Autoshitter's car audio

[pandarus]

I recently changed my Eunos for a very tidy mk2 MX-5.

 

There was a tape player in the car and no aux socket for my mp3

 

So have I changed it...nah, I just bought one of those tapes with the 3.5mm jack instead. Just got me thinking about what other shitters did for their toonz?

[Richard]

Not very shite I'm afraid, though it gains some points by being in its fifth car.

 

 

Blaupunkt DAB 52, bought for £130 in 2005 when I was buying filters in a local Ford dealer. It's not as garish in real life as it looks there, especially if you turn the equaliser display off. DAB radio is a bit like Digital TV in that it gives you a wider choice of channels for the same old shit, but there are enough decent channels to make it worthwhile. I mostly listen to 6 Music and 4 Extra.

 

The C5's aerial needed a reasonably shite mod to make it work

 

[bub2006]

I bought a blue tooth thing yesterday but was faulty. See my other thread! Gone back to my 21 year old Phillips cassette deck and mp3 cassette adapter

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

Car 1:

Came with Ford Sound 2001 Mono Radio (no tape player).

Ripped that out and replaced it with:

Sony XPLOD CD player, which sounded great but caused the sidelights to blow fuses thanks to an incorrectly wired adaptor (took a really long time to figure that out).

Ripped that out and replaced it with:

Ford Sound 2006 from a Mondeo, which had a faulty display

Ripped that out and replaced it with:

Ford Sound 2000 system from a Granada, with the power amp and was very upset to sell the car with that but by this point you can imagine what the wiring loom looked like.

 

Car 2:

Came with nothing except an aerial. I installed the Sound 2001 from the Fiesta.

Ripped that out and replaced it with nothing for a few months, until fitting:

A 1980s Escort (rubber button) cassette player.

Ripped that out and replaced it with:

A different 1980s Escort (rubber button) cassette player.

Ripped that out and replaced it with:

Another second hand Sony XPLOD with AUX IN (this is now in the Mini)

 

Car 3:

Has no ICE.

 

 

 

Yet.

[Pillock]

I had a succession of cheapy £50 Argos bluetooth head units (I think a couple of them were Wharfdale) but they were actually pretty good - one I sold with a car, and one I perhaps might have possibly damaged removing it from a car, so it went off for repair and they ended up refunding so I bought another, brand I can't remember.

 

I need bluetooth for work, most of my phone calls are made during "dead" time travelling. It's also nice to stream audio from my phone as I don't use CDs, everything is stored in Google Music and I hate wires.

 

I then thought I'd splash out and paid £40 for a secondhand Sony BT head unit and it was rubbish. Kept forgetting my phone, the microphone was behind the front panel (what? why??) so the phone call quality was poo. I ended up selling it for £37 on ebay a year later. Oh and the radio reception was also crap so I had to constantly stream radio from my phone to it.

 

Now I have a fancy-pants built-in Satnav/MP3/CD Changer jobbie. It does have BT phone but doesn't have BT Music, that upgrade will cost me a slightly annoying £120

[Partridge]

Mine has the luxury of a radio. I don’t use it though, it has Jeremy Vine on it.

[trigger]

I have this Sanyo in my Cortina which is from the 1970's, I've added a 3.5 inline jack lead from the 8 track socket in the rear so I can play my phone though it, it also makes my phone hands free.

 

My 1974 Ford Cortina 2000 XL Mk3 dash with new radio fitted by Trigger's Retro Road Tests!, on Flickr

[pervypaul]

This is the shite in my shitter

 

Long wave and Medium wave only. No cassette and it whines like a pig reading 50 shades of shite

[Shep Shepherd]

The Volvo has a mid-1990s Blaupunkt Melbourne head unit with a 10-CD auto-changer and TV2 has a factory-spec SC-805 radio/cassette/CD head unit. They are augmented by my MP3 player (played via a cassette adaptor) and a PURE Highway DAB digital radio receiver, both of which I transfer from car to car

[Spiny Norman]

The Saab has a cheapo JVC radio/CD thing I got from eBay a year or so ago. It works well enough but the CD jumps sometimes when the road gets rough, which is a lot in Glasgow.

 

The Merc came with a Blaupunkt CD which I quite like because it's subtle for a modern unit and blends in with the car's dash well. Sounds OK, but not fantastic, which is what I expect from Blaupunkt gear.

 

Best Car stereo I've ever encountered was the one in my Volvo C70. The car itself was unbelievably crap but the stereo and windscreen washers were top class!

[Lacquer Peel]

http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stor ... yId_265865

I quite fancy one of these, they seem to be well rated.

 

I have one of those Sony aux-in stereos that were popular in 2008, it might have been in 15 cars since I bought it, good sound from it but I'd like Bluetooth and digital radio.

 

Does anyone want the JVC that came out of the ex-ruffgeezer Xantia for £postage? It has aux in, though bafflingly it comes off a lead on the back of the stereo.

[RoadworkUK]

I replaced the motorola radio in my old Acclaim with an hilariously awful Saisho radio/cassette with a digital display that just told you what the freq was, you tuned it with a rotary dial / bit of string arrangement. Anyway. It caught fire.

 

Otherwise the both my current rides have the original stuff, Phillips Rad/Cass/CD in the Rover, Audi "Concert" Rad/Cass/CD in the, er, Audi. They're adequate for me. I use a Pure Highway DAB in both cars as I CANNOT ABIDE THE SHIT that gets pumped out of all the FM stations you can pick up in Essix.

