Who hasn't thought of integrating an mp3 player into an old, but still beloved boombox or music center? Doing this is a kind of pleasure, because installing a regular player into old audio equipment is oh so difficult. More convenient options for modernization are offered by our Chinese comrades. On many trading platforms you can find built-in audio modules equipped with a combined digital-to-analog converter and sometimes a miniature amplifier.

Devices of this kind can have different functionality: from the simplest decoder with a single USB port for a content source to advanced models equipped with their own LCD display, control panel and additional connectors. The most practical, cheap and at the same time fully functional version of such a module from Aliexpress was considered on mySKU.ru.

The board's specifications claim MP3 playback up to 320 kbps at sampling rates up to 48 kHz, WAV and even five-channel DTS. This option is not equipped with any additional interface, except for analog audio output and a single USB port. It turns out to be a kind of mp3 player that requires a power supply and speakers (also an amplifier, actually). It is they that will be used from the old audio device (a kind of second life, but, alas, the operation of the board and the music center itself can only be coordinated separately).

After receiving the parcel from distant China, you will need to partially disassemble the animated tape recorder to determine where the board can be mounted. Installation must be done in such a way that the control panel and dataport can be used. If you have the appropriate skills, you can unsolder these components and place them on the wires - this way you can place the board in more convenient places. Most often, such modules are placed in cassette compartments, next to the power buttons or in disk drives. You can find more interesting places.

Then we take a coil of wire. It is needed to connect power and audio output. This is the most difficult operation. You will need some knowledge of circuit design and the circuit diagram of the existing device itself, which can be downloaded on the Internet. If you are not strong in circuit design, contact a friend who is more knowledgeable in this topic, who will help you find the power pins where the two wires will be soldered. Be careful! The board consumes 5–12 VDC, no more.

Having stretched the wires to the installation site, we will begin placing the board. You will probably have to make a cut in the housing, which will require a Dremel or similar brand of tool. For the simplest placement, you can use a regular cassette compartment, then the port will be accessible when you open it.

A small detail remains - connect the audio output from the board to the output of a music center or tape recorder. You can use the circuit, find the output stage on it, and solder the wires from the audio output of the USB board to them. You can do it easier and output them to the AUX audio input or similar (if, of course, it is available).

Now you just need to connect power to the board with a USB output, then insert a flash drive with music and carry out the first test of the updated boombox.

Of course, the complete design is very dependent on the functionality of the Chinese device and will not be able to completely replace any modern music center with NFC, Wi-Fi, the ability to work with streaming services and many software features to improve sound. But, on the other hand, is all this necessary?

At the time of writing, the module cost about $5. We accept the amplifier and speakers as free. If the sound suited you initially, it will not change radically for the worse. So it's not a bad way to upgrade your audio system.

Many people threw away their favorite cassette player when the world switched to CDs. I did the same thing ten years ago, gathered my will into a fist and took the absolutely serviceable Fisher PH-W405K to the trash heap. But many still have imported radios that they bought with great difficulty at Beryozki and second-hand stores. AIWA, Sanio, JVC, and even the legendary Sharp GF-777 are still gathering dust somewhere in the closet. After all, this technology is convenient for everyone: it’s compact, it sounds great, it runs on batteries for a long time (we’ll talk about converting this technology to run on batteries), but, unfortunately, it doesn’t play anything else except the radio. But I know a way to give your boomboxes, boomboxes and ghettoblasters a second life, installing a USB port in them.

One day we were given an LG FFH-217 radio tape recorder in excellent condition. My friend Misha, having learned that we bought a dacha, gave it away with the words “you will listen to the radio.” But alas, as it turned out, FM radio stations do not broadcast there; the nearest large city is 80 km away. This radio stood there for several years until I came across a small circuit board, 2x4 cm in size, made in China. The board contained a pair of chips and a USB connector, and a remote control was included with the board. I then bought several pieces of such boards in order to choose the most suitable one for installation in a car (see article about), one of them turned out to be powered by 5 volts, and this became the basis for my modification.

