Hooniverse Asks- What Are Your Car's Audio Choices?

I have a buddy – he goes by the name of DamnElantra about these parts – and his car lacks any audio or video accouterments, preferring to pair his driving adventures with the dulcet tones emanating from his Hyundai’s exhaust, rather than from something bought at Crutchfield. Do you share his aversion to mobile electronic aural accompaniment?

AM, FM, HD Radio, CDs, DVDs, USB, iPods, iPhones, Zunes and whistling your own tunes, there’s lots of ways to add a soundtrack to your daily slog.
Some people like the news (give us 22 minutes and we’ll give you the world), while some like a pounding back beat that 5,000 watts of eminem affords.
Some of us prefer to let the engine do the talking- gaining pleasure from the basso voice emanating from behind, or the grizzly bear growl of an intake unfettered by the victorian raiments of factory air filters.
So, what’s your poison- do you roll with fiddy, or do you keep the tunes in your head and not in your dash?
Image sources: [Flickr, airpowersystems]

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81 responses to “Hooniverse Asks- What Are Your Car's Audio Choices?”

  1. JeepyJayhawk Avatar

    Chrysler's finest POS stereo for the Jeep. I really gotta rip that shit out of there and put some nice stealth marine grade stuff in there.
    Usually listen to 98.9 the Rock or NPR.

    1. Tim Odell Avatar
      Tim Odell

      '00 TJ CD player does not like burned CDs.
      But we're all aware that good stereo in Jeep = missing stereo.
      In the YJ I used to have, I had a good deck in a Tuffy center console and left the AM/FM in the dash. Managed to last a while, until they just stole the whole Jeep.

      1. JeepyJayhawk Avatar

        They haven't been too steal happy out here, yet. I'm thinking rig an amplifier with MP3 jack in and call it good. I really hate to put any money into the stereo, no matter how stealth, knowing how easy it is for me to carefully get into the Jeep, let alone slash your way in.
        I see a tuffy console in my future, or something clever.

  2. Black Steelies Avatar

    Shitty 1988 stock AC Delco stereo in the Buick. Being a hearse conversion it only has two speakers sitting in the dash. It's the equivalent of having a tinny boombox sitting up there. If i crank the bass up it sounds decent enough for radio use and I have a Belkin FM tuner for my iPod.
    Now if i wanted to go after-market [which i don't cuz i don't want to hurt the glorious stock appearance of my clean 50k car] I have a back end that I could seriously load up with some speakers. I constantly get suggestions from friends and strangers alike as to how to tart up my hearse. The kookiest being an old coffin that is loaded with amps and speakers and can roll out to pump the tunes outside. If i was gonna do it though Id just cut speaker holes in the wood floor back there and cover amps with some sort of plexi-glass arrangement. Too poor, just don't need the expenditure.

    1. Buickboy92 Avatar

      Photo of this hearse? I'm interested.

      1. Black Steelies Avatar

        Hmm found this floating around. Good photo, she's as grey as the skies above. I call her "Rosemary", and no, there is no special reason why.
        <img src="http://thecollegedriver.com/system/cars/106/original/Chris_Lake_-EalgeProject_011.jpg?1259914661"&gt;

        1. Goingincirclez Avatar

          When you add your image tag, add the text ' width=XXX ' after the image path. XXX is the size in pixel width.
          Example (replace the [ ] with < > for actual html code): [ img src="www.bah.com\\omgpic.jpg" width=420 ]

          1. Black Steelies Avatar

            Thanks alot GIC, I'll keep that in mind. maybe ill try to fix it.

        2. FuzzyPlushroom Avatar

          Your car is way, way too nice. I am a bit envious.

          1. Black Steelies Avatar

            That's what is nice about service vehicles like this, theres no service history to worry about. The oil gets changed every 3k miles, never abused, and a wash every Sunday. Mine unfortunately is starting to succumb to notorious GM frame rust…

        3. Buickboy92 Avatar

          Awesome! I've always kinda a Hearse. Buick's are the bomb.

