USB to RCA Converter

You haven't looked?

Search for USB to RCA adapter,

and then, USB male to female adapter, if needed.

Have you looked here: USB Cables - Newegg.com?

Try a Google search for "USB player with line output" or similar searches.

I suspect that "converter" won't yield search results as good as "player". Also, the RCA jacks are typically referred to as "Line Level" inputs and outputs. Changing your search terms should help.

Look up MP3 player with USB input.

I can only give one Good answer vote, so I'll have to post a replay, pardon me if I break from my normal grammar and drop onto 'net speak' for a moment.

THIS! THIS!

Rixter has hit the nail on the head, an MP3 player with a USP input is exactly what you need. You can plug your USB stick into it and get the audio out through the headphone jack, then you simply need a headphone jack-to-RCA adapter to finish the job, any you can find those at any halfway decent electronics or computer store. You could even try Radio Shak for the headphone jack to RCA adapter, it would count as a 'cellphone accessory' so they might still have it.

(As a side note, anyone else remember when Radio Shak used to sell electronic components? This was long, long ago, back in the 80's, before they turned into just a cellphone store.)

That wasn't the question.

I think it was....he wants to connect a USB stick to a radio that has only RCA connectivity....the USB has to be decoded by a player first, although many radios come with USB connections nowadays, I guess the ones he has, don't have that....

Oh.

Sorry, but it really was the real question. An RCA coaxial connector on a stereo is an analog signal connector. A USB stick with MP3 files on it must be powered, decoded and digital to analog converted for an analog input to use.

Yes, SE straightened me out.

Plug your USB stick into a computer and then plug your computer's audio output into your radio. You can also get an FM transmitter that plugs onto an audio output.

Yes, Charlie, that's right. A music player might suffice as a means to select, decode and play the contents of the flash drive, if the analog audio quality is acceptable.

My Acer laptop's analog audio output is poor quality so I bought an inexpensive USB/RCA adapter (Behringer UCA202) to do the D/A conversion but still need the laptop for decoding etc.

The subjective quality of all digitally compressed audio (eg mp3) is a compromise and linear (eg CD) or lossless-compressed (eg FLAC) is best.

That is the best way to do it, all the bells and whistles you need.

The only other possible method that might do it just as well is say an Android tablet or similar, with the right apps, smaller, lighter and possibly cheaper. Use the USB connector and the phones connection (if no line outs) for the output.

To the OP:-

If its just to be able to hear your music anywhere, then careful usage of the volume control of any type of MP3 player for the earphone outputs, to get about 1 volt peak to peak or slightly less output, when no "line out" signal is available from the PC, MP3 player, tablet or whatever.

Most Line inputs will accept the standard of 1 volt peak to peak, even some overload may be acceptable.....depending upon its quality.

I have done that many times over the years to get the music going at a party or similar.....

Remember, most (good) line inputs will take quite a large over load without damage, but probably with severe clipping, which is very easy to hear and easy to adjust to well below clipping level, allowing you to up the volume on the main amp, and still get a reasonable quality of sound.

Some good line inputs have a form of progressive clipping, that may not make clipping as apparent as a cheaper unit, so err on the side of too little signal, than too much.

As a way to do it, first set volume to zero on player, adjust output amp to around the middle position, then feed the MP3 music in and slowly increase volume, stay with a low signal if at all possible.....

An AC voltmeter will assist, but also do still err on the side of too little input signal if you are determined to record the music.....once set, leave it alone......provided you have "normalized" the MP3s of course.

If the source is say MP3 music, use a software before this to "normalize" the volume of ALL of your MP3 music before connecting anything to anything!!! I do this EVERY time I take an MP3 copy of ANY music. This saves having to readjust volume for each and every piece of music....and if you burn a CD in ANY form of music, it will sound far better....

There are even free programs to do that like (the brilliant!) Audacity for example.

Best of luck!!

But only normalize levels for 'party' music.

A good example of when NOT to is for classical music where tracks are intended to be at different absolute levels and the 'better' recordings of rock and jazz where dynamic range is of importance.

I always keep the original source, mostly CD, available -just in case!!

Though a good normalize program keeps the difference between the high and the low signal the same....otherwise you would have nothing left (so to say!) worth listening to.

I found a good source telling me exactly what is (intended) to be done with the signal here:-

Audio Normalization

The first sentence says it all really:-

Audio normalization is the application of a constant amount of gain to an audio recording to bring the average or peak amplitude to a target level (the norm). Because the same amount of gain is applied across the given range, the signal-to-noise ratio and relative dynamics are generally unchanged. Normalization differs from dynamic range compression, which applies varying levels of gain over a recording to fit the level within a minimum and maximum range. Normalization is one of the functions commonly provided by a digital audio workstation.

The effects you mention might appear if a piece of music is "badly" affected by the process because the process is badly programmed.

I submit that Audacity is a properly programmed process and does not have the effect you mentioned.....or perhaps you are mixing up the normalization process with another, like Dynamic Range Compression for example....

You should also read the following "10 Myths About Normalization", it will help you understand better what it REALLY does. See here:-

10-myths-about-normalization/

"I always keep the original source, mostly CD, available -just in case!!"

CDs may not be the best source, depending on which era they were recorded in. Remember the 'Loudness War' ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loudness_war ) where Dynamic Range Compression was used to make newer CDs Louder than the older ones, under the cojoined Music Industry assumptions of 'Louder is Better' and 'If it's too loud, you're too old.'

If you think that LPs are better, you have not read about RIAA equalisation, although many like the effects, they are not the same as a live music in a concert hall....

