Radio help

[Guest]

I bought me a new radio on e-bay, and I need some help with the wiring. I am currently using a pontiac Grand Prix CD radio, but I now have a cd changer, so I bought me one of the newer GM cassette radios off of ebay. The last time that I was at a junkyard, I got the plug that goes into it to compare it to the one that is in my car (1988 Olds Cutlass Supreme). MOST of the wires are the same, but there are 3 that are differant. I was wondering if anybody has a wiring diagram of the radio that they could send me.

 

This is the radio:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=6774&item=1872293258&rd=1

 

I need to know about the other plug in the back. I am beginning to think that it is for the external CD player (this is from a truck). In the CD Pontiac CD player (same as the Olds cassette with EQ), there is a 7 pin plug that has the output for the display of the Auto Climate control. Do I still use that plug, or is that for the external CD player. I need to know where the power antenna goes, and the dimming for the displays. I as o need to know where the wire goes for the steering wheel controls.

 

taylor

[Guest RedCutlassSL]

why would you want an oem deck? there horrible. Pioneer, Blaupunkt (which I have) are among the best.

[GnatGoSplat]

Here you go. These pinouts are from a 99 Silverado radio, but it looks identical to the one you've got.

[Guest]

Thank you Shawn. Actually, the newer radios have a very good sound quality. Also, I do not want to use a custom stereo because my car is a din and a half radio, and in most cases, I think that a 1 din radio in that hole looks bad. I like the way the stock radio looks, I have replaced all of my speakers with Pioneer and the rear speakers are powered by a Jenson 600 watt, 4 channel amp. I also do not want to dish out the extra bucks for a custom radio seeing that I bought this one off of ebay for $30, and I am used to my steering wheel controls, and do not want to lose them (and do not want to pay the big bucks for the adapter to make them work with a custom radio).

 

Taylor

[Guest]

Oh, and Shawn, there are differances. I needed the wiring diagram to be sure, but (so far) 4 wires are differant. I will not know the rest until the radio gets here (hopfully by wednesday).

 

Taylor

[Guest TurboSedan]

why would you want an oem deck? there horrible. Pioneer, Blaupunkt (which I have) are among the best.

 

i gotta agree on that one. i have a Pioneer 1.5 DIN and it matches my CS digital dash VERY nicely. i fricking love how it looks in my dash and it sounds awesome. i am getting the steering wheel with controls tomarrow and would gladly pay for the adapter than go with some boring OEM stereo. Taylor, i'm kind of surprised - you've done all these kick-ass upgrades to your interior but want an OEM radio? i don't get it. i'm not a big stereo buff but i think your missing out here.

joshua

[GnatGoSplat]

I agree that aftermarket is better, but if you're going aftermarket, why bother with a 1.5 DIN? Pioneer and Alpine's 1.5-DIN selections are several years old and have not been updated since 1998 or something like that. They don't offer hardly any more features than a factory deck. They're not flush either, as they stick out like an aftermarket (and so does my factory CD player too). For less money, you can get a 2002-model 1-DIN with organic EL, built-in EQ, plays MP3 CD's, and supports tons of new features like CD-Text and XM radio control. If you want to fill the hole completely, just get a 1/2-DIN EQ.

[LukeZ34]

I was once on Taylor's side with this issue.. then I bought my Pioneer (same as Joshua's).

 

What I was trying to do was to use my factory head unit to control mulitple amps without using one of those shitty line level converters. The way I did this was by getting my hands on a Bose Tuner/amplifier part of a delco Stereo. This gave me the preamp outputs that I needed to run directly to my EQ, and then from the EQ to the amps I had. Needless to say, it worked quite well, and sounded damn nice. All that I think it really needed was a good line driver, and it would have been almost perfect. But then I heard XM radio, and decided that I wanted to get that one of these days (still don't have it), and went out and got a Pioneer head unit, (found it new online for $110 too ). The pioneer gives me more flexibility with the sound system, and along with my EQ, I can make it sound exactly how I want it.. and that's all I really want, lol

Keep in mind, all of that took place in the lumina. I didn't want an aftermarket deck sticking out from the dash and looking like it wasn't supposed to be there. The factory deck actually fit the look of the car and worked quite well.. The pioneer deck fit the space quite well too (better than the cutlass). There's a gap on the top of the radio where the cutty's trim peice doesn't quite cover up the radio bezel. I'll figure out that this summer though..