          1. Black Steelies Avatar

            What's stopping you? You can find them for sale everywhere and they're cheap because people get creeped out by them. With the cavernous rear end, it can be kind of a practical hauler. And indeed, Buick's are the best.

          2. Buickboy92 Avatar

            I would love to but, I don't think I'll get one as a first car. My Dad wants to buy new. My Dad and I want to start a car collection so maybe we'll find one for our collection. Although you never know. I like Hearses and how they don't look like anything else on the road. How do people react to seeing your Buick? Do you get a lot of attention?

  3. soo΄pәr-bādd75 Avatar

    Idling in bumper to bumper traffic, there is very little engine music to hear. I dig the sounds of XM Radio, channels 41, 53, 65, 66, and 73 ( I think?).

  4. Alff Avatar

    The radio in the Alfa never goes on, and the top never goes up. Still, it produces the sweetest sounds in the fleet.

    1. joshuman Avatar

      Thumbs up for keeping the top down.

  5. engineerd Avatar

    As the proud (yes, really) owner of a V6 Mustang daily driver, my choice varies depending on the circumstance. For my regular commute, I listen to the radio (sports radio or muzak). However, on days when I leave early enough to beat traffic, or sometimes when running my errands on Saturday mornings, I'll turn off the radio. In these cases, I don't need artificial entertainment piped into the cabin of my car. I have the natural entertainment of the dulcet tones of the 4.0L engine, the wind rushing past the A-pillars, and the tires grinding along the pavement.

  6. vwminispeedster Avatar

    If I ever get the speedster portion of my name done I will be in the same boat as DamnElantra. I'm ok with that. I don't want the car spoiled by a radio.

    1. Ambersand Avatar

      None of our dubs have working radios. And I tell ya, when I open up the 58 getting on the interstate and hear that throaty, monsterous, growly wah-wah-wah of the *slightly* (heh) modified motor, I'm really ok with a lack of radio.

    2. Ambersand Avatar

      None of our dubs have working radios. And I tell ya, when I open up the 58 getting on the interstate and hear that throaty, monsterous, growly wah-wah-wah of the *slightly* (heh) modified motor, I'm really ok with a lack of radio.

  7. Tim Odell Avatar
    Tim Odell

    Nothing above the (non-mp3 recognizing) 6-disc changer in the WRX.
    Planning on getting a decent hard-wired FM modulator for both the WRX and the Falcon so as to enable mp3 player without having to get a new deck.

  8. Tripl3fast Avatar

    I have a love hate relationship with FM radio right now. I might be too old for the new rock music and not old enough for the classic rock. What is in the CD changer is not played on the radio much. I just got an HD unit for the VW, so I am excited about that. Whan the radio sucks and nothing in the CD is doing it for me I just switch to the mexican station and blast the tejano and mariachi. 107.9 la ley

  9. Goingincirclez Avatar

    Depends on the car and the situation.
    When I had the '97 T-bird Sport, I tweaked the intake a bit for a healthy growl. It was fun to let it rip on the twisties, and straights, and just about anywhere. Sure it was no euro-tuned symphony, but what a sound. A particular backroad near my house outfitted with centuries-old stone fencing and sentinel oak trees, provided the perfect reverberative echoes. God, I can still hear it today… Whooaarrrrmph-oooarpmph—oormph–oorpmph… speeding up in a runaway cacophony echoing through head and vehicle like that technicolor mind-warp scene in 2001.
    But not all drives call for the spiritual soundtrack of natural motoring. Sometimes it's too wet to keep the windows down. Sometimes it's too cold. Sometimes, the scenery itself calls for a more fitting accompaniment. So I did have a mild Pioneer setup, 50Wx4 head unit and upgraded speakers; had an amp with two JL 10's back when that was cool but eventually removed that portion for weight savings.
    Blasting down an interstate, facing a rip-roaring thunderhead head-on as the rain piles on to threaten your extinction while Underworld's Pearl's Girl blasted out in surround, was always a surreal experience. Music made the mind sharp, melded physique to pedal and wheel – made me feel invincible. Several times it really seemed like I was. Many a drive has been made more memorable by virtue of the background songs that can still take me there. So even without the cars, I can still got there again – and I do. Believe me, I do.

