Hi everyone! During the 60s and the 70s, companuies marketed car cassette or eight-track cartridge players that had no tuner built into them. These players were designed with the fact that the existing car radio was to provide radio-based entertainment in the car. They were often designed to fit in a spare hole in the dashboard or console, or simply hung under the dashboard using a bracket arrangement of some sort. Some units were even designed to be mounted on the transmission hump, rather than hang under the dash. Some of the tape players were designed to use a stereo car radio as an amplifier -- you adjusted the sound for the tape through the radio's volume control. This was a concept used by Blaupunkt for their add-on tape players which worked alongside their car radios and was implemented in the Rolls Royce Silver Shadow II. Some of the Japanese car manufacturers had followed the Rolls Royce - Blaupunkt example when they specified the supply of a stereo radio and tape player in some of their vehicles, most notably the Datsun Bluebird series made since the 200B model. Then in the 80s, when radio-cassette units became commonplace and CDs became the scene, the first few car CD players were designed in a similar vein to these earlier tape players. They mounted in a spare hole in the dashboard or were mounted on a bracket under the dashboard. They also didn't have a radio tuner, but were wired in a manner to work alongside the existing car stereo. Also Alpine released the 5700 DAT player with a view of it being an "adjunct" to an existing car stereo installation. Again the concept of using the car stereo as an amplifier for an auxiliary CD player has been and is being implemented in a variety of OEM and aftermarket installations since the concept of playing CDs in the car took off. This even led to radio-cassette units made during the late 80s and early 90s being equipped with AUX inputs so their amplifier can be used to deal with signals from an outboard CD player. Now most manufacturers are making CD stackers that work via a control module which then modulates the signal into an FM channel for use with existing car audio systems. Some units have the ability to operate like most of the earlier tape and CD players, where they have their own preamplifier (at least) and work directly to the speakers. I don't know why anyone hasn't made an add-on car MiniDisc player or changer that is designed along the same implementation lines as these tape and CD players that I have cited. The unit would have no radio tuner built in; make use of its own controls and display for MiniDisc operations; and provide a fixed-level audio output which can be modulated by an add-on FM modulator or fed to a car stereo's AUX input, or a variable speaker-useable or amplifier-useable output for connection between an existing unit and the speakers. This add-on unit could support the control of a CD or MiniDisc changer or a TV or digital-radio tuner module. If the unit installs between an existing car stereo and the speakers, it could provide such facilities as phone-mute or amplification improvements for existing car stereos. So far, the only car MiniDisc units that I have seen are complete head units with a tuner and CD changer control; or MiniDisc changers that work as a slave unit to a recent model changer-controller head unit. Some of the changers can't even be used with any of the add-on changer-controller units. I hope the manufacturers can read this suggestion because mony of the list's participants have cars where they want to keep using a good non-MiniDisc head unit but want to hear their MiniDisc recordings or compilations. As for managing the shuffle-play aspect of these units, they should support the "back-to-back" shuffle-play behaviour that I have mentioned about in relation to MiniDisc players when they are playing tightly-edited discs. With regards, Simon Mackay ----------------------------------------------------------------- To stop getting this list send a message containing just the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
