Car Audio Unit

Dave also look at retro sound. you get the 60's look with all the mods, usb, aux wires etc. and they look the part, alittle more expensive though.

I found several neat units. Thanks for the tip. I already ordered the Alpine. If it does not work out I will sell it & go retro.

Thanks Chris.

Dave, Just a heads up. Most CD stereo units don't like being vertical. When I installed mine the first CD promptly got jammed and I had to take the deck out and turn it to horizontal to get my CD out. Put all my music on a mini USB and have never inserted another CD.

Doug M

Dave, I installed a Retro Sound radio and it did not work very well due to malfunctioning knobs. Next, I tried installing an Alpine CD but it did not fit because the unit was too long ( standard length) for the confined vertical space and it hit the heater coolant pipes. Also, vertically installed CD players don’t work very well. Finally, I found a JVC media player with is very compact, has a USB port and it fits and sounds good.

I have a Kenwood unit with a flip face, when switched off the closed face has the Panther head logo of the oem radio blanking plate.

Julian

Change out the antiquated center console to something that gives you the opportunity to use a sensible unit.

This is for a 1 Din unit. The potential is there for a 2 din with a video screen if you want to stretch the envelope.

You could put in a GPS so if you are like me, can get lost faster?

I have no radio, I let the engine sing for me. Sounds like Janis Joplin...

Yes.
Mikael is Right
NO radio in a race car.


Kjeld Pedersen

had no problems with my retro fwiw.

quote:

Originally posted by No Quarter:
I have no radio, I let the engine sing for me. Sounds like Janis Joplin...

I have no radio a well. My car is way too loud to even bother.

Doug
Back in '05 the posts showed some Kenwood and Alpine units played CDs well in the vertical position. One brand that did extremely well was the Eclipse head units. I had an Alpine for a couple of years & it did work for a couple of years & then failed in the vertical playing of CDs. About 5-6 years ago I installed the Eclipse unit. It has never failed! It is perfect. Sadly Eclipse does not make single din units today (head units).

Now I like the idea of playing hundreds of tunes from a little stick, flash drive. A remote will allow me to change songs easily. No more fumbling with CDs. Hundreds of CDs on a flash drive! So if the Alpine unit I purchased, does not play CDs vertically, that is ok because I intend to use the USB port. Playing CDs would just be an extra.

Doug, Beautiful console!

Kjeld & Mikael, I agree and often never turn on the music. I enjoy the Cleveland symphony as well as Janis. In 1969 I was fortunate to talk with Janis privately backstage before her performance. Shared a little Southern Comfort & honey! She was very mellow and sweet!

I appreciate all of the help. I imagine it will be a couple of months before I can do the new install. Very cold here now. This week expected sub zero.( -18 Celsius) I will advise how it turns out. If it does not work or fit, I will put the Eclipse back into the car. If it works, I will sell the Eclipse if anyone is interested.

quote:

Originally posted by Rick P.:

quote:

Originally posted by No Quarter:
I have no radio, I let the engine sing for me. Sounds like Janis Joplin...

I have no radio a well. My car is way too loud to even bother.

Same here!

Dave, I think you meant to say Fahrenheit.

IndyDave, you met Janis? Cool. Ball and Chain is my favorite, I have a CD with 8 versions of that tune, when I play it, in another car or in the house, everybody else looks strangely at me. Finally, finally, I've found someone that symphatizes

William,
I was trying to tell the Celsius group, sub zero here (Fahrenheit) is sub -18 Celsius I just did not do a good job with explaining. Snowing pretty hard here. Hope you are doing well. Good to hear from you. Is you car running well? Did you do upgrades or changes in 2013?
No radio in your car?

Mikael,
Ball & Chain! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1zFnyEe3nE

See this for the life and career http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GM5A-uLRYao

She was pretty cool to talk with. I was twenty & she came over to me backstage. Can't believe you have 8 versions!

Yes, that Ball and Chain at Monterey, that's history being made. That was when an artist was jugded not so much on looks and maybe even not vocal superiority, but on whether they MEANT it. And boy, she meant it. Feelings. Emotions. Being real. Not like today's polished pop music.

Those of you reading this, thinking what are those old geezers rambling about, if you don't get it, I can't explain it to you. Sorry

So true!

quote:

Originally posted by IndyDave:

So true!

Dave -

Are you talking about the geezers, or the music?

Both.
Janis was "inside" her music. The music was truly part of her when she performed. She was inside the zone.

After recording on the evening of the 3rd, she and band member Ken Pearson had a couple of drinks at Barney's Beanery. Just after midnight, they drove back to the Landmark Hotel , at 7047 Franklin. Inside room 105, she shot up her last fix of heroin. She returned to the hotel lobby to get change for a five dollar bill, for cigarettes. She chatted casually with the hotel clerk, who later said she seemed perfectly natural (and he didn't know who she was). When she returned to her room, she collapsed beside the bed, almost breaking her nose. She was wedged against a bedside table, with a cigarette in her hand.

John Cook, one of her band members, became alarmed when she didn't show up for the recording session the next morning, and after unsuccessfully trying to reach her by telephone, he went to the hotel, broke down the door and found her dead. She was 27 years old.

Coroners case #70-10463:
http://www.findadeath.com/Dece...lin/janis_joplin.htm

It is a shame she was consumed by drugs, hard drugs. She was lucky to live to 27 years old.

quote:

Originally posted by IndyDave:

Doug, Beautiful console!

Thanks. That's what's left of a 75 foot oak tree that fell through my roof during Hurricane Sandy.

I just took my Boy Scout knife and whittled it in my spare time.

