Is it wrong to replace original audio equipment for new in classic/modern classic vehicles?

[Out Run]

16 minutes ago, Dick Van Diesel said:

Depends really. My MR2 is 2003 and the standard audio is appalling. I've ditched the standard double din unit, fitted a single din adaptor with storage cubby (perfect for the phone to fit into) and am currently running a 2013 Alpine head unit. I can't standard the look of most 'modern' aftermarket gear, but Alpine still looks relatively understated and smart, whilst not sounding shite.

17 years old isn’t as modern as I was thinking, TBH.

[Out Run]

13 minutes ago, Jazoli said:

 

Yes there is! I've changed the headunit in most cars I've had, even moderns, the kit to put a double din android auto in my insignia cost £200 but its was worth it as I have *cringe* full connectivity, I put another of the same headunit in the wife's 307 too as it didn't have Bluetooth

 

Fair enough. My Mondeo, although 7 years old, has the ‘premium’ speakers. Plastic cones, not paper. DAB, BT audio streaming and sat nav. So I prefer to stick with it. It sounds great and looks right.

I guess it depends on the spec and brand of the car, too.

[Ghosty]

My 205 has its original pull-out Clarion from 1992, complete with aux in (thinking to the future!). It sounds fine and works perfectly so can stay. I'd sooner change the speakers but they actually sound alright (in a cheesy 90s way).

The non-functional 6x9s in the parcel shelf can stay too, as it's funny and you never see that any more. 

[RayMK]

It's your car, do as you please.  Thank goodness no one has used the word 'custodian' rather than 'owner.'  

My preference for original versus new audio equipment in cars varies according to the car.  I admit to thinking 1950 to 1990s cars can look a bit odd with a garish modern unit in the dash, and seeing a Morris Minor or similar with a dash cam and satnav/smart phone suckered to the windscreen looks even more incongruous.  Real men get lost properly with a 1960s issue Ordnance Survey map spread out on the passenger seat.

My 1961 Reliant has no audio equipment. The engine easily out shouts music, conversation and thoughts. The Tipo has a fairly modern Pioneer unit which blends in with the dash quite well, though I hardly ever listen to music or radio in that car.  My son replaced the Volvo tailored unit in his V70 for a modern touch screen device. It looks ok but he now agrees with me that touch screen is more eyes off the road difficult to operate than the original, so the perfectly acceptable old bespoke multi CD system is going back in.   

[sierraman]

Beckerman used to do some modern radios that looked period. But they cost more than most of our cars.  

[outlaw118]

I'm currently mulling over a similar point for my Capri.

Prior to it's restoration, it had a pull-out JVC jobbie, with uprated speakers in the front doors that went behind the original speaker grilles, and an accoustic shelf in the back with a pair of JBL 6x9s and a sub, and used the original speakers in the pods as tweeters, amp attached underneath the shelf.

Now, I've still got all the bits, and a Blaupunkt head unit with cassette and a multichanger to go in, but I'm reluctant to make the jump and fit it. The original radio cassette has long gone, unfortunately, but that's still an option.

I'm sure someone on here, possibly @trigger found someone that would keep the facia of an old/original unit and stick new gubbins in.  Can't remember how much it costs, and I probably need to do some research, but if it's not prohibitively expensive, surely that's the ideal option.

[mat_the_cat]

Depends on your definition of prohibitively expensive...

https://www.tadpoleradios.co.uk/OwnStandardConv.aspx

[outlaw118]

Yeah, that....

[robinmasters]

For more than 40 years or so most cars have a stereo which is designed to slide out with minimal effort so you can change it for another one. It takes literally five minutes to change back from functional, useable modern head unit to period correct AM/8-track shite. 

If it's not a din sized cage, maybe there's an argument for living with no/rubbish music, but there's normally a way round it, which has already been covered. Eighties onwards, stick it in the shed in case you decide to join the MG* owners club, and fit something you can actually play music on. 

 

*Other anally retentive concourse clubs are available

[Remspoor]

It is your car do want you want!

If you want period....Just how retro is retro?Look up reviews on YT they are quite positive about teh quality.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07BXFTDZQ?tag=forsalecouk-21&linkCode=osi&th=1&psc=1

Moe expensive.

https://www.classiccarstereo.co.uk/classic-car-stereos/autosound-classic-car-stereo/ccs-classic-200-dab-spindle-mount-radio/

An alternative is to install USB and/or aux into an existing radio.

 

[DoctorRetro]

You can do what you want as long as you don't paint matt black over the lacquer peel. ?

[UltraWomble]

The original reel to reel player in my car was shit.



I now use a dab plug in adapter
Love it.




Can always put the old one back

Sent from my moto g(7) power using Tapatalk

[Mrcento]

No. it's not wrong, But a lot depends on the car.

I get that people want to add modern functionality, bluetooth, dab, aux in etc, and in 99% of cars (especially older cars), an after market head unit does that and looks absolutely fine.

For extra bonus points, if the aftermarket unit sort of fits design/light colours of the rest of the interior at night, it's more than ok. If it's an older car, a period correct looking unit is usually available.

Ultimately, if it's a classic and you can put the old one back in, why the hell not?, It's your car to enjoy as you wish after all.

The ones that i do have a pet hate for are, particularly moderns, where they have a model specific headunit designed integral to the dash and somebody howks it out and throws anything in there in its place.

Vauxhalls, vec C and Astra H in particular look the worst of all with the factory headunit removed and an aftermarket in its place. They either ram in a single din with a cheap adaptor and nothing matches colour or texture wise and makes the interior look like a council skip, or throw in a cheap double din with the same type of crap adaptor that is the wrong shape and looks like it wants to fall out.

