Any of you who have a '92-96 GM B-Body Wagon may likely have noticed that it's exceedingly difficult to get a stereo that's expandable or modular while keeping the factory look of the dash. Ubergeek that I am I really like my car stereo to have lots of connectivity and I have yet to find something that doesn't look horribly out of place in my dash either due to it's colours/lights or the fact that it's a 1DIN stereo in a 1.5DIN hole. Retrosound now has a full featured 1.5DIN replacement stereo that isn't the most attractive thing in the world but it looks right at home in 1990's vehicles. Check out the specs here: http://www.retrosoundusa.com/products/details/id/467
Yeah Retrosound's pricing is pretty hefty. The interest for me is in finally finding a head unit that includes everything this one has and doesn't make your car look like a dance club.
i bought a radio for my 93 roadie thru crutchfield . it is a sony and came with the adapter for the wiring and the dash .cost around 125 for the whole thing. never tried retrosound but i did try custom autosound years ago in my 59 and it reminded me of the am radio i used to listen to in the '70's heading to long island in my moms wagon. ripped it out and put a modern sony in the glovebox and stuck an old time am radio back in the dash
Modern head units really suck. If I wanted my dash to light up like a dance club or some such nonsense, then that is the way to go. It's a shame that the Retrosound has a premium price to it. I'd like that in my wife's '78 New Yorker to replace the original (and working!) AM/FM/8-track.
I agree! I want something that sounds good. Giving me a light show and a large screen to mess up my vision is absurd. A Pioneer head unit I had in the 90's boasted 25W RMS per channel. For an enclosed space like a car that's a huge amount of overkill, never mind some of the absurd dB levels that these stereos can manage today. The Pioneer unit in my Marquis now has 35W RMS per channel, if I recall. It sounds like crap and offers me nothing but more volume. Everything is getting louder and louder and sounding worse and worse. I remember setting up a test unit years ago using old broadcast amplifiers pulled from a radio station. They were 1W each and produced some of the best sound I've heard this side of Macintosh amps. At 1W a pair of them were more than enough for a home stereo system. Surely there's a market for clean head units that focus on quality instead of power and functionality instead of light shows.
I'm still mulling over what do with the system in the Way Back Machine. It's got the stock AM/FM stereo - no cassette. I'm not against putting a modern head unit in the factory location, but like others have said, I don't want all those flashy flashy lights. I want AM/FM, i-pod and Satellite. I'm also still working on what size unit I can get in the opening - from the dash area around the head unit, it looks like I could fit something bigger, but the possible extra space is in the width, not the height.
Go to Zoomthelist.com and search Craigslist for either the Alpine of Pioneer 1.5 decks. They are still out there, and can be found cheap used, and are generally good quality items. I bought two Alpine's like this, one out of California and one out of Illinois. Also bought the Pioneer version for my S-10. The Alpines are by far my favorites! Jensen also made a 1.5...but it's pretty junky... These can also be found on Ebay but I've gotten much better pricing off Craigslist. And if they take Paypal most likely they will ship to you. Alpine 1.5 models: CDA-D852 CDA-D853 CDA-D855 CDA-D857 Pioneer DEH-43DH DEH-45DH DEH-P47DH DEH-P77DH Jensen CM7015K Here's the Alpine in my '92 Olds Custom Cruiser wagon: Pioneer models:
Those last two Pioneer's are more my style. I've looked at them in the past. I could live with the appearance of them but they don't seem to have input jacks and they're a little too old for Bluetooth connectivity. The Alpine's are quite a bit beyond what I'm looking for. They're too bright and shiny for me. Despite the price and blandness, the RetroSound is the closest I've come yet to a head unit that fits all of my (unnecessarily strict) requirements. I have a spare factory radio from that parts car that I bought a couple of months ago. I may try and kludge a line input for that. A lot of guys have done it, but they all seem to have done it with the Monsoon radios and not the basic tape unit that I have so I'll have to start from scratch and figure it out for myself.
