Hello All,
My wife would like one of the GE Spacemaker or equivalent radio/cd players installed in our kitchen. Here’s the catch. We already have a Nutone whole house audio system. I would like to wire the CD player from the undercounter radio/cd into the Nutone system. The Nutone has an auxiliary jack but the radios I have seen do not have any component outputs.
Can I open up the radio and install a jack? I would prefer the output to be unamplified but that’s probably asking too much. I had already bought a CD player to mount under the cabinets, but she wants to be able to listen to music without turning on the whole house system.
Any ideas?
Thanks,
John
J.R. Lazaro Builders, Inc.
Indianapolis, In.
Replies
How bout purchasing a radio/cd player with an output connection and building a shelf to accomodate to the underside of upper cabinets.
J. D. Reynolds
Home Improvements
I just spent about and hour reading reviews for these on Amazon and couldn't find a single product with good reviews from any of the brands. Looks like she'll get a regular old cd player tapped into the Nutone.
Thanks for the replies,John
J.R. Lazaro Builders, Inc.
Indianapolis, In.
for what it is worth:
Since this subject is open, anybody whose kids want CD players and you want to get one really cheap, as in FREE, a person can often get outdated computers (aka a 486 or Pentium I) with a CD ROM included free (It costs $15 to dispose of one legally in Seattle area). The CD-ROM has a convieniet audio front jack (and a 4 pin one on the rear also) - The computer power supply can be mounted remotely and the 5V/12 (big 4 pin plug, Red/blue, 2 blacks) routed to the back of the CD ROM. Viola, CD player with jack to feed NuTone or headphones FREE!
I tried to palm off a couple of these old computers on Luka last year but he said he has too many himself already <G>.
I like the way you think. That is an excellent idea.John
J.R. Lazaro Builders, Inc.
Indianapolis, In.
If you follow Junk's suggestion (which would probably work fine) be sure to use a good shielded cable, with a good ground... otherwise you're almost guaranteed to get some nasty hum.
PaulB
I'm not so sure about that old Nutone...does it use vacuum tubes? The computer CD players are fine, but a little short on features, like a button to skip to the next song...
DG/Builder
Actually not an old Nutone.....just 2-1/2 years old IMA-3303. It's all solid state, just didn't have a CD add on. And I was too cheap on the install to pay for the next model up with the integral CD player.
I believe I'm just going to mount a CD player under the kitchen cabinets and wire to the intercom. Actually DW had a great idea. The "CD player" I bought her for Christmas is actually a DVD player. It's hard to find a regular CD player these days. Anyway, I can hook the DVD player to the TV. Then she can listen to her CD's through the TV when she wants to or it can also be wired to the intercom if she wants to share.
By the way, when I wired the house I did wire for a CD player to the Nutone. I put it downstairs in the basement. I kinda thought she needed the exercise and would run up and down the stairs to change CD's. I was informed that it wasn't going to happen that way.John
J.R. Lazaro Builders, Inc.
Indianapolis, In.
I kinda thought she needed the exercise and would run up and down the stairs to change CD's. I was informed that it wasn't going to happen that way.
LOL
Can I open up the radio and install a jack? I would prefer the output to be unamplified but that's probably asking too much.
If you have any knowledge of electronics it is pretty easy to do. Without any knowledge you probably are limited to just tapping off the speaker, ma;ybe tapping off the volume control pot.
Am not familiar with the GE spacemaker innards, (dont even know if it is analog or digital?) If it is analog (you turn a knob for the volume?) you can pretty much just tap off the ccw terminal (left hand terminal) (as you look at the front) of the volume control potentiometer which should be a good match to go into the NuTone aux jack. If the GE is digital, you really need to know how to trace circuits, esp if you do not have a schematic.
PS: Take a pix of the GE model, open it up and take a couple pix of the innards and maybe able to point out where to tap in for the jack.
Edited 1/15/2006 2:20 pm ET by junkhound
Another possibility would be a car CD/radio. You could get a cheap 12V adapter to run it, and make a nice mounting to match kitchen cabinets.
Just a thought. Hope this helps. Rich.