car stereo - speakers and radio

Valves are far superior!!!!!! I play bass guitar, and sometimes guitar, but the one thing I have always found........transistor amps are crap. OK, you have to wait for the bottles to warm up, but they do give a much better tone than any of these modern amps, and no silly graphic equaliser to try and make it sound valve!!!
As a kid, I had an old ITT valve television in my bedroom. I couldn't even move it, such was the weight of the thing. But the picture quality was fantastic. I used to love looking in the back of it and seeing the valves glowing away.
I'm currently working on a 1972 BMW 3.0CSL at work, and that's got an old 8 track sat in the dash!
I guess I'm just a real 70's child. I was born in '72, and I seem to be stuck there!!!!!!!!! :D
 
All the sound equipment through the ages comes through my shop, and people's tastes are subjective, to be sure. Only guitar players rave about "Valve" sets (we call them tubes), but can guitar players still hear?
As testimony I submit the CD player in my wife's car. If that unit doesn't skip or fail, the way she drives, then they must be perfected.
How about a fake analog plate up front, and modern guts hidden elsewhere?
I still have the original "valve" set from my '53 XK120......is this now worth a fortune?
Dick West
 
JASON, I WILL PM YOU A LIST ASAP. I WILL SELL IT ALL TOGETHER, UNLESS THE 8 TRACK BUYER DOES NOT WANT THE TAPES...... PILKIE :cool:
 
I read somewhere that it's possible to get old am radios, like Radiomobile, converted to fm. Not sure how much truth there is in this, but it would improve the old set quite nicely. Why can't someone produce a retro look radio CD set? With all the so called retro styled cars about these days, I would have thought it possible. Besides, I don't want the dash of my P6 lit up like a chavmobile ???
Guitar players deaf? Its a good job I can read!!!!!!!!! I do like it loud :D
 
Vintage wireless in Sale do FM conversions for older radios, I was thinking of getting the P4 one done, but then I may wait until there is a digital conversion available ! - The P4 set is a domestic 220v ac unit squashed into car size unit plus a separate volt converter and amp - sounds really good but I do need to replace the speakers
 
I've just got the P4 radio, not the amp. I'll probably pick one up but was thinking about a live for the illumination & leaving it at that, though I've heard they sound nice. We got the number of a guy who converted them to FM at the P4 National last year. Expensive at £150 though. £200 if he supplied the radio as well.
 
Trouble with the modern "retro" stuff is that the quality is never the same as the originals, if they made a retro car stereo, you can guarantee the plastics would be really bad !

Best bet is as suggested, proper period set in the dash, modern set in the glove box.

On the subject of TV's, you can't beat a proper CRT, sorry, plasmas and lcd's are rubbish ! They can't reproduce the colours properly and the response times are awfull too.
I was talking to a friend last night who went out to buy a plasma, and came back with a CRT instead, he said he just couldn't stand the quality of the plasma picture.

Richard
 
Hear Hear. Some of these LCD screens are shocking, I feel it's Emperor's new clothes time. LCD's belong as a static image medium e.g. computer terminals, not panned landscape and action footage.

Plasma's: superb though at some things, but you really have to pay for it to get near the colour control.

For now, I'd much rather let my eyes naturally filter-out the muddiness and softer-focusing, than put up with amplified artifacts, over-sharp unnatural imaging and decompress delays spoiling the show :D

HDTV and Blu-Ray, touted for half a decade, but where are we? Even the BBC explain the World Cup and Wimbledon broadcasts are a "trial", and where are those discs?

Anyhow, any Cup games I'll be catching will involve me and friends complete with beer goggles, softening the HDTV images! :cool:
 
I quite like that. No mention on the Becker English pages, but is there on the German pages. UK Listed here. Cor ! £1100. But it is a navi system.
I think for now I'll stick to my Motorola/iPod effort, and buy the missus better map glasses :D
 
Wow, I take back what I said about retro stereo quality, that looks top drawer, mind you its top drawer price too.

But it does have all the features, sat nav too, so I guess its not a "ridiculous" price, although you could buy a decent P6 for that !

Richard
 
ITS UGLY, HORRIBLE,YUCK!!!! " I know beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but!!!!!!"" I DEFINATELY WOULDNT GIVE IT CONSOLE SPACE IN ANY OF MY CARS, BRITISH CLASSIC CARS NEED PROPER PERIOD AM/FM STEREO TAPE DECKS IN THEIR DASHES, BEST TO HIDE YOUR CD,MP3, EVEN, " yucky" SAT NAV,s [ proper old fashioned map reading is a lot more fun!!] IN THE GLOVEBOX!! I WOULD MUCH RATHER SPEND THE MONEY ON MY P6, OR THE TR6,s RESPRAY!! IT WILL BE A LOT MORE PLEASING TO THE EYE!! :D
 
really? ok, yes maybe it's a bit of an oddball. I don't think it looks too different from this period shot with Radiomobile

std_74_rover_p6_3500_v8-3.jpg


Maybe Becker will allow interchangeable facias
 
ME TO!!!! I WANT ONE!!!! RADIO,S TO BLING! MORE SUITED TO AMERICAN MOTORS!, AND ITS IN A FOREIGN LANGUAGE!! PRESS THE WRONG BUTTON,AND YOU COULD END UP IN BERLIN, IF THE SAT NAV HAS A HOMING DEVICE :laugh:
 
I was just reading though the replies as i do every now and again, and i spotted a question that i could offer a reply to.
Somewhere on the first page someone asks if it would be possible to fit a CD player into the glove box.

On buying a 2200p6 fairly recently i soon got a little bit bored with dodgy reception though the original LW/MW radio, so i decided to fit a CDplayer into my dayly runner. Apart from the length of the CDplayer not being able to fit in the hole i didn't want to spoil the asthetics.

I fitted the CD player into the passenger glove box without a drama making a small access hole at the back for wires and using heavy duty velcro tabs to semipermanantly secure the CDplayer in place.

The CDplayer works fine in the uprightish position, although sometimes it wants to spit out the CD and this can cause problems!

-a question to all;
original radios have 5amp fuses (compared with 10amps for the CDplayer), at louder volumes the CD player can turn itself off, and then straight back on again! Is this to do with the wiring system not being beefy enough to keep up with the information?

silverfox
 
If the amplifier on your CD player is fairly powerful, I would say that it's possible. I would be tempted to run an independant earth, straight to the vehicle frame, and then a seperate live feed, straight from the ignition switch. Make sure to fit an in line fuse, of suitable rating, as close to the ignition switch as possible, so that all of the live feed wire is fused. Also be sure to use decent quality cable, and solder all connections where possible, and insulate with shrink wrap tubing. The permanent live wire shouldn't need the same treatment, as this is only there for information stored in the units memory. But again, check that this circuit is correctly fused. Might also be an idea to find out what kind of amp draw the ignition switch can cope with, as these sometimes can play up on their own. If it cannot cope, it will be necessary to fit a realy, to take the current draw away from the ignition switch.

There's my idea's, any others?
 
I recall seeing in a Jensen Interceptor of mid 70's vintage a Phillips radio / cassette with stereo radio and a microphone for doing dictation. Anyone got one in their P6 ?
 
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