How to choose a USB board

Options for selecting a board:

• Voltage. You need to disassemble your radio and measure the voltage at the outputs of the power supply with a tester. Aliexpress sells boards for 5, 12 and 5-12 volts. If you find a suitable power source, then choose the USB board accordingly. Make sure it doesn't turn off when you select external output playback mode! For example, I had 5 volts on the CD unit power, but the CD power would turn off when selecting the AUX audio source. In my case, the required 5 volts were found at the contacts of the backlight lamps.
• Form factor. There are just USB boards (I have one), some with support for SD cards, some with control buttons, some with a screen. You'll need to figure out where your vintage stereo has room to put it all. The front part of my radio is completely occupied by cassette covers and an indicator, and where it was possible to make a hole for a flash drive, there was a board with control buttons and tape drive motors at the back.
• Functional. As I mentioned above, USB player boards can be simple; in addition to USB flash drives, they can also support SD cards; they can have control buttons, have a large or small screen, and also carry FM radio and Bluetooth on board. If you like to listen to music from your phone, then I would advise you to pay attention to boards with Bluetooth, then your radio will become not only a USB player, but also a Bluetooth speaker. There are absolutely luxurious and inexpensive boards with Bluetooth 4.2, and if you have enough space to put it, then you won’t need all the other functionality of the boombox.
• Pay attention to the little things. Some boards do not support flash drives larger than 8 GB. Some have an amplifier on board. Such a board can generally be mounted directly into one of the speakers, if you do not have a monoblock, and use only the speakers, but it will not be suitable for expanding the functionality of an existing device.

Description of the modification of the old radio with photo

1. We disassemble the old radio.

2. Now you need to find a place where you will embed the new board. Find a place and make a hole for the USB connector. In my case this is the back cover.

3. Install the board to measure the required length of wires. I soldered the audio outputs directly to the corresponding AUX connector, and removed the power from the pins of the control board connector.

Most likely, many still have old players, tape recorders or other audio systems. There’s no point in throwing them out, and there’s no point in leaving them. Don't be upset. You can breathe life into these “oldies.” Converting old systems to USB is not a difficult task at all, especially when it comes to a music center. Such work will not take much time, and it will cost very little.

Assembling parts from one system to another is a difficult and thankless job. Of course, you will use several outdated equipment, but you will also spend a lot of time. It is much easier to use a purchased module.

Technological progress does not stand still. So Chinese manufacturers decided to please amateur craftsmen by releasing a special audio module for sound conversion. The system includes:

1. Simple devices equipped only with a USB connector.
2. Sophisticated models with a display for data output.
3. A remote control with which you can control the device.
4. A certain number of connectors for various needs.

But these details are not enough even to create the simplest player. This is what the old audio system will be used for. It's good if it is kept in working order. If not, don't worry. The main thing is that the necessary parts work:

1. The battery pack, or the unit responsible for charging.
2. The speakers are from the old system, and it is through them that the music will sound.
3. Well, and a sound amplifier built into the music center.

You can choose a device with various bells and whistles, but to revive an old cassette player, a simple module equipped with one USB port and the ability to output sound will be enough.

Module installation

To install the audio module into the player, the latter will have to be disassembled a little. This is necessary to determine the location where the board will be installed.

The installation must be done in such a way that you can control the device using the remote control.

If you are familiar with electronics, you can solder the module to the wires. If this is not your hobby, you can install the part in the cassette compartment.

After determining the installation location, we proceed to installing the audio module in the old music center:

1. Armed with a coil of wire, you need to connect the power and sound output. To do this, you will need a diagram of the module and music center.
2. Work carefully, as the wires are live.
3. Having finished with the wires, we return to installing the board.
4. If you rejected the cassette connector and decided to install the module in another place, you will have to cut a hole for the USB.
5. After this, all that remains is to connect the output of the audio module to the audio output board on your tape recorder. There are two ways to do this. The first is to solder the wire to the circuit, the second is to connect through the aux input, if there is one.
6. We connect the power supply and check the operation of the equipment.

You should not expect much from such a device, because its functionality is limited by the capabilities of the module. But for listening to your favorite tracks, a revived music center is quite suitable.

Conclusion

To convert an old music center to USB, you don't have to put in a lot of effort. You just need to order a special module for audio transcoding and install it in an old player. For a very low cost, you will get a device that can play music from a flash drive.

