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I may not be taking it back as far as some of you guys but man it certainly makes me miss my days working the car audio department/shop at Circuit City. I worked there the last couple years of high school and into college until they shut down in 2008.
I went through a few Pioneer head units in my 86 TA. Had Pioneer 4x6 and 6x9 speakers and a powered Audiobahn bass tube. Also installed a keyless entry and alarm. Always got a kick out of the looks people gave me having keyless entry on an older car.
I remember kraco. Local Checkers had a big wall of them next to the air horns. Can new cars even have aftermarket stereos put in? Seem they are all touch screen infotainment "let keep the driver distracted" units
I remember kraco. Local Checkers had a big wall of them next to the air horns. Can new cars even have aftermarket stereos put in? Seem they are all touch screen infotainment "let keep the driver distracted" units
Wow, I haven't heard that name in years. How about the antenna signal booster?
My father passed away nearly 5 years ag, and I was helping my mother go through some old things...I found the Pioneer KE-7200 he had in his ‘68 Camaro.
Not my picture, but same stereo. I always thought it was cool that the display was on the cassette door. lIIRC, the cassette went all the way inside the stereo, and the door closed behind it, so you always had the display showing.
My father passed away nearly 5 years ag, and I was helping my mother go through some old things...I found the Pioneer KE-7200 he had in his ‘68 Camaro.
Not my picture, but same stereo. I always thought it was cool that the display was on the cassette door. lIIRC, the cassette went all the way inside the stereo, and the door closed behind it, so you always had the display showing.
What an interesting radio with that in the door display. IIRC the cassette would drop down into the player as it passed through the door. What a booger it was to dig that cassette out of there (with a screwdriver of course) when it ate your tape! lol
This thread was fun to read. I do miss the days when aftermarket stereos were always better than stock and when stock radios could easily be replaced. The last two cars I've owned had display screens but no GPS. At first, I though "no big deal. I'll pull the screen out and put an aftermarket double din GPS radio there." But no - the multifunctional display has other crucial info like A/C controls and car settings. I researched and researched. There is no workaround.
When I was 17, I replaced the radio on a 1980 Ford Bronco. I started with Radio Shack stuff. On my next car, I used Alpine. Graphic equalizers had lots of cool factor. And I loved how the 3rd gens have the perfect spot for a sub box.
I had LOTS of Realistic systems back in the day. One of the best units I had was an Alpine look-a-like Realistic deck with a Sunkyong amp, with Realistic 4x10s in the rear deck... it sounded pretty good!
I had LOTS of Realistic systems back in the day. One of the best units I had was an Alpine look-a-like Realistic deck with a Sunkyong amp, with Realistic 4x10s in the rear deck... it sounded pretty good!
Realistic was Radio Shack’s house brand if I remember correctly. I remember having a Realistic EQ in my truck in high school, good quality equipment
Then CD’s came out. And I got a Radio Shack portable CD player. I’m not quite sure how I linked it to my car’s stereo (either a tape player adapter or aux inputs on the equalizer). It sounded great, but CD shock absorbers had yet to be developed. The song skipped every time I drove over a bump.
Last week I was looking to buy a low end pair of 6x9s for one of my project cars and had to order them from Amazon ... no local shops near me selling old school 6x9s! And hardly any shops at all
I grew up in the car audio boom also. In the peak there were 5 shops in my area and only two that carried a very narrow selection of mid to high end stuff. Memphis was about 180 miles away and had a couple shops that carried a wider selection. Even then, the staff/owners were either not very knowledgeable or precocious pompous asses. I would go to them mainly to listen to the speakers they had, but the better brands back then, like Altec Lansing (USA), ADS (USA) , Morel (Israel), MB Quart (Germany), KEF (England) and Acoustic Research (USA) were spread out between those shops and you couldn't even do an A/B comparison of those better brands. There were a couple shops that would reverse the polarity on some of the speakers that other shops sold to make them sound bad in an attempt to push you to buy their more expensive speakers. So,,, I don't really miss them at all. Maybe I would if there had been any really good ones around here.
This was pre-internet, so thankfully there were some decent car audio magazines out there doing bench tests and reviews that you could get good information,,, and places back then like LaBelle, J&R Music, and Crutchfield that you could order the "good stuff" from.
