in the $100-$150 price range. This particular one is decently-rated, has a remote, and has a mini-phone stereo output you could use with the cable you already bought for the Zune.

CC Wifi internet radio

[blickcd]

Update:

I connected a Samsung tablet's headphone jack to the stereo, RCA input for a tape deck, and logged onto Pandora.

The sound quality is better than what I can get off my Zune mp3 player. The downside is that even with the tablet's volume up near full, the signal output isn't as 'hot' as what you get off a tape deck or other normal stereo component. For example, if you were listening to a CD and were pleased with the volume set at 4, then wanted to listen to Pandora at the same volume, you would need to turn up to about 7.

I plan to explore the DirecTV option next. I checked my channel guide and found a lot of intriguing stations. The 10-pin connector on the DirecTV box is the challenge. No store in my area carries an adapter for that and I had to order it. I will post another update in about a week and a half.

Thanks for all the suggestions.

[Al and Missy]

Originally Posted by blickcd

Update:

I connected a Samsung tablet's headphone jack to the stereo, RCA input for a tape deck, and logged onto Pandora.

The sound quality is better than what I can get off my Zune mp3 player. The downside is that even with the tablet's volume up near full, the signal output isn't as 'hot' as what you get off a tape deck or other normal stereo component. For example, if you were listening to a CD and were pleased with the volume set at 4, then wanted to listen to Pandora at the same volume, you would need to turn up to about 7.

I plan to explore the DirecTV option next. I checked my channel guide and found a lot of intriguing stations. The 10-pin connector on the DirecTV box is the challenge. No store in my area carries an adapter for that and I had to order it. I will post another update in about a week and a half.

Thanks for all the suggestions.

What 10-pin connector? All of my receivers have HDMI, and component video and audio on RCA jacks. Must be something new....

I wonder about noise getting into a long cable with analog audio on it at standard levels. Could you get a WiFi repeater and put it closer to the garage? I use them in my house to get from one end downstairs to the other end upstairs.

Al

[blickcd]

Al,

I don't think the 10-pin connector is anything really new. If you do a google search for "10-pin directv to rca" you will see a photo of what I need.

Regarding the line noise and a wifi repeater, that would not come into play with the DirecTV signal, which needs to be hard wired from the box no matter what.

Just so you know, my wifi signal in the garage is fine for Pandora on a tablet. Another FYI is that I have dealt with numerous high end audio systems since the 1980's.

Now when running a patch cord from the basement DirecTV box to the garage, that is a long path. However, the cable I will be running is shielded, and less than 100' in total length so the resistance should not harm the signal. Of course I will just do a test connection to the basement system first to see if I like the sound/signal, in order to determine if running the long line will be worth the trouble.

Thanks for all the suggestions. An update will be posted when I get that adapter cord, and that will be at least another week, free yet extra slow shipping.

[blickcd]

Got the adapter cord and just connected up my basement system to the DirecTV controller that is also down there. Great sound quality, signal strength good but not as powerful as a tuner.

May run a line to the garage at some point. Thanks for all the suggestions.

[Al and Missy]

Originally Posted by blickcd

Al,

I don't think the 10-pin connector is anything really new. If you do a google search for "10-pin directv to rca" you will see a photo of what I need.

Regarding the line noise and a wifi repeater, that would not come into play with the DirecTV signal, which needs to be hard wired from the box no matter what.

Just so you know, my wifi signal in the garage is fine for Pandora on a tablet. Another FYI is that I have dealt with numerous high end audio systems since the 1980's.

Now when running a patch cord from the basement DirecTV box to the garage, that is a long path. However, the cable I will be running is shielded, and less than 100' in total length so the resistance should not harm the signal. Of course I will just do a test connection to the basement system first to see if I like the sound/signal, in order to determine if running the long line will be worth the trouble.

Thanks for all the suggestions. An update will be posted when I get that adapter cord, and that will be at least another week, free yet extra slow shipping.

The standard name for that connector is S-video. It has low-level video on two pins, chrominance and luminance, and the left and right audio channels. With regard to the long cable I was concerned about noise and I suspect that if you are talking about running the audio from the s-video connector 100 feet it will pick up noise. I don't think resistance will be an issue, but these signals are 600-ohm outputs so the capacitance of the cable may attenuate the highs.

You might look into getting an old iPhone and optionally add a docking station or just use the standard charger. You could use WiFi to connect the iPhone to your network, no cell service required, and run the Pandora app. Then you could run a headphone adapter from the phone to the stereo.

Al