I would love to have a truly all-in-one audio player with:
Does anyone make such a thing?
If it also has a turntable, even better, but then it can’t be very compact.
Dude, where do I put in this eight-track?
I don’t think there’s any market for audio cassette players any more. And If it has a DVD player, then why not put in a digital TV tuner, too, since there is a screen to watch it on?
There are a few manufacturers who make portable combination AM/FM CD/DVD players with a built-in ATSC tuner. Some of them come with Bluetooth, a 3.5 mm audio jack, and can even play media directly from a smart card.
Honestly, where would you put such a thing – in the dashboard of H. G. Wells’ time machine? Even when CDs and cassettes were crossing paths, I’m not sure I ever saw a machine that would handle both. Your best bet would be to find an electronic hobbyist who could Frankenstein one together for you, but it would be surprisingly expensive to anyone who’s gotten used to buying cheap consumer goods off the rack. And there’s probably be some sliding scale, whereby the nicer it looked, and the more compact it got, the more expensive it would get as well.
Most of the things you mention are just inputs, like all the jacks, ports and docks. That should be easy to configure onto an unused front slot on the PC (do PCs have such slots anymore?). They and many more are on the computers at a print shop like Walmart. There must be 8 or 10 different places to insert various media storage devices plus a built in scanner for duplicating photos.
The radio, including TV bands and cassette could be a separate unit that plugs into any of the jacks. The iPod ports probably need software instead of just a slot.
So that leaves WiFi and Bluetooth. If the computer generated a WiFi hotspot, that would work for that instance. I have not seen a computer, laptop, etc with Bluetooth but they may exist. Tablets, of course, but they don’t have room for all the jacks and slots.
Dennis
There were plenty of CD/cassette players. For a while my wife was renting Thai music on some odd format, audio DVD or something. Those were much harder to locate but we still have one that does cassette, CD and DVD and supports a bunch of formats from around the world.
Here is a player that handles much of what the OP wanted including iPod support:
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Supersonic-Micro-Hi-Fi-System-iPod-Supported/34934957
Dennis
Yeah, this looks like it has everything you want. Get a Bluetooth dongle thingy and you can sync your Bluetooth devices with it. Get a USB to USB mini adaptor, and I think it will have everything you want.
Or, since he mentioned a DVD player, something like this:
AM/FM, 7" screen, CD/DVD, ATSC TV tuner, Bluetooth, and USB for playing digital media files. Composite A/V output, 3.5 mm headphone and AUX input jacks.
There were plenty of machines that could handle both. There were big component models and compact boombox styles. Most could record from the CD to the cassette. This was nice when your car had only a cassette player and not a CD player. I even have a 60-disc changer that I can program to automatically make mix tapes. The cassette recorder pauses while the CD changer changes discs and cues up the next song in the mix, then resumes recording. It even has auto-reverse so it can record continuously for the entire 60 minutes or whatever the tape length is.
Yes, I still have an old boombox that handles both formats. They were very common at the time.
You can still buy them. “CD cassette boombox” turned up 530 results on Amazon.
Note that a lot of these “all-in-one”/combo boxes are made by the lowest end manufacturers catering to people with very little money. Totally crap products. The chances of it breaking down are high.
TV cable in for music? Do they still do unencrypted music on cable TV anymore? Do they still do music at all?
(Video-wise, the only thing unencrypted on our system are the shopping channels. Not even OTA ones anymore.)
Ascenray forgot to include the minidisc deck. Everyone always forgets minidisc. I had one in 1999 and it was great, in the days before iPods it was a pretty nice solution.
Back in the day, many companies made boom boxes for CDs, cassettes and radio. I still have one somewhere.
Thanks for the suggestions! Keep them coming.
A few notes:
I’m not interested in the idea of jury-rigging a bunch of things together. Of course I know I can do that. My question is specifically about an all-in-one system in a single, compact unit.
I left out media that I have never owned myself, such as eight-track cartridges, digital audio tapes, and mini-discs.
Thanks
It doesn’t necessarily need to be ‘jury rigged’. I could easily build a custom computer that can do all of that and probably fit it all within a single attractive case but it wouldn’t be very small or cheap. The things you list are available as plug and play components and aren’t exotic at all. Most of your basic requirements are already built into most computers and the others are really easy to add especially if you start with a decent sound card. I have a USB cassette player in my laptop bag for some reason for example.
I don’t think you are going to find a quality commercial product that does everything you want. The requirements are too specific and esoteric. However, that is what components are for. You don’t have have to have wires strung all over the room to make it work. Even two or three small ones could do the job with little effort or you could mount them in a single case with a little more time and money.
What are the size and budget requirements for this super techno sound gadget?
Don’t forget the 8-track and turntable for records!
Surprisingly refined looking, I was expecting something more Frankenstein.
I had a pocket sized Mini-Disc recorder. It was really neat. It had an optical input so you could make exact digital copies from a compatible CD player. I could also tag recordings with album and track titles. The only thing that sucked was you only could record in real time, so it took a full 45 minutes or however long the CD played for. It quit working a few years ago. By then out didn’t matter, since I moved on to downloading and ripping my own mp3s. I still have a play-only Mini-Disc machine.