I do not even know where to start. Is it because of progress, expressed in the fact that sound sources have decreased significantly, because of new formats that allow you to compress sound and place many hours of sound on some medium the size of a square centimeter, or because of the penny cost of these devices? In general, progress cannot be stopped, and new generations of sound lovers can hardly understand our craving for archaic and bulky devices. But not only young people have mastered modern devices, middle-aged people also enjoy using modern advances, and even some old people who, although they don’t walk the streets with headphones, have already learned how to stick flash drives into dubious Chinese devices that sound somehow different to people with an uncritical attitude towards sound. In general, the phrase “reads a flash drive” for a certain and fairly wide audience has become an incentive to purchase such devices.
No, I’m not at all against progress, I’m even convinced that modern devices should be as universal as possible in their ability to reproduce any format, but I’m not sure whether it’s worth upgrading old machines. Meanwhile, there is a whole category of people who don’t feed them bread, but give them the opportunity to listen to 100,500 songs downloaded in advance onto a memory card on their old device. And this is not a problem, many radios have a separate input to which you can connect any device: be it a mobile phone or a portable one MP3 player, even a laptop, it’s not difficult to solder the connecting cord, even if you can’t find a ready-made one for sale. Well, yes, a cassette cannot hold so many songs, it is less convenient to use, it requires a well-functioning tape drive mechanism, in general, all factors are now against the cassette. Or almost everything, if you don’t pay attention to such a parameter as sound quality.
God bless that quality, not all people are audiophiles, most listen to cut sound and don’t even think about it. But is it necessary that this sound came from the old device, and the device was located inside it, well, I really don’t know. Now, if it’s on the side of the cord, it doesn’t count anymore. This is bad manners. And if inside - it’s just chic, shine, beauty.
And if you want to sell the radio, then be so kind as to at least put a module in there MP3. There is no way without this. And with him it seems to be a great success. You can sell any junk in any condition. “Reads a flash drive”, there’s nothing to cover here.

For some reason I have an analogy with cooking. If the dish turns out so-so, bland, tasteless, then you should add spices to it and it will immediately become more appetizing. Remember Gauff's fairy tale "Dwarf Nose"? There Jacob had a miracle herb “pleasure for the stomach”, with the help of which he gained the favor of the king. A fairy tale is a fairy tale, but in real life there is one food additive that dramatically enhances the taste of any dish. This is monosodium glutamate, you can add it to anything and you won’t tear off the eaters by the ears, everyone will eat, praise and ask for more. Whether monosodium glutamate is beneficial or harmful, science has not reached a consensus, but in mass cooking this product is very helpful in increasing sales. This kind of electronic glutamate is produced by Chinese comrades in various forms.
I decided to study how things stand with MP3 players on the market. It turned out that there is simply no module for embedding into radio tape recorders, except for the module that I showed above. But a variety of automobiles are sold on the market. MP3 players with output to FM a transmitter that transmits information through several fixed frequencies to FM car receiver. This module is also equipped with a remote control. I once bought such a device, but the quality of the music played through this thing was simply disgusting. But I think that the sound deteriorated in its high-frequency part; it seems to me that if we take the signal output before the transmitter, the sound may turn out to be tolerable. Here it is disassembled.

I haven’t tested my guess yet, I’ll get around to it, but I’ll specifically buy MP3 A player with a transmitter seems unjustified to me, you don’t use half of the device. You can, of course, transmit a signal via the radio path and then receive it with the radio tuner, but this is stupid, since the sound quality will definitely be better over the low-frequency path. The HF part is connected to the LF part via a pair of connectors; I think it’s not difficult to find where the useful signal goes to the HF block.

And here is the module MP3 FM specially designed for any device with an amplifier and acoustics, and it even has a digital display. That is, your task is this. to find a place on a tape recorder or radio where you can organically insert this module. Yes, it is a little big, its width is 7.5 cm, but if the dimensions are critical for you, then you can sacrifice the ears for fastening. The height is about two cm, the depth is no more than three.
I know that people put others MP3 player, without a display; in these cases, only the socket for the flash drive and the receiving photodiode for remote control are exposed. Usually, in order not to cut the body of the front panel, you can use the tape counter window, and insert a remote control photodiode into the holes for the counter reset button.

However, it may happen that if the remote control is located to the left of the radio, the inserted flash drive may block the beam of the remote control. Therefore, I would look for some other place for the photodiode.
There are radio tape recorders where, if we ignore the feasibility of installing the module MP3 FM It is very easy to install such a module in an old radio. For example, a radio tape recorder is great for this purpose. JVC RC-70, in the lower part under the cassette player there is an aluminum cover that covers 3 holes for optional controls such as speed control or input mixer. I would not cut the original cover, but separate it from the body and hide it, what if you want to return the radio to its original condition?