Just read the specs on that Retrosound unit, and it does not seem to include seek or scan features, and they want $400 for it? Wow. I'd go bonkers with no seek button. Then again I know a lot of people live off their I-Pods now, but with only 25Wx4, this radio is pretty weak... I say mod a factory radio! From the Longroof forum on modding a factory Delco: 1994 Roadmaster factory Delco radio mod: It turns out that my radio, which includes a graphic equalizer, already had an AUX input capability, presumably for adding an external CD changer. I learned this by looking at the radio itself, which had a handy pin-out etched into metal. PIN OUTS FOR AUX IN: https://www.dropbox.com/s/t6t6kpjz5ipf51p/2013-01-27%2007.19.15.jpg I could have used the connectors on the back of the radio (6 PINS on the top right), but I decided to solder my plug directly to the internal connectors. EXTERNAL CONNECTOR FOR AUX IN: https://www.dropbox.com/s/ek5s2bqoxa42g2w/2013-01-26 20.14.01.jpg INTERNAL SOLDER POINTS FOR AUX IN: https://www.dropbox.com/s/w876s1rsz7ujxja/2013-01-26 20.13.23.jpg I ran the 3.5mm plug wire out a convenient hole in the back and then out through the empty tape deck space to the front. The other trick is to wire in a switch to fool the unit into thinking that a tape was inserted so the radio will cut out and use the AUX IN as the source. For this, I found a T-ON pin, number 13. By shorting pin 13 (T-ON) to pin 14 (BAT), the amplifier switches to AUX IN and the iPhone plays. Very nicely I must say! INTERNAL SOLDER POINTS FOR SWITCH: https://www.dropbox.com/s/lwxpgh2yb0sbin3/2013-01-26 20.13.48.jpg I ran the switch leads down to the empty tape deck area. I need to get a switch to finish the mod. The front of the unit is shown below. FRONT OF RADIO: https://www.dropbox.com/s/4fxnkdknlt9jjew/2013-01-26 20.20.20.jpg I will cut out the old tape deck button holes, leaving one hole on the left for my switch. I'm hoping I can find a black rocker switch that will fit without much fuss. The rest of the space where the tape deck was will store the 3.5mm plug when not in use, or store the iPhone when it is connected. I feel like I was really lucky that this unit already had AUX IN and T-ON capabilities. I hope this helps someone with a similar model radio.
I seem to have drawn a crappy straw in that my stereo is tape only. While I've seen mods on the Longroof forum for modifying a tape-only Delco none of them have been for my radio specifically. I'm thinking I should be able to put a 3.5mm in the rear and perhaps a switch to engage the tape circuit and shut off the drive motor. It would be nice to use a front facing, switching 3.5mm so that the drive motor shuts off when I plug in but I'd like to avoid cables dangling if I can. Modding my radio might be a pretty decent option. That's why I kept the spare from that parts wagon I just sold so that I can tinker without doing harm. The fiddly bit will likely be locating solder points for the tape pre-amp circuit. I won't know for sure until I crack it open I guess.
I purchased a RetroSound radio just before christmas from OPGI. They had it cheapest at just under $200 with shipping. I think it was cheap because it was an "old" model and they were making room from the new ones. I love the simplicity of this radio and have found few things im dissappointed with. A big drawback is how much power the unit puts out to the speakers. I also bought RetroSounds DVC 4x10 for the dash and the rear quarter in my wagon. The 4x10's are ok on sound. Nothing to get too excited about but it is a nich product that only a handfull of people are going to have a use for. Does reproduce a stereo sound decently well being that it is only one speaker with dual voice coils. The center seat in the wagon benefits most being that it is between the 2 speakers i have. I did not run an amp to power my speakers but i did install a 12" sub with 400W amp going to it. The subwoofer makes up for the areas that the speakers and head unit are subpar on. Im overall happy with the products that RetroSound puts out. As i said before its a nich product for a nich market.
