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Motors Car Stereo

Discussion in 'General' started by Cerberus90, 27 Sep 2014.

  1. Cerberus90

    Cerberus90 Car Spannerer

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    Getting to the point of ordering the stereo for the Taimar rebuild now as the dash is almost ready to go in.

    I'm currently thinking that I'm going to go with a mechless stereo, as it should be a bit lighter, possibly a bit shorter and won't skip on bumpy roads.


    Is something like this or this going to be a complete waste of time/money/effort?

    Cheapest branded alternative I can find is a Pioneeer unit at £49.99.


    The car is going to be quite noisy inside, and at the moment, all we've got are two 10cm Pioneer speakers in the doors. The stereo will probably only be used on long journeys to stop cabin fever, :D



    Also got a question about the ISO wiring for the stereo. There's the male and female connectors, which one goes where. I think the male plug should be wired into the car, with the female one being attached to whatever stereo is fitted. Is this correct?



    Cheers
     
  2. jrs77

    jrs77 Modder

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    Last edited: 6 Jan 2018
  3. Cerberus90

    Cerberus90 Car Spannerer

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    The only trouble then is, won't you need to pick up the MP3 player / phone to change tracks etc?


    What sort of money is needed to get a basic amp? Saw a few on ebay, again from china that were between £10 and £20. These actually had USB/SD card slots and a remote, so removes the need to pick up a phone etc.
     
  4. jrs77

    jrs77 Modder

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  5. Cerberus90

    Cerberus90 Car Spannerer

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    Might not be, but from the laws point of view there is.


    Plus, with a head unit that has a remote, you can work the remote while still looking at the road once you know where the buttons are.


    Any suggestions for amps? Could be used, but I'd have to look at where it could be mounted. Got to bear in mind that this is a 1978 two seater sports car.
     
  6. Cleggmeister

    Cleggmeister Of reasonable knowledge...

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    I put a mechless unit into my 25 year old Merc over Xmas. £75 for the Alpine UTE72BT and around £30 for a tiny 64GB USB memory stick. Also bought an ISO to bare wire block to simplify installation. Well worth it IMO, so much better than faffing with CD and friends can DJ if they have a Bluetooth phone. Oh, hands free phone too with the included mic.
     
  7. Cerberus90

    Cerberus90 Car Spannerer

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    Well I've gone ahead and bought one of the mechless units from Hong Kong for £15.

    If it's no good, then it's only £15, if it works fine then I've saved myself some money, :D.


    Going to do the same clegg with the ISO cabling. There is no wiring at all in the car for stereo yet as I'm rewiring the entire thing, also the car was before the time of ISO anyway, but I'm going to put them in incase I want to switch stereos at a later date.
     
  8. GaryP

    GaryP RIP Tel

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    The ones you linked to on ebay look no safer than this one
     
  9. Margo Baggins

    Margo Baggins I'm good at Soldering Super Moderator

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    Have you a halfords near you?

    I have a philips head unit - I think it was only 40 quid, has front and back usb, connects up to iphones or ipods and allows control on the headunit, has an SD slot, FM radio and you can get a dab box for it for about another 40 quid. It also charges usb devices from any of the usb ports even if they are not the selected source.

    Honestly I love my head unit, it was cheap, has a 32gb sd card in it full of music so its always got something it can play, and I can plug my iphone in - it will charge, do my navigation and play my music.

    edit: Just read the rest fo the thread and you've bought one - would be interested to hear how you get on with that as 15 quid is super cheap!
     
  10. Cerberus90

    Cerberus90 Car Spannerer

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    That's probably what I'll get if this cheapo one turns out to be garbage (as long as they've still got some :D ).


    I'll make sure to report back once it gets here and it's all hooked up.
     
  11. Cerberus90

    Cerberus90 Car Spannerer

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    Not looking good for this stereo, it was apparently dispatched on the 1st of October, and it's still not arrived. The last data on the expected delivery window on ebay is the 4th of Nov, but I've had two things from Hong Kong ordered well after the stereo, and both of those have arrived.

    Looks like I'll probably have to get a refund off ebay and go down to Halfords and get one of the £49 Sony ones, :D
     
  12. lancer778544

    lancer778544 Multimodder

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    I've got an Alpine head unit in the marketplace if your interested Cerberus :) It's a standard CD player though, no USB but an AUX adapter can be bought for it I think.

    Edit: Link.
     
  13. Cerberus90

    Cerberus90 Car Spannerer

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    Did look at the thread when you put it up, but I'm after a mech-less one so I can just use SD or USB. Fed up of discs skipping in my mini and the car this stereo will be going in isn't going to be any softer, :D

    Thanks though, :D
     
  14. Monkey Dust

    Monkey Dust What's a Dremel?

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  15. Cerberus90

    Cerberus90 Car Spannerer

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    Far too expensive for me, :D, looks great though.

    Plus I don't even know yet if you'll be able to hear the stereo over the exhaust yet, so don't want to spend too much money on audio stuff, :D



    just noticed, 1 post, I wonder if Monkey Dust works for retrocarstuff, :D :D
     
  16. Monkey Dust

    Monkey Dust What's a Dremel?

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    Nope, nothing to do them, though I see why you might think that :hehe:

    I've got a mk1 MX5, and there are few people 'on the scene' who use them on their retro themed interiors.

    A cover for the head unit could preserve the look of your interior when it isn't in use, or stick it in the glove box and rig up some thing with the steering wheel control function on the HU and some discreet buttons.
     
  17. Xir

    Xir Modder

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    Do you have a Log of your Taimar rebuild somewhere?
     
  18. Cerberus90

    Cerberus90 Car Spannerer

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    No, I tried to start one, but I suck at writing stuff, :D, plus when we started there were very large sections where it was just, "another week spent rubbing paint off the body", or "another week spent repairing fibreglass", :D.

    I might write something up now, I'll probably have to write something at some point as we'll no doubt want to get an article in the TVRCC magazine.




    Back to stereo. The first one I ordered, didn't turn up and I got my money back no problems. So I ordered another one the same but from a UK seller, was only a few quid more at £15.


    Just got all the wiring done today, and tested it. At the moment, we've only got two 10cm 30W Pioneer speakers (which were cheap), and they were only sat on the floor. It does play music, and it would appear to work fine. The bottom end was lacking, but as the speakers weren't in the doors, it might improve. It got a little crackly when the volume was turned up, but that might be because of the speaker connections, which weren't perfect as I turned out to not have the right size spades, :D.

    At the moment, when I turn the ign off, the whole thing goes off and there's no clock (not sure if there's supposed to be yet), so might need to play with it more (instructions are next to useless).

    Once the cars finished, I'll probably take the Amp out of my mini or buy a new little Amp, and run the speakers on that, possibly improving audio quality.


    I'll report back again once it's all setup and working properly.


    This is the one I got in the end.
     
  19. Cerberus90

    Cerberus90 Car Spannerer

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    Thought I'd give this a little update.


    Tested it out properly with the speakers in the doors and the system all put in place properly.


    Wow! For £15 and a pair of £15 speakers, it's very impressive. It goes plenty loud enough, and there's now plenty of bass and not a lot of crackling anymore. The detail isn't brilliant, but then it only costs £15. It doesn't even look too out of place in the dash either, considering the car is 36 years old.

    I would definitely recommend it as a cheap headunit.
     
  20. Margo Baggins

    Margo Baggins I'm good at Soldering Super Moderator

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    Nice - I might buy one to put in my car when I sell my car as I don't really want to get rid of my head unit and I got rid of the OEM one.
     

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