USA-630 or some engineering...

[robbz28]

Those claiming 50 watts are not rms watts, in reality thats about 15 watts....but anyway, i just installed a Retrosound model 1 in my 67....if i did not have the factory console i would have probably installed a din radio, but anyway, I am very satisfied with the radio, it has decent power and 2 auxilary inputs and power antenna and amp remote leads, and a pile of pre-amp outs. I also installed 6.5" kenwood component speakers in the kick panel and some kenwood 3 way 6x9's in the deck (crutchfield was having a sale on kenwood) i ran the wires for the amp, plan on putting my phoenix gold 200w amp and a nice sub in the trunk eventually. i also purchased a powered hidden antenna from custom autosound and it works GREAT! Picks up better than my truck with a standard aerial antenna. Anyway, just wanted to share that with you guys, lots of good ideas on this thread.

 

[tx65coupe]

Thats cool. I'm glad you like the Retrosound radio.

 

[mmaki]

even at 40 watts, its still maybe gonna put out about 15-20 max.Theres no wat they could fit the coils and capacitors in the radio chassis to actually make that power.

Class D amplifiers my friend

 

[mmaki]

I am almost done with my '66 (done as in, I can drive it ont he regular if not every day.) So It has a USA-6 that the previous owner put in it. I hate it.

Unfortunately, I really don't want to cut the dash.

The consensus a long time ago was that Custom Auto Sound radios sucked and my experience has born that out. However, I've heard some rumbling that the newer ones aren't as bad. I'm looking at the USA-630 as a possibility. My alternate plans:

a) design my own - I'm an electrical engineer, it'll be time consuming as hell but I'll get a head unit that does only what I need (i.e. no cd or cassette) and doesn't require cutting the dash.

or

b) Take a unit with a detachable faceplate (I have one in mind), solder wires to the unit from the faceplate, mount the unit in one location and find a way to mount the faceplate on the dash.

I got the inspiration for (b) from someone who had done something similar, but they left a radio in the dash and just used the faceplate as a remote. I don't like that method for a couple of reasons.

(a) would be a royal PITA to do.

So does anyone have any experience or opinion on the USA-630? I'm not looking for competition quality, but something other than suck would be nice.

Why don't you do what I am doing, take a vintage radio and put modern guts in it?

Mike

 

[iskwezm]

Class D amplifiers my friend

ok

 

[Loup-garou]

(snip)
My alternate plans:

a) design my own - I'm an electrical engineer, it'll be time consuming as hell but I'll get a head unit that does only what I need (i.e. no cd or cassette) and doesn't require cutting the dash.

or

b) Take a unit with a detachable faceplate (I have one in mind), solder wires to the unit from the faceplate, mount the unit in one location and find a way to mount the faceplate on the dash.

(snip)

Alternate to (b) above: Use a trunk-mounted Kenwood CarPortal unit (gotta go with the mid-level model or higher to get a built-in AM/FM tuner) and control it from a GPS-sized touch screen display. Conceal that somewhere up front (like behind a console door or on a hinged plate that can be swung up under the dash and hidden). You can plug in GPS (Garmin) and satellite radio modules as well - and the CarPortal is designed to accept USB and iPod media input.

It's not cheap, but the things also aren't selling very well - keep an eye open and you might find one for a really good price. All in all, a very nice option for classics with dashboard / head unit fit issues like the '65-'66 Mustangs.

 

[skywalker]

Why don't you do what I am doing, take a vintage radio and put modern guts in it?

Mike

Because that won't give me *ANY* of the features I want. Turns out neither will the USA630, BTW.

I'm probably going to go with the Alpine IDA-X305SBT. If I had the time (I'm about to start API and subsequently, flight school so I don't) I would just engineer my own.

There are simply no retro radios with:
good sound quality, not great, but good
quality interface with the iPod where you can visually see what is playing on the screen and control the iPod without in someway being crippled (the CAS systems cripple the iPod interface.) I'd also *like* (as in, it isn't a requirement) be able to interface with an HD Radio tuner.

Unless you know of some place that'll take an old shaft style radio and make it do that, then I don't know of a way to do it without some engineering. Could I do it? Yes. I'm well qualified to design that. I just don't have the time.

I'm still on the fence about whether or not to cut the dash. I don't want to but it is looking like the path of least resistance if I want to add AC (I do - too many hot summers without AC to go without it anymore.)

 

[skywalker]

Alternate to (b) above: Use a trunk-mounted Kenwood CarPortal unit (gotta go with the mid-level model or higher to get a built-in AM/FM tuner) and control it from a GPS-sized touch screen display. Conceal that somewhere up front (like behind a console door or on a hinged plate that can be swung up under the dash and hidden). You can plug in GPS (Garmin) and satellite radio modules as well - and the CarPortal is designed to accept USB and iPod media input.

It's not cheap, but the things also aren't selling very well - keep an eye open and you might find one for a really good price. All in all, a very nice option for classics with dashboard / head unit fit issues like the '65-'66 Mustangs.

Tempting - but pretty pricey for the extra work required to get it placed in there. For the same amount of work, I can do the aforementioned Alpine unit and get most of the same features. Less money too I think.

 

[skywalker]

Its not that hard. We do it on custom installs. All you to is get a ribbon cable and some minor soldering, maybe 6-12 wires.

This is actually what I really want to do. But the head unit I want (Alpine IDA-X305SBT) is kind of weird. From what I can see, only half the faceplate is detachable? Apparently the right hand side is static. What I love about the unit is that it will interface with Pandora on my iPhone - and that's just kick ass.

Can you make a better recommendation?

 

[iskwezm]

This is actually what I really want to do. But the head unit I want (Alpine IDA-X305SBT) is kind of weird. From what I can see, only half the faceplate is detachable? Apparently the right hand side is static. What I love about the unit is that it will interface with Pandora on my iPhone - and that's just kick ass.

Can you make a better recommendation?

Pandora is the newest thing this year at CES, Pioneer has a few new radios that support it as well as a few other brands.Those will have the removeable face that you could remotely mount

 

[skywalker]

Pandora is the newest thing this year at CES, Pioneer has a few new radios that support it as well as a few other brands.Those will have the removeable face that you could remotely mount

Sweet. Thanks dude!