  10. skaycøg Avatar
    1. Charles_Barrett Avatar

      Now THAT's what a center-stack should look like…!

    2. Beatnikid Avatar

      those buttons…I must have them!

  11. SSurfer321 Avatar

    Unless traveling cross country just the radio in the F150. Usually tuned to 89X until I tire of the commercials, then a cd gets popped in. If traveling then I plug the MP3 player into the deck.
    Same goes for the wife's Subaru.

  12. Deartháir Avatar
    Deartháir

    Oh lord.
    Let's see. I scrapped the entire Blaupunkt / Aktiv system in the Corrado, for while it was "decent", I use the car for long road trips, and "decent" gets tiresome after about 6 hours. In its place I have a fold-out touchscreen DVD player that is quite nicely synced up with the iPhone; video can also come from the iPhone through a hidden cable for an auxiliary in port, gets displayed quite nicely on the 9" monitor. Aside from the obvious DVDs, it also plays CDs, MP3 discs, WMA, pretty much anything I've ever been able to think of throwing at it. Also feeding into the touchscreen monitor is an integrated Sirius kit and an MP3 changer, purchased before I had the iPhone, now largely irrelevant. This all feeds out to three Alpine amps, one for the front, one for the back, and one for the 15" sub nicely nestled in the trunk.
    And no, before you stereotype, I am not the type who will crank up the sound so that cars all around me are forced to listen to thumpa-thumpa-thumpa. As I said, I spend a lot of time driving for very long distances over roads that will go for 300 km without so much as a corner. The engine noise becomes just a constant drone, and with nothing to entertain me, I'd probably just have a little nap at 130 km/h. That, and I like to have a good quality sound that I can still hear if I'm cruising down the highway in the summer with the windows down and the sunroof open.

    1. Goingincirclez Avatar

      +1. I'm totally with you on the "quality" versus "skull-pounding volume" part. My car never would have won any so-called "contests" but my passengers would often remark how clear it was. For extended listening periods – for the exact reasons you state – this was paramount to me. As it still is. I used to think my car was a better environment for just "listening" to music, than any of my systems in the house.

    2. muthalovin Avatar

      Similar boat. My dad owned a stereo shop when I was in high school. In turn, I had a very nice, and affordable system in all my cars. I started with a 15" in my Daytona. The hatch damn near rattled itself off. Then I swapped to 2 down-facing 12"s and things were much more manageable. But that was back in my high school/college days when you were trying to prove that you were the baddest kid in town.
      Now, I have a single-cab F150. I have an almost 7 year old Pioneer head unit that does MP3s and XM, component speakers (6) throughout and a 12" sub. It sounds really good, and it doesn't annoy the neighbors. The only thing that annoys the neighbors is the Flowmaster exhaust note.

  13. skitter Avatar

    I did finally break down and buy a zipper case for my modest CD collection after my shoebox-based storage unit crossed the line between mildly ridiculous and horribly inconvenient. And my dying speakers are balanced so that music sounds as normal as possible with 75-85 mph driver's window buffeting.

  14. M44Power Avatar

    I've got a completely stock system with a cassette deck and multiple speakers that don't produce anything but distortion at mid- to high-listening levels. Since I am also too cheap to replace said system, and have an unfortunate love of OEM-looking systems, I've learned to be happy with podcasts and a cassette adapter.

  15. P161911 Avatar

    Normally in the Z3, just the factory radio with the factory 6 CD changer. Pretty hard to hear it over the S52 running though the Mangaflows though. Usually talk radio in the mornings and lunch, NPR for the drive home. Today I happen to be driving my 88 F-150 in anticipation of of the blizzard (1-3" of snow) that is about to hit Atlanta. The truck bounces off things better than the Z3. The factory radio in the truck is dead. I did have a cheap boom box on the seat until the d batteries died and it died from too much bouncing around. If I remember I bring my MP3 player and stick an ear bud in one ear while driving.

