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Car Stereo Receiver Recommendation

Stan Pleskunas

Stan Pleskunas

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North Wales, PA
Any suggestions for a new stereo receiver (manufacturer and model #) that will fit a 1973 Plymouth Barracuda without alterations? Looking for the newest technologies (Built-in Bluetooth for hands free calling and audio streaming, Adjustable illumination and brightness, detachable faceplate, etc.). I checked the OE replica's and not looking to spend $800.00 and waiting 6 months for delivery. Thanks in advance for your recommendations.
 
That's one of the great things about E-bodies: they had a standard DIN-chassis opening prior to just about any other US car.

The technology's gotten so cheap that just about everyone has what you're looking for at a bargain-basement price, but "you get what you pay for" is still very true. Is Wal-Mart selling it? Then skip it. Spend a little extra for a proven long-term brand name; Alpine, Kenwood, and Pioneer jump to mind immediately but I'm not as up on this stuff as I once was (I was an installer in a previous life). I know Clarion has tanked in recent years; not sure about Pioneer. JVCs were always sketchy, Sony went downhill when Wal-Mart started carrying it, and Eclipse is long gone to my knowledge.

I bought a couple of nice Kenwoods a few years back, both of which I sold, that had much (but not all) of what you're wanting. I had (and have) no use for Bluetooth, but both had nearly-infinite display/control colors (independently adjustable), at least 1 USB connection, and one could even have a HDD full of compressed music connected directly to it. The latter could also stream services lke iHeartRadio, although I never explored that option. The couple to whom I sold (and installed) both are still very happy with those decks and both are still pluggin' away without fault.

Were I buying today, I'd be looking at Alpine. However, the last time I looked you had to go up the model line a bit to get to things like variable colors. Worse yet, when I bought the Kenwoods the lesser Alpines were all illuminated in that ghastly blue that everything in the world seems to be these days. The vintage ('80s-'90s) Alpine green illumination was a dead match to Chrysler's factory dashes.
 
NoCar340 said:
That's one of the great things about E-bodies: they had a standard DIN-chassis opening prior to just about any other US car.

The technology's gotten so cheap that just about everyone has what you're looking for at a bargain-basement price, but "you get what you pay for" is still very true. Is Wal-Mart selling it? Then skip it. Spend a little extra for a proven long-term brand name; Alpine, Kenwood, and Pioneer jump to mind immediately but I'm not as up on this stuff as I once was (I was an installer in a previous life). I know Clarion has tanked in recent years; not sure about Pioneer. JVCs were always sketchy, Sony went downhill when Wal-Mart started carrying it, and Eclipse is long gone to my knowledge.

I bought a couple of nice Kenwoods a few years back, both of which I sold, that had much (but not all) of what you're wanting. I had (and have) no use for Bluetooth, but both had nearly-infinite display/control colors (independently adjustable), at least 1 USB connection, and one could even have a HDD full of compressed music connected directly to it. The latter could also stream services lke iHeartRadio, although I never explored that option. The couple to whom I sold (and installed) both are still very happy with those decks and both are still pluggin' away without fault.

Were I buying today, I'd be looking at Alpine. However, the last time I looked you had to go up the model line a bit to get to things like variable colors. Worse yet, when I bought the Kenwoods the lesser Alpines were all illuminated in that ghastly blue that everything in the world seems to be these days. The vintage ('80s-'90s) Alpine green illumination was a dead match to Chrysler's factory dashes.
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Thanks for the detailed feedback and suggestions The car previously had a Kenwood stereo and an amplifier (still in connected under the dash).
 
As a bit of a stickler for sound quality (I won't call myself an audiophile), I would definitely stick with external amplification if possible. I've yet to hear a deck--any deck, at any price--with a decent built-in amplifier. Don't worry about watts; clean low power is better than dirty and deafening. Signal-to-noise and total harmonic distortion (THD, THD+N these days) are far more important measures of an amp's performance. One of the best stereos I ever had was only 25W to each of the four channels, and another 160W to a 10" sub. No bridging or low-impedance trickery happening, just amps with 108dB S/N and only 0.05%THD. It would cleanly play louder than I cared to listen, and I was a hardcore metalhead back then.

Get yourself some quality speakers and break them in at low volume--you should be able to converse normally over them--for a couple of hours before puttin' the boots to 'em. It took me years to learn what a difference that makes... after all, the first thing you want to do is crank it up, right? Don't do it. 😉
 
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