Radio options

[1969stepside]

My 69 dash has not been cut and i want to put in a radio in my truck. I have the kick speakers. should i cut it and put a unit in or do a retro one? opinions pictures any help would be welcomed. also any band to buy or stay away from.

[Dan-K]

I ponied up and bought a Retro Sound head unit for mine , lasted about six months and crapped out .

[truckster]

Don't cut! You will likely regret it.

[CAMAROBOY68SS]

I have a retro sound slidebar, about 2 years and its still working great. I also have a little Bose minilink bluetooth speaker that I sometimes take and works great as well. I mainly have it for my 68 Camaro as its an all original car and I wont replace the AM radio in it.

[DDassow01]

Don't cut it. I had a Retrosound Hermosa for 3 years and then last spring it just died. I found the Rockville Bluetooth Amp P20 on Amazon and love it. I got an old non working AM radio and put it in the dash for the look but everything is run from the phone.

[1970cstblazer]

IMHO, you can't beat the look of the OEM AM/FM radio.

This one is pretty authentic to the original 1970-72 factory radio.



https://www.ebay.com/itm/25444788682...yABEgINh_D_BwE

[1969stepside]

Originally Posted by DDassow01

Don't cut it. I had a Retrosound Hermosa for 3 years and then last spring it just died. I found the Rockville Bluetooth Amp P20 on Amazon and love it. I got an old non working AM radio and put it in the dash for the look but everything is run from the phone.

how did you install this?

and do you not have a head unit?

[DDassow01]

No head unit. I put the amp in the glovebox and ran speaker wires, power, ground to it. When it starts, it connects to Bluetooth on my phone. I run the SiriusXM app and can adjust the volume on the phone. My buddy did it in his Jeep Scrambler too and it works great.

[70cst]

Originally Posted by truckster

Don't cut! You will likely regret it.

Agreed 100%

Once it's cut you really can't undo it...

[70cst]

Another thought ... with a 402BB and my truck isn't the quietest ... I bought a 71 AM-FM (before they got expensive) and had it refurbished for looks.

But there are other good ideas here.

[DDassow01]

I wanted to do the converted AM/FM radio with the Bluetooth but they are pricey. Gary Tayman does converted stock radios and has a great reputation.

Howard Foulds does excellent restorations of stock radios but won't do conversions.

[1969stepside]

https://www.classiccarstereos.com/19...o-usa-630.html

https://www.classiccarstereos.com/19...ck-radios.html

what about these as an option

[dagnabbitt]

No need to cut, please do not cut. So many wireless and bluetooth options available now it's actually pretty cool what I have seen people come up with.

I have a double DIN head unit in my glove box, works great, but for future I will be going with some of the suggestions above.

[cj847]

I have one of the custom autosound radios A230. It looks fine but I can't recommend it.

My plan is to leave it in the dash for looks and get a modern unit in the glovebox or in an under-dash console.

Things to think about:
1) What do you listen to? A lot of people listen to amazon or pandora. In that case you don't need a radio, just a blue tooth adapter and amp. I prefer to also have local radio stations, so I prefer a receiver.
2) If you go blue tooth. I don't think any of the bluetooth adapters/amps contain preamps (hope someone corrects me on this). So, all you can adjust is volume (no bass, treble, etc).

[MARKDTN]

I would take a stock AM radio and have it Aurora converted. You can have the best of both worlds-stock look and modern insides. You can do amp outs if you wish but they have plenty of power. You can get Bluetooth compatible, USB in, there are many options. I do not have much use for the Custom Autosound of today. They used to take Pioneer and Kenwood radios and make them so they fit stock openings but those days are long gone.

[dmjlambert]

I am going for a modified version of what DDassow01 talks about. I have to fix my cut dash first in order to complete it. I have a working AM radio and I'm going to put the radio and new speaker in the dash to return it to 100% working factory configuration. Then, for most of my listening I already have under the seat a bluetooth compatible amp and 4 ea. 6.5 inch round speakers installed in custom wooden boxes. Amp in the middle, and speakers under the seat on driver and passenger side facing forward and up. Sounds like music is coming from everywhere, very solid and clear sound. 8 inch subwoofer in a custom wooden box is sitting in the corner where the jack normally is, and jack is in my toolbox in the bed. No modification to the truck except to run power wires. I thought long about this and went this direction because I didn't want any modern aftermarket junk in the dash (or really anywhere else in the truck) that is just going to quit working after a few months.