  16. TurboBrick Avatar

    Some aftermarket POS Sony tape player that was "gently" installed in my Volvo, smashing half the loops that the screws go into and the whole center trim piece is now loose. Usually I just listed to the radio, both AM and FM. I got so fed up with the robot stations that I started listening to talk radio. I guess I'm kind of a strange listener, as I go back and forth between NPR and the AM radio conspiracy nuts. I've also found that listening to the oldies station that plays Sinatra helps coping with road rage – I used to get real worked up by a-holes who try to jump the line when merging.

    1. Deartháir Avatar
      Deartháir

      You know, I've tried and tried to find a Sirius station that plays some nice Sinatra and the like. Some Frankie, Dean, Tony, Sammy, Paul… it's gotta be out there somewhere, but damned if I can find it.

      1. TurboBrick Avatar

        It's not enough to find the oldies station, those play some bubblegummy 70's stuff now, you have to look for the freaking fossilized oldies station. Mine comes in both AM and FM, so you can even get that authentic crap sound. Sure, you have to listen to the ads for the mastectomy bras and stuff, but to their credit they actually have quite a bit of variation in their playlist. Try channel 75 on Sirius, according to their lineup. You'll be doing 55 in the left lane in no time.

    2. ptschett Avatar

      My road rage solution is listening to the local Christian station when I'm commuting. It's hard to mutter obscenities while listening to the same songs I might have heard in church the previous Sunday.

  17. joshuman Avatar

    Both our vehicles have stock in-dash 6-CD systems with very acceptable speakers. Predictably, they are loaded with tolerable and shitty kid's music. I normally listen to NPR on the short commutes and connect the iPhone or iPod to the inline adapter for longer trips.
    As a senior in high school, many of my friends were spending loads of money on audio systems. I had a four-speaker setup with a basic CD player. While listening to a particularly good song that sounded like crap in my car, one friend shouted, "Listen to that awesome system!" I turned it down and said, "Gentlemen, that is the sound of a college education." "Touche, Josh. Touche."

  18. Tanshanomi Avatar

    I have one of these sitting on the transmission tunnel.
    <img src="http://digitalcontent.cnetchannel.com/05/c7/05c7b660-fc75-4b1c-882c-45f598c28a38.jpg"&gt;
    The stock Ford radio doesn't make any sound…only ozone and smoke.

    1. ptmeyer84 Avatar

      I have been contemplating scooping up one of those. The radio in the Volvo is MIA so I may need an alternative in the future. How is the sound on one of those little buggers?

      1. Tanshanomi Avatar

        I'd classify it as "not bad." In the house, at reasonable background volume levels, it's actually pretty good. It doesn't have a lot of power, so I sometimes would like a little more volume on the highway. At max volume I sometimes get a little distortion if there is too much base.
        It's got a 12V input port, but only comes with a 120V transformer, so you'll need to buy a lighter-socket cord from Radio Shack for car use.
        I'm happy with it, but I have a Bushnell outlet store at the end of my street, so I got a heck of deal.

  19. widgetsltd Avatar

    I rarely turn on the radio in my Boxster S, preferring to hear the Boxer engine symphony. I usually listen to NPR in my commutermobile, since LA area radio sucks so badly.

  20. scroggzilla Avatar

    Stock AM/FM/CD with 6 speakers, just like Uncle Honda intended. Mix CD's, plus selections from the collection, with an occasional side of the local college radio station. As a former radio station programmer, I find terrestrial radio to be unlistenable.

