Who here remember outfitting your car with aftermarket audio

[Purerock105]

...that was almost as equally important to any functional drivetrain mod?

I lived in Charlottesville Va in the 80's. Home of Crutchfield Electronics. Their mail order catalog was a thing, but back then, they still had a showroom/store. Needless to say, I dropped lots I cash with them.

In dash cassette decks. Clarion, Pioneer, Alpine, Blaujunk😂. I remember getting one of the first in dash CD players from Sony. CDX-R77 around 1989.

I had Kicker and SAS Bazookas. 500watt amps. All that non-sense.

Good times. 🍻🇺🇸😂

 

[Stormtrooper1320]

...that was almost as equally important to any functional drivetrain mod?

I lived in Charlottesville Va in the 80's. Home of Crutchfield Electronics. Their mail order catalog was a thing, but back then, they still had a showroom/store. Needless to say, I dropped lots I cash with them.

In dash cassette decks. Clarion, Pioneer, Alpine, Blaujunk😂. I remember getting one of the first in dash CD players from Sony. CDX-R77 around 1989.
View attachment 11552
I had Kicker and SAS Bazookas. 500watt amps. All that non-sense.

Good times. 🍻🇺🇸😂

Oh man.....I had an awesome Pioneer indash am/fm cassette deck in my '74 Cuda.....WITH....auto-reverse. Yeah...that's right....auto-reverse. No flipping over the tape for me. I also added one of those cool underdash amplifier/equalizer combo units for more power....and then these awesome Clarion 6x9 rear deck speakers. So between working around military jets and helicopters, blasting tunes, and working on loud cars, I was living large in the 80's.....and 90's......and well.....you get the idea.
I also shopped a bit from that Crutchfield catalog over the years. The last stereo pieces that i bought from them were to replace the factory stereo in a 2001 ram 2500 I used to own. I never put the stereo in the truck, and the pieces are still sitting new in the box in my garage.
I know the Alpine stereo in my Challenger isn't the best one out there, but it sure sounds a helluva lot better than what used to come in cars. So, for me, it's pretty good, and I don't see a reason to change it.
Maybe someday I'll find a use for the other stuff in the boxes......maybe.

 

[tkracing1]

I installed a few of these back in the day... building boxes for Rockford Fosgate subs.

 

[DGatzby]

I installed a few of these back in the day... building boxes for Rockford Fosgate subs. View attachment 11556 View attachment 11558

That Alpine and a CB radio under the dash and my '70 era T/A's were the shit. The "Blue Wop" was loose on the new interstates!

 

[Stormtrooper1320]

I installed a few of these back in the day... building boxes for Rockford Fosgate subs. View attachment 11556 View attachment 11558

Whoa...a tape deck with DBX noise reduction. You didn't find many of those. For whatever reason it never caught on. Maybe because the units that had it were pricier. My home tape deck (a Yamaha that I bought on a deployment to Japan) has DBX and the others. It's an awesome tape deck that I only ever used for recording tapes when cd's first came out. Once you could get an in car cd player, I don't think I ever used it again. It's packed away in it's box for years.

 

[Jack_Toepfer]

I used to install systems in my HS parking lot. Making custom sub enclosures out of my garage. It was nice when BestBuy rolled into town because of their warranty... could blow up an Xplod sub every week, they didn’t care. Now, granted, that’s not what I was doing, but there were times I got some bad subs and they didn’t flinch.

 

[Purerock105]

Installing was sooooo much easier back in those days too. Speakers and amps especially. Maybe some minor fabricating to get the decks in there. I remember Crutchfield offering the 'kit' for any deck they sold, to fit virtually any vehicle.

 

[MiHiHemi]

This thread sure brings back some memories. I was so proud of my first new Pioneer cassette player and 6x9’s in the back of my ’66 Impala SS Pink Floyd sure sounded good.

 

[Blkout]

I'm not unhappy with the factory HK system in the Challenger however it sucks not being to play CDs or lossless files like FLAC. MP3s are just too lossy for any serious audio enthusiast.

 

[BULL]

My buddy in H.S. was forever getting some new unit and/or speakers and would slap it up under the dash of his then new used car. They ALWAYS sounded like crap, WHEN they worked, which was less than most of the time. He'd crank it up and the speakers would rattle more than they would make music.

Then we'd go cruisin', floor all 7 cylinders of the V8, making at least 100hp, getting 10mpg if we were lucky, smoke pouring out of the tailpipe.


What were we talking about?

 

[Purerock105]

I knew those guys too Bull. 😂

Distortion much? Blown fuses. Etc etc.

 

[BULL]

I knew those guys too Bull. 😂

Distortion much? Blown fuses. Etc etc.

Rat nest of wires with electrical tape generally, but not really, holding the wires together...

 

[Purerock105]

What did y'all use as your music reference to test your car audio system. I used Steely Dan "Aja" and Rush "Moving Pictures". Production on those albums was first rate. You could really isolate the instrumentation.

 

[fubar569]

Once upon a time I settled a bet among my circle at the time of who had the loudest stereo.

I had a 1997 Deville with an empty trunk and sonic electronix had a B1G1 on Kicker Comp 15's.

4 of those. A 10cuft. Box. A Directed 1100d. wired 1ohm.

I won. The end.

Before that...2 JL 12W0 with a kicker ZR360 in the hatch of a 1984 vette...and 2 JL 10W3 with same ZR360 in the hatch of my Talon TSi AWD.

Now? A lowly JL acs110lg-tw1 under the trunk flow of the charger

 

[fubar569]

I'm not unhappy with the factory HK system in the Challenger however it sucks not being to play CDs or lossless files like FLAC. MP3s are just too lossy for any serious audio enthusiast.

I play FLAC in my 18...

 

[jroyk]

In the late ‘60s, us average Joe’s usually installed 8-track Craig units under the dash with Craig or Jensen co-ax speakers on the rear deck. Rich kids had Lear Jet tape decks.

 

[Hickster]

Well hail that 8 track I wood speak of but so much rolling smoke coming out of the winders//// Couldn't sea in or out. I think I can still hear it playing. That 1 tape played for years. Till all the pot ran out,, or did it?? Between the pot, homey grown and Evan Williams, we didn't care what it sounded like. Could have been bro Edgar and whitey sister Johnny Winters.

 

[Blkout]

I play FLAC in my 18...

Good to know, won't work in my 16. Been thinking about upgrading the head unit to a 18+.

 

[jroyk]

Well hail that 8 track I wood speak of but so much rolling smoke coming out of the winders//// Couldn't sea in or out. I think I can still hear it playing. That 1 tape played for years. Till all the pot ran out,, or did it?? Between the pot, homey grown and Evan Williams, we didn't care what it sounded like. Could have been bro Edgar and whitey sister Johnny Winters.

That “rolling smoke” made those 8-tracks sound like high-end stereo. (No pun intended).
“Johnny Winter And Live“ and “Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out” got a lot of play in my ride.

 

[Stormtrooper1320]

In the late ‘60s, us average Joe’s usually installed 8-track Craig units under the dash with Craig or Jensen co-ax speakers on the rear deck. Rich kids had Lear Jet tape decks.

We had some sort of under dash 8 track unit in my parents '70 Road Runner. I don't remember the brand but it sure seemed fancier than the factory am radio.