[HO455]

I can vouch for the Gary Tayman conversion. I've got over 50k miles on mine. Mostly driving around town so most of the miles are not on the highway so that's more minutes of playing per mile.

Here is a link to my installation and how I overcame the DIN hack job previously inflicted on my Burban. Scroll to post 291.

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...698377&page=12

[68 C10 Driver]

I too looked for a radio to install in my truck. I wanted the abiility to listen to my SiriusXM stations and have the ability to have a USB drive or iPod with my tunes as well. I chose to go with the Custom Autosound USA740, it also has RCA jacks if I wish to later install an amp, but with 300 watts, it is all I need for now.

[dmjlambert]

Originally Posted by 68 C10 Driver

I too looked for a radio to install in my truck. I wanted the abiility to listen to my SiriusXM stations and have the ability to have a USB drive or iPod with my tunes as well. I chose to go with the Custom Autosound USA740, it also has RCA jacks if I wish to later install an amp, but with 300 watts, it is all I need for now.

That looks nice. Can you tell us a little about it? Does the orange needle move across the face as you tune in stations, do the buttons work by tuning in a station and pull the button out and push back in to program it? Does it switch to a different dial face for FM? Are the connections for aux and usb in the back?

[Casper42]

Aside from OEM Custom Auto Sound is the only way to go. Unlike Retrosound, you get correct black buttons instead of cheap-o chrome and you get the slidebar, instead of a decal to get the factory look AM radio.

The slidebar is simply a flapper that pushes up an oldschool AM radio dial, which is completely static. Even if the radio is on, there will not be any light to illuminate it. the sole illumination comes when you flip the slidebar to show the (inverted) pic.

[dmjlambert]

Is it Custom Autosound or Retrosound that has the static face that looks like a dial but doesn't actually work? Or both? That would be a deal breaker for me, I need to see the needle moving to different stations, and button push to make the needle move to a preset station. I don't need any digital display.

[custom10nut]

I went with the Custom Autosound unit, and have had it for about five years.
One option I wish I had is Bluetooth capability.
I do use my iPhone with the AUX cord to listen to SiriusXM, but have to periodically switch out the cord to charge the phone.
If someone knows a hook up that would charge while I’m all ears.
I think my only solution will be to get a Bluetooth capable unit.
For the rest of my system, I have a small ATV amp in the Console, hooked to two 4x10 speakers, each under the front edge of the seat.
The speakers in the front (two 4 inch speakers up in the dash, and two mounted under the dash) are hooked to the regular speaker jacks on the unit.
The system isn’t going to win any stereo contests, but I like it.

[cericd]

Originally Posted by Casper42

Aside from OEM Custom Auto Sound is the only way to go. Unlike Retrosound, you get correct black buttons instead of cheap-o chrome and you get the slidebar, instead of a decal to get the factory look AM radio.

The slidebar is simply a flapper that pushes up an oldschool AM radio dial, which is completely static. Even if the radio is on, there will not be any light to illuminate it. the sole illumination comes when you flip the slidebar to show the (second) pic.

lil' help

[dmjlambert]

Originally Posted by custom10nut

I went with the Custom Autosound unit, and have had it for about five years.
One option I wish I had is Bluetooth capability.
I do use my iPhone with the AUX cord to listen to SiriusXM, but have to periodically switch out the cord to charge the phone.
If someone knows a hook up that would charge while I’m all ears.
I think my only solution will be to get a Bluetooth capable unit.
For the rest of my system, I have a small ATV amp in the Console, hooked to two 4x10 speakers, each under the front edge of the seat.
The speakers in the front (two 4 inch speakers up in the dash, and two mounted under the dash) are hooked to the regular speaker jacks on the unit.
The system isn’t going to win any stereo contests, but I like it.

All you would need to do is hook up a bluetooth receiver to the aux input and you will have bluetooth instead of aux, or in addition to aux. I have a power amp that I connected one of these bluetooth receivers to. When I start the truck, it connects to my iphone. If I disconnect the bluetooth on my iphone, the aux input on this board is forwarded to the output of the board and goes into the amp. Something happened to the listing on Amazon for this, but this appears to be the offering of the device from the manufacturer's website. There are other brands, some auto connect, and some you need to go into bluetooth settings each time and manually connect.
https://www.droking.com/Audio-Stereo-Receiver-Board

[1972CheyenneSuper]

Holley/Brothers has this unit on sale currently for $245.

https://www.holley.com/products/inte.../parts/CS0SB72