Friday 1st June 2012

PH Blog: radio gaga

Harris gets lost in the joys of old radios ... really lost!

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WARNING: You will either need to be over 35 years of age, or very sad, or preferably both, in order to understand this blog.

If you had told a 17-year-old me that, 20 years into the future, he would be searching something called the internet for examples of classic car hi-fi, I suspect he would have scoffed. On a practical level, he wouldn’t have had the foggiest what the interweb was (in many ways he still doesn’t), and the idea of seeking-out crummy old head units would strike him as the pastime of a particularly sad middle-aged man.

Well, here I am fresh from a decent session researching the delights of the Blaupunkt Berlin on eBay Germany, middle-aged, balding and proud.

A tower of Blaupunkt-based joy

One of the great joys of owning old cars is that they force you to interact with in-car media from the time in which they were built. I have three cars with cassette decks and a great stack of old material to use in them. Even though I tell myself I use the cars to enjoy the driving experience, subconsciously I’m sure I actually get withdrawal symptoms from a lack of ZZ Top’s El Loco on compact cassette – and the need to hear an honest 80s hi-fi wheezing at high frequency is the real reason for that particular journey.

I have a slight conundrum just now: two of the three cassette using machines have the correct, original head-units. But the 1986 E28 M5 does not. It has a Blaupunkt Bremen SQR 49, which I think was built around 1990. To the untrained eye it looks right in the cabin, but to me it’s all wrong – sometime in the later 80s Blaupunkt moved from rounded buttons to more geometric shapes, and this one represents the wrong side of that change.

The options are to get over myself (clearly not possible) or search for the correct unit. For me, the definitive head unit for an expensive Porsche or BMW built in 1985/86 is the Blaupunkt Toronto SQR 46. It wasn’t the absolute pinnacle, but it was the most frequently used and did a fantastic job. The trouble is my eyes keep wandering the internet looking at alternatives and trying to figure out what the spec differences are between these exotically named Blaupunkt units. For some reason the Clarions, Aiwas, Panasonics and Sonys never did it for me.

They still fascinate me now as much as they did when I was a kid: spotting a Montreux RDR 49 in a friend’s dad’s E30 when your dad had but a lowly Cambridge SQM 26 was probably a bit like seeing a Premier League footballist on the local club training field. Not knowing anything about the game, I should probably avoid soccer-based similes, but you get the idea. I loved this stuff – still do.

Literally hours spent pondering this kind of thing

Now the Toronto is at the top of my list, but what I’d really like is a Berlin TQR 07. It fits the age perfectly, and would allow me to fulfill a personal dream and fit one of the famous stalks for the full 80s effect. These are worth a few quid nowadays, but it’s money well spent. Ebay Germany is an Aladdin’s cave of 80s car radio memorabilia, and I keep stumbling over stuff I hadn’t heard of before, but the reality is I’m kidding myself if I don’t get a Toronto.

Moving on. Is it acceptable to buy a car purely as a vehicle (pun intended) to home one’s perfect piece of in-car hi-fi? It must be. In which case, I need something from 1991/1992, this way I can justify buying a used Alpine 7618R – the best head unit I ever owned and capable of lifting the humble cassette to unprecedented levels of sonic beauty.

People say that Nakamichi made the very best tape decks for both home and car, but I could never get my hands on one, and once I’d used a 7618R, I couldn’t imagine anything looking, feeling or sounding better. It is the highest quality electrical component I have ever owned. One day in 2001 I couldn’t be bothered to remove my slightly dog-eared example from a Citroen AX GT we were selling and I effectively gave it away. At least once a year the memory of that shocking decision wakes me in the middle of the night.

Now the solution here should be to buy an Alpine 7618R and bolt it into the E28 M5. But that leaves in exactly the same predicament as I am in right now, albeit using the best head unit in the world.

The solution might be to get a 7618R for my W124 cab (a bit too old for the car, but certainly acceptable and cheaper than buying a car as a receptacle for a hi-fi unit), get a Toronto for the E28 and be done with it. But I know I’ll keep looking at Blaupunkt Berlins on ebay.

What is it about this era of DIN-sized stereo equipment? For me it’s the quality, the memories, the looks, the complexity, long wave and access to Now That’s What I Call Music 5.

I’ll get my coat now.

Chris

[hughcam]

It would have to be Nakamichi for me!

[rob.e]

Ha ha.. excellent blog. Yes, I'm over 35 and yes I can remember lusting over a blaupunkt toronto a mate had fitted in his (then new) R5 turbo. Happy days!

[365daytonafan]

Chris I'm not sure if I'm depressed or not that I fit your suggested demographic for this blog perfectly. I clearly remember the Blaupunkt Torontos fitted to the various 928s my Dad ran through formative years. Always a great sound system in those cars.

I also remember having a later Blaupunkt (although the specific model escapes me) in the 1990 944S2 I ran a few years ago. It was a great head unit except it was one of the units that lifted completely out for anti theft purposes. I swapped it for a more modern face off unit just for practicality.

[Lordbenny]

You can keep your Blaupunkt, this was where it was at on Sutton High street!

I present the Pioneer KEX-73 Component....Ok, not as posh as some of the systems but it could push out the house tracks from a Mk5 Cortina and shake the glass in McDonalds....blimey Im showing my age now arn't I....?

Edited by Lordbenny on Friday 1st June 13:33

[PompeyM3]

I couldn't afford to have that quality of stereo in my MK II Escort back in the 80's, so made do with what I could afford and added a graphic eqalizer (with LOTS of lights on !).

