[V8] V8 radio replacement

[Bryan Kamerer]

I went through this 11 or 12 years ago. At the time, after much puzzling I
did this:

1) Had the rear Bose units rebuilt.
2) Replaced head unit with Blaupunkt Toronto CD/tuner
3) Had installed an auxilliary line-leveler to tune the pre-amp outs of the
new Blau to the existing speakers.

Rationale was this:

a) Blau Toronto was only unit I could find that had cd, 4 line level outs
to match the speakers, and very importantly to me, had adjustable display
to match the existing amber interior, both in color and in intensity.
b) auxilliary line-leveler was necessary to perfectly match the bose input
requirements.

I do not recall the maker of the auxilliary unit, it was small and easily
fit into the center console beneath/behind the head unit.  That generation
Blau units suffered from LED failure, which eventually happened to mine.
 There is a place that can rebuild that - Midwestcarstereo.com or something
like that, though I haven't bothered yet as my car has such a laundry list
of needs to get on the road again, that will be the last thing I bother
with.

There was a post a year or two ago from someone about a cheap head unit
that met the criteria - color matching and I think 4 line outs.  I now I
archived it and I'll try to find it and forward it to you as a possible
fix.  Later today I'll look in the car to see the maker of the load
balancer/line leveler; I think I have an extra one sitting somewhere
accessible.  It is not the right unit for the V8, so wouldn't work, but
same manufacturer.

Bryan Kamerer


On Tue, Feb 12, 2013 at 11:43 PM, Roger M. Woodbury <
rmwoodbury at fairpoint.net> wrote:

> I’m continuing a long term search for an audio system for my V8.  There
> are a couple of items in my ‘90 V8 that don’t work among which are the
> heated seats and the radio.  Only my wife really cares about the seat but
> we both would like to find a radio that would work in the car and I am not
> having a whole lot of luck.  Thus I thought I’d consult here with the V8
> brain trust.
>
> The car originally came with a Bose system (of course!) that included a
> Blaupunkt sourced headunit.  There were two Bose headunits used in these
> cars, one by Clarion which I believe was in the later V8’s and the
> Blaupunkt like mine. The Blaupunkt in my car has died and I have found
> after communicating with a bunch of car stereo type people on line that the
> Blau unit cannot be repaired as parts are nla.  I have had ZERO luck
> finding a known good oem headunit WITH code and have given that up entirely.
>
> Soooo.  The plan now is to replace the headunit with something else and
> that seems to be a problem because it appears there is little room to slide
> something in which seriously limits the options.
>
> I have ZERO confidence in stereo repair/sales/service places in Maine of
> which there are very few anyway...on in Bangor, two in the greater Portland
> area and of course, Sears and those, but I won’t go there with this car at
> all.  Tomorrow I am driving to Portland (almost 100 miles each way!  Yay!),
> so I may drop in to the shop in Portland if I have time....I did business
> with them once upon a time for my wife’s (wife at that time!) 1985 Audi
> Avant, but that is a different story about a different life and doesn’t
> work well here.
>
> I am trying to interface with the existing Bose speakers because they were
> rebuilt by the dealer that sold me the car to begin with and when the radio
> was working, they worked very, very well.  As I understand the speakers in
> the V8, they are all independently powered, so the theory is that if I take
> power from a pre-amp out port on a radio they should interface. We have
> long ago upgraded the radio in my wife’s ‘94 100CS using a Nakamichi
> headunit that interfaces well.
>
> I was wondering if anyone here has done a head unit switch with
> satisfactory results?  I am looking now at Nakamichi headunits that are new
> in the box, and thinking of trying to duplicate the system that is in my
> wife’s station wagon since that really does work well.  I will consider
> either a CD or cassette system since I have a cassette adapter we have used
> in the car with the old head  unit.
>
> any thoughts will be appreciated.  I don’t mind listening to the sounds of
> the car, but listening to Wagner while bashing around Maine’s rural roads
> is cool, too.
>
> TIA,
>
> Roger
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