Car Radio

[johns]

Have you considered a service like UK Forward to Me (http://www.forward2me.com/)? I have no experience of these services but know of people who have used similar services in the US to get items shipped to the UK. Also have you spoken to InPhase Audio directly as they may be able to sort something out for you. Final thought as you are in Australia, are the FM broadcasts the same as the UK or do they follow the US or Japanese conventions? If you buy a stereo in the UK you could have problems tuning the radio if the frequency ranges and the tuning steps do not match. I know people doing personal imports of cars to the UK from US and Japan have to have the radios recoded or even replaced to make them work here

[vernon.taylor]

Salut

A more general question - what's the max depth behind the dash for the radio?

Thanks

Vernon

[petersracing]

Have you considered a service like UK Forward to Me (http://www.forward2me.com/)? I have no experience of these services but know of people who have used similar services in the US to get items shipped to the UK. Also have you spoken to InPhase Audio directly as they may be able to sort something out for you. Final thought as you are in Australia, are the FM broadcasts the same as the UK or do they follow the US or Japanese conventions? If you buy a stereo in the UK you could have problems tuning the radio if the frequency ranges and the tuning steps do not match. I know people doing personal imports of cars to the UK from US and Japan have to have the radios recoded or even replaced to make them work here

Good points all.

I'll see if I can get a vendor to send me the thing before resorting to the forwarders. As my car has lightweight carpeting etc for sprinting I don't think the radio will be much use so I thought for 40 quid it would make the dash look nicer. Maybe I should just put a CB in the hole instead. When I brought my Esprit over from the UK the radio worked fine but of course it was an older type and therefore more flexible than the current technologies. I'll check.

Thanks

[stugilmour]

Salut

A more general question - what's the max depth behind the dash for the radio?

Thanks

Vernon

Vernon, just going from memory, but I think I would allow about 5" to 6" max clearance without modification of the Plus 2 heater box. Some one with their dash off may be able to confirm, but the measurement is a bit tricky to get as the heater box front is sloped where the radio hole is located. The heater box can be modified to extend clearance a bit, to say about 6.5" to 7.25". I found that even with heater box mods I saw on various archive threads I could not fit a "standard" modern head unit.

Even though the specified mounting depths of currently available head units may be ~7", this typically does not seem to allow for the plugs and wires on the back of the unit. The current DIN standard dimensions "sort of" fit the stock dash cutout for height and width with a little fettling and depending in the bezel configuration. I found the hole a bit large for ideal flit of the DIN mounting sleeve, but the bezel would sort of cover the gap. The DIN standard does not appear to have a mounting depth spec, although I would allow as much as 8" to allow for the plugs, etc., which is way too deep for the Plus 2 without the unit dramatically protruding from the dash.

If you are interested in an alternative, I think I posted some details on the US manufactured unit I eventually used earlier in this thread. The electronics are mounted in the boot, and only a very shallow controller is mounted in the dash, so no issues with clearance. If I knew I was using this unit, I would have had the replacement dash radio cutout made to suit. Same advise if you are selecting a shallow depth unit that uses DIN standard width & height; have the dash cut to DIN standard.

[jeff jackson]

Hi Ian,
Pity this thread was not started in October last year as I was in Adelaide three months, and I could have brought out a InPhase IP 100SSD with me. I have fitted one of these, and I am very happy with it. fits a treat, no mods, and I can play all my music on a 4 Gig SD card. Brilliant.

Jeff 72 +2.

[vernon.taylor]

Salut

Found a radio to suit my needs - a Caliber RMD-266. Cheap at 50? and hopefully reasonable enough sound. I was prepared to spend more for quality but the next step was Parrot, which was more than I wanted to spend. The problem is depth as you know, and only the cheaper multimedia sans CD units are shallow enough.

I'll have to mess around to get it to fit snugly (tape some thin board around the unit?) as the original hole is larger. Anyone know where I could buy a chrome surround to make it look a bit more retro/in place?

