Alpine TDA-7552E for $5

derek92994

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#1
Got lucky, scored an alpine full logic deck for $5 from the dump market. Why people throw such valuable units out has got me beat. This thing can also control my 3x minidisc Alpine changer/stacker, have had that for 4 years and been unable to use until now. The RCA leads had been cut off, as well as the aerial input, there was no wire harness but I found one spare to fit it. Earth point had to be re-soldered and linked to earth on aerial terminal. Sounds amazing, its good to have music search and auto blank skip for continuous music in the car, not to mention the logic control handles the tape more gentle than I have ever seen a car deck do, also whisper quiet tape transport mode changes, super quick auto reverse, no fidelity variation between tape directions, SCC II bi-directional Head. I think this thing had only played 1 or 2 tapes because the pinch rollers were near spotless and there was absolutely no oxide on the playback head/guides, nor is there any scratch marks on metal cradle internally where the tape is inserted. It was only used as a cd changer controller by the looks of it. A good result in the end, just have to get that minidisc stacker mounted below the car air control console, hopefully soon.
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Elite-ist

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#2
Nice! That's a serious addition to your car audio system, Derek. MD would be perfect in a car environment. I haven't found a MD deck, or changer for my car, just yet.

Nando.
 

derek92994

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#3
Nice! That's a serious addition to your car audio system, Derek. MD would be perfect in a car environment. I haven't found a MD deck, or changer for my car, just yet.

Nando.
You will stumble across an car MD player in time, when you least expect it.

MD's are great because they don't scratch/have good anti-shock memory. Would be even better if the car MD stacker supported PCM WAV like the HI-MD Minidiscs units do, although they are limited to 30 minutes. I tend to think that MD has a much better compression method than Mp3's, I think it is around 220-280kbps, much better low end and no watery highs. I have paired the alpine unit with a kenwood amplifier also a $5 special (broken solder joints on the line ins), running two sony 6X9 speakers. I am finished with sub woofers, too old for it now and will go deaf if I keep that up. The alpine head unit has had lots of use in the last two days and has passed all the tests. The previous pioneer cassette deck I had (made in malaysia) had no fast winding and suffered from slight capstan vibration coming from the car motor, although did not damage tapes, I'll keep that as a spare.

The first minidisc player I bought for the car was a Kenwood DPX 990MD, CD and MD combo, double height with a very large bright screen for functions and graphic equalizer, the screen would fold out/forward to allow cd insertion. It had a weak reading laser in the MD and would stop on even brand new discs when it chose to, skipping a track would be ok, but it just got so annoying after a while. Cleaning MD did not help this either.

Images attached are not mine but are the same units (Kenwood & Alpine MD changer)
. dpx990md.jpg alpine mda5051.jpg
 

Elite-ist

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#4
I believe it was very popular in Japan to have the combination MD/cassette player than offering the CD with the cassette player. I do have a double-DIN Pioneer, which I have been using in my downstairs system since buying it new. Here's a couple of clips of it playing:

Click on images to play videos:





Nando.
 

derek92994

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#5
I believe it was very popular in Japan to have the combination MD/cassette player than offering the CD with the cassette player. I do have a double-DIN Pioneer, which I have been using in my downstairs system since buying it new. Nando.
Funky Tape deck there, yes very similar to the way the front faces folds on my kenwood MD for CD insertion. I really like the lights on that unit, the features are very strong too, would look awesome in the dark, and as always for pioneer, great sound. I'm thinking of setting up a car audio section in my lounge room now :toothy10:.
 

Elite-ist

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Funky Tape deck there, yes very similar to the way the front faces folds on my kenwood MD for CD insertion. I really like the lights on that unit, the features are very strong too, would look awesome in the dark, and as always for pioneer, great sound. I'm thinking of setting up a car audio section in my lounge room now :toothy10:.
Thanks, Derek. Definitely, do it. Before the rage of micro-components, I was using car audio components for a home system. I have been doing that since 1979.

Nando.
 

nakdoc

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#7
Somewhere here I have a broken Alpine car cassette changer module. It used fiber optics to run data to the trunk, and the glass cable was cut. I also hve the interface box. Would it satisfy your MD changer craving?
 

derek92994

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#8
Somewhere here I have a broken Alpine car cassette changer module. It used fiber optics to run data to the trunk, and the glass cable was cut. I also hve the interface box. Would it satisfy your MD changer craving?
Not sure if that is directed at Nando or myself, I am very poor at the moment, on the job hunt, maybe nando elite-ist would like this unit?
 
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