  21. FuzzyPlushroom Avatar

    Since my exhaust is stock, there's not a lot to be heard there. When I pull off the cat, I'll probably leave it off for a few days just for grins; at that point I won't need music. They do a good tractor impression with nothing behind the header:
    [youtube 4bwoZZyqeoY http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bwoZZyqeoY youtube]
    My heater fan sounds like a rodent being tortured, so it stays off.
    As for music, the car had a Panasonic tape deck with line-in and removable faceplate when I got it; it's still there, because I find it hard to imagine anything cooler. It has a speaker in each door to match, which are far better than the two stock speakers in a 240, but lacking in bass (though I don't much care).
    Normally I have my mp3 player with me (SanDisk Sansa m250), on shuffle, through the line-in. I've brought my laptop along on occasion, powered by a cigar-lighter inverter, since it has media-control buttons on the front, accessible when the lid's closed – mute, volume, play/pause, track skip, and stop – but since the battery's dead, I got sick of having to pull over and boot the laptop back up every time I hit a good bump and the inverter fell out. When I buy a new battery it'll be along for every trip over twenty minutes that doesn't involve parking In The Ghetto.
    (What do I listen to? Pretty much everything [though Billy Squier is for some reason overrepresented].)
    I don't listen to the AM/FM radio much, and the only time I've fed it a mix tape it got two and a half tracks in and ate the tape (partway through the same song that was playing when I broke my windshield, actually). I thus stick to the (slightly flaky) line-in.

  22. Sparky_Pete Avatar

    I've tried numerous times to transplant modern audio systems into my rides…
    The MGs got all the latest modern stereos, that short out after the second rain and left me with a stack of corroded radios dating back to '93.
    The Datsun got it's 1985 Kraco (that oddly only received country stations) swapped out for a Custom Autosound and Harman Kardon iPod controller, but the whole thing went bezerk, and started playing only country music (WTF!?) before loosing going dark. We are now back to the possessed Kraco as a hole fill.
    And the Mopars just don't sound right when competing with the mighty exhaust notes.
    Hence, I have long since decided that if I want to hear a different song, shift to a lower gear.

  23. ptschett Avatar

    Both my vehicles still have their factory systems. The T-bird's AM/FM/cassette "chiclet button" Ford radio was fine with me; I like listening to the car itself, I never liked the idea of keeping CDs in the car, and once I got my iPod I could listen to whatever whenever. In the Dakota I opted for the 276-watt, 6-disc changer Infinity system, where I grudgingly keep an assortment of MP3 CDs but mostly listen to the FM band around town and use the discs or Sirius for long trips.

  24. Paul Y. Avatar
    Paul Y.

    I can't do without my iPod. The xB isn't much fun to listen to when I'm driving to work at a steady 50mph for 85% of the trip, anyway. I'll probably end up replacing the dealer-installed (I'm the 3rd owner) fartcan with a glasspack, just to be a dick.
    I've got a modest aftermarket stereo that I replaced the surprisingly shitty 6-disc changer with (which I had originally bought for my prior Subaru). Stock speakers supplanted with a sensible subwoofer setup – dual-coil 10" in a tiny box under the passenger seat and a 240W amp. I like bass, but I don't need to rattle what few remaining teeth the townsfolk have left.

  25. Straight6er Avatar

    First thing that went into my E30 (besides timing belt) was new alpine speakers and a stereo with iPod hookup. Earlier this year I purchased a 500w amp and a big ol' 12'' sub for the trunk. Everything looks relatively stock until you open the trunk and see the sub box taking up a quarter of the space.
    Usually play some good old fashioned rock, or some assorted weird stuff no one else likes. When the GF gets in she plugs her iPod in and blasts rap.

  26. BrianTheHoon Avatar

    I'm a real geek for old fashioned terrestrial radio. Luckily in San Diego we have the best radio station I've ever heard, KBZQ 94.9 (go to http://www.fm949sd.com and check out their stream sometime). This coming from someone who grew up in Greater LA during the late 70's/early 80's and listened to the legendary KROQ on a regular basis (Rodney Bingenheimer, FTMFW!)
    The Fusion is the first new car I've owned for which I have no intention of going with an after market upgrade. I'm not a Microsoft fanboi but holy crap do I love MS Sync. Freakin' brilliant product. I have a subscription to Sirius but I vary rarely use it and should probably cancel. My CD unit normally has the latest music I purchased (currently Them Crooked Vultures and Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros) 'because I prefer to buy physical discs and rip to iTunes (I'm weird that way) but I first play the CDs in my car for a week or so (Yet another way in which I'm weird).
    A lot of folks here mention that they prefer the sound of their mil when they drive. While I can totally understand this, for me music and driving is like peanut butter and jelly. Some of my favorite road trips and simple short drives with friends have been defined by the music we listened to. The right song at the right time during the trip just makes the magic happen.