Bonus points if it also fucks up the info display that's built into the top of dash and renders all the steering wheel controls dead.

[N19]

I circumvent this as I'm into pretty much exclusively 80s music that's all on cassette, and all 3 cars have cassette players... 

With the Capri I have mounted a unit on the underside of the dash as otherwise it'd need cut. At the moment there is a hole where the original radio isn't, but I could put the dead original back in if I wanted. 

[Ghosty]

2 hours ago, UltraWomble said:

The original reel to reel player in my car was shit.



I now use a dab plug in adapter
Love it.




Can always put the old one back

Sent from my moto g(7) power using Tapatalk
 

Hey, a CDX-GT24. Class radio - cheap as you like, not obnoxious and sounds really bloody good considering you can get them for £20 on the 'bay. 

[PhilA]

At the inception of transistorized car radio? The quality was good because there was a push for SOLID STATE. Then Japan got in on it and then we went from germanium to silicon and from there it all went downhill in the race for cheap and loud.

The late eighties into the early nineties and things were technologically beginning to fit into a DIN head unit without it overheating or eating every tape fed in.

I will contest the "old=shit" point because although mono and AM only, the radio in my car has an impressively high quality 5 Watt class A amplifier which, when fed with Bluetooth rivals or betters anything else I've owned from that vintage.

So yes. Cheap toot will always sound like cheap toot but well designed stuff with modern heat characteristics can sound pretty damn good.

 

Usually what lets a car stereo down is the loudspeakers.

I agree on the "don't cut it if you don't have to" if the car's made it this far unmolested. If it was hacked up when it was new, fair enough. There's something wrong about the rather Teutonic rectangle sitting in the middle of a plank of wood on a nicely deco dashboard though. But, in car stereo was always an awkward ugly duckling until the seventies over there. Radio was regularly fitted kit here immediately post-WW2.

 

Phil

[Yoss]

9 hours ago, UltraWomble said:

The original reel to reel player in my car was shit.



I now use a dab plug in adapter
Love it.




Can always put the old one back

Sent from my moto g(7) power using Tapatalk
 

What do you drive that requires you to check the oil every time you fill up? And a note to remind you. 

[Yoss]

5 hours ago, PhilA said:

At the inception of transistorized car radio? The quality was good because there was a push for SOLID STATE. Then Japan got in on it and then we went from germanium to silicon and from there it all went downhill in the race for cheap and loud.

 

Phil

That's the first time I've seen germanium used in a sentence outside of Pointless. You probably won't know what Pointless is over there, it's a tea time quiz show where I get all my chemical element knowledge from. Actually not so much knowledge, just remembering names. My go to answer is darmstadtium but I've never seen it used in a sentence. 

[RayMK]

10 hours ago, UltraWomble said:

The original reel to reel player in my car was shit.








Can always put the old one back

Sent from my moto g(7) power using Tapatalk
 

My hi-fi* stack at home has the same Grundig  reel to reel. They get quite warm, handy when the central heating goes wrong.

[UltraWomble]

2 hours ago, Yoss said:

What do you drive that requires you to check the oil every time you fill up? And a note to remind you. 

Astra G with the 1.6 8v.

Renown for liking a drink of oil

[Vince70]

I replaced the original stereo on my Z3 and my E36 never had a stereo when I bought it so fitted  two identical Blaupunkt IPhone compatible  stereos that look nice and basic without too many flashing lights and it’s nice to have hands free not that I know how to use it lol.

The weird thing with the Z3 was it had some fancy options such as a leather interior and the chrome pack etc but had never had a stereo option fitted from the factory and when I bought it the car it had a very fancy Kenwood Mask stereo from that period so all I can think of is the original owner was into his car hifi  and wanted something upmarket fitted when he bought the car new.

I could never get the hang of the Kenwood mask as it had so many buttons but looked the business and the revolving front screen looked great so it now resides in my loft.

I also took the Original cassette player and boot changer out the Bini and fitted a beautiful iPhone compatible Alpine Hands free stereo which I bought  off Facebook for £35 but try and keep my all my old radios and store them in the loft In case I ever sell the cars and someone wants an original stereo.
 

The main problems I have with changing stereos though is once you’ve changed them for modern stuff you find the old speakers aren’t up to scratch so you normally end up changing those as well and that’s where the money comes into the equation as you need to either buy factory fit upgrades or adapters if your like me and don’t like cutting holes into trim.

 

[Yoss]

This is where it lives in the Triumph. Invisible with the door shut. 

 

Skoda. High power. Not words that went together often in 1998 (it's out of the Felicia). 

 

That leaves this area free to fill with random crap and makes changing the clutch easier. 

The only 1300s I've seen with period radios have it fitted here in a one piece unit with radio and mono speaker combined. 

 

A selection of tapes that can currently be found in the car. 

It's night time Radio 1 from 1995. John Peels Festive 26 sounds particularly intruiging. I have three boxes about double the size of a shoe box full of these upstairs and the Triumph is the only place I can play them. If I could buy a stereo with digital radio and a cassette player I would but I don't think they exist. 

[Remspoor]

Alternative

[Bitzer]

If I only use the car around town and within reach of a chosen FM station, I generally keep original stereos. Unfortunately, these are often without RDS/EON, so, if I plan to use the wheelbarrow for longer trips, I have to replace them.

Re quality of sound - I was immensely surprised when I put a cassette to the basic Ka radio. I guess nobody ever used it to play any tapes, the sound (recorder concerts) is crystal clear and free of distortion even with bog-standard door speakers.

My crystal ball tells me that  the first generation of stereos with satnav will become highly collectible. They are unobtainium even as we speak.

Edited July 6, 2020 by Bitzer
Typo