[Guest]

People are more likely to break into your car if you have a custom radio than a factory one. I need a cassette player, not a cd player. Besides, I have yet to see ANY aftermarket radio that I like the way it looks, with the exception of ONE, but I am not going to pay $300+ for it. I am just too cheap for that. I like the way this radio looks, I like the way that it sounds, and I am HONESTLY more interested in doing the motor than the interior or a stereo. The only reason that i put in what I have is because I blew all of my original speakers (they were the original ones that came with the car). The only reason that I put in the amp on the rear speakers is because I got some NICE 6x9's and they did not sound right. Once the amp was in, it was fine. I like it how it is, and if this new radio does not work, then I will be putting the factory Grand Prix radio back in until I can get me and Oldsmobile EQ radio (the factory cassette for 1989).

 

Taylor

[GnatGoSplat]

Cassette! Can you still get those?

 

It's time you moved into the 90's with a CD head unit.

[Guest]

Wow.....All I asked for was a simple wiring diagram not a freaken sales pitch. Thanks to Shawn for answerering my question....But as for CD's...Well I have bunch of those, thats what the Multi disc changer is for. But I have many tapes that really cannot be replaced. I need a tape deck, this is the one I want, and now I got it. I'm sorry all of you don't aprrove, not that I was asking...Not that I care.... When I do care, I'll let you all know.

[Brian P]

Cassette! Can you still get those?

 

It's time you moved into the 90's with a CD head unit.

 

Believe it or not, my dad's 2002 Grand Prix has the cassette! I think at this point in time they're better off just putting an "aux in" input there, because most people would just use the cassette adaptor to use their portable CD player. Anyway, the mid 90's-current GM stereos sound a lot better than they used to, but when comparing my dad's stereo to my entry level Alpine unit, the Alpine molests the shit out of the GM then cuts it up to little pieces and eats it. :shock: But for stock, GM is putting some of the best units in their cars. Chevrolet ones has an "organic" display equivalent to the Monte Carlo (multi-character display, you know) driver info center, Olds ones are made by Bose, Buick is using the Monsoon sound usually seen in F bodies. Pontiac is still a little behind but the sound is nothing to laugh at really. You're just limited when you want to go all out on your system, but I among others don't want to invest thousands in a stereo because $ can be used for other more useful things, like a camshaft etc. It's all about what you're interested in. Anyway, enough :yak:

[GnatGoSplat]

Now who can tell me where to get a good 8-track player?

[Brian P]

I got your 8 track right here

[Jeorge]

Now who can tell me where to get a good 8-track player?

 

dont dis the track baby

 

I have one in my 78 lincoln and it doesnt even eat tapes works Great!!!!

 

Heck its even a QUADRA SONIC 8 Track player woohoo....

[Jeorge]

Now who can tell me where to get a good 8-track player?

 

 

 

Heck its even a QUADRA SONIC 8 Track player woohoo....

 

 

and for you young punk kids that dont know what that is.....

 

with a quadra sonic tape you get 4 different sounds one out of each speaker its awsome to listen to leadzep like that...or pink FLOYD.....simply awsome

[GnatGoSplat]

Hahah, yeah, I remember quad. Not personally, but my dad had some old mint condition 1970's stereo equipment and had all the manuals. One was a catalog of the "Fisher" brand product lineup, and they had many quadraphonic receivers.

 

Think this will work in my Cutlass?

http://home.swipnet.se/~w-49476/57.htm

[NORBI]

I reffer tape decks in a car over a CD player. I have a 6 CD changer in dash in my 02 Mustang Gt and i hate it i wish i had a tape deck because then i can connect my portable CD/MP3 player and can listen to tapes, CDs and MP3 thats why i bought a JVC tape for my 88 CS and wish i had one in my GT.

[Jeorge]

Hahah, yeah, I remember quad. Not personally, but my dad had some old mint condition 1970's stereo equipment and had all the manuals. One was a catalog of the "Fisher" brand product lineup, and they had many quadraphonic receivers.

 

Think this will work in my Cutlass?

http://home.swipnet.se/~w-49476/57.htm

 

that would be awsome for my lincoln I have some 45's sitting around....Im sure it would I think they work off FM modulator like the old add on 8 tracks.....

do you have the model number??

[GnatGoSplat]

You guys and your antiques!

Copy your shit to CD's already!

Random access to your tunes is the way of... oh, 15-yrs ago when I got my 1st CD player Christmas of '87!!!

j/k, to each his own, but I personally hate antique formats.

