Pure nostalgia: In car entertainment 1980s style

[Derventio]

Just been sent a link to this. Some may find it interesting, or nostalgic. Just look at the prices!

https://issuu.com/retromash/docs/argos-no21-1984-s...

[Derventio]

I remember the 1990 Carlton CDX 2.6 estate I had was fitted with two Blaupunkt units. One was the cassette and radio, the other was a CD player and graphic equaliser. It also had no less than 10 speakers dotted around it. It was by far and away the best stereo I'd ever had up until that point.

Come to think of it, the whole car was pretty damn good for something with a griffin on the front.

[Derventio]

4rephill said:

All this talk of Blaupunkt, Alpine, Pioneer and such like - Pah!

The first car stereo I ever bought: An Audioline 426 for the win!



If I remember correctly, it pumped out something like a whopping 12 watts RMS (advertised as 25 watts peak to peak!), and the graphic equalizer mean't infinite sound adjustment, from tinny transistor radio sound, right the way to tinny transistor radio sound with a bit more bass!

Oh wow, that brings back great memories. I had one of those in my MK4 Cortina! My mates and I used to cruise around playing Jan Hammer, Escape from Television. Feeling (if not looking) dead cool. That was the stereo that was playing when I had my first proper snog.

It was also the stereo that played Iron Maiden, Live after Death at full volume as I indulged in a spot of what we used to call "Broadsiding", or what the youngsters now call drifting.

I bought a Saisho for the Renault 18 1.4 GTL that followed the Cortina. It was dead posh with electric front windows and and actual sliding sunroof! It was that car that taught me all about lift off oversteer!

Edited by Derventio on Monday 7th February 08:38

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bristolracer said:

I remember the cheaper units not being able to rewind. They only had a Fast Forward button.
I think the cheap ones only had one drive spool for the cassette so the tape could only ever run one way.
When you wanted to play your favourite tune again you had to flip the cassette over fast forward for a bit, flip it back over and hope you had gone far enough.

That Argos catalogue is amazing, I didn't realize that you could choose one of 5 different types of electric bread knife or so many choices when buying a lighter for the smokers in your family.
Not much ethnic diversity amongst the models in there!

The Argos catalogue is a good snapshot of a part of UK life at any given moment, I reckon. I'm pretty sure some of the shots used for 1980s shower screens wouldn't be allowed today!

[Derventio]

alex.baker89 said:

LotusOmega375D said:

What about the ubiquitous cassette holder? Standard fitting on the LHD Lotus Omega, but not on the RHD Lotus Carlton.



My parents had a 1979 1275 GT Mini with a huge array of modular Clarion separates on the dashboard: self seeking radio, cassette player, sound control panel and two amplifiers. The only part missing was the graphic equaliser. It filled most of the huge gap to the left of the instrument binnacle. The rest was taken up by a car phone, in a Mini, in 1979!

Bit of a thread revival a year too late....

The space where the cassette holder usually goes on the Carlton / Senator was sometimes fitted with a Blaupunkt CDP 08, which was paired up to a Blaupunkt Memphis SQR 88. A family member had a Carlton (I think it was a Diplomat), which had this dealer fitted. The LC's mostly came with these fitted as well. I think towards the end of the Carlton's life, they started fitting Grundig single DIN units in the dash and 10-disc changers in the boot. That's what my 1993 Senator had in it anyway.

I remember my 1990 Carlton 2.6 CDX estate having that double Blaupunkt setup. I seem to recall that the rearmost speakers were actually mounted in the tailgate and got smashed up when loads moved in the rear. That was easily in my top five most comfortable cars.