Old receiver, need more inputs

There should be a tape monitor button from the front. There should also be a tape monitor input in the back. The tape monitor should have two sets of rca inputs. One set in and one set out. Plug your cd into the tape monitor/in set of rca. Make sure when you play your cd, you push the tape monitor button in or to on. You may also want to switch the tuner (aux) versus the cd (tape) inputs depending on whether you use the cd more or the tuner more. Enjoy.

You are in luck! As Palmerston, Curtis and Kal have noted , you can use the Tape Monitor, and the 2285b actually has two (2) sets (Tape 1 and 2). So you'll use the selector knob to choose AM, FM, Phono (1 & 2) or AUX, and then you would use the Tape 1 or 2 buttons to select up to two more line level sources such as CD, DVD, Tape Deck, etc. So why aren't thesee inputs selectable with the knob, just like the other sources?

In the olden days, when audio was ruled by Reel to Reel and Cassette (and the occasional 8-track and Elcaset), the Tape Monitor loops gave you the ability to select your source (say, Phono) and pass it out of the pre-amp section of the receiver to the tape deck for recording. If your deck had separate playback heads, it could then send the freshly recorded signal back to the pre-amp section via the Tape Monitor input. Hence, you could "monitor" the track that was being laid down on tape.

Plus, even when you weren't recording, you could still pass the signal through your deck so you could watch the VU meters dance. . . groovy, man!!

Anyway, since you're probably not taping, you can ignore the Tape Monitor Output and just use the Tape Monitor Inputs.

^ I cannot tell each and everyone of you how stupid I feel right now. Yes, there are two sets of tape inputs on this receiver. I also have my non-working Akai rtr sitting next to my cabinet. Why i didn't think to plug the CD player into a Tape input is beyond me!
I guess I completely forgot about tapes since my rtr isn't functioning and hasn't in about a decade. It's like tape ceased to exist for me even though I walk into the damn rtr almost daily!
That's it! I'm getting the rtr fixed (right channel is out) and hooking it up along w/ the CD player.
Thanks for the responses!

^ I cannot tell each and everyone of you how stupid I feel right now. ^

Don't feel bad. We've all had those moments. Although, with a moniker like "Salad", it's easy to see how you might get "mixed up". :-)

BTW, I have the littler brother 2252b. I used to favor the older blackout/blue dial vintages for looks but when I saw this in person, it's pretty close now. Looks pretty at night.

Ditto what Onemug says. . .we've all been there! More than once I have spent hours diagnosing an issue with systems and it has turned out to be something like an unplugged cable.

I think it's human nature to overlook the obvious and "overthink" the solution (at least that's my story and I'm sticking to it!).