Reproduction Radio Unit Pro/Cons Advice

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Mopar Virgin

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Anyone a bit of an audiophile and know much about these manufacturers?

Assuming the amplifier(s) in these are pretty basic, my intent is to only use these purely as a radio tuner and bluetooth preamp, opting to feed one of them (or a recommended alternative) to an Audison AF M5.11bit DSP amplifier (Audison Forza AF M5.11 bit - DSP AMP) feeding Morel Virtus Nano 3-way speakers (VIRTUS NANO CARBON 63 3-WAY VIRTUS NANO CARBON Systems - Morel Hifi).

Curious if anyone has perspectives concerning the quality of the preamp guts in these, as they all appear the functionally the same and I'm not equipped to identify any uniqueness or shortcomings.
 
I can't speak to those manufacturers, but I am going the "updated" route with my radio. Want the factory look with better sound. I sent my original deck to Instrument Specialties. They refurbish your deck (polish, lube, paint, re-chrome if necessary), and will install BT, amp out, 4 channel speaker wire. I believe they told me the deck would be 50 watts per channel. I'm going to run an amp so wasn't concerned with the deck power. Haven't got it all planned out yet as I'm not at that stage of assembly. Looks like they use these guys for electronics Radio conversions for classic vehicles | Aurora Design .

deck1.jpg


deck2.jpg
 
Mopar-N said:
May I ask, how much did they charge you for their service ?
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They're not cheap. It was about 900ish for the radio. Buttons needed to be re-chromed. I wanted to reuse that Dart Solid State though. It was a part of a larger order I sent, dash switches/bezels, instrument cluster some other stuff.
 
I had an OE AM/FM "modernized" by a company called Mr Heaterbox. I have bluetooth, USB input, pre-amp out, sub out aux input. It also has a mic input for taking calls. I paid $750 ish. expensive but I have the features I wanted and the factory look still. I hid the call answer button, aux input port and usb input in the ashtray receiver.


IMG_5806 2.jpg
 
j_anderson said:
I had an OE AM/FM "modernized" by a company called Mr Heaterbox. I have bluetooth, USB input, pre-amp out, sub out aux input. It also has a mic input for taking calls. I paid $750 ish. expensive but I have the features I wanted and the factory look still. I hid the call answer button, aux input port and usb input in the ashtray receiver.


View attachment 1716417446
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That’s a great idea, might have to borrow it!
 

j_anderson said:
I had an OE AM/FM "modernized" by a company called Mr Heaterbox. I have bluetooth, USB input, pre-amp out, sub out aux input. It also has a mic input for taking calls. I paid $750 ish. expensive but I have the features I wanted and the factory look still. I hid the call answer button, aux input port and usb input in the ashtray receiver.


View attachment 1716417446
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Very nice idea ... Looks like you painted the under dash the body color of your car ... looks nice!
 
I just put a retro manufacturing Redondo RS in my duster over the winter replacing a 33 year old Realistic car stereo that I bought using lawnmower money when I was 16. Plugging and playing into the stock wiring, I had issues with it spontaneously rebooting. Once I got the wiring sorted out (12V battery and ground run direct from the battery, switched 12V direct from the fuse block) it has been fantastic and rock solid. Overall I'm very happy with the sound quality, performance, quality, and features, definitely a step above the unit replaced. I also put the USB in the ashtray, and the microphone for hands free phone works much better I went with the 2B for the preamp outs and USB charging, but am currently using the internal amp, and it has had more than enough power. if you go this route, one caveat, I needed to use these collars to get the depth of the radio correct and not have the knobs stick out too far with my OEM bezel. the only other issue is the OD of the shafts are 3/8", those collars are 7/16, and the factory bezel holes are 1/2", so I took some plastic flange bushings like these and carefully drilled/reamed them out to 7/16" McMaster-Carr, but a quick search, these would have been perfect, no drilling required McMaster-Carr

the only other thing I've found is the microphone placement it pretty critical for people to hear you well, clipping it to the leading edge of the sun visor closest to you works a lot better than clipping it to the hinge side of the visor.

the rebuilding a stock radio chassis looks cool, but man, that's like 2.5-3X what I paid for mine.....with a daughter off to college in the fall, and a drivers seat that needs to be re-done, I couldn't afford $900+ for just the head unit.
 
Mopar Virgin said:
Anyone a bit of an audiophile and know much about these manufacturers?

Assuming the amplifier(s) in these are pretty basic, my intent is to only use these purely as a radio tuner and bluetooth preamp, opting to feed one of them (or a recommended alternative) to an Audison AF M5.11bit DSP amplifier (Audison Forza AF M5.11 bit - DSP AMP) feeding Morel Virtus Nano 3-way speakers (VIRTUS NANO CARBON 63 3-WAY VIRTUS NANO CARBON Systems - Morel Hifi).

Curious if anyone has perspectives concerning the quality of the preamp guts in these, as they all appear the functionally the same and I'm not equipped to identify any uniqueness or shortcomings.
Click to expand...

The second link looks like the only one that would bolt into a 68-69 Barracuda dash if I'm not mistaken.
 
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