original radio "conversion"

[coupelady]

I have just had the great pleasure of reading the 2012 e9coupe.com thread on which radio was correct for our cars. This feature of the forum is outstanding.

Very good:

SO has anyone converted the radio, maybe keep the original face with modern technology innards? An old friend of mine, who was into Porsche & Ferraris back in the day, suggested D & M Restoration in Greenville, SC as a vendor who does these conversions (blue tooth?). I do love the sound of those triple side draft webers but on a long trip some other "musical sounds" are a good change of pace. Anyone have any experience with doing this or having it done?

Amy

 

[HB Chris]

The digital conversion will lose the correct am/fm scale. I had one done and wasn't impressed, not by them though.

 

[Stan]

I used the period correct Blaupunct Frankfurt but for actual sound, bluetooth Pandora from my iPhone to a Jambox in the back seat.
This essentially gives me a hands-free telephone too

 

[adawil2002]

I have an original non-AC Blaupunkt Frankfurt purchased from a forum member in 2011. I bought a 7-pin connector on ebay that plugs into the back of the radio and that jack is then plugged into a Bluetooth iLive adapter so I can listen to the music on my phone through the car's 5 speakers. Works great and looks 100% stock. The radio does not play actual radio waves.

 

[jmackro]

The radio does not play actual radio waves.

Actual radio waves are so last century.

But, since I'm a last century kind of a guy, I have a Europa II in my coupe. And two (count 'em!) speakers. Admittedly this set-up looks good / sounds poor.

 

[Stevehose]

Original Becker Europa stereo with a bluetooth dongle plugged into the DIN tape adapter from Becker Autosound. Radio works for listening to football games when working on the car, usually I stream Spotify for tunes when not listening to the 3 Webers. I replaced the 4 speakers with modern from Retrosound but kept the original grilles, hid a power amp under the rear seat, sounds pretty good but at least better than before. Looks 100% stock.

 

[bmwmadman]

A post from the past of my install. At the time Blue tooth was not mainstream like today...

http://www.e9coupe.com/forum/threads/period-correct-radio-–-modernized-for-ipod-and-180-watts.3873/

Lots of options to keep things looking stock.
Gary

 

[deQuincey]

IMHO,
and my xperience says that an original radio from the seventies is an amazing and high quality piece of electronics
there is no need to go to modern stuff
a good radio as the frankfurt, munster, both in stereo, or even a humble mono ludwischafen will be very satisfactory
buy it from a reputated seller such as chromelondon that even posts videos of the radio he is actually selling, or others that know their stuff
i run a mono blaupunkt ludwischafen with a manual balance and four infinity speakers, one in the dash, one behind the passenger seat and two at the rear shelf
with an auto antenna radio signal gets into the car powerful and clear (the video below features the radio while the car is in a underground garage)
using the aux seven pin jack i have an input cable for the ipod or phone

final setup



some stuff about installation and so on

http://www.e9coupe.com/forum/threads/my-nos-hirschmann-antenna.17226/

http://www.e9coupe.com/forum/threads/new-integrated-console-for-gauges-and-radio.18777/

and how does it sound ?

pretty well ...

 

[coupelady]

Wow, thank you all! It brings me down memory lane. Back in 1972 we bought a new 2002, I now remember the Blau radio and that the dealer did install it. I guess I will have to come out of the woods of NC at some point and get an iPhone as the flip phone won't do any of these things to get sound for the radio. Seems like a ton of trouble for a few tunes but back in the '70's we really wanted sound with bigger speakers, lots of equipment under the front seat etc...This is cleaner and neater for sure. We have come a long way for sure. I did see the info on the automatic antennas, my 3.0 doesn't have an automatic antenna. It is placed on the rear left side of the deck lid.

 

[ggus]

I keep a portable Bluetooth speaker in the car, thats all I need and its enough.

Sent from my SM-N910P using Tapatalk

 

[TodB]

Ever compare the sound via Bluetooth to one plugged in to the same head via USB? You'll never use Bluetooth again.

 

[Peter Coomaraswamy]

Hi Amy,

I recently put a "Retro-Sound" radio in my Polaris coupe (which is for sale BTW) and with an ipod the sound is really good. It is loud enough with good speakers in the rear shelf and it's cheap and easy to install. It fits into the original space and I think is a good alternative to going overboard with a system in a car that I don't drive much.

 

[coupelady]

SO is the brand name Retro Sound? Would love to hear more about it where it came from, etc. Does it have the 1970's Blau or Becker front?

 

[Stevehose]

try beckerautosound.com if you want a real one modernized:

http://beckerautosound.com/classic-radios/3126819

http://www.mybecker.com/enUK/metanavigation/home/

 

[Peter Coomaraswamy]

Hi Amy,

This is what I used, it's cheap, easy and sounds pretty good. The bass is quite excellent for such an inexpensive unit and they have a gazillion adapters to make it fit in small spaces as you can see from the pictures.
https://www.summitracing.com/parts/..._-retrosound&gclid=CIu07cr9tM8CFQqoaQod69IDZA

I also used these speakers on the rear deck because there were holes cut there by the dealer in London where the car was originally purchased (US Spec).
https://www.amazon.com/Rockford-Fos...F8&qid=1475166196&sr=8-6&keywords=fosgate+6X9

So you are around 200.00 and the convenience of not messing around with too many devices

As others have mentioned there are tons of choices, I only offer this one up as a possible option. My guess is that this unit and speakers will provide sound equal to or better than the original, but after about 100 dead shows my hearing is "suspect".

Good luck