[Pete-M]

 

This is in the Subaru. I'm not sure how many cars I've had it fitted to over the last five or six years but it has been in a fair few. It's a basic Nakamichi job, does nothing fancy other than play MP3 CDs rather well. Cost me around £200 new and it has been superb. I rather regret not buying the next model up as this one doesn't have a couple of things that could be useful. The ability to make the illumination match the dash would be good, for one. Still, no complaints.

[ShiteRider]

The 'tina is rocking some "old school" (ie; shit) tuneage.

[Richard]

That Pioneer radio cassette would have been reasonably upmarket when the Cortina was new. The surface mount Harvard speakers not so much

[ShiteRider]

It's got matching pioneer speakers in the front, and it did have some on the rear shelf......but they went AWOL so i used the others to cover the holes.

[Lord Sterling]

G-reg mk1 Sterling

Has the Philips R950 which I eventually fitted in once I got the wiring sorted out:

 

 

I did try an R960 + CD changer set up as per Roadworkuk's 825.

 

E-reg Sterling:

Standard set-up that I fitted back in.

 

N-reg Sterling

Standard Philips R960 + CD changer.

 

Micra

Originally came with some standard tape deck thing (By Blaupunkt I think) it didnt even have a reverse function. This was changed for a Sony XPlod a few years ago that has served well ever since.

 

Also at my disposal are these:

 

 

I actually have 2 CD changers + cables.

 

Also recently added to my above collection is this:

 

Bought for £25, swapped for a desktop computer + flatscreen monitor then bought back for £10.

[ashmicro]

Now I know why I can't find a Rover branded unit on eBay - Lord Sterling has em all. I have the Blaupunkt Casa Blanca from my old Merc in the Rover, a Creative Zen Stone mp3 player and a cassette on a wire thing Works well. The rear speakers in the car lasted about 6 months before they fell to bits, so I go a set out of a R8 200 for free from the breaker.

 

The Jaaag has a radio cassette and a 6 disc changer, and I use another tape on a string and an old Blackberry in it. Sound is excellent

 

The set up in the S Class is more complicated than a lunar lander, and the sound quality isn't that good. It's a satnav and a Freeview tv as well, and does nothing all that impressively. I just play old skool rock from an SD card in it. And the delaers want 100 odd quid for an adapter to plug in an iPhone/Pad. Fuck that!

 

 

Best one I ever had was the standard one in the Tuscon. Loud as hell, and didn't distort even at full whack. It also made the glass in the door mirrors vibrate. No fancy display or anything, just a good rich sound.

[Captain Slow]

G-reg mk1 Sterling

Has the Philips R950 which I eventually fitted in once I got the wiring sorted out:

 

 

I did try an R960 + CD changer set up as per Roadworkuk's 825.

 

 

 

The R960 setup with CD changer is what I have in the Montego - but it's a bit different. SHOULD illuminate orange. Mine illuminates green to match the rest of the instruments.

 

 

Mine also has a button held on with invisible tape atm - they're notorious for falling off and I haven't yet sourced a replacement front for it!

[stilo_active]

The 205 has this:

 

This

plus cassette adaptor and Blackberry = choonz, innit.

 

The Corsa Easychronic has some form of modern nonsense called a Compact Disc player or some such novelty.

[oldford]

I've got this in the Sierra, graphic equaliser from a Granada:

 

 

Had this in the Cortina, a car boot sale bargain for £10 in 1998:

 

 

I had them both working with a 6 CD autochanger in the boot, that can be set to broadcast on a radio frequency which plugs into the aerial socket on the radio, I have also got one of those plug into the ciggy lighter MP3 players.

[catsinthewelder]

The 205 has this:

 

This

 

^ That is what I have in the BX, looks great (to me) but the tape deck runs slowly and the o/s speaker has stopped working.

 

The VW has an 8 track built into it's radio which may even work

 

The Austin had a Skoda tape deck when we got it but it fell off and the wiring bodges from fitting it started 2 fires so I ripped them out and never got round to fitting anything else. Once it's going again I might copy what a lad round here with a Beetle had and just fit an amp out the way somewhere with a headphone lead poking out on the dash for Ms C to connect her Mp3 to, I don't do Mp3 so I'll connect my minidisk player to it

 

If we had DAB around here I'd invest in something to listen to it on but

Sorry, but you can't pick up any stations there.

 

We're sorry, there are no digital radio stations available in your area at the moment. Digital radio coverage continues to grow as new transmitters are switched on, so please check back from time to time to see if your postcode is covered.

 

[Pillock]

I love the factory Ford jobs from that era. My mum's Escort had a similar one, although since it had the joystick fader control it made do with just a tone control, and I think had two FM bands. Coming from the PYE job she'd had in her Polo, which was ripped from her Sunbeam and installed by the dealer - it was a revelation.

 

Always admired the external graphic equaliser but you had to be plush enough to have a Ghia in most ranges to get that! Do they sit between the head unit and speakers or is there some other magic to them?

 

My Beetle had a supermarket own-brand CD player in also until someone decided they quite fancied it, and buggered up the locks to get in. I mentioned it to my uncle not long after and it turns out he had several hundred quids worth of top-line Kenwood head unit and CD changer sat in his garage, ripped from an old company car. After that, the tunes in my car were worth way more than the car itself.

[splatthefat]

The Mondeo has the Standard Ford branded audio which I've added a Sonichi DAB reciever that works much better than I thought it would, with the TOMTOM taking up hands free duties.

 

The Jaaag has the 360w Alpine system with 8 speakers, R/Cassette and 6 CD Changer.

 

The MG has the sound of an A series on twin carbs lol

 

CJ

[Negative Creep]

Punto has some crappy JVC thing which has lasted me for years but has an AUX and RCA output which means I've never needed to replace it. THe fact it lights up a different colour to the dash lights still annoys me every single night though