Re: reading from cassette

[mjmahon@aol.com (Michael J. Mahon)]

Vince Briel replied:

>"Michael J. Mahon" <mjmahon@aol.com> wrote in message
>20030830202938.18419.00000131@mb-m13.aol.com">news:20030830202938.18419.00000131@mb-m13.aol.com...
>> Vince Briel wrote:
>>
>> >Hey all, I have a tape that I want to read and I'm having probs getting
>it
>> >to read on my II+. Is there an emulator I can try and use that loads
>> >cassette sounds? Actually I'm trying to load from an MP3.
>>
>> Check your levels.
>>
>> The Apple II cassette input was meant to be an "external speaker"
>> output level from a cassette recorder.  It is low impedance and a
>> couple of volts.
>
>I may have one of those old cassette players. I just thought transferring
>back to cassette would degrade the sound too much. I'll give it a try. I've
>tried adjusting sound levels and I've gotten close, some of the info loaded,
>it just errored out. I must have tried 30 different levels. Thanks for the
>help.

The problem may be noise picked up through the grounds.  Most 
cassette players are very well isolated from the AC line, since they
either run on batteries or with a tranformer-coupled wall wart.  A PC
is not nearly so well isolated, and the ground is likely to contain
noise from the switching power supply.

Using a cassette deck as an intermediary may provide the isolation
needed to reduce ground noise significantly, and may solve your
reliability problem.

-michael

Check out amazing quality sound for 8-bit Apples on my
Home page:  http://members.aol.com/MJMahon/