SevenNoOni

I'm on the hunt for a radio for my 71 cutlass, I stumbled across this radio
http://www.vintagecarradio.com/store...oducts_id=2556
I'm not planning to add ridiculous speakers just whatever i can fit into factory spots.. anyhow I realized as I was reading the info about the radio that I don't know crap about radios lol. Anyhow, is this up to par? its 4 channel 50 watt each...all i wanna do is plug in my phone and listen to my music LOL.. real Audiophile stuff! LOL! anyway Opinions? anyone have this radio or similar radios? are they worth the money? I refuse to cut my dash for a radio.. ill relocate it to the glove box if i have to... anyway Opinions appreciated thanks for reading!

ROCKET VAPOR

Do you still have your original radio? If so they can be converted.

72cutlassconv

I had one in my 56 Chevy pickup and honestly for the money you're better off getting a modern radio and installing it in your glove box. Radio reception was crappy, the backlight went out, and at times the radio had a mind of its own. My Cutlass had the dash already cut when I bought it so, I'm gonna go ahead and install a new radio with Bluetooth streaming capability, kickpanels with speaker cut outs up front and 6x9 speakers in the rear and probably an amp and sub.

Finn5033

I went with this retrosound model and am very pleased with it. It looks nice, has plenty of power for some replacement speakers. You don't have to cut out the dash at all and it has two aux. plugs plus a SD card slot. The radio stations come in great too. You can choose different color back plates and ***** depending on what you want it too look like. It is a little more expensive than the one you are looking at but from the research I did before I got mine these are much better.
http://www.retrosoundusa.com/products/category/id/1

oldcutlass

x2

sicky olds

You can do what i did in my rallye and you dont have to hack up anything. hook in some flat mount 6x9's in the rear deck plate (i spent 80 on the pair i use. run those 2 into an amp (55 bucks at wal mart). then for the audio cables that run into the back of the radio, run it into a dual RCA (female) to a headphone jack (male) (both for like 20 bucks). And boom you have sound in your car, just plug in the headphone jack into your phone and that is all you need. Phone has the volume control and if you have a smart phone you can even get a graphic equalizer. Only thing with the amp is make sure to run the lead out into the ignition line or the hot wire. Maybe even a kill switch would work that you can install hidden or something. I just ran my lead out into the hot wire and put my hot wire into a line that only works while the car is running.

I have even put a lil polk audio 8 inch sub that i found in the garage and hooked it in. Screwed the sub and the amp into a carpeted piece of plywood that i had and it sits right in the trunk above the axle. If you are interested more into that let me know. Hope this helps for ya

Lady72nRob71

This radio might be okay, but do not let the power output fool you - it is closer to 20W TOTAL, while sounding garbled.
If you want to jam, get a real 50x4 W RMS amp. The RMS makes a difference - continuous power rather than super peak imaginary power.

If that thing reads memory cards, does it random play? Some do not, making a boring listening session - same songs in a row.

I added a 4x50W and 6 speakers in Lady; the interior makeover thread tells the tale. It is hooked to a 1983 cassette radio but sounds pretty good for what it is.

SevenNoOni

thanks everyone for replying! to answer Rocket Vapor no i do not have the radio. i didnt think about bluetooth hook up from the glovebox good Idea 72cutlassConv. I was only looking at that radio honestly due to it being cheaper.. its actually pretty ugly.. 72cutlass with the bluetooth can you stream music to it via the wireless link or do you still need a wire? (fine either way) Sicky Olds, thats not a bad idea either...Thank you Lady72nRob71, I appreciate the input as i have zero experience with radio specs.. i can hook em up but short of that... lol I'm not sure what i'm going to go with but I'll update you guys once I make the choice.. I just hope whatever i do the radio is loud enough to cover the sound of the car lol.. Anyway Thanks again everyone, very insightful!

MDchanic

As a variation, you can get any modern USB-enabled radio ("head unit" - ha ha ha) and mount it somewhere out of sight (like way up under the dash, or under the seat) and control it with its remote control. You're never going to feed CDs or tapes into it, and you never really need to look at it, so as long as the magic remote beams can get to it, you're golden.

- Eric

dfire25

Alway an option.

72cutlassconv

Bluetooth capable radios will allow for wireless music streaming, hands free phone use, and most will even do pandora.

