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Sept 8, 2012 20:55:34 GMT
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Now then ladies and gentleman, due to this... A fantastic plan has been hatched in my household between my good lady and I. ;D In a months time we are going down to Cornwall for a week away and we have decided to go in our 1981 Escort Ghia. 320 mile each way in a 1.3 4 speed. My only problem is this hardcore install. As much as I love the original MW/LW mono speaker set up, I won't be able to do that journey listening to local BBC radio with the occasional french station trying to muscle in every time I go under a pylon. So for the break I would like to replace the original radio for an old 4x45w Kenwood CD player I have but my question is, will it harm anything only connecting up one of the speaker outputs? don't want to kill the CD player or the original Ford speaker after 31 years! And no I wont be turning it up loud either Thanks in advance, Danny
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1971 Ford Escort 1997 Peugeot 106 GTI 1998 Peugeot 106 GTI 2014 Ford Fiesta Zetec S
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MonzaPhil
Posted a lot
Think like a man of action, act like a man of thought
Posts: 2,456
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Sept 8, 2012 21:05:43 GMT
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The problem you'll get will only occur if you can't switch the reception to mono. To get around this on old radios, you could connect the speaker to the positive outputs from left and right channels instead of a positive and negative.
To get around all this, just get a portable stereo with a CD player. Cheap as chips, just belt it into the back seat, hey presto, short term solution but no dash hackery.
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This is now a clicky linky!
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Sept 8, 2012 22:20:34 GMT
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or build the cd player you have in a box with two speakers and plug it into the cigarrete lighter i think the opening for these old radio's is too small for modern radio's
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if sparks don't fly you're ridin too high !
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Sept 8, 2012 22:47:37 GMT
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Just wire it up to one side and switch the balance all the way over, if its not loud it wont hurt it.
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Volvo back as my main squeeze, more boost and some interior goodies on the way.
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Just talk to each other? Sing-alongs in cars with no radio are always great. My daily driver had no radio for over a year and I didn't miss it.
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Sept 9, 2012 10:06:34 GMT
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should be fine with one speaker...my polo has just the one connected to my old alpine , been fine for years
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91 golf g60, 89 golf 16v , 88 polo breadvan
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Sept 9, 2012 18:42:17 GMT
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ipod and portable speakers
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You're like a crazy backyard genius!
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Indie
Part of things
Wtd : Carlton/205 bits
Posts: 154
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Sept 9, 2012 21:50:10 GMT
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I had a similar 'problem' in that 30 minutes before a holiday road trip in a new girlfriend's car the speakers turned out to be utterly borked.
I put two speakers into shoe boxes reinforced with gaffa tape.
Didn't sound as bad as I thought it would ..... she couldn't tell the difference !
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60six
Posted a lot
(╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻
Posts: 1,673
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Sept 9, 2012 23:30:46 GMT
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Try and find an old shelf speaker - audioline used to make them years ago - then using velcro put it in the front passenger footwell so it can't be seen. One speaker is fine until you play some Van Morrison / Beatles / early stereo recordings. With 'Brown Eyed Girl' you just get a very very quiet Mr. Morrison and loud instruments ... Funny at first but bl**dy annoying after a while. All beatles does the same as well. Instruments on the left, and voices on the right, with only occasional crossover. Also, don't bother with CD's - use one of these - No dash cutting either www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Custom-Autosound-USA4-DIN-retro-radio-/290770163077?pt=UK_In_Car_Technology&hash=item43b3409585
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Some 9000's, a 900, an RX8 & a beetle
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ChasR
RR Helper
motivation
Posts: 10,256
Club RR Member Number: 170
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Sept 9, 2012 23:47:17 GMT
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With only one speaker, the music may sound interesting, with altered balance controls or not since you will only be getting sound from one channel out of the two channels from a stereo recording . IIRC you can put speakers in those without hacking the car to bits. Does the car have any unused speaker grilles in the footwells?
