I want to upgrade the tunes in my 1971 Riviera, but I also want to keep the stock AM/FM/8-track unit. What I was thinking is some sort of "speaker junction box" with a selector switch. Factory stereo and aftermarket stereo or amp would output to this switch. Switch would then go to all four car speakers. I'd be able to switch which source gets connected to the speakers. Does such a thing exist? Or maybe I could make it myself from Radio Shack parts or whatever. Anyone ever tried this? What I was thinking is actually having the "aftermarket" stereo be nothing more than an amp by itself with a line-in input that I can connect my iPod to. So I can switch between factory stereo for AM/FM/8-track or iPod. Thanks for any recommendations or tips!
There are a lot of ways to do this. it depends on if you want to mail order parts or swing by your radio shack. and if your factory radio had 2 or 4 speakers. do you have 4 speakers driven from the factory stereo or two? so you want to be able to turn the amplifier on with the same switch? EDIT: also how is it wired currently? 4 individual circuits to each speaker or do you have the tied together somewhere? nate
I have 4 factory speakers. I don't think I care too much about the amp on/off. If it's always on with car ignition that's fine. I'm up for any solution, mail order or Radio Shack stuff. I did notice that the Blaupunkt amps seem to do what I want. They support multiple inputs, either speaker-level or line-in. I realized one negative with iPod/aux directly into an amp is the volume control isn't very convenient. I suppose I'd have to output from the iPod's headphone output and use the iPod itself for volume control. I suppose one very simple option is FM modulator with factory stereo, but I'm not a big fan of FM sound quality.
the easiest way if all 4 are separate channels would be a 4 pole double throw switch. 4pdt if you search for the semi-technical name. I didnt see it at radio shack. it maybe available at ace however. http://www.acehardware.com/product/...454.2632232.2632332.1259239&parentPage=family if you tie the channels together you could go with a dpdt double pole double throw. this will be at radio shack and most hardware stores. If the amplifiers are on however this may cause a pop at the speakers.
the switches are to be used only on the output side of the amplifiers. assuming you turn them off before switching the input.
the other option is a speaker level to line level converter then run this into a line level switch. nate.
Just discovered the factory radio requires 10-ohm speakers. Is this compatible with speaker-level inputs of a modern amp? Or should I do a line-out converter based on this?
if your factory speakers are gonna be used, you might have a problem since many of them ground the neg wire to the chassis. this type of system does not work with most modern amplification. have you seen the "retrosound" radio that crutchfield sells? its pretty cool. more this afternoon.
No they aren't. Most modern car speakers are 4-ohm. Running these on an old radio will cause it to run very hot and shorten its life drastically.
dont run modern speakers directly from the old radio!! and running the old speakers from a newer radio will choke off half the power and sound like crap(the "crap" sound was engineered into every 10 ohm GM speaker). i would be tempted to replace the speakers with modern ones. then get a radio (my preference would be the premier DEH-P400UB) that can control the newer IPoop AND has another aux-in. run the factory radio into a speaker level to preamp adapter and run that into the premiers aux-in. hook the IPoop into the usb-in on the premier. ad amplifiers if desired.
Do iPods convert sound back to wav files when you listen? I don't think so, and I think FM sound is every bit as good as .mp3 encoded sound with it's 10x compression and all. I recorded a CD full of .mp3 songs, 70 or so on one CD, and it sounded so bad I threw it away. I'll take a CD burned with .wav files (20 songs or so) any day.
In case you aren't aware, iPods can store and play lossless audio formats, either WAV directly or Apple's lossless format (smaller files). And of course there's a lot more options with .mp3 and .aac than default 128k. Variable bit rates and higher bitrates in general sound much better. Please don't assume I'm an idiot.
The speaker thing is easy, no switches needed. Just wire them all up together. Long as only one radio is on at a time.... no problems, its not gonna reverse input the off radio. Could be wrong but don't see it doing anything bad unless both were on at once, then ya might have to much input, if you used a low input o nthe amp, some have hi and low inputs. Ipod stuff would be easy if your 2nd radio is Ipod ready. Actually id get a newer DVD/CD stereo for a 2nd one. That way you can burns giant MP3 DVDs or hook up a vid screen. Near standard now for a car stereo to read dvdd too and be xm/ipod ready. I got one with all that for like $90 a few month back on Ebay.
this also makes a cool smoke machine for your glovebox or dash!! wav files are much better sounding and i have proven it to people time and time again with their own ears (on my home system and with my previous car system)... but with the top down and cruisin 60 mph ... mp3 at 320KBPS is tolerable. i have seen the newer ipoops that do wavs ...kinda nice to have the better option.