Interesting story though, I wonder how many of these units remain......

[ApGt]

Don't forget to get a big window sticker for the rear window advertising your preferred tape deck!

[Chris Harris]

Lordbenny said:

You can keep your Blaupunkt, this was where it was at on Sutton High street!

I present the Pioneer KEX-73 Component....Ok, not as posh as some of the systems but it could push out the house tracks from a Mk5 Cortina and shake the glass in McDonalds....blimey Im showing my age now arn't I....?

Edited by Lordbenny on Friday 1st June 13:33

That's a proper eye-full!

You must have felt cooler than Cameo's cod-piece with that bundle. The 80s were the best.

[LuS1fer]

I still mourn strereos where you knew if you pressed a button, it simply did what it said. Modern units are all b*ll*cks. Mind you, I recall a time when I was wowed by a tape "track by track FF" where it could detect the silent part.

[NotNormal]

Ah yes, another one here that was growing up in the emergence of standard DIN sized units. I was always an aftermarket Kenwood fan as oposed to Alpine, wheras Nakamashi was always way out of reach to a humble student of the time.

I think the standard sized DIN units were also one of the biggest reasons for the increase in theft crime from automobiles and was certainly a question on the sheet as to whether a different head unit had been fitted. All those folk law gold stories of putting units in the freezer to wipe codes etc, in addition of removable faces that you used to carry around in a little plastic box, then onto flip faces etc. Ah those were the days

Nowadays I really love to see older cars with their original factory fitted units, probably more so knowing that during that era most were ripped out for better aftermarket units so it's rare to see original nowadays.

Yes the one in my LC (as below) is pretty crap when it comes to sound quality when compared to todays cars but I just love seeing it sitting in the dash as a reminder of what was deemed in those years as a pretty decent unit. Just all adds to the character of the car in my view when you get behind the wheel and reminds us of how things move so quickly in the automotive world.




The all-in-one incorporated units in todays cars is a world away from the 90's DIN fun and games. Shame, but I can understand why.

[Parabola]

Fantastic stuff.

Anyone know what would likely have been original kit in my 1983 E23 735i? It's fitted Panasonic unit looks well, but bugs me that it's not what BMW intended!

[Will1602]

A car from 91/92 to fit that head unit? Surely it has got to be a Lotus Carlton.

PS I was alive in the 80s, only just but all this makes sense to me. Especially spending inordinate amounts of time on German eBay (I think approximately 50% of the time I am awake). This must mean I am very sad... and proud!

[davepoth]

Chris Harris said:

That's a proper eye-full!

You must have felt cooler than Cameo's cod-piece with that bundle. The 80s were the best.

I just spat out my tea.

[wiliferus]

My mum had that very Alpine unit in her W124 Merc 230E. Produced a lovely sound in its day. Possibly made me into the Alpine slut that I am today

[tobinen]

I had a decent Alpine in an old Mk2 Astra SR I had, much like the picture in the article but I never had a remote control. Great head unit.

Mate had a Nakamichi set-up in his Volvo 340, probably near the value of the car at the time IIRC.

[thinfourth2]

I still have 2 of these



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empeg_Car for those that haven't got a clue what it is

But you may just of owned what he is doing just now

http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/sci/dcs/magazine/art...

Edited by thinfourth2 on Friday 1st June 15:03

[MarJay]

No Problem, Miller. If you let the Mayor go, we'll even throw in a Blaupunkt!

[NotNormal]

Will1602 said:

A car from 91/92 to fit that head unit? Surely it has got to be a Lotus Carlton.

Indeed, in fact the Lotus Carlton/Omega's had two different units during production. As my car is a later model it was fitted with the Grundig 4870 Radio/Cassette and 10 disc changer in the boot whereas cars with build number up to 800 were fitted with the Blaupunkt CDP09 CD Player & Blaupunkt Memphis Radio/Cassette all in the dash.

[Itsallicanafford]

....have the correct clarion tape deck in my 1994 mx-5, love listening to tapes as they force you to listen to the whole album and not skipping tracks constantly as with cd's, iPods etc....but i will also only listen to tapes released during 1994, which might be taking things abit far (although, this was a great year, the bends, what's the story, the great escape, it's great when you are straight etc etc...)

[Chris Harris]

NotNormal said:

Indeed, in fact the Lotus Carlton/Omega's had two different units during production. As my car is a later model it was fitted with the Grundig 4870 Radio/Cassette and 10 disc changer in the boot whereas cars with build number up to 800 were fitted with the Blaupunkt CDP09 CD Player & Blaupunkt Memphis Radio/Cassette all in the dash.

Now we're getting into decent geek territory. Good stuff.

[mk1matt]

Chris Harris said:

Lordbenny said:

You can keep your Blaupunkt, this was where it was at on Sutton High street!

I present the Pioneer KEX-73 Component....Ok, not as posh as some of the systems but it could push out the house tracks from a Mk5 Cortina and shake the glass in McDonalds....blimey Im showing my age now arn't I....?

Edited by Lordbenny on Friday 1st June 13:33

That's a proper eye-full!

You must have felt cooler than Cameo's cod-piece with that bundle. The 80s were the best.

I bought one of these from a friend back in '97. His dad had it in a 5 series of some description before replacing it with a CD player. It went in my humble Fiat Uno 45, hooked up to more speakers than I care to remember.