Your best ever car radio?

[bmw]

Of all the car radios you have ever owned, which one was your favorite?

As for stock radios, my favorite was the one in my parent's car when I was young - the Cassette/radio in their 1996 Chevy Cavalier. Closest picture I can find online is this one:



That thing had superb AM/FM reception and there was no car/electrical noise whatsoever on the AM band. I was always amazed at the reception on this thing.

My favorite after-market radio was one I installed in my 1990 Grand-Am - a Sony MiniDisc Recorder/stereo.



You could record off the radio onto minidiscs with this thing, and it had excellent FM reception, including very good selectivity. Sound quality was excellent too.

[Turkeytop]

I had two Dodge Chargers, an 06 and an 08. They both had excellent radios. I did a lot of driving on my job, often at night. I passed the time by tuning around the radio in search of DX..

[Ed Joseph]

I had a Blazer I put a Radio Shaft C-QuAM stereo in when I worked at SAM in the 80's. Loved that radio.

[SolarMax]

'93 Plymouth Grand Voyager. Good AM tuner w C-QUAM stereo. FM tuner with great RF headroom (never overloaded in high signal areas). Multiband audio EQ and good sounding speakers. I'm pretty sure it carried third-party branding, possibly Infinity,

[Deleted User 3751]

The Mach 300 in my 2005 Ford Escape, it had a great AM tuner with C-QUAM stereo.

[CK-722]

Delco in a 1977 Chevrolet Monte Carlo. My first AM-FM. Slide Rule Dial. Wore out the tuning mechanism from DXing. Had to tune with the mechanical memory buttons. Got pretty good at it by pushing two buttons. Didn't have it long after that happened though. Sold it to a Chevy Supervisor's son to fix up.

[windsor]

My 1997 Chrysler Intrepid had a real sensitive receive.Was great at picking up out of market radio.

WIOT,FM96,WMMS,Q106 was an everyday occurance.

The reception in todays car radio is garbage.Mind you the dial is a mess also.

[CurlyHoward]

My dad's 94 Cavalier and my '04 Cavalier both had excellent stock radios. Could listen to Chicago AM stations in Toledo during the day as long as I wasn't right under a power line. FM was good except for co-channel interference, eg WCSX on 94.7 was obliterated by WXKR on 94.5

The current 2018 Hyundai Elantra I have is garbage on AM but decent on FM. But I'm listening to something on Bluetooth much of the time anyway.

[Turkeytop]

Back in the early 90s, I had a rental Plymouth for a day. It was the only time I ever experienced AM stereo. Why did the broadcasting industry abandon that mode?

[kc8yqq]

It was the only time I ever experienced AM stereo. Why did the broadcasting industry abandon that mode?

A few reasons I've heard:

1. AM stereo was replaced with IBOC
2. Format changed to talk, no need for stereo
3. Coverage is lessened
4. Equipment failed and don't want to fix/replace

Turkeytop, I'm not sure where you are located, but you may be able to receive CFCO 630 (Chatham, ON). I believe they are still stereo. Another one is WLS 890 (Chicago, IL) at night.

If have an HD (IBOC) receiver, it may be able to decode AM stereo.

[k8jd]

The AM auto radios were really good in the era between the mid 1950s and late 60s. Those were very sensitive and selective and with some good speakers the sound was really good. The selectivity was actually too sharp to tune in right on freq and hear the highs, but I learned the trick of tuning off just a little on one side and then the highs and bass were both excellent. I even used some car radios in the house with a 12 V transformer hooked up to the vibrator socket with the buzzer pulled out
Newer radios all seem to sacrafice sensitivity on the AM side to deal with FM text and HD audio sound but using tiny antennas that just don't pick up distant AM signals well at all.
I can remember sitting in the driveway at my N.W. Detroit house (the first house that I owned) and listening to Cleveland, Buffalo, Chicago, Toronto, Milwaukee, Fort Wayne, Pittsburg, Columbus, Cincinnati, etc, etc in daylight on the old 1970 GM car radio , but it was one of the last good AM listening auto radios.

[k8jd]

I bought the JVC KD-HDR1 to replace the worn out radio I had in a ford Escort about a decade+ ago when HD AM was pretty new.
The AM side sensitivity was pretty sad but the new HD sound was fascinating for me
I now have it hooked up on my desk , but The power lines and DSL and cable TV behind my house wipe out the AM side.
The FM HD sounds really good with big speakers and the sub channel multicast is pretty interesting to listen to.

[k8jd]

Libraries\Pictures\radios2016\DSCN0634
Just can't figure out how to attach a picture !!!!

[k8jd]

I bought the JVC KD-HDR1 to replace the worn out radio I had in a ford Escort about a decade+ ago when HD AM was pretty new.
The AM side sensitivity was pretty sad but the new HD sound was fascinating for me
I now have it hooked up on my desk , but The power lines and DSL and cable TV behind my house wipe out the AM side.
The FM HD sounds really good with big speakers and the sub channel multicast is pretty interesting to listen to.

Now if you can find a good formatted HD station to listen to, good luck on that one.

Since WKAR moved to the tower several miles West of the old site, I cant even get them in Stereo in the house !! forget HD!!

[Turkeytop]

Turkeytop, I'm not sure where you are located, but you may be able to receive CFCO 630 (Chatham, ON). I believe they are still stereo. Another one is WLS 890 (Chicago, IL) at night.

If have an HD (IBOC) receiver, it may be able to decode AM stereo.

CFCO is all cowboy music.

CFCO. All cowboy, all the time.

The next segment of today's program is brought to you by the Comfort Corral rest home for cowboys.... When it's time to hang up the six-shooter and take up the three-wheeler, head for the Comfort Corral.