Sinclair ZX80 / ZX81 / Z88 Forums

Having had a go at this process (e.g. https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/stiggybl ... phone/amp/) I managed to get it to work with the original cassette cables that came with my Spectrum but only by very careful placement of the mono jack in a stereo socket. I suspect long term this is not a good idea and therefore a more appropriate cable is required.

I recently got a +3 and cassette cable for it, I have the following:-


This has two mono jacks and a single stereo (I assume) jack. I was wondering if anyone was aware of the internals of this and therefore whether I could safely put the stereo jack in my Macbook head phone socket and one of the mono jacks in the Spectrum (etc.) to load from the .wav file playback?

Merry Christmas!!!

The tip of the “stereo” jack plug should go to the tip of one of the mono jack plugs.
The ring of the “stereo” jack plug should go to the tip of the other mono jack plug.
The sleeve of the “stereo” jack plug should go to the sleeve of both of the mono jack plugs.

You can test the above with a multimeter.

If the above is true, then yes, you can put the stereo jack plug in your Mac and one of the mono jack plugs into a ZX81, or ZX Spectrum etc. If the Mac outputs the same signal on both the left and right stereo channels, then it does not matter which mono jack you use. Otherwise try each until the computer hears a tape signal...

For more on jack plugs, see also here

Mark