Art & Inspiration Listen to the Motor or the Music?

Install a nice sound system.
You then have the best of both worlds!

 

Enjoy the best of both - radios / stereos have on-off switches too!
cheers, Ray

 

My OT VW street buggy has no radio. It's got straight pipes instead. My '58 Chevy has a non functional 8-track and an equally useless am/fm with some old ale pakers behind the seat. (Pics to follow)
I seldom drive either far enough to justify bothering with a radio. At the moment neither are reliable enough to do so.
In my daily driver I'm usualy listening to the news anyhow unless I'm on a road trip and need to stay awake.

Yes those are 4" speakers covered in old pie tins. I like the looks of it and plan to leave it that way.

 

[QUOTE="porknbeaner,
I still like to get out in the country and cruise slow enough to just listen to the night. I don't hear as much of it as I did 40 years ago though. [/QUOTE]

No doubt in my mind that a lot of that can be attributed to the straight pipes on that Harley of yours! HRP

 

I don't like putting stereo systems in most older cars.The 1958 GM cars came with a removable radio that has good sound in and out of the car.I've installed these in period correct cars and I guess it's the warm sound that you get from tube and early germanium transistors that makes it seem more natural...And nothing is worse than a 100k custom with some crappy install sound system.I competed in Autosound for years and a crap system can ruin a car for me.Now,I hope I've confused you a little more

 

HA HA! My old Chrysler still has the radio delete plates in the dash. WAY back when it was my daily driver, My radio was a six volt portable with a headphone jack that sat on a flat spot on the tranny hump. I rigged up a patch cord from the radio to the battery for power. But my speaker was a six inch pioneer round sat into a six inch flower pot sitting in the rear window corner. I ran a wire to the headphone jack on the portable. Hey, I was seventeen and it worked for the time. Now its just the quiet purr of an old cars flat head six!

 

I have like 500 CD's. I want music in every car I own, even if I had a roadster where I wouldn't even be able to hear it.

 

I would want some access to tunes in that Safari wagon, it's nice to keep the troops entertained. With all that room for passengers you need that option, no doubt about that.

Just get the factory AM radio up to snuff and make sure your dash speaker is in good shape. Install a RediRad (designed and manufactured by a HAMB Alliance vendor) and you can play your choice of music from most any modern device:http://rediscoveradio.com/

I'll be putting a RediRad in both of my 1964 Ponchos once they're roadworthy again.

 

No doubt in my mind that a lot of that can be attributed to the straight pipes on that Harley of yours! HRP[/QUOTE]
That and sometimes I was listening to things that just might not have really been there.

 

I've built my 57 Pontiac [which I don't own yet] in my mind a thousand times. I've even got a "wanted" ad runnning in the classifieds, hoping to find my old [1st of 4 I've owned] 57 tudor.
I loved the tonal quality of the floor hump-mounted speaker and the AM radio picked up stations a loong way away. If it was mine, I'd run the original AM radio with it's original speaker box but with a quality speaker inside. I mostly listen to AM right-wing, brown shirt talk radio in my daily driver unless I listen to Sirius channel 82, classic radio. What a great station! Dragnet, Gunsmoke, The Shadow, etc etc. If I could figure out how to incorporate Sirius radio into the old speaker with AM radio, I'd do it but the original AM radio has to stay in the dash.

 

I rarely drive with any music playing, hot rods, late models, whatever. I attribute that to daily driving the '37, while I had it. Kinda retrained my life.

When I did the '40 stake truck, it had an AM radio in it, that my uncle had installed under the dash. It didn't work, so I took it out. The coupe has a stereo in it, but it is rarely ever turned on.

So...motor/dual exhaust is all the stereo I need anymore.

 

No music.

 

Cruizers might have some tunes, real hotrods that I have run never had anything but big cams and good exhaust as my tunes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Darksiders rule ................... Lebone

 

No doubt in my mind that a lot of that can be attributed to the straight pipes on that Harley of yours! HRP[/QUOTE]

I resemble that remark..................................but I have never had a Harley and I agree with the guys that say, you can always turn of the sterio, if you have one, I like having that option because sometimes I like listening to the engine and sometimes I like the stereo.

 

HUH?------------------
Back in the olden days I'd have the old tube type radio and two 12" TV speakers blasting rock -n-roll or county all the time. When I drove a big rig the CB and the FM radio was on.
I have a cheap stereo in every car and my late model truck. Every time I turn one on my wife opens her mouth. So I stopped turning them on and I'm happy with that now matter how many hours I drive.

 

My instinct was to answer "with tunes" but with a moment thinking- I don't have much in the way of music in most of my cars. '57 Chevy has the AM but I don't use it much. The Buick- a restored radio is on the shelf but I haven't worried about installing it..