One thing I did back then that made a huge difference, and still does to this day, is I would take the less expensive coaxial speakers and build an external crossover to make them sound more like components. Just separating the tweeter wiring and putting a cheap inductor on the woofer helps tremendously - this was well before the name brands started doing it.
Now, I buy raw drivers (Scan Speak, SB Acoustics, Vifa, and Seas), from places like Madisound and Parts Express to run bi-amped and through digital processors with time delay adjustment for the different drivers. Thankfully I bought a number of new-old-stock Hifonics Gen X amps (last series of the made in USA by Zed) so I'm covered there. The only thing now, is that it appears the CD players are more or less being phased out - some new cars don't have them anymore.
I do miss those days. Times were better in some ways, not so in others. I loved the audio stores. In SoCal we had Leo's Stereo, Pacific Stereo, Crazy Gideon's, Federated Group. I would scour their newspaper adds looking for deals. I loved the smell of those stores. Awesome.
In my IROC I have a factory Delco-Bose with bluetooth audio input sending juice to a Rockford Fosgate Punch 150. Sounds like the 80s! It really is a time machine. At least that's how I feel driving around. LOL.
I had a realistic cassette only run through an eq and amp for my first car stereo. It followed me all through High School.
I did have a couple of the clear face sparkomatic cassette single din radios. I like them because they had aux in for my portable cd player.
In college I got my first single din cd player Panasonic. It was a great unit and went through several cars as well.
Then I got a Kenwood KDC-7004 and I still have it. It has been in 2 firebirds and just about every other vehicle I have owned. It may even end up back in my 84 TA if I cant figure out the Double Din mounting.
I had a realistic cassette only run through an eq and amp for my first car stereo. It followed me all through High School.
These should bring back memories for you. I have the original box and everything for it for the one on the right, never installed. Just had these out the other day.
These should bring back memories for you. I have the original box and everything for it for the one on the right, never installed. Just had these out the other day.
I am impressed!! I so miss those days. Realistic stereo components from radio shack and the Atari.
I still have the Scsoche trim plate for single DIN and thin EQ in a 1.5 DIN opening, removed from my '91 Camaro before trade-in. Although it's decidedly non-matching, or non-OE i nit's appearance, I have thought about putting it in the T/A. I mean, I've saved it since 1992, so when the heck not?
That's funny. I just cleaned out my garage and found the same thing. It's gotta be from around '92. Mine still had the block-off plate snapped in for the 1/2-DIN equalizer opening (in case you wanted to run just a 1-din stereo... and install an EQ later, I guess...)
I hadn't really noticed they had all faded away until I finally went to build my system this year. Closest actual store is about 2 hours away. I was in my home town during the holidays and stopped in to the shop that used to have a couple walls for car audio, nothing, now it's just home security and tvs and stuff.
Would really be nice to go in, play with the head units, see the amps, talk to someone that is knowledgeable.
We had one here in LA that is closed now. The guy had two entire rooms stacked floor to ceiling with old school head units, crossovers, Eq's and amps. He had the good stuff the old Alpine tape decks CD players. I replaced the system in my 89 Iroc vert and used all 80's early 90's stuff I bought from him. It was all new in box. Kenwood head unit, The old school Kenwood cross over ( you all know the one that was in dash with the dials everyone wanted) He even had the Kenwood high power 6X9's I used Hifonics Amps. Damn!!! I miss that place! He just vanished one day. Shop closed and he even turned off his personal cell #
Oh, yeah. I miss those days. I still have my old Alpine 7618 and 5959 6-disc changer. They both still work. The 7618 is a pullout deck. I remember pulling it out and putting it in my"Case logic" carrier. I always liked the.5 din electronic EQ with signal processing. I just liked to watch the bars move on the screen to the music. Still have a couple of those laying around.(a pioneer and a Kenwood.) Nowadays most ofthe radios have that stuff built-in. Still awesome, though.
DR.K.
Well there not all gone ! I'm in FL there's a few little shops with walls of equipment speakers ect you could spend hours in there switching units all day then speakers .... Our local best buy used to have a small selection up until recently now they have a shelf with head units and speakers you can't even hear !
05-15-2018, 08:49 PM
It may even end up back in my 84 TA if I cant figure out the Double Din mounting.