Or are you talking about something else that I have never heard of or simply forgotten?

So you really only have music CDs, take it or leave it......I take!! At least the medium is digital and sounds the same year after year, playing after playing!!

Whereas LPs are worn each and every time they are played. Play wet and you can never play dry again....plus they attract dust and get scratched...click, click, click......no thanks!!

In the 60's & 70's I used tape and Dolby to get a LP copy, that I would play for quite some time.....quite reasonable as a reproduction of the LP.....but that is all it was....a copy. I was happy with it then....

I am NOT a fan of LPs nowadays though I still have many, and I see valve amps nowadays as a way to get people to pay big money, nothing more nothing less.....to my mind, almost a con......

A good valve amp is better than a poor solid state one (and vice versa!), no big surprise there....

In a demo in Frankfurt (many years ago, 2000 or so) of valve amps against transistor/semiconductor/solid state, they played from the same source and switched back an forth between a then top valve amp and top then solid state amp, simply to normal people "off the street".......not audiophiles....they were about on average right 50% of the time.....wow!!

That convinced me.....but some were still thrilled by valves even though they guessed MOSTLY wrongly as I could see!!! But I was no better myself by the way.....I could not sort out one from the other at all....maybe due to too many years inside naval gun turrets during a shoot.... I have "cheap" ears!!!

I wasn't slamming CDs, just pointing out that, depending on when they were made, the RIAA may have already screwed with the audio in unpleasant ways before you even got it.

Digital storage is better than analog storage of music for so many reasons, not the least of which is the ability to transfer the music from one media to another with no loss of quality (a feature the RIAA absolutely detests, since it allows for such grievous transgressions as a small, unsigned band being able to distribute their music worldwide without providing 'proper respect' to the RIAA (meaning signing on to a label and letting tone-deaf corporate meddlers control their lives).

Unless the CD was recorded from an actual vinyl for archive purposes, it would most likely have been made from a master or copy master tape. RIAA 'equalisation' would have not have been applied since that lives in the feed to the disc cutting amplifier. That's the way most of the 'AAD' CD's were made.

I am curious as to the meaning of "without providing 'proper respect' to the RIAA". Is that in regard to audio quality or performing rights?

RIAA-I have not heard that in a few years. However, equalization for it was built into the phono input section of all the pre-amps and into LP players. I even learned how to do it in the 9th grade electronics class I was in back in . . . . (in San Francisco a while before the "summer of love").

--JMM

So Gunny, the CO ordered you to rock 'n roll, and you had a blast ?

You said:-

But only normalize levels for 'party' music.

A good example of when NOT to is for classical music where tracks are intended to be at different absolute levels and the 'better' recordings of rock and jazz where dynamic range is of importance.

Did you look at the links I posted? Do you now understand that your "take" on normalization is completely wrong?

I hope that my links helped you further....normalization is not the big bad bear many think it is!!!

Yes, good links. I use Audacity myself. And well-programmed leveling can be useful, a la Optimod and successors in AM radio stations, or for party music. Your comment is inappropriately directed as the general advice I gave is reasonable for non-audio engineers.

This comment of yours implies a really bad method of teaching others:-

Your comment is inappropriately directed as the general advice I gave is reasonable for non-audio engineers.

Your opinion!!

What you wrote previously was simply untrue, some might say 100% wrong. Also I could have posted several more fully accurate explanations of why your post was less than helpful. Just tell me and I will make a weblink list for you, its no problem for me to assist you in a better understanding of what happens with normalizing....

Its simply wrong and very misleading for the less well trained/knowledgeable to read incorrect infos.

Or even worse, for the trainer himself maybe not to fully understand it....I cannot be 100% certain exactly what happened here. Only you know for certain.

But for me, the internet came through and produced 10 easily understood logical reasons why what you said was mainly untrue or simply misunderstood by you....

But many experts (you are certainly not alone here) always automatically "shield" their knowledge by simply NOT imparting it to others....seen it time and time again....

I personally would never do that, ever, maybe because at several points in my life I was a teacher in the department where I worked, starting in the 60's in the RN, later in various computer companies....

I (still) love teaching, (but not bored school kids), but interested adults....I could have easily done it full time....I have taught in English, French, German and even American too!!

Have a great day anyway, sincerely meant from me.

Thanks everyone, not sure what I'll do at this time. Maybe someone will build a unit but then I miGht be the only one with this desire.

"Maybe someone will build a unit but then I miGht be the only one with this desire."

The unit you are looking for is an MP3 player with a USP jack.

Music (and in fact, all sorts of data) is stored on a USP stick in a digital format, it's all ones and zeroes, grouped into files, which are sorted into directories.

RCA jacks are a connector that pass along an analog signal (a voltage that is constantly changing moment to moment) from one audiovisual device to another. There are no 'files' or 'directories,' just the changing voltage.

An MP3 player can read the digital format used by the USB stick and 'decode' it, turning it into the varying-voltage signal the equipment that uses the RCA jacks will need. The MP3 player will usually only have a 'headphone jack,' which is a different connector than RCA, but it uses the same analog signal.

The Headphone jack to RCA adapter is a simple device, often just a cable with the headphone jack plug at one end and RCA plugs at the other, it bridges the gap between the MP3 player and the device with the RCA jack.

If you have any questions on how to hook it all together, look for a friend in their 30's or 40's, they were a teenager during the 80's and 90's, and should be able to hook all this up easily, since it's all familiar tech to them.

You could use your cell phone as the MP3 decoder and plug a mini stereo to RCA splitter