There's been discussion about retro style stereo head units over the years, but I'm curious to know the current state of affairs. There was a lot of talk about Retro Sound (some good some bad), where are folks on that vs other brands?
I'm actually surprised that there aren't more standard single DIN products with a retro skin. The only one I've found is Custom Autosound's USA4-DIN radio. Even then it's not fully disguised as retro. But it's DIN standard, white labeled by Autosound so designed/manufactured by Kenwood I believe (therefore the "trust" of a big brand), has CD player, and the least expensive by far. Has anyone tried this one or seen in person? I'm concerned that the "chrome" face is actually cheap shiny plastic.
On the topic of DIN, I know trim kits/adapters are available for proprietary-shaped units. Has anyone come across nice chrome faceplates? Otherwise if you're forced into an ugly faceplate, that sort of defeats the whole purpose. Retro Sound has these faceplates (and bezels). In my case, I'm concerned that the faceplates won't completely cover my DIN opening, I'll have to investigate:
For anyone starting this journey from scratch, here are some notable starting places based on discussions here or my own findings:
- retromanufacturing.com (aka Retro Sound)
- outofsightaudio.com
- vintagecarradio.com
- classiccarstereos.com
- carid.com/classic-stereos.html
- crutchfield.com/m_362950/Classic-Car.html (seems to be just Retro Sound products though)
- customautosoundmfg.com (their products offered on these other sites but worth mentioning)
- vintagemotorcarsinc.com/product/retro-radio-kit/
- vintageautoradio.com (not to be mistaken w/ vintagecarradio.com)
- vintagevibes.com
- oldautoradio.com
- turnswitch.com (aka Electro Tech)
