I have a mini-stereo that doesn't have an aux input. As a result, it's just kind of sitting around collecting dust, since I can't use the Empeg with it. Today I got curious about hi-jacking the tape-player, which never got used, even when I didn't have the Empeg. So today I cracked open the case, and went poking about to see what I could see.

What I saw was that the tape player circuitry was attached to the amplifier unit via a nice little plug, labelled with R out, L out, PG, R in, L in, AG, 10V. I dug out one of my four remaining tapes, popped it in the deck, and hit play. Thanks to my trusty yellow multimeter, I discovered that the R out and L out voltages drop to 0 when I hit stop, and rise above 0 as soon as I hit play. The R in and R out never dropped to 0 voltage, so I presume that's the signal from the radio I'd be recording onto the tape if I hit record.

I'm also assuming that R out and L out are 1V signals, since the voltage levels are approximately the same as the voltage levels I measured coming out of the RCA jacks on the back of the Empeg, barring minor fluctuations that I'd expect from having different music playing.

The idea is to hijack those R out and L out wires from the tape deck, and run them to some RCA jacks, which I'll plug the Empeg into. Prestoneato, tape mode becomes AUX in mode.

Sanity check, since I'm still mostly faking it when it comes to electronics: good idea, bad idea?

(In otherwords, I'm not so concerned about wrecking the mini-stereo, but I don't want to do anything with the potential to wreck the Empeg.)