 

My coupe has an AM/FM/Cassette player mounted thru the seat riser, where it's hidden by the seat overhang. I don't often use it, but when I do it's all 50's/60's music. Gotta love my DoWop music, even if the kids hate it.

Mostly I just listen to the music of that banger thru a 3" straight pipe.

 

Ahem...
http://www.caranddriver.com/features/faking-it-engine-sound-enhancement-explained-tech-dept

 

Would be neat to do something with some vintage looking full range speakers from fostex and use a a stereo with tubes. 3 watts of clean power over anything kenwood makes any day of the week. Just need to figure out how to build or modify a old radio with tubes to have that warm sound of a good tube amp.

 

This goes along with the speakers behind the seat covered with pie tins. An old am/fm 8 track screwed beneath the factory radio delete plate. Looks kinda janky, but much better than hacking a giant hole for "modern" radio. This was done sometime in the mid 70's my guess.

 

Given all the options out there today, installing a radio/head unit is the least of your worries. It's packaging the speakers into the interior without them looking like an ugly add-on is the challenge. It can be done, somewhat easier on the post-war and later cars and is period correct in my eyes (everybody remember the 'Leave it to Beaver' episode where Eddie was showing off his new 'FM' radio? LOL) unless you're going for the 'race car' look. Personally, I like having tunes in a vehicle, particularly when driving alone, but they do have a 'off' switch...

As to sound quality, you do need to spend some money if you want good sound IMO, but everybody will have a different idea of what 'good' is. I still remember those old 'Sparkomatic' stereo 'kits' that mostly just made noise, but that was adequate for some. I'm currently using a pair of high-quality (and ancient) ADS 'micro-bookshelf' speakers in my avatar just setting on the rear seat and they can be removed by just unplugging them from the phone jacks I installed.

 

After my 38 Chevy sat for 30 years and I had redone a lot of things on it I decided to do a better sound system, added speakers in the kick panels and better speakers behind the seats, a later model (but probably almost 10 years old) AM/FM CD player that really sounded good. Then I fired up the motor and with the mufflers (at least that's what I thought they were) I have on it, you can't hear the radio, so.....just like when I ride a motorcycle I don't even bother, just listen to the wind and the engine, I have other vehicles if I want to hear music or talk radio

 

Hot Rod = No
Custom = Whatever

 

I don't need no stinkin radio, exhaust and wind in my ears is music to me.

 

Music essential in my Toyota Ipsum family wagon. But never in my rod, it makes it's own "pipe music"!

 

There is always headphones.

 

If you even **THINK** you might want music, plan for it. Acoustic insulation - floors, firewall, doors, and roof. If you want to hear the exhaust, open the windows.

 

I resemble that remark..................................but I have never had a Harley and I agree with the guys that say, you can always turn of the sterio, if you have one, I like having that option because sometimes I like listening to the engine and sometimes I like the stereo. [/QUOTE]
LOL Hawgs, cars, trucks, none of them were or are ever muffled well.

Actually my old '46 Ford was muffled well enough that you could hear the stereo. it was running glass packs but the tail pipes were clear out the back so you didn't really get lots of cabin noise at least not from the exhaust. I am not sure that many would count it as having a "stereo" there was a speaker in the package shelf with a reverb unit, and a speaker in the dash and it had an AM/FM radio when I got it. Around town it was just fine but out on the highway it was a different story all together. The glass rattled and the wind noise was terrible, even with it cranked all the way up to distort you really couldn't listen to it.

 

LOL Hawgs, cars, trucks, none of them were or are ever muffled well.

Actually my old '46 Ford was muffled well enough that you could hear the stereo. it was running glass packs but the tail pipes were clear out the back so you didn't really get lots of cabin noise at least not from the exhaust. I am not sure that many would count it as having a "stereo" there was a speaker in the package shelf with a reverb unit, and a speaker in the dash and it had an AM/FM radio when I got it. Around town it was just fine but out on the highway it was a different story all together. The glass rattled and the wind noise was terrible, even with it cranked all the way up to distort you really couldn't listen to it. [/QUOTE]

I imagine a major reason my hearing is not so good anymore has to do with racing motorcycles, drag racing, racing snowmobiles and then on to racing stock cars and always enjoying hearing the exhaust note, as none of them had mufflers of any sort on them.

 

I imagine a major reason my hearing is not so good anymore has to do with racing motorcycles, drag racing, racing snowmobiles and then on to racing stock cars and always enjoying hearing the exhaust note, as none of them had mufflers of any sort on them. [/QUOTE]
Mine is probably close to that and I'll up you machine shops and other industrial applications before the Oklahoma Saddle Horse Association had too strong a hold on industry. LOL