  27. Feds Avatar
    Feds

    CBC Radio 1. 99.1FM in Toronto.
    You have not lived until you have completed a Scandinavian Flick while shouting at your radio in response to the latest police coverup/ government corruption scandal / episode of "the age of persuasion".

    1. engineerd Avatar

      I gave you a useless thumbs up (get an IntenseDebate profile, you luddite!) for shouting at your radio while executing a Scandinavian Flick. I might have done that a time or two.

      1. Feds Avatar
        Feds

        "Feds" already exists in their database. After much consideration ("New_Feds", "Crystal_Feds"), I have gone with Feds_II, in honour of all the great cars that have had "II" in their name.

        1. Feds_II Avatar

          See. I wasn't kidding.

    2. jjd241 Avatar
      jjd241

      All you need are some base tubes… http://failads.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/cra

  28. Dr_Dangerously Avatar

    I am content with the system that comes in the Jetta, eight speakers with the line-in. I just hook up my Zen to the radio and hit random.

  29. dwegmull Avatar
    dwegmull

    For me it's either the local classic FM station (during stop and go traffic) or just the 5 cylinder, turbocharged music box that lives under the hood.
    Once my roadster is out of the body shop, I will enjoy the silence of an electric car!

  30. omg grip Avatar
    omg grip

    I thoroughly enjoy my XM.
    Factory stereo's usually enough for me though. I used to blow money on radios and speakers in my youth, but now as long as it cranks up loud enough over wind noise, why bother adding extra weight in the trunk. Big stereos are like the anti-hoon.

  31. MarionCobretti Avatar
    MarionCobretti

    My current audio system consists of the following:
    Small block Chevrolet.
    Duals.
    Flowmasters.
    I am, however, looking into some head units that feature iPod integration, which I think is the bee's knees. My problem is with the paucity of high end car stereos that don't look ridiculous. I neither need nor want something that looks like a laser light show is going on in my dash.
    If anyone knows of a single-DIN unit with an aux or iPod jack that will receive HD-radio and that doesn't look absolutely garish, let a brother know.

  32. BGW Avatar

    Sirius radio or iPod. I'd rather take a hot poker to the bellybutton than listen to what passes for "free" radio these days.
    On a related note, I'm apparently officially an old geezer now, these kids today with their hipping and their hopping. GET OFF MY LAWN!

    1. Goingincirclez Avatar

      I've been flung completely off the planet in terms of current music relevancy knowledge because of commercial radio.
      I used to commute from Frankfort to Lexington – about 30 to 40 minutes. And I had a flex schedule with a variance of as much as 2 hours or more from week to week. Never made a difference: 15 minutes of music at best, the rest of it mindless blather and commercials – Absolutely intolerable! Is it any wonder I got stuck in the late 90's for a time? And any wonder the "old media" is dying?

  33. donkeyassman Avatar
    donkeyassman

    2 cars, 2 tape decks , 2 dollar store tape adaptors for the ipod/cell phone…
    My birthday present to myself will be a new cd player ( cuz the radio dont work right when its cold or rainy ) and speakers ( cuz one's blown ) in the Benz

  34. smokyburnout Avatar

    Well, I drive a 30-year-old Benz that left the factory with a Becker AM/FM radio and stereo sound, but one of the POs hacked in some 80's-vintage (maybe new at the time) Pioneer speakers into the rear hat shelf and an Alpine head unit into the dash. This would be fine if the head unit wasn't out of a Honda, didn't say "Honda" on the tape deck door, and was wired in properly, but it is none of these things. I've looked at getting a more modern Becker Grand Prix to make things right, but I don't feel like buying a $30 one off eBay and then having to deal with an electrical nightmare, so it's on hold until I can go to a junkyard and rip one out with a few feet of wiring attached.
    It does work better than the one in the Cherokee, which worked only if it felt like it. I would set it on scan and drive to school in the morning and, if I was lucky, at some point if would find a station and deafen me with THE LATEST HOT JAMZ because I left the volume up.