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Sept 10, 2012 8:13:12 GMT
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With only one speaker, the music may sound interesting, with altered balance controls or not since you will only be getting sound from one channel out of the two channels from a stereo recording . IIRC you can put speakers in those without hacking the car to bits. Does the car have any unused speaker grilles in the footwells? You should get both channels out of one speaker if the balance is pushed all one way, its not just a volume control. I can believe this is being made so complicated, loads of us used to do this back in my youth when speakers would die, or cars only came with one in the dash or we were running crappy cheapo cars with a door panel missing etc etc.
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Volvo back as my main squeeze, more boost and some interior goodies on the way.
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Sept 10, 2012 8:21:04 GMT
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My Renault Savanna had one speaker in the centre and two little ones on the sides of the dash. The centre speaker had imputs for both left and right channels along with a little bit of electronic circuit. What about finding two small speakers and mounting them side by side under the original dash grill ?
Paul H
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VIP
South East
Posts: 8,293
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Sept 10, 2012 8:26:28 GMT
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Just wire both the L&R postives, and L&R negatives, to the respective + and - terminals on the centre speaker, creating a mono output.
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Last Edit: Sept 10, 2012 8:27:45 GMT by VIP
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Sept 10, 2012 10:44:22 GMT
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You should get both channels out of one speaker if the balance is pushed all one way, its not just a volume control. Yups it is - it doesn't remove any of the stereo audio, it's literally a volume limit for left to right. Just wire both the L&R postives, and L&R negatives, to the respective + and - terminals on the centre speaker, creating a mono output. Depending on the HU, this may be possible. But you'd also have to run an 8ohm speaker, to stop damaging the internal amplifier There's no simple way to make a modern HU, run mono - only half of a stereo output
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You're like a crazy backyard genius!
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Sept 10, 2012 11:06:10 GMT
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Well blow me so it is, just tested it by playing Paranoid, I'm pretty sure though I had a car stereo that it did work on many moons ago.
I remember some dodgy 80's dance track with very distinct stereo tracks that worked ok through the single house speaker I had laying on the parcel shelf.
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Volvo back as my main squeeze, more boost and some interior goodies on the way.
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Sept 10, 2012 14:39:18 GMT
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ipod and portable speakers I second that...
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***GARAGE CURRENTLY EMPTY***
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Sept 10, 2012 19:19:16 GMT
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ipod and portable speakers I second that... Well everyone, thank you for all of your input, it has turned out well, nice and cheap, and no alterations to the car because of the above method ;D I was in Asda of all places during the weekend, mooching around the audio area while the good lady loaded the trolley up with the boring stuff. Found this little speaker that accepts the standard 3.5mm jack plug and runs off 3 x AAA batteries.All for £5!!! I'll be honest I wasn't expecting much from it but I dusted off my old MP3 player, gave it a charge with some old skool dance loaded, and set off for the seaside. Bloody great it is!!!! No distortion at all, more than impressed! Best fiver i've ever spent. The cool thing is its got a little clip on the back that hangs peferectly on the tuning knob(hahaha, err, oh.)and it doesnt move about at all. Thats another job ticked off for Cornwall ;D
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1971 Ford Escort 1997 Peugeot 106 GTI 1998 Peugeot 106 GTI 2014 Ford Fiesta Zetec S
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Sept 10, 2012 19:56:05 GMT
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glad it worked out for you dude!
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You're like a crazy backyard genius!
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skinnylew
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 5,617
Club RR Member Number: 11
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Sept 10, 2012 21:02:34 GMT
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excellent work What happened to the SportKa - cooling issues?? only reason I ask is that I picked one up last week for £400 with slight cooling issues (split header tank I think) but it's a fun car
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Sept 10, 2012 21:11:33 GMT
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excellent work What happened to the SportKa - cooling issues?? only reason I ask is that I picked one up last week for £400 with slight cooling issues (split header tank I think) but it's a fun car No pretty simple really, alternator is dead. I think that after 8 years of being the reliable daily its reached the point of needing our love. Bodywork has got to typical KA stage so its either scrap it or spend some money. Its too much fun to throw away
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1971 Ford Escort 1997 Peugeot 106 GTI 1998 Peugeot 106 GTI 2014 Ford Fiesta Zetec S
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