Music to my ears.

[MonzaPhil]

As many of you already probably think, I may have some sort of problem.

I like things. Stuff.

If I have something, I tend to get more of the same, hence the 4 Monzas, a couple of Senators, a couple of FEs, you get the idea.

Anyway, when I in my car (whichever one) I tend to have a couple of CDs, my keys, and me. Surprisingly to anyone who's been to my facility, I'm not a fan of clutter and guff. I do, however, enjoy a bit of music.

I also enjoy a nice stereo.


....or two.

A nice classic Alpine would be my weapon of choice.



perhaps something more modern?




maybe something in between....



Obviously a decent selection of changers is available.

My current daily is a really cool 3DE in dash changer. I bought two, one of which arrived from the USA and was full of beer or coke. It took some cleaning and fettling but is now fully operational and sexy.



The "spare" one won't read discs but I'll get ound to it later, perhaps once I've been through the Sony department.





In the meantime, I have a few Panasonic, Kenwood and JVC units.





There are some miscellaneous cheapies and a few factory fit basic ones. Sometimes I actually fit them to cars I own but mostly I just get excited about a really nice system and what I'd fit and where and how, then I wake up and realise how few hours each day contains.

I hasten to add, these are obtained from legitimate sources, in many instances from the people who had them fitted new!

Sometimes I like to rub myself with them all in turn.

[Vintage75]

I'm beginning to think you have issues   .
nice collection tho!

[bstardchild]

Jul 25, 2015 20:27:08 GMT Vintage75 said:

I'm beginning to think you have issues   .
nice collection tho!

I think I've known Phil for about 15 years - I thought that about 15 years ago - 13 years ago I knew he had issues I've not changed my mind since

I would add they are nice issues

[retroade]

Nice cover story for your fencing operation, like your style.

Only joking! Some cracking head units there, I'm a big fan of period stereo in a car, still running the original dealer fit Pioneer tape deck in my E30 and recently fitted decent used OEM speakers so it's now sounding like a new top end 80s system.

The one I would like is that Sony head unit came out about 1990, the first one where the screen flipped down and the tape went in behind. Don't know the model number but it was iconic, and cost about £500 back then! Either that or an 80s Nakamichi.

I was going to ask if you ever sell any but then I remembered the comment about rubbing and changed my mind.

[bmcnut]

nice collection there, makes my collection of 8 seem a bit more manageable. Weapon of choice for me at the mo is a pioneer P77MP, looks the best and id swear it sounds the best, the rest are a collection of sony's and kenwoods, ill probably never use any of them again, yet I cant find a reason to get rid of them.

[mikeymk]

What i like about old stereos is the nostalgia. I've tried a few units with the push eject, green/amber illumination, seperate little bass/treble dials.. but my problem is they only play tape or CD and the sound is often a bit pants.

The way around this seems to be to link an aux or hard drive to one, stealth style, and amp it up. But you still get the old sound, and it's hassle/expense compared to just putting a new unit in.

You can get them now with tons of internal memory, USB port and aux, plenty of power plus outputs, for under a ton. And thanks to increasingly tasteful car interiors now, they don't all look like they're out the starship enterprise.

[79cord]

Now I feel completely inadequate. Still have the original(pretty average even in '79) factory AM/FM radio & single dash speaker in my daily.

[gazzab1978]

this thread just reminded me of when i started driving and bought my first stereo, it was the sony pictured bellow with minidisc, a cd changer, an amp running a cheap sub and 6x9s on the shelf with 6.5s up front running of the head unit.
looking back it was probably rubbish but it made me fell special and i kept it for years putting it in various cheap runner abouts that cost less than the stereo did but which now would be well received on these very pages.

[retroade]

Modern units are so cheap and offer all sorts of connectivity but are they any good or are they like most things these days, cheap and look good but really pretty rubbish.

For me the 90s was the pinnacle of car audio, the huge installs, bass cannons, banks of amps and crossovers. Petty criminals had a field day. So from the 90s on manufacturers started integrating the audio deeper into the interior so tradtional aftermarket stereos no longer slotted straight in and the OEM stuff became too difficult to steal. Who buys a car today and then fits a stereo? That's my theory as to why there's a lot less stereo kit on offer these days, there's simply no demand.

So, for that reason a stash of good quality vintage stuff is going to be a goldmine, if it isn't already.

[ems1]

I'm still using a similar mini disc in my Scenic

[1900sr]

MonzaPhil may have a problem with the amount of stereos he has, but I may have a bigger problem. This thread reminded me that in the early 90s I spent an obscene amount of money on a JVC cassette head unit, one of the first with RDS-EON. I actually remembered that it was a KS-RT80R. A quick google confirmed that I was right about the model number, now that is surely sad?
antique-autoradio-madness.org/jvc/jvc-cata-1993/jvc-cata1993_2.htm

[usedabused]

Do you have a Mask head unit??

[MonzaPhil]

I do have at least one Kenwood mask unit.

Sent from might not be in the photos using proboards

[MonzaPhil]

Oh, my first system was a Pioneer KEHP15RDS. I bought it and the associated speakers etc for £750. That was twice what the car I was fitting it all in cost. I sold the stereo about 10 years ago but I do still have the car. ..




Complete with 6x9 holes cut into the rear shelf ....

Doh!


Sent from I was young.... using proboards

[carledo]

I have 2 Kenwood mask headunits, one with a single CD player and one with a cassette deck plus a pair of changers, one 6 and one 10. Both headunits have failure of the ribbon cable that feeds the mask, are they worth anything or should I just bin them? A year or so ago there was a guy on ebay offering to repair this for £30 a unit but he seems to have disappeared!

Steve

[SmokeEm]

What a collection. When I was building the P100, I looked everywhere for an 80's Alpine single CD player and gave up in the end. I ended up with a modern Alpine head unit BUT I did find an oldskook Caliber CA70 amp which powers the Rockford Fosgate mids n tweeters. I have a friend with a similar collection to yours but he has a load of amplifiers too - all sitting in his estranged wife's garage!

I am no good with model names but back in 1999 I had an E30 fitted with an Alpine 7909L, Denon 6 channel DCA 800 amp, Kenwood DSP (Which included sound delay etc), JBL components and Earthquake subs. I loved that system to bits and should NEVER have sold the amp when the car was written off.

Very jealous of your collection Phil

[Ray Singh]

Fantastic collection!

I have only one in my collection - Its a Becker Grand Prix and I have been searching for a car to put it in, for several years.

Groan.

[MrSpeedy]

Jul 26, 2015 20:39:25 GMT carledo said:

I have 2 Kenwood mask headunits, one with a single CD player and one with a cassette deck plus a pair of changers, one 6 and one 10. Both headunits have failure of the ribbon cable that feeds the mask, are they worth anything or should I just bin them? A year or so ago there was a guy on ebay offering to repair this for £30 a unit but he seems to have disappeared!

Steve

I've got a kenwood mask cd head unit that I used to have in my vitesse.

The ribbon cable failed on it a couple of years ago and I thought it was dead.

I bought a new cable off of eBay and spent a very fiddly evening replacing it
.absolute twunt of a job, but doable if you want to save yours.

One of my favourite units I've ever had

[Frankenhealey]

Just goes to show how young everyone is on here. I started out with something like this



If you wanted to listen to music, you parked up and listened to music. Ah nostalgia

[SmokeEm]

My Dad had one of those in his Corsair when I was a small boy in the 70's. He only had two 'Cartridges'? The Carpenters & Roy Orbison IIRC.