I think you do some serious woodworking!
Were you out of the house? Was anything left of your house?

quote:

Originally posted by IndyDave:
I think you do some serious woodworking!
Were you out of the house? Was anything left of your house?

Came through the roof into the attic. Got a picture somewhere.

Problem was it also fell across the entire back yard against the kitchen door.

We lost power for 7 days and I don't keep chain saws.

It took four men four days to cut up the tree and load it into two 30 yard trash containers.

Once it was out of the way the damage to the house was not a big deal for me. I'm a carpentry contractor.

6 weeks later the insurance company showed up and didn't want to pay for anything. More correctly they wrote a check for $1,500 for the tree removal. The containers alone were about $650 each, plus the labor for four men for four days.

The house repair turned out to be on me.

In plain English, that company just plain sucks BUT as far as I can figure, the other ones do too.

In fact, and this is documented, the Feds gave New Jersey, I believe $11 billion for hurricane damage and so far the "good guy Governor Chris Cristi, spent $65,000 of it on a TV campaign "we weathered the storm" (helped him get re-elected) and released something like 20% of the money.

I was never out of my house. Many in NJ and NY STILL aren't back in theirs yet, BUT don't get me started again!

I actually wanted to make the console out of black walnut but this oak, and as it turned out a piece of "tiger oak" was irresistible.

I thought the grain on it was unique.

It's in the car now but the picture of it came out a little green tinted for some reason, which it definitely is not. It is really a choice piece of red oak.

I can post a better pic of it in the car if you're interested? Let me know.

Sorry to hear about the damage. Glad you were all ok. The wood is beautiful. I would like to see pictures if it is not too much trouble.
You can send PM if you can.

Doug -

You should post up a picture. I'd like to see it too. My dad is a woodworker....

Thanks -

Rocky

Installed. Cold out there tonight.

Has nothing to do with stereos but how much is involved in moving the heater control cables to relocate the panel at the bottom like you have?

Thanks in advance.

Beautiful panel by the way !!

Doug M

On mine there was enough slack in the cables to swing them to the new location. So to answer your question, nothing really.

I built mini harnesses for the gauges and switches adding some new lengths of matching wire to them so that when I have to work inside the console, which hopefully now is never again, I can just unplug everything and remove the entire console and move it out of the way.

I used the connectors that Pantera-Electronics has that match the color and existing component connectors in the original factory harness.

http://pantera-electronics.com/wireharness.htm

They are accessible through the footwell covers.

The stereo has a removable face plate and the chassis removes from the mounting collar so the entire console kicks down reasonably now.

You still need to use a small chassis 1 DIN (shallow) though because there isn't much room (depth)internally in the console available.

Thanks for the compliment but I do need to pass that along to Mother Nature for a particularly nice piece of red oak. I just whittled it out with my Boy Scout knife.

Turns out I am not going to install this unit. I will sell the never installed unit for $85 + $10 for a $20 new remote control. FREE Shipping. I opened the box to make sure it was the correct unit & put it back in the box.

I think I am going to sell my car.

From my original post:
I found, what I think, is a great deal on a car audio unit, ALPINE CDE-134HD http://www.crutchfield.com/p_5...E-134HD.html?tp=5684

The retail was $179, on sale for $99 & free shipping.

USB, iPod, HD Radio, & CD. Just thought I would pass on if anyone needs a radio unit. I ordered one yesterday.

I plan to use the USB with a thumb drive loaded with music. Might never use another CD.

Picture is on the first post, page 1.

I'm thinking about switching to this unit because of the Bluetooth. I don't have a car with Blue tooth in it now. Is it worth the effort to change just for that?

Doug, If you are asking me, I don't know, I did not install the unit because I am selling the Pantera.

I'm asking anyone. Seems the main benefit would be the hands off use of a cell phone through the radio?

It appears that on the new cars that is a big selling point.

My initial reaction is I'm happy with the entertainment unit that I have and I don't need that additional capability?

Was just looking for feedback on people who installed Blue Tooth in their Panteras.

I was going to install an Alpine head unit that had Bluetooth but at the time, their media unit did not have the capability. I was solely going to use it to pair to my phone to stream music. THey now have a unit with the capability, but I doubt that I'll swap it out because I find I don't really listen to it anyway.

I have two modern medium-high-end cars with built-in Bluetooth and the quality is marginal at best. In both I use a small earpiece the hooks over the ear. It works much better and sounds better both ways. I do the same in my Panteras.

Mark

Thanks for the feedback.

quote:

Originally posted by PanteraDoug:
I'm thinking about switching to this unit because of the Bluetooth. I don't have a car with Blue tooth in it now. Is it worth the effort to change just for that?

I would definitely switch to one of the new units with bluetooth. Chris had the same exact model that was talked about in the original post (CDE-134HD) in his Camaro before he traded it in and the bluetooth worked great, even when accelerating the pickup of the mic is pretty good (the car was pretty loud too). He took the radio out before trading in the car and we are going to install it into the Pantera.

This is what I want to hear about the Blue Tooth to help me decide but I am thinking that I don't want any kind of a distraction while driving the Pantera. They can always leave a message and I can call them back.

I asked because all of the current production vehicles all offer Blue Tooth as a selling feature and it SOUNDS like it is the right thing to do.

Kenwood flat screen with GPS DVD and back up camera plus 4 speakers in head rest 2 big ovals in door and sub 600 watt AMP in Back of my set very cool. No problem hearing music. changed over controls for heat and vents over to electric servo motors

sorry big picture

What model Kenwood is it? Also, any details on the servo motor controls would be appreciated (and maybe the subject of a new thread)