Mark,

This may seem a little too radical but have you thought about finding someone with the ability to replace the guts of the original radio with the electronics from a modern radio?

This would give you a radio that 'fits' and looks stock.

It's certainly possible....the hardest part would be finding someone with the know-how in electronics to be able to make the transplant.

But the end effect would be killer IMO.

Chris
'85 300SD

There are people that modify original radios and sell retro-style modern radios for some vintage cars. I've seen some advertised in Hemmings. Problem is...I have this original Becker Brescia signal seekng tube radio that still works and I'd like to keep it in the car for 'show'.

It should be less of a problem to find (or even build) an amplifier that could be hidden behind the dash or under the seat for connection to a walkman or CD player.
I'm not looking for a 'killer' car audio system, just something acceptable that could be out of sight, except for the tape or CD unit. Other owners of classic cars might also be interested in a decent, modern sound system that doesn't require modifying the vehicle.

Another option I've considered, instead of the Becker, is installing a late '60s or early '70s Becker Europa or Blaupunkt Frankfurt AM/FM radio (I have the correct faceplate and knobs to fit one in my 220S). Some of these transistorized German radios have a DIN socket on the back that could be used to connect a cassette or CD player. But then I'd still be relying on an old radio for my main audio unit.
Thanks anyway, for all the suggestions.
The snow has finally stopped today so I'm going to try another store and see if I can find a suitable amp for my experiments.

Happy Motoring, Mark

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DrDKW

Mark,

Ja....I thoght about the problem of destroying your radio originally but didn't mention it.

Maybe it would be possible to find another duplicate radio to butcher....and save the original for posterity

Chris

Hello everyone,
Here's the latest and first success of my 220S audio experiments. I picked up a Pioneer GM-X262 amp this week. (one of the smaller 'Monster-Blaster' amps) It's rated at 40 W per channel, continuous, at 14.4V, 4 OHM, 20-20,000 HZ at 0.08% THD and
50 W per channel, continuous at 14.4V, 4 OHM, 20-20,000 HZ at 0.8% THD. (What's THD?)
I'm powering a pair of 2 way, 4 OHM 'cube' speakes rated at 50 W max. I'm feeding the headphone output from a Sony Walkman into the RCA input jacks on the Pioneer. Amp power is a 12 V car battery. It sounds pretty good, though at max Walkman volume some bass is lost. But it's loud enough I'm hoping I won't need max volume. I've been playing this rig in my living room for almost two hours at fairly loud volume. The amp gets warm but not quite hot. (No smoke or flames from the speakers, as warned about in the Pioneer instruction sheet!) One other observation, while playing, I get diagonal static bars on my channel 4 TV picture (I'm on rabbit ears)
Any ideas, suggestions, possible future problems with installing this in my car?
Thanks in advance.

Happy Motoring, Mark

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DrDKW

Mark:
Glad to hear you're making progress. THD=total harmonic distortion, basically it's a rating of the amount of distortion in the signal to the speakers (less is better). It's what people are talking about when they talk about 'clean power'. What exactly is your install plan?

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1982 Mercedes-Benz 300CD
1982 Mercedes-Benz 240D - stick

Bjcsc,
Today the weather people lied and, instead of rain, we had partly cloudy with temps near 70 so I strung some power wires and test drove Miss Daisy with my new amp temporarily in the console and a speaker under each front seat. Took her out on the G W Parkway, popped some Bach Concertos in the Walkman and was 'King of the Road' again! Treble is a bit muted with the speakers under the seats but it sounds so much better than anything I've tried so far. Maybe a small pair of tweeters under the dash would help.

Earlier today, I saw a really neat micro Kenwood equalizer unit at the car audio store. That might help too, for $170! The audio salesman tried to sell me a $50, 8 guage Day-Glo-Red power wire and fuse kit. The wire looked as thick as battery cable! That's fine if I had a 1200 watt amp (or a pair of 1200 watt amps like the kids use to make their Honda Civics pulsate!) My 200 watt Pioneer seems to work fine with 12 guage wire and a 15 amp inline fuse. After an hours drive, none of the power or fuse connections are even getting warm. The Pioneer is wired, through a heavy duty fuseholder, directly to the battery positive terminal. There's a separate power switch circuit that turns on the Pioneer amp through an internal relay. I'm sure this system will need some fine tuning. I'll continue with future updates.

