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Do they still sell car radios with real sliders & knobs on the front?

My wife and I recently found ourselves looking at that gift from the future (our future tax dollars) - the government stimulus check. We decided to use part of it to upgrade our car stereo receiver. Presently, our car stereo supports only cassette tape playback.

We found one that supports HD Radio, front USB port with MP3 playback, and a front audio input jack - all for under $130 shipped. We felt that we got a good buy.

When I got it, though, I was very unimpressed with the controls on the stereo receiver. Currently, we have a GM factory install radio. It has slider controls on it that allow us to move the signal from front to back easily whenever we need to. (like when our toddlers are in the car with us, or someone in the back needs to sleep, etc.) There are also bass & treble slider controls right on the front of the unit. We are constantly having to minimize sound to the back speakers, then turn it back up when we drive with no one in back. There is no way I want to have to go into a menu to do this.

The new unit makes you to go into a sub menu and select from different options to access these features. I've already wrecked my car once just from playing around with the tuner while I was driving, so I'm not too keen on swapping out a radio I can adjust by touch with one that essentially REQUIRES you to look at it to navigate menus. It just seems like an accident waiting to happen. It means that if I want to get the HD radio, front USB & MP3, I'll be putting my family's safety at risk to do so. I'm not very comfortable with that, so I'm thinking of sending the radio back.

However, I've also noticed that NONE of the radios I see for sale online or in stores seem to have basic functionality like the factory installed one the car currently has. I want knobs and sliders on the front, so that even a blind person could control things. I don't want flashy displays or submenus.

I'm not the only one who feels this way about it, either:

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(note, there's some rather strong language on the site)

I also noticed that it wasn't going to be an easy install, like the last time I did this. The last car radio I installed was on a 1986 Plymouth Reliant. I had to unscrew 4 lag bolts, then remove the old radio. I put the new radio inside a plastic adapter, hooked up the wires, inserted it, and put the 4 bolts back in. That was it, and it only took a couple of hours, tops.

At this point I am kind of disgusted and disheartened. I just want a simple radio that has real knobs and slider controls on the front, and has front USB and audio in, as well as HD Radio support. Does nothing like this exist anywhere?

Reply to
OhioGuy
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Go to the junk yard and pull a radio out of a 56 Chevy. Spend some time to learn the controls on the new radio. There is far more to control today than in the past. Educate yourself on the radio and it will become second nature.

Reply to
Woody

Best idea is to keep looking. There are lots of choices, but to get good usable controls you may have to spend more than $130.00 Generally as more and features are packed into a radio the more radio companies have to resort to multi-function controls and cascaded menus.

Reply to
John S.

Where are the radios without features?

I want tuning on an actual knob, and volume control on an actual knob, and I would like a CD player. I don't want a million features on cascaded menus. I want to listen to the radio and play CDs.

--scott

Reply to
Scott Dorsey

If all you want is a rock bottom basic radio/cd player, exactly what are you upgrading from? Whatever you had couldn't possibly have less.

Reply to
E Meyer

I feel your pain. The mid 80s seemed to mark the advent of car stereos that condensed home-stereo feature sets into that tiny area, which is fine if you have the eyes of a fighter pilot and the hands of a brain surgeon (and maybe smooth pavement too). Give me big knobs controlling simple functions (complex behind-the-scenes functions with a well thought out simple manifestation to the user are okay).

After all, I'm proposing to find a good station or play an album while going over tar strips at 65 mph, using whatever scraps of concentration I can spare from my primary job of driving. Those who use their car stereo to call for potential mates and compete for status among rivals while sitting in the parking lot are welcome to the hypercomplex, superminiaturized ones.

I seem to recall that Blaupunkt made a nice, simple car stereo with knobs a few years ago, but it doesn't seem to be in their product line now. Kenwood makes one that might come close.

crutchfield.com might be able to help. However, "simple" plus the rest of that feature set might be asking a lot. In particular, the manufacturers might well figure that USB and HD/satellite radio readiness are features that appeal to the technophile who grew up with a cell phone in one hand and a pod in the other.

--Joe

Reply to
Ad absurdum per aspera

One of my cars has a cassette deck and an FM radio, the other one has a fancy Blaupunkt AM radio. I would like a rock bottom basic radio/CD player.

--scott

Reply to
Scott Dorsey

My 2001 Chev Cavalier has the AM/FM/CD player. It has volume on a real knob, and tuning on a real knob, but the volume is controlled by some sort of switching device that the knob actuates as it turns instead of a potentiometer, and the tuning doesn't run a needle back and forth on a display; it's a digital readout. Bass and treble and balance and fade are all operated by a single knob that you have to push to get the different functions. The unit has more features than I would ever use, and I find that the biggest danger (and hassle) is the attention it needs to work it. Takes the eyeballs off the road way too much. For my '51 International pickup I got an AM/FM radio out of an early '80s Chev pickup. Last of the mechanical setups, I think. The new radios are about all we'll see now, since they can be made by machines far more easily and cheaply than the electromechanical devices that old radios used to use. Precision moving parts are expensive to make and assemble, while the bubble switches (or whatever the EEs know them by) are so cheap to make it's not funny. With digital chips the switches can be made to do anything the engineer wants. Besides, since when did function ever trump fashion?

Dan

Reply to
Dan_Thomas_nospam

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