Years ago, when I was still using my old hi-fi from my teens, the CD player stopped reading discs, and because it was a cheap model, it lacked an aux input, so I delved within and found there were obvious audio wires going from the CD drive to the main circuit board, so I cut them and attached a 3.5mm socket, glued into the back of the unit. From then on I could plug my computer into it... until the amplifier started to wear out and it got quieter and quieter.

These days I mostly just use some old beige and grey computer speakers (Mercury MS-440) at my desk which sound reasonable enough close up (my office room is only small).

However, recently my sister was getting rid of an old hi-fi that had been doing nothing in her lounge for the past 10 years, beyond gathering dust, lots of dust. Did I want it?

Well, I figured I could use it in my garage whilst working on my car... so, why not? It's one of these:

Sony MHC-ec609 (not actually my one)

Considering it's made by Sony, it's utter cheap garbage from the 2000s, not like Sony stuff of old (example right). With horrible plastic and the CD lid on top is awful. But all is perfect to be used and abused in a cold damp garage. It is one of these annoying stereos that has an iPod dock, an outdated one... and no aux input, and upon testing the CD player wouldn't work, so a prime candidate for my CD/aux mod? I delved within (after first cleaning off the bulk of the dust), but found no simple audio wires going to the CD drive, just a more complicated and troublesome ribbon cable. So I looked to where this was attached to the main circuit board, and found useful details printed on the PCB, and where to solder on my audio lead.

I used to have these, a pair of old Sony amps. I have two others now, although not currently set up. Not idea for a cold room as I think that's how my original ones failed.

Connected to CD-L, CD-R, and a GND.

Sadly this didn't work... no audio.

I then found a similar connection for the radio and was able to get sound through this, but it had radio "hiss" over the top (I was reluctant to cut or remove the ribbon cable, rendering any mods difficult to undo). I found, however, that if I switched from FM to AM, the hiss was pretty quiet then, so my input (from my phone) could be heard over the top... although it wasn't amplified very much.

By this point I discovered why the CD player hadn't been working; the laser was stuck at the home position of its track. When I pushed it free it worked. Maybe because of this fault the output was disabled until the system reported an OK signal, hence why my first attempt didn't work.

By now though I'd had enough soldering these little wires so I left things alone and put the side panels back on and set the whole thing up on the shelf I had previously put up in my garage. Maybe it'll be loud enough for listening to podcasts.