This is what people get with such a device.

The original overlay has been prudently preserved here.

It has a pull-out box for an additional cassette. If you remove it, then it is quite possible to place a module in its place.

If you remove the decorative trim and then cover this place with thin aluminum with slots, then Sharp GF-800H can be very easily equipped with a module MP3 FM.

With its Asian counterpart, the situation is more complicated; here you need to either sacrifice the timer, or look elsewhere for a place to install the module.

U Sharp GF-9191 you can remove the panel with connectors for the input of the vinyl player and place it there USB connector from the block MP3 FM. Here you will have to either sacrifice the display or bore the front panel. I wouldn't touch the panel. I'm not a vandal.

But if such maxims are alien to you, then you can mock many of the company’s models Sharp. For example Sharp GF-8585, removing only one nameplate will not help, you will have to expand the window more.

There is space for the module on Sharp GF-8787 And Sharp GF-8989. If you have a completely dead specimen, the cosmetics of which are unlikely to be disturbed by an additional hole, then you can install the module here, space allows.

U Sharp GF-9494 There is also enough space; decide for yourself whether to cut its panel or not.

At a simple one Sharp GF-450 there is also room for insertion MP3.

Is it worth spoiling such a device as Sharp GF-9500, it's up to you to decide, I wouldn't touch it.

Purely theoretically, if your hand doesn’t tremble, then you can have “our everything” Sharp GF-777 upgrade, it has a couple of empty decorative windows under the grids, but for reasons of convenience this may not be very comfortable: remove the grid, install a flash drive (only a short one), cover the speakers again with the grid. People are mostly lazy. Well, maybe just download a billion songs onto that flash drive at once.

But with Sharp GF-700 I don’t yet have any ideas where such a module could be organically included. I have a copy with somewhat “tired” cosmetics, I could experiment, but I don’t know yet where to place the module.

Cut the panel? Where? I have a spare front panel that I bought for the occasion. In general, there is a panel, but no ideas.

But I came up with an idea on how to do without the fine-tuning knob. If I hadn't told you, I don't think anyone would have noticed she was missing.

But with non-famous and Soviet radio tape recorders, everything is somewhat simpler. There are many of them and expanding their functionality is not such a crime. For example, Oreanda 203- an ideal option for this kind of experimentation. Here you can place the module at least below,

at least at the top there is plenty of space. And the range of 87.5-108 MHz will organically complement the native 64-74 MHz. Plus the remote control, in general it’s a pleasure to have such an upgrade.

You can raise an ordinary tape recorder to the level of a radio tape recorder, if you wish.

But here is the ideal device, in my opinion, for turning into a radio tape recorder: it has a vintage look, and there is a place for embedding a module.

In general, having one instance of a module MP3 FM, I had to put it somewhere and check how it would all turn out. I took one candidate, twirled it in my hands, and it was such a pity to damage the device that I put it down, my hand didn’t rise.

But you need to do something, find out what kind of module it is MP3 FM and what it is eaten with.

I remembered the joke when a poor Jew comes to the rabbi and asks what he should do. He has only two cockerels at home, one black and the other white. They are very friendly with each other. But guests have arrived and they need to be treated to something. So, if you kill a black cockerel, the white one will be bored, and if you kill a white one, then the black one will be sad. The Rebbe, what should I do, asks a parishioner. Cut the black man, says the rabbi. But then the white one will be bored! And to hell with it!, answers the rabbi.

In general, I chose Lasonic LPC-93, a huge powerful device. It is unlikely that I will worsen the Taiwanese radio with a Chinese module; I think there should be no ideological contradictions between them, let the Kuomintang and communist China make peace in it.

I chose a place where I could place the module. It’s unlikely that the whole thing will fit here, but without the ears it will fit quite well.

I attached the module, traced a contour along which a piece of the front panel could be painlessly removed, and cut it out. In fact, I didn’t cut it out, I just melted the required window with a soldering iron tip. Since the decorative trim covers the outer contour of the module by about 4-5 mm, you can’t really find fault with how straight the window line is. But I burned a relatively straight line and corrected it a little with a file. I inserted the module there.

Since the module’s power supply is only 5 volts, and the main voltage in the radio is 16 volts, I installed a circuit LM7805. Since the module consumes an extremely small amount of current, there was no need for a heatsink.

