I’m a member of a single solitary HiFi group on the Bookface almighty: Silver Pioneer. This group, besides discussing and debating strictly Pioneer HiFi gear from the silver era, is strictly easygoing and chill. It’s a rather agreeable community of (mostly) older (mostly) chaps who appreciate the build, the sound, and the eternal charm of vintage ’70s Pioneer HiFi gear.
In the words of the late, great, Kurt Vonnegut, “Communities are crucial…”
Lately, I’ve noticed there seems to be a rush on behalf of auto makers to “reissue” classic muscle cars like the Dodge Charger, Chevrolet Camaro, and Ford Mustang (among others). This is a transparent (and flaccid) attempt to cash in on these iconic brands. Let’s just say that the modern-day versions of these once potent muscle cars are not fooling anyone, save for the poor dupes behind the wheel. That’s how the member’s of the Pioneer Silver group feel about the various eras of HiFi gear that came after the silver era.
Anyway, one fine day a few months back, a Polish chap named Artur posted a psuedo-ad for his little project on our little community’s Facebook page. With the apt moniker of, The Tapeless Deck Project, he retrofits old cassette decks with a specific model of Samsung smartphone (where the tape would normally go). Essentially, this transforms the deck into a streaming media player of sorts. From your own smartphone, you can load digital music files onto the Samsung device inside the deck and thus control it remotely.
After seeing the Pioneer CT-300 conversion he did on the aforementioned Facebook group page, I sent this query to him via his contact form:
I would actually need to procure a “needs new belts” unit from eBay. I don’t have one on hand at the moment. My question is: is there any way to add bluetooth? Essentially, I have the entire Pioneer blue fluoroscan series (SA-9800, CT-F1250, TX-9800, SG-9800, etc…). What I can’t find anywhere is a matching Bluetooth receiver. I understand that the converted deck would have 64GB of internal storage. And that is great, but ultimately, I need the ability to stream to a (matching) silver series fluoroscan component. Converting a CT-F650 (or 600) would do the trick. Thank you for your consideration.
He replied:
I see no problem with installing a Bluetooth receiver inside the deck. I already made such projects 🙂 You may order both Tapeless Deck modification + BT module installation in one machine – or just only BT, as you wish. Please note that I’m located in Poland, Europe, so sending the deck over the ocean may be a bit crazy (and expensive :). My customers from US/Canada usually ask me to find a suitable machine here, on Polish market or they just buy a deck on European eBay and have it shipped directly to me. At the moment I see one “need new belts” Pioneer CT-F650 for about 130 USD – https://allegro.pl/oferta/pioneer-ct-f650-10713085251 It is roughly the equivalent of shipping between the US and Poland, so you can have a deck for free 🙂 Regards, Artur
And that is precisely how these little flights of tickling my fancy begin…
Needless to say, after a few minor adjustments—we actually ended up with another Pioneer CT-300 like the one he featured on the Facebook group page—this beauty is in my basement.
My Pioneer CT-300 tapeless deck is completely crammed with insane mods. Artur removed the cassette heads and such and installed a Samsung device that has 64GB of storage for digital music files. It can be loaded via the home WiFi network. The deck then becomes a digital music player that functions with the normal cassette deck buttons, switches, and knobs.
Additionally, a number of cassette skins/animations are preloaded so that a cassette appears to be playing through the window. There are 30 skins/animations in all. I settled on the Pioneer N1-60 (of course I did).
Finally, he installed a Bluetooth receiver allowing me to stream directly to the deck. The Tape Start switch below the power button is used to switch between the 64GB onboard storage and Bluetooth modes. The little blue light under the counter indicates the deck is in Bluetooth mode and automatically blinks when nothing is paired. The cassette animation works in both modes. The flippin’ fluoroscan meters even function and bounce to the active source! The attention to detail is nothing short of staggering!
A device like this is a true blend of art and (retro) tech.
Of all the pieces of Pioneer gear I’ve been able to acquire, there was never an option for a media streaming box with Bluetooth functionality. In fact, of the “somewhat matching” silvery devices on the market today, none came cheaper than $500 (most were triple that), and none were manufactured by Pioneer. Hence, I did not blink at the $750 USD price tag (which included acquiring a Pioneer CT-300 deck for $130 USD from a Polish auction site). Artur even installed a transformer, so that the deck would run on the standard 120V US electric system.
The dude is a bit of a genius in my book.
There are only a handful of ancillary TOTL Pioneer pieces left for me to acquire (in no particular order):
- SX-3900 Receiver
- H-R100 8-Track Player
- M-25 Power Amplifier
- SD-1100 Stereo Tuning Display
- HPM-200 Speakers
Most of these would be well north of $1,000.
But for now, the “Wall of Sound” truly takes up an entire north wall of my region of the basement…
- Pioneer RT-909 Reel-To-Reel
- Pioneer DT-400 Digital Timer
- Pioneer RG-2 Dynamic Expander
- Pioneer PL-630 Turntable
- Pioneer SR-303 Reverb
- Pioneer PL-570 Turntable
- Pioneer SG-9800 12-Band Graphic EQ
- Pioneer SA-9800 Integrated Amplifier
- Pioneer TX-9800 AM/FM Tuner
- Pioneer P-D70 CD Player
- Pioneer CT-F1250 Cassette Deck
- Pioneer CT-300 Bluetooth “Tapless Deck”
- Pioneer U-24 Program Selector
- Pioneer TX-D1000 Digital AM/FM Tuner
- Pioneer TVX-9500 Stereo TV Tuner
- Pioneer PL-560 Turntable
- Pioneer RH-65 8-Track Tape Deck
- Pioneer HPM-100 Speakers (100W)
- Pioneer HPM-1500 Speakers (250W)
- Pioneer SE-2P Headphones
- Pioneer SE-L20 Headphones
- Pioneer Monitor 10 Headphones
- Pioneer SE-50 Headphones
- Pioneer SE-305 Headphones
- Pioneer SE-L-40 Headphones
- Pioneer SE-L20A Headphones
This vision quest (favorite soundtrack) was kicked off waaaay back on my 39th birthday when my old man gave me the vintage Pioneer system I listened to as a kid (SX-780 receiver + PL-400 turntable). I had no idea he’d kept that gear all those years. Today, a decade later, this affliction has been one of the great joys of this lifetime. If history is any indication, that will never change.
Cheers!
—
Copyright © 2021 – ∞ Blake Charles Donley
Waxing Phonographic 