75cutty455

This radio features:

cadillac kevin

For what you want, I'd get a DIN aftermarket head unit that has about 20 wpc rms or so and has at least one set of line outs in case you want to add an amp or subs later on. I'd mount it under the dash (like dfire posted) and make sure it has a remote. Don't go cheap on a HU, you'll end up regretting it (so no dual, pyramid, pyle, etc). Go for an alpine, kenwood, pioneer, etc. Expect to spend about 140-200 dollars for a respectable one depending on the features you want. I've had kenwood and alpine head units and liked them alot, and I currently have a pioneer double DIN in my caddy. Alpines and pioneers have pretty good tuners.
As for speakers, personally, I'd get a good set of 6.5 or 5.25" components for the front kicks and some 6x9s for the back (do not get the 50 dollar specials....cheap speakers sound bad). You can probably get decent sound out of a set of mid range alpines though (I've got a set of srs alpines and they sound pretty good for the price point- about $100. I've also had kenwood kfc 6.5s that sounded good.) I also suggest the infinity reference line. I had a set of reference components (6.5 and tweeter seperate) and 6.5s and liked them both. For 6x9s, I'd suggest getting a set of mid grade alpines. I do not recommend pioneers (or any of the other super thin plastic coned speakers) for in car use. I've seen alot of them that disintegrated/ shattered due to sun exposure/ heat (typically in the dash/ rear deck)....seems that if you keep them out of the sun (doors, kicks) they do ok.
BTW, you can save some cash by buying used or old stock. I've picked up alot of great quality equipment off craigslist for cheap (but you have to know what you are looking at), and amazon usually has left overs from 1-5 years ago for dirt cheap (so you can get better quality than you could have afforded otherwise.)
And do lots of research. If you find speakers you are thinking about buying, type in the model number and "reviews" or "opinions" on google. Chances are you'll get quite a few hits from people on car audio or automotive forums talking about them. Just remember, people on an audio forum will be alot more critical of a speaker set.

dfire25

My head unit is a Pioneer DEH-X8500BH. It's available at Best Buy for $210, but I found it at Sonic Electronics for $165. It has Bluetooth, HD radio, Pandora, and a rear USB connector for an iPod. I hate having cables laying around so that's why I went with the rear USB connector. I plug my iPod in and tuck it in back and it's out of sight. Nice clean look. I have that mounted in a custom made factory 8-track holder by Randy (W70442).

I used the kick panels that hold the 6.5 speakers from The Parts Place, but I replaced the speakers with Pioneer 120w speakers. The back speakers are Kicker punch 200W 6X9's. I pulled these speakers out of junk cars so I basically got them for free. These speakers are powered by a Pioneer 300W amp I have had for about 25 years.

One thing I did do that made a huge difference is, I purchased a dual cone 4X10 speaker from a seller on eBay and mounted it where the factory mono speaker goes in the dash. I had to fab some mounting brackets because the magnet was much bigger then the factory speaker, but it installed good. I have this powered by the head unit. With the "center" speaker you get a more full sound then just using the other speakers. You convertible guys might want to look into this, it really sounds good.

I set this up and adjusted the settings and I couldn't be happier with the sound! To be honest it probably sounds just as good as my 09 Acadia with the Bose system in it, and my Acadia has a factory sub in it! If you get a good song with a lot of bass, those kickers really move, you sound see those suckers work!

SevenNoOni

thank you everyone for the great information. at the moment I'm leaving towards a head unit in the glove box or someplace else. hadn't thought about an amp before, well look into that. 75cutty455 thanks fir that lesson its very helpful. anyway thanks everyone. also please forgive my typos I'm on my phone waiting on class to start lol

White_Knuckles

Watch out with those little remotes. They are often Infrared not radio transmitters. Meaning, you have to have line of site to the exposed head-unit face to control them. Mounting the head under the seat, dash or glovebox makes for no talky.

Some higher end heads may have the more expensive radio remotes? They make "stealth" heads designed for concealed mounting. Those definitely include RF remotes.

cadillac kevin

The only radio I had with a wireless remote was the old JVC tape deck in my 91 cutlass cruiser (and it was an IR remote). I could point the remote anywhere (including backwards) and it would still work fine.

cjsdad

RMS stand for Root Mean Squared. It is simply the calculation used for the output power. It has absolutely nothing to do with the clarity of that output. The stat you need to pay attention to is the rated power at a specific distortion level, or THD. Total Harmonic Distortion. The radio listed by the OP probably does have 200W output power with a 1Khz signal input (the easiest frequency for electronics to reproduce) and probably 60 to 80% THD. It has been argued that the human ear cannot discern distortion below 10% but I don't believe that. The ear can be trained to detect it. Look for your power rating to have less than 1% THD for good quality sound. An in-dash stereo should have two power ratings listed such as Power Rating: 18W x 4 Max Power Output: 50W x 4 Both are RMS values but the first will be ~.6 THD continuous and the second will be ~10% THD peak power.

If you want the factory original look, you can keep the factory radio and mount a newer unit under the dash. This gives you the best of both worlds. Old look, new sound. A cover plate to hide the newer stereo unit can help with the vintage look as well.

The '71 Cutlass will have two 6X9 cutouts in the rear deck so you can get anything from low budget to true audiophile speakers mounted there, depending on your needs and budget. Most speakers will come with grill covers but you can use factory correct grill covers to maintain the OEM look.

Find a good reputable stereo shop with an old-school installer for more information and options.