Reminiscing about the old days

[maylar 10+ year member]

The thread about new vs old school head units has me daydreaming. My first job in high school was with the local Radio Shack. Back then (umm.. 1968 ) the Shack had car audio under their Realistic brand. They also sold Jensen speakers, and the 6X9's were the hot item. 8 Track, cassettes, FM radio. Anyone here remember reverb units? Allied Radio, Lafayette?

My senior project in Engineering school was a 6 watt amp with 2N155 transistors. Germanium, not even silicon. Yep, I'm old..

First major "modern" install was my 85 Oldsmobile. Pioneer DEH-P6800. Outstanding FM reception. Picked up WOR FM in NYC from New Haven.

When I did a full install in my 99 Buick, the state of the art had grown. Pioneer had the DEH-80PRS with 16 band EQ and time alignment. And that copper chassis P99RS. Eclipse offered a true balanced line by repurposing the rear channels to be the negative line.

Now here we are in the digital age where streaming has replaced CD's. Are we better off?

Just reminiscing. Think I'll have another dram of Glenlivet now. Rock on.

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[Todd Nunley]

From one old guy to another, greets. You have some years on me since I graduated in '84.
There was certainly a golden era for car audio and it has come and gone in my opinion even thought it is more popular than ever. But times change and so do preferances. But "in my day" it was much less about how loud or how your car system could make women's hair fly around; it was about getting the best sound quality could could and making your installation as invisible as possible. You wanted your car interior to look stock but sound amazing. What we looked for was craftsmanship and not audaciousness.
The first REAL car amplifier I ever saw was a Pioneer GM-120. It made a real 60w per channel. That was amazing in that day.

Locally the only thing you could get was a "booster" which really made about 10w per channel at 10% distortion. But, the factory radio made 3-5w at the most. It was a big improvement. Plus there was a guy at my high school who had 8 of these wired in under his dash. His car was loud and sound quality was really bad but it was still very cool.

 

[spokey9 5,000+ posts]

But "in my day" it was much less about how loud

From the first time a radio was put in a car...people were trying to get louder