I personally can't wait till VHS dies and we can all replace our VCRs with DVD-recorders. For me cassette died when I replaced all my prerecorded cassettes with CD's in the early 90's and mix tapes with MiniDisc in 1995. Now that MP3 CD's are so handy (170 tracks on 1 CD) and play on my computer, my DVD players, and my car stereos, that's what I have most of my tunes on these days.

 

BTW, I was j/k about the 45rpm record player in the car. Nothing beats yanking out the passenger seat and installing a good reel-to-reel tape player!

 

Did they ever make a victorola for cars? I challenge someone to find a pic of one! For those who don't know, victorola is phonograph that has no speakers but instead has a cone to amplify the sound - what the RCA dog is listening to. If they ever put one in a car, it was probably in the 1920's.

[Brian P]

How the hell do you get 170 tracks on one CD? Am I missing something?>?!

[GnatGoSplat]

How the hell do you get 170 tracks on one CD? Am I missing something?>?!

 

Are ya stuck in the 90's? Get with the 00's! j/k.

 

What you do is burn an MP3 CD-R or CD-RW. You either download MP3 tracks and/or entire albums that you want, or you can convert your CD collection to MP3's. MP3 is a compressed audio format that uses perceptual coding to do a fixed-rate compression. The compression ratio can actually be anything you choose - less compression = better sound quality. Most MP3's that you download are 10:1 or 12:1 (about 128kbps). There's variable rate compression too, but that's beside the point. So an audio track that would take up 40MB when ripped straight off the CD only takes up about 3-4MB of space. This comes with a penalty in sound quality since you can't just do a fixed-rate compression without losing something, but since it uses the perceptual coding algorithms, it attempts to lose inaudible data first. The end result is considered "near CD quality" but most people can't tell a difference... and you sure as heck can't tell a difference in a car. Anyway, now that you have all these audio tracks, you just use your favorite CD burning program and dump them all to a CD. About 170 average-sized tracks can be burned to a CD, but that depends on the length of the tracks and compression ratio.

 

Almost all new head units in the $150+ price range can play MP3 CD's. Most do cool tricks like displaying the track/title information either off the Long Filename or from ID3 tags. Almost all new DVD players $40+ can play one of these MP3 CD's also. You can even burn them multisession so you can add tracks at a later time.

 

That's the main reason I got a Pioneer DEH-P7400MP for my truck instead of a 1.5 DIN Pioneer... the 7400MP cost me $180 shipped and plays MP3 CD's as well as having cool organic EL visual effects and graphics. Can't get any of that with a 1.5 DIN Pioneer... be nice if you could, but they just haven't updated them in a LOOOONG time.

[Brian P]

well see the thing is I've been burning MP3's on CD's for about a year now but only get about 16 tracks on it, like a regular CD. they're CDR's. So you're saying they sell CD's meant to store MP3's or can I just do something to what I'm doing now that will allow me to add much more

[GnatGoSplat]

well see the thing is I've been burning MP3's on CD's for about a year now but only get about 16 tracks on it, like a regular CD. they're CDR's. So you're saying they sell CD's meant to store MP3's or can I just do something to what I'm doing now that will allow me to add much more

 

Ah, I see the problem. Instead of burning an "Audio CD", burn a "Data CD" of your MP3's. Then you will have an MP3 CD.

 

When you burn an "Audio CD", your MP3's are decompressed into full-size WAV files and the CD is burned in Audio CD format and finalized (no more writing possible). It'll be compatible with any CD player this way, but won't hold nearly as much.

 

Most MP3 CD players for car and DVD players also support organizing your MP3's in folders too. Some MP3-compatible DVD players can also display JPG's copied to the Data CD as well as playing AVI's.

[Guest TurboSedan]

you must be burning an audio CD from the mp3 files. when you create an *audio cd* the mp3 files are converted to the much bigger aiff file - which means you can only fit 16 or so tracks onto the disc. if you create a *'files&folders' cd*, you are just burning the actual mp3 files onto the disc. since a track in mp3 format is much smaller, you can fit way more tracks onto a disc. except that only an player capable of reading mp3 discs can read it of course. i have a mac right now and use cheapo programs for my mp3 collections.

- to play mp3's on my computer i use SoundJam

- to rip CD's i use MPegger - it rips the CD straight to .mp3 format. i always use stereo 192kbps/44.1khz which is pretty good quality without taking up too much hard drive space.

- to burn CD's i use Adaptec Toast

- to convert files from .mp3 ->to-> .aiff i use SoundJam and then burn it using Toast (creates an audio CDR)

 

i download a shitload of mp3s (by the album) using Hotline.

 

joshua