Happy Motoring, Mark

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DrDKW

Well, I'd planned on mounting my 200 watt Pioneer amp under the back seat but, last month, when I lifted the bottom cushion, I discovered there's NO SPACE under a Finnie's back seat! The back floor is raised up and the cushion sits right on it.
An alternative was to mount the amp under one of the front seats, but with the speakers already there, I was worried about feedback. Or in the trunk, where I'd need more wiring, a coaxial extension cable and have to look at the big gaudy thing every time I went back there.
Problem solved (Finally!) 2 weeks ago, a friend gave me a used 100 watt amp out of his, recently sold, '75 BMW 30Si He'd had it disconncted and didn' know if it was any good. Well IT WORKS! It's 1/3 the size of the Pioneer and fits easily behind the dash, above the hood release and handbrake.
It's an Urban Technologies (or Urban something) Anyone ever heard of them?

Everything is nicely hidden except for the Sony Walkman which sits in the center tray between the front seats. It's kind of a modular setup. Why rip out a whole system when something new comes along? I can connect to the headphone jack on a Walkman, CD, Minidisc, MP3, Sattelite Radio or whatever format comes along to obsolete the previous one. When I'm not using the music player, it can hide in the glovebox or go in the house.

I played the new system for about 5 hours this weekend. It sounded fine with no blown channels, speakers or fuses.

Happy Motoring, Mark

P.S. Anyone want to buy a 200 watt Pioneer amp, almost new, barely used, with box and papers?

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DrDKW

Mark:
I was wondering if you ever worked it out; glad to read of your success. Congrats...

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1982 Mercedes-Benz 300CD
1982 Mercedes-Benz 240D - stick

I know this advice is too late to help this situation, but for anyone who needs to keep everything original looking, consider this. Buy a new radio CD unit that has an infra-red remote control. Mount the new unit anywhere it will fit. Conceal the infra-red pickup device ( very tiny) in the cockpit any place where you can "hit" it with the pocket remote. There are a lot of very nice "radios" with remote controls at Crutchfields. Tod

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Resistance is Futile.

I'll have to check out some audio catalogs for future projects. I did go online to find a 2002 version of my Urban Audio Systems 100 watt amplifier, but no price. I also found out Urban Audio is a division of Sherwood audio, which used to be a decent HiFi brand in the '50s and '60s but is probably just a trade-name now. At least it looks like a new compact amp is still availible in case my used one dies.

Do they make those infra-red remote 'radios' in a cassette version? I still have a lot of tapes but cassette-radios seem to be a dying breed.(and I don't have to 'aim' my Walkman)
I've now added CD to my options - this week I got a cheap CD player at Walmart, so I'm up to $48 for my 'Secret Sound System'. Most of the new audio formats I've seen, are availible in small portable versions with headphone outputs so (until they find a way to make head-sets obsolete) I could have many audio options with my new system.

Happy Motoring, Mark

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DrDKW

I know this is an old thread, but I ran across this on Crutchfield's website last night:

http://www.crutchfield.com/g_300/Car-Receivers.html?tp=5684&nvpair=FFBrand%7cRetrosound

Retrosound makes new car stereo equipment that integrates visually with the dashes in older cars. It's no longer a trade off whether you stay true to the look or get the latest in sound quality. You get the best of both worlds.

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" We have nothing to fear but the main stream media itself . . . ."- Adapted from Franklin D Roosevelt for the 21st century

OBK #55

1998 Lincoln Continental - Sold
Max 1984 300TD 285,000 miles - Sold
The Dee8gonator 1987 560SEC 196,000 miles - Sold
Orgasmatron - 2006 CLS500 90,000 miles
2002 C320 Wagon 122,000 miles
2016 AMG GTS 12,000 miles