  35. Smells_Homeless Avatar

    I'm so old it's NPR in the morning but in the evening I rock the in-dash 6-disc Blaupunkt loaded with Drive By Truckers (yeehaw.)

    1. TheWaterCooler Avatar

      I rock NPR in the morning, because it's the only intellectual thing on the radio. In the afternoon, I rock the classic rock station or the Led Zeppelin cassette. I'm 18…

  36. straight6 Avatar
    straight6

    In the car I stay with my mixtapes on the original Becker Mexico, thank you. I loathe these guys (and it´s always guys) whose numberplate rattle along when the deep bass sets in their 4pot cannot produce.

  37. Van Sarockin Avatar
    Van Sarockin

    I've got a nice Alpine CD player for the 9000T, replacing the aftermarket Audiovox crap that someone helped themselves to one Sunday afternoon. Richie's Car Tunes fixed me up nice. When the rear speakers fell apart, they put in some really nice, cheap Sony/Panasonic(?) 6x9s. I really appreciate that the lights on the radio match nicely with the dash lights. It's not a heavy system, but it puts out nice sound, and it's never been too little for me.
    Of course, I used to have a Delco cassette player hung with lamp wire under the dash of my Econoline, with Audiovox speakers in ray play cabs that I'd hacked together. That sounded alright too, until the deck started eating my nice tapes.

  38. Tomsk Avatar

    Quickly got sick of terrestrial radio, but didn't want to to hack up the stock system (Becker Grand Prix Electronic AM/FM/Cassette with 2 speakers in the dash and 2 in the rear package shelf) as it sounds just fine if you ask me. Had an MP3 compatible Sony Discman for all of about six months(?) playing through a cassette adapter. Then had a pair of XM portable receivers (bought the second after the first died), again running through a cassette adapter. But when the cassette player croaked, and I got tired of the antenna sliding off the dash because I didn't want to drill a hole to mount it on the roof and I didn't want to use double-sided tape on the original dash pad (I don't fancy doing stuff to cars that isn't fairly easy to reverse back to stock; my dad's the same way, so call him the wuss!), I pondered what to do next.
    As it turns out, Becker's U.S. office in New Jersey will not only repair their old head units, but will also add auxiliary input jacks to them! I had them fix the cassette deck and add the aux input, for which they provided a male/male cable. Drilled a small hole in a tray (which is a separate piece and theoretically easy to replace) at the front of the center console, fed the jack through the hole and secured it with the provided nut. All I have to do is plug the cable into the jack, plug the other end of the cable into my iPod, turn on the iPod and I'm all set with CD quality audio. No need to change the station, band or anything else on the head unit.
    If you have an old Benz like I do or another vehicle with an OE Becker head unit, you owe it to yourself to check out their site:
    http://www.beckerautosound.com/

    1. om_nom_de_plume Avatar

      that is a bitchin discovery! how sick to have essentially and OEM modified deck!! congrats!

      1. Tomsk Avatar

        Thanks man! There are independent shops that can add aux-in jacks to just about any OE radio if you know where to look.