Since the mounting ears had to be cut off, I decided to attach the module using hot glue. I applied glue to the trim and pressed it to the front panel. I also grabbed it from the reverse side with hot glue. In general, with a bunch of wires, this was not easy to do; the glue constantly clung to adjacent wires, forming long “snot”.

One way or another, having secured the module, I connected its audio output wires to the input Line/Phono radios. Between the connectors and the switch there were 2 resistors in series on each channel, 50 Kom and 20 Kom. I turned on the radio and listened to the module work in mode FM. In principle, the module worked well, but in mode Line in the absence of a signal at high volume, a characteristic computer sound with a frequency of approximately 300-400 Hz was heard.

This is what the whole thing looks like Lasonic LPC-93 with module MP3 FM.

Its central block, I personally don’t see any dissonance.

The module itself is larger on the panel.

On the sides you can see that I had to cut off the tabs of the pad, but I don't consider this a serious cosmetic sin. Despite all the relatively good stuffing of the radio, on the outside it is made in the style of “a blunder, it will do.” Crooked buttons, disgusting plastic, in general, cheapness is everywhere. Well, then Taiwan did this, now it’s nice to look at their products, but at that time they were just learning. However, the Sharps of the early nineties weren’t much better; you can’t remember their remnants without a shudder. Cheap and cheerful was the motto of all companies.

I don’t know how successful my experiment was, my work was not enough here, the Chinese did everything for me, I must say that despite the flimsy wires, the module is well thought out and contains the necessary set of functions.

For the undemanding music lover, the resulting product is quite edible, which is why it is monosodium glutamate. But there’s no smell of high-end or even high-end here, and what did you want for 5 dollars?
If you want such songs, I have them. You can put them in this kind of devices, but sculpt them into real classic cars MP3, it's about like in the body Mercedes Gullwing install LED running lights. They are of no use there. I think so, you can throw slippers at me.

Update. You know, I went and looked and it seems I figured out how to place a flash drive on the front panel of 777, 700, 800 and 939 Sharps, so as not to cut the case and generally make a minimum of changes. I want to try my idea in practice.

Just a short review as requested.
I had an old Samsung music center. I worked at the dacha, they mostly played records on it, the cassettes were no longer to be found, and the CD drive had safely died. I stopped reading audio CDs completely.

And then I came across reviews of various mp3 decoders and how they are built into speakers, old radios, etc., so I decided to order them.

Here is the music center itself.

All the photos were taken just like that, for myself, I didn’t intend to do a review, since here, on Muska, there were similar devices and everything was described there in great detail
For example
and here is the site/blog/aliexpress/30448.html

So we have a Samsung music center

A scarf from China, a remote control for it and a pair of wires for connecting power and sound output.

The remote control is an ordinary Chinese one, infrared, the kind that goes with all Chinese radio products. FM transmitters, MP3 players, etc. No photo.

Reverse side board

We connect 9V from a Krona battery. The board starts blinking a hellish blue LED

I myself am not particularly strong in electronics, so I disassemble the music center and call a friend. He, having clarified the model of the center with me, finds a circuit diagram on the Internet and says “look for the LA3246 chip, this is a tape recorder preamplifier, legs 17 and 4 are audio channels, and leg 10 is ground, and 11 is power.”
I find

And I solder

I check, it’s playing, but it’s somehow loud, so much so that it’s even off scale.
I transfer 5 16 to my legs and everything becomes just wonderful!
But there is one BUT! Since this is a tape recorder preamplifier, it plays when the Play button is pressed on the tape recorder.

Then I took a Dremel from my wife, also bought in China, and cut a hole, attached the board from the inside and put the center back together.

The result, an hour and a half of fiddling, the music center continues to please. I switch the volume and modes of the music center with the original remote control, the Play button on the tape recorder is mechanical and always pressed, the MP3 decoder is in “Random” mode. I switch to the radio - the radio plays, I switch to the tape recorder - they play MP3.
I'm more than happy with all this.

The decoder plays MP3 up to 320kbit, supports 32GB flash drives, larger size and HDD have not been tested.

Second life of old technology
+ cheap
+ tinkers with a soldering iron because he has nothing to do at the dacha.

I bought it with my own money, a long time ago.

I'm planning to buy +73 Add to favorites I liked the review +68 +138