Vintage Car Audio - 1980's and up

Over the weekend, I was heading out to a local swap meet that happens once a year, and I was thinking that it would be funny if I picked up a period 1980's vintage DIN-size cassette receiver for my CSX. I have a bunch of CD players, including a vintage-looking Kenwood EZ-500 that I love, but I was thinking something from the mid-late 1980's would be cool for the right price.

So, I find a Yamaha YCR-305 cassette receiver for a whopping $2. This is one of those ones from the early days of theft protection that had the grab handle and the WHOLE THING pulled out of the dash! I remembered when my older cousin got a Pioneer in his Volvo 240 that had that feature and we all thought it was the coolest thing ever. I didn't even know Yamaha made car audio. They usually make bomb-proof, quality stuff, so I figured I'd roll the dice for $2.

Anyone else interested in the older stuff? Honestly, it may only stay in the car temporarily for the novelty, but I still think its cool. I'll post up some pics later.

They make Bluetooth cassette adapters now...

We got a donation to our shop class in high school. It was a very run down mid 70's ford van. We were all amazed at the state of the art, high end stereo equipment that was in it. Full EQ, the works. Well it was state of the art for 1978. But it was cool to see that stuff.

You would be the coolest guy at a car show if you put that pull out in an 80's car and walked around the show carrying the radio by the handle. Yes... that used to be done.

I run vintage audio gear all the time. Usually dirt cheap and sounds just as good as the new stuff.

aircooled wrote: You would be the coolest guy at a car show if you put that pull out in an 80's car and walked around the show carrying the radio by the handle. Yes... that used to be done.

This will happen.

JamesMcD wrote: They make Bluetooth cassette adapters now...

YES! YES! YES!

http://www.amazon.com/Audio-Cassette-Adapter-Bluetooth-Receiver/dp/B00I3YLHAC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1430847420&sr=8-1&keywords=bluetooth+cassette+adapter

This is awesome! We live in the future! Now, my sweet 1980's Fisher "Surround Sound" boom box can be a connected device, as well as my new-to-me Yamaha car stereo!

Somewhere, I have an old Grundig AM/FM/Cassette player that I bought new in 1983. It doesn't even have buttons for presets. My (much older) brother in law, who was a stereo junkie, took me to a place to pick something out to replace the FM converter in my first car. I think it was a demo and I paid $75 for it, which was huge money in my world back then. It got swapped from car to car, eventually got a 300 watt, 10 channel graphic equalizer and then finally, I converted it to AC power and ran it through two huge Yamaha speakers in my dorm at UConn, still hooked up to a car antenna. I'll have to see if I can find it.

Also, I am strangely drawn to Audiovox FM converters to this day.

I have a vintage pair of Pioneer TS-X9 surface-mount speakers gathering dust. They were connected to my shop radio for a while.

SilverFleet wrote:

JamesMcD wrote: They make Bluetooth cassette adapters now...

YES! YES! YES! http://www.amazon.com/Audio-Cassette-Adapter-Bluetooth-Receiver/dp/B00I3YLHAC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1430847420&sr=8-1&keywords=bluetooth+cassette+adapter This is awesome! We live in the future! Now, my sweet 1980's Fisher "Surround Sound" boom box can be a connected device, as well as my new-to-me Yamaha car stereo!

You'd think they could have put a small generator to sap some power from the gear turning the tape rather than a battery.

Although seeing your cigarette lighter running a cord into your tape deck is kind of perverse and fun all at the same time.

I've always liked that Fujitsu Ten setup that was like 3 or 19 double-DIN boxes.

In the 1980's, every car I had as a teen would immediately get a 40w Power Booster. It would blow out the cheap shelf speakers in a matter of weeks, then you'd go to the local Radio Shack or Auto Parts store and get some bitchin' 6x9s. The sound was horrible, but loud and no one knew about Bass because rap hadn't been invented yet.

I really need a stereo for my Delica(JDM stock stereo doesn't work anymore, and was not great anyway), and I want it to be some sort of 80's Japanese technology as it seems fitting in an 80's Japanese van. I didn't find anything cool in that regard at the swap meet, but then again I got there around 1:30, and only stayed a few hours. I didn't see the whole lot. I'm jelly of your score especially at that price.

In reply to Mazdax605:

There are usually a few of these old cassette decks there each year for under $10. I found a Pioneer unit last year that I somehow didn't buy, also for $2. The one I saw was in the first few rows, and I snagged it immediately.

pinchvalve wrote: In the 1980's, every car I had as a teen would immediately get a 40w Power Booster. It would blow out the cheap shelf speakers in a matter of weeks, then you'd go to the local Radio Shack or Auto Parts store and get some bitchin' 6x9s. The sound was horrible, but loud and no one knew about Bass because rap hadn't been invented yet.

My sister used to have a 1988 Firebird Formula. I remember it had something like this from the factory. It had a "Gain" fader on the dash and all I know was the Whitesnake sounded better with that slider all the way up.

In reply to SilverFleet:

That must have been some kind of magic slider...

In reply to aircooled:

I still have a Kenwood tape player in my 67 Mustang that is removable chassis. We mounted it in my truck (now my brother wheelsmithy's) and it eats tapes, but still is an awsome radio...

PICS!

Yes, it's gross.

Make sure the $2 sticker stays.

aircooled wrote: You would be the coolest guy at a car show if you put that pull out in an 80's car and walked around the show carrying the radio by the handle. Yes... that used to be done.

Had a Blaupunkt tape deck in my '83 GTi which could be pulled out like that, IIRC it was the Denver (Blaupunkt named all their tape decks after cities, I remember the 'Berlin' was the pinnacle). You had to punch in a 4 digit code to get it to work after R&R.

Very cool. I was just at a swap meet and was looking for a cool 80's aftermarket for my Datsun. No luck, just old 60's factory American stuff. I plan on installing a new radio in the dash and cutting the face off of a period correct one just to put in over it when parked. Maybe glue half of a cassette tape into the slot for use as a handle.

My recently-acquired Renault has this stereo setup:

I can't WAIT to see how that EQ looks powered on. If the whole thing sounds good with a new set of speakers, I'll probably leave it in.

I have a couple of OEM E30 stereos that I've picked up. Hopefully one of them works, if so I'll probably put it in Ugly and use a cassette adapter for my phone.