Anyone know owt about old car stereos?

[sladey]

As some of you may know aim currently doing my interior.

I've currently got some modern stereo in it, connected to 4 speakers, all of which work OK.

I've also got an ioplay Bluetooth thing which connects my phone to the stereo via Bluetooth - so I can make calls through the stereo (a mike has been installed), and I can play my music through the stereo. I used to listen to the radio through the stereo, and then use the ioplay for telephone calls and my own music.

Recently the bbc have updated their iplayer radio app and now I find it so good I'm not using the stereo part at all and do all my listening through the app/ioplay. The signal drops out a couple of times on the way to work but the fm reception I get through the stereo is so crap even these dropouts are a small price to pay for a vast improvement. And of course I can now get 6music in my car

On an impulse I recently bought this


It's from a VW but ai think it looks pretty cool. It apparently works well but I haven't been able to test it yet.

Here is a view from the back



I'd like to drive all 4 speakers from this and still have use of the ioplay system. This headset is mono, judging by the two speaker sockets.

I was planning on connecting this to an external amp (which I could hide in the front boot) and then have the ioplay connected to the amp.

My questions are these

Can I connect this to an amp? If so how?
What is that 5 din socket for at the rear? - I've got a matching Lead - it actually ends in what looks like a headphone plug but they've connected a headphone socket onto the end of that



Thanks for any help you can give

Cheers

Mark

[Lightweight_911]

Mark - surely, by definition, if it has connections for 2 speakers it's stereo ?

The lead you show looks like a connection for MP3/phone/ipod/etc to allow you to play your own music through the radio.

There's usually a built-in switching device in the jack plug end of the lead so that if an external device is plugged in it automatically mutes the radio & when the plug is removed the radio plays.

The radio will only be audible if either the plastic plug (shown adjacent to the DIN socket at the back of the radio) or the separate lead is plugged in (to complete the circuit).

[Nine One One]

Would not ‘chrome london’ who is a member and trade advertiser on this site not be able to advise you, and do any work that may be needed to fit a cable or bluetooth adaptor to what you may have?
Ian

[mycar]

Agreed, I'd call them up and tell them what you'd like to make happen. Mixing digital and analogue technologies like this is rarely straight forward, especially if you'd like high quality sound and the seamless integration we all expect from our devices these days.

[Nine One One]

I think the radio you have is a Blaupunkt Emden ‘B’ fitted to Vw’s circa 1970

Not sure if the socket on the rear is actually a 6 din - which is a socket Blaupunkt used on some radios or a 5 din socket?

I think the 6 pin allowed you to connect to a tape player - 5 pin as MONO and 7 pin was STEREO ????

I think you can buy an interface off ebay or similar that converts the analogue signal and wiring somehow via the adaptor, which you then plug your jack lead into something like below.

https://www.koenigs-klassik-radios.de/_ ... 0-0-0-0-0/

Chrome London probably have these on the shelf as all their radios seem to come with an iPod interface cable

But seems as your a bit of a ‘hands on’ DIY sort of person, here is an article with wiring diagrams if you fancy having a go yourself?

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewto ... 77&start=0

Personally I would buy a ready made cable off someone else thats proven, sooner than risk buggering my radio and iphone/ipod

Good Luck

Ian

[Jonny Hart]

Buy a Parrot mki9100. This will allow you to connect a number of sources including phone and the old head unit. It also gives you a neat little screen to display track titles on.

Check out this thread on Pelican where a guy had one built into the tacho:

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/porsche- ... tereo.html

[964RS]

Whenever I see pictures of your hands it reminds me of Peter Cook in Mr Jolly lives next door.....

[sladey]

Thanks for the responses

Andy - by two speaker sockets I mean the two-wire speaker - you have 2 connections per speaker so on a stereo you're connecting 4 wires - I think so anyway

I think I'll have to play around with the leads supplied to see exactly what it does

chrome London would no doubt know what to do - not sure whether they are interested in helping a DIYer - suppose I don't know till I ask. Just feel a bit cheeky as I'm bypassing their bread and butter

Thanks for the parrot suggestion (and that install looks very cool) but I've already got ioplay which does exactly the same thing and works brilliantly - I've hidden my remote control in the ashtray as well so it's very neat

Thanks for those links Nine one one

[shambly]

Mark,

See the pins on the 'blanking' plug for the 8-track DIN connector?

They are 'passing' the line level radio signal from the receiver stage of the radio to the amplifier stage of the radio (one for left channel, one for right channel).

If you intercept them you can replace them with any other line level (headphone level) signal source, or take the radio signal off to another amplifier.

This is all an iPod lead does, using a switch-over mechanism that is built into some 3.5mm jack sockets that changes position depending on whether or not a plug has been inserted into the socket to either pass through the radio signal (3.5mm jack unplugged) or the line level signal (3.5mm jack unplugged). No electronics required at all.

Simon

[sladey]

Thanks Simon - that's useful

They are 'passing' the line level radio signal from the receiver stage of the radio to the amplifier stage of the radio (one for left channel, one for right channel).

If you intercept them you can replace them with any other line level (headphone level) signal source, or take the radio signal off to another amplifier.

So "as is" if I plug in an iPhone/MP3 it's going to cut out the radio and play the iPhone sound through its one speaker

If I managed to rework that plug it could do the opposite and send the radio signal down the line to an external amp - which brings me back to the wiring diagram the Nine one one pointed me at

Thanks again

[shambly]

Yes. the lead will have been wired so that the action of plugging a 3.5mm plug into the socket is for the mechanical switch in the socket to disconnect the pass-through and connect the signal from the 3.5mm socket to the amplifier instead.

And yes you could instead take the radio signal off to your external amplifier. The radio signal will be at a constant level - it won't be volume controlled - but I'm presuming your external amp deals with volume for your other inputs anyway?

[sladey]

It will do - I haven't bought one yet - I'm looking at an external amp as I want it to be able to drive 4 speakers

[Strictly]

for the 6 pin din, I have just made a lead for mp3, but I can only get it to work in mono, i'll explain if your intrested.

And actually my chromelondon lead (there was also a 7 pin din) didnt work, but it could have been the stereo. It was also blaupunkt

For the speakers can you not also wire all the speaker cables together (i.e wire all the pos together and inser into a bananna plug then inser into speaker connection, repeat for neg.) Ive never tried it, but I think it would work. As you need bannana plugs for your speaker wiring and they sell "stackable" bannana plugs which is the same thing as wiring them together