OE Stereo rewire

Hi All,

Just wondering if any of you electronics guru's knew if it were possible to wire in a 3.5mm input into the amp of the OE stereo? By removing the tape output to the amp and soldering in perhaps?

Then it would look old but play new

On the way to completion





Should have oe look but with ipod dock. Not sure if it will be 3.5mm or powered ipod plug yet.

[BIG_MVS]

Nice one Jon, make sure you do a nice "how to" as I'm sure others would be interested to convert theirs Unless however you are using a "man" to do it for you

Really cool idea. I might be tempted to put my original back in for that full on 80's retro feel if it worked.

I admire your pluck and courage amongst other things, but wouldn't it be easier to use one of these? No offence.

http://caraudiosecurity.com/shop/produc ... /9495.html

[mettersl]

I've never managed to get good sound quality with one of those, and Jon is a musician.....

I must confess here it's not my handy work. As you say being a musician sound is important to me- that includes most importantly in an Alpine the engine and exhaust note but sometimes it's nice to kick back....

Anyway I have a vintage hifi and found this ex BBC engineer who serviced that for me- I mentioned this pipe dream and he's been investigating.

Does anyone have the display unit to hand? Could you post a pic of the back of it for me? He would like to see the connections.

I will of course keep you posted and am trying to persuade him to offer this to all of you as it'll be a great thing i think to keep more of the cars oe. If not then i'm sure he'll allow me to post details of how it's done. He thinks that the system is great by the way in engineering terms!

Cheers

Jon

I must confess here it's not my handy work. As you say being a musician sound is important to me- that includes most importantly in an Alpine the engine and exhaust note but sometimes it's nice to kick back....

Anyway I have a vintage hifi and found this ex BBC engineer who serviced that for me- I mentioned this pipe dream and he's been investigating.

Does anyone have the display unit to hand? Could you post a pic of the back of it for me? He would like to see the connections.

I will of course keep you posted and am trying to persuade him to offer this to all of you as it'll be a great thing i think to keep more of the cars oe. If not then i'm sure he'll allow me to post details of how it's done. He thinks that the system is great by the way in engineering terms!

its Philips isnt it? i think alot of peope underestimate them. Philips are thr reason we all had video and CD apparently they pioneered the technology....back in the day.

Cheers

Jon

I must confess here it's not my handy work. As you say being a musician sound is important to me- that includes most importantly in an Alpine the engine and exhaust note but sometimes it's nice to kick back....

Anyway I have a vintage hifi and found this ex BBC engineer who serviced that for me- I mentioned this pipe dream and he's been investigating.

Does anyone have the display unit to hand? Could you post a pic of the back of it for me? He would like to see the connections.

I will of course keep you posted and am trying to persuade him to offer this to all of you as it'll be a great thing i think to keep more of the cars oe. If not then i'm sure he'll allow me to post details of how it's done. He thinks that the system is great by the way in engineering terms!

Cheers

Jon

Afraid mine's still in the car acting as a clock and earth connection for my new stereo... I have a feeling that the connection to the main unit from the display is a DIN plug... could be wrong, though.

I've never managed to get good sound quality with one of those, and Jon is a musician.....

Fair enough, it was just a suggestion, though the one I have fitted in my Alfa 156 sounds fine when it is relaying my iPod tunes!

Have you checked to see if the iPod was at full volume? When at full volume the sound quality of the iPod improves. Having said that the sound quality is also affected by the size of the file that is being played, a 128kbps file is smaller than a 320kbps file but is very much inferior to the sound generated by the 320kbps file. All the files on my iPod are 320kbps as I have a 120gb version and it has loads of room for files, it currently has over 300 cd’s on it and it is not even at 60% capacity. Just a couple of ideas!

Does anyone have the display unit to hand? Could you post a pic of the back of it for me? He would like to see the connections.

Jon, you might have to be a little careful here, there are, to my knowledge, two OE types of radio fitted to our Alps, and from what I can see from your pics, the one you have is the early one which has a more complicated display than the later. Below is a pic of the later one in bits laid out, and you will see that the whole set design is different, the display on that one (no pic, sorry) has only a display window which will show either the time or frequency, where as the older one has some controls on it as well..... they can`t be mixed.
On the back of mine (later one) there is a din cable link to the main cube, and also a three pin connector, 12v switched, 12v permanent, and an earth.
Also below I have included a circuit of the later radio showing all the external connections which may or may not be of help to your guy.

I have the original version (1986 GTA). I'd really be interested in a solution as I've currently got a single DIN unit in purely as it's got a 3.5mm jack for my iPhone. Would be nice to go back to an OE look.

As a matter of interest I have not tried to do any mods on these OE radios, but I have tried everywhere to get hold of a Service Manual for this set with full circuit diagrams, but to no avail.
My set is impossible to operate with the unit opened up, therefore without the circuit diagrams it would be very difficult to find your way around them.
It does look like, however, the older unit is more "getatable" according to Jon`s pics. I wish you luck with the mod Jon.

ah-ha!

Thanks for all this- anyone got a pic or two of the early one? Top and bottom units?

JohnC i'll pass those on- thanks!!

- anyone got a pic or two of the early one? Top and bottom units?

......any good to you Jon.