E.Murray

After almost 3 years of work, I'm finally on the interior of my '68. I'm building a pretty decent stereo for it with nice speakers, a sub, and a 5-channel amp (I'll do a full write-up when finished). I finally went to hook it all up and the Custom Autosound headunit that came in the car is junk. Apparently, most of them were. So now I have yet another purchase to ponder.


Option 1: Retrosound headunit. Looks original (-ish) but has all the modern internals and connections. But it's $400. The rest of the interior is "vintage" so a modern radio would stand out. But it's $400...
Option 2: Modern headunit. With this, I can get all kinds of audio goodies (parametric eq, time-alignment, crossover settings) for around $200. Why spend an extra $200 for a Retrosound that won't sound as good?


The audiophile in me loves option 2. I could take the stereo from just loud and clear, to loud and beautiful. But I dislike the look. So here's the question. Pay attention .
I've tied up waaaay more than I intended in the car in time and money. It's probably going up for sale when I'm finished. So I'm looking for opinions. Yes, I know it's my car. Yes, I know everybody is different. What I want to know is what you would prefer if you were looking at a non-numbers-matching '68 with everything underhood being "incorrect" and the interior being a mix of '68 - '72 parts. Would you prefer a radio that looks stock or does a modern headunit not bother you?
This is purely personal opinion, here. Let 'em fly.

NONN37

Ive seen people leave their original deck in the console and put their headunit in the back or in the sub enclosure they build. You can use a remote or just use the bluetooth all the time.

7T1vette

Go with option 2...as long as you don't have to cut up the gauge bezel to install it. Otherwise, find a defunct 1970-76 Corvette radio ($50-100 for non-working unit) and have it retrofitted with new 'guts' giving you the same "goodies" as option 2.

riverracer au

i had a custom auto(crap)sound unit. binned.
then i bought a 600$ unit that most of the good vendors sell, it's still in there for looks.
ended up buying a kenwood bluetooth amp, KAC-M1824BT, and hid it up where the original convector/amp was mounted.
plays my music from my note8 and galaxy s8 perfectly.

DUB

If my customer is not 'married ' to having to save an original part. But still wants teh radio to look stock... I send out original radio (if it is still looks good)...and have the guts ripped out and upgraded with all the new goodies.

Granted most of my customers are not going crazy with seriously powerful amplifiers and huge speakers and all the gizmos that it can have. They just want a good quality sound with the opportunity to be able to play there own music and have it be 4 channel.

DUB

F4Gary

I'd buy the gauge cluster bezel that accepts a DIN radio and just go modern.

E.Murray

To the people who suggested finding an original and having it retrofitted, I have a few questions. First, who does that work? Do you have a place you'd recommend?
Second, what does that include? Just the same dial tuner and push buttons, but new internals or is it actually a modern digital radio/display with the adjustments and such hidden?
Third, what kind of cost are we talking? I found out that Retrosound (which looks good as far as I can see) has an option with Bluetooth and all the connections for less than $300. If my total cost in the other options is higher, I'm just going Retrosound and calling it done.

Dynra Rockets

I went with the retrosound basic unit. I think it was $179 on Amazon plus another $20 something for the Corvette specific faceplate/*****. Looks really close to factory.

Willforce71

Hi DUB, Do you have the name of a vendor that will do this mod? It is something I have been thinking about myself.

DUB

Here is who I use and have had great results.

http://garytayman.com/

DUB