Merci

Vernon

[Spyder fan]

Hi Guys,
I believe that this radio will fit no problems at all being just 108mm deep. It looks a little more retro than the Inphase item as well.

Read about it here http://beat-audio.co.uk/BEAT175.html

The trick is to search for a radio that is deckless i.e. has no cd or tape player, there are USA and other market versions of this radio available as well as similar items.


SPECIFICATION
GENERAL
Power Supply Requirements : DC 12 Volts, Negative Ground
Chassis Dimensions : 178 (W) x 107 (D) x 50 (H)
Tone Controls
- Bass (at 100 Hz) : ?10 dB
- Treble (at 10 kHz) : ?10 dB
Maximum Output Power
4x15 watts
Current Drain
- 5 Ampere (max.)

RADIO
For 2 Bands
(Europe)
FM
Frequency Coverage 87.5 to 108 MHz
IF 10.7 MHz
Sensitivity (S/N=30dB) 4?V
Stereo Separation >25dB
MW
Frequency Coverage 522 to 1620 kHz
IF 450 kHz
Sensitivity (S/N=20dB) 36 dBu

[jeff jackson]

One thing to consider that the inphase unit is 40W per channel, has a SD, USB and IPOD inputs. Her in the UK ists areound 40 pounds.
Fits into the dash with no modifications.

I always thought that the depth behind the dash was 4 1/2 - 5 inches max.

Kind regards
Jeff

[vernon.taylor]

Salut

The Caliber has all those functions, too - and 4 x 75 W (music, not RMS). Cost me ?49 - there's a version with Bluetooth, too for an extra ?20.

Piccie:

I'll let you know how it sounds (through rather small 4" speakers, though)

@+

Vernon

[jeff jackson]

way to go Vernon. Looks good that one.
I'm not sure I would want a CD radio now in my daily driver, having stacks of CD's all over the place. (Wifes car is even worse, all over the show).
Load up an 8 gig SD card with all your music on, it's all you need.

Jeff 72+2

[mikealdren]

For those with deeper pockets this has DAB as well!
Caliber RCD277DBT DAB Bluetooth CD/USB/SD

Mike

[vernon.taylor]

Salut Mike

Anything with a CD is too deep. Need to search for 'mechless' or 'multimedia' players. There only seem to be cheap or Parrot units at the mo'. Big player 'multimedia' units are the same depth as their CD offerings.

@+

Vernon

[Shiny_kit]

A word of warning re these solid-state radios - I recently bought one from Ebay, it's a Milion M1001. There is one listed now, but don't bother looking at it, it was a waste of money. OK it was very cheap, but it didn't look right in the car, and it was very sensitive to voltage, to the extent that if the ignition was off (and therefore not charging) the display didn't work, and now it's packed up altogether and doesn't make a sound even though it looks like it's working. I've now bitten the bullet and bought a 1960s Blaupunkt, which arrived today. It looks great, and will look even better once it's in the dash. I just have to wait for the lead to arrive so I can plug my ipod into the din plug on the back before I fit it.

[vernon.taylor]

Salut

The Caliber doesn't sound great on radio - but it is playing through small 4 inch speakers. Haven't tried the aux input yet. I wasn't expecting much, but I was expecting a little bit more.

Can't hear anything cruising with the hood down - and not much cruising with the hood up. To be fair the +2 cabriolet is noisier than the coup?.

Shiny - is this the one from eBay?

@+

Vernon

[rcraven]

Salut Mike

Anything with a CD is too deep. Need to search for 'mechless' or 'multimedia' players. There only seem to be cheap or Parrot units at the mo'. Big player 'multimedia' units are the same depth as their CD offerings.

@+

Vernon

I just had my dashboard renewed by Paul Matty (and they did a good job of it) and whilst they were doing it they fitted this radio / CD which I bought in Halfords. It works well (except it loses its pre-set stations when I turn the battery switch off) and they didn't claim to have had any difficulty fitting it.
http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_storeId_10001_catalogId_10151_productId_801713_langId_-1_categoryId_165474