  39. om_nom_de_plume Avatar

    electronic aural stimuli: Powermaster Alternator, Alpine ida-x001 (first digital media ONLY head unit to carry the "built for iPod" badge), ALL JBL GTO series (I'm sure it's apparent why I went with those :D) speakers – 15" dual voice coil sub (w/ remote sub level control down by my driver's seat, mounted to the trans tunnel), front 6.5" component system, rear 6×9 component system stealthed under the rear tray, 6 channel 600w sub with 5/6 channels bridged to sub… I've never been brave enough to go past the middle of the volume range… yowsa and that is even competing at 70MPH against…..
    mechanical aural stimuli: original 327 block and heads with weiand intake, 4bbl Edelbrock, Doug Thorley headers and two hearty Flowmaster Delta 40s…

    1. om_nom_de_plume Avatar

      Like Darth Hairment, my setup is from necessity and personal gain, not others… plus I can have it LOUD inside and the Delta 40s still are all that can be heard (thanks in part to the 100sqft of sound deadener in my massive trunk and lining my doors)… with the engine off though I can bang with the best…. and the deadener keeps even my mid-60s trunk and body panels from suffering the tacky "couple more bass lines and my bumper is gonna fall off" buzzing.
      one of my fav things I've done to my car, the stereo is! and all designed to be removed and have the car look 100% stock. even as is, people can get in and not know what they are in store for.. and I like that!

  40. damnelantra™[!] Avatar

    ha, i see i am one of the few… at least i have some company though.

    1. TheWaterCooler Avatar

      I'm in the same boat. No stereo in the 924, so if I want music, I sing or listen to an iPod. Or I just listen to the symphony of 2.5 liter Porsche 4, gear whine, and rusted old muffler.

      1. damnelantra™[!] Avatar

        see, i went above and beyond to take out my stereo. even went junkyard hunting to find a single dim dash pocket.
        and i sent mike-the-dog the 6x9s that were in the rear!

  41. CptSevere Avatar

    My '66 F100 has never had a radio. It came stock from the factory that way, not even a hole in the dash, and I intend to keep it that way. I've thought of putting something under the dash, but I'm so stubborn that I don't even want to drill holes under there. I've carried ghetto blasters along on long trips, which are barely audible over the wind noise and the whine of the 240 six. I used to ride motorcycles for years, so I'm used to not having tunes. I listen to the voices in my head, and it's fun to argue with them, for entertainment.
    The Road Condo (my motorhome) is so loud underway, with SBC soundrack through turbo mufflers into duals exiting just aft of the cab, that the ghetto blaster is barely audible. The exhaust note sounds great anyway. I'll put a stereo in that at one point. When parked, I have a nifty little bedroom stereo that I set up and run off of an inverter that sounds fine set up around the dinette. Plays MP3 CD's, no problem.
    When I'm listening to the radio here, either at home or in a vehicle with a radio, I listen to the barely receivable NPR station out of Tucson, or the really hokey and just plain awesome country station out of Benson, The Cave. Cheezy classic country music, the twangy stuff, down home DJs, and the commercials are so bad they're good. Makes you want to run over to Benson for an oil change, all you can eat fish night at the cafe, and a killer deal on topo maps at the used book store. Great radio station that doesn't take itself seriously.

  42. Manic_King Avatar

    Audi's Audio Pack: Concert II HU + 8 speakers + small hidden factory subwoofer. And Nokia bluetooth hands-free system which has line-in cable with very low volume and crappy sound (for say my iPod Nano) but more importantly this system streams wirelessly music from phone over bluetooth with very good quality. It's connected to HU's line-in. Still, usually I tend to listen mp3 cd's.

  43. 550SC Avatar
    550SC

    FM, AM, and a broken exhaust.

  44. Junita Mente Avatar

    A receiver is that big, heavy thing that you plug your speakers and other components into (like a DVD player, TV, CD player, Xbox, PlayStation, iPod, and etc.). Its the “brain” of the show, really. The idea of connecting all your components to a receiver is the concept of audio/video switching, allowing you to switch to different video sources (like TV, DVD, camcorder) on your TV and thus changing the audio source accordingly – all without touching anything but the receiver.

  45. Marsha Blackburn Avatar

    Thank you so very much for putting this online.

  46. scratch and dent appliances Avatar

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  47. elementy kute Avatar

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