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Thu May 03, 2012 5:48 am

What do you all do for music in your 6 volt 356? The stock radio in my car lights up but that's it. Besides it's only am. I know I could just take it somewhere for an expensive set up but looking for something not to complicated that I can do myself. I don't need it really loud either.

Thu May 03, 2012 6:46 am

I put an Abarth muffler on my 55 and a sport muffler on my 63. Best music there is.

Thu May 03, 2012 1:59 pm

Ipod! But I only put in one ear bud as it's technically 'illegal' to have both buds in. YUP NANNY STATE!

Thu May 03, 2012 2:05 pm

Agree...nothing better than the song of an Abarth!

....there's a bit of multimedia, new-fangled tech we need over here as opposed to the old-fogey site! We need a selection of sound files representing various exhaust tones/combinations :-)

Thu May 03, 2012 2:11 pm

One option for sounds in your 6 volt 356 is to check out ebay seller WoodysCustomShop. The business is run by Charles Rollins who is really helpful. Call him at M-F 9-5 PST 949-722-1084 or 1-877-4-356-911

I purchased one of his radios (I already had an inverter to power his 12 volt radio but he sells those too) and am quite satisfied plugging my MP3 player (I can't afford an Ipod :D) into it. The radio has no exploding scoreboards and doesn't look bad. I had another radio (Blaupunkt Frankfurt Series V) that I had a guy convert the Marine band so an ipod played through a stock radio. I have my car's original radio so I can return it to stock. There is a company called TurnSwitch, http://www.turnswitch.com/ that will take your radio and send it back with completely modern guts and plugs for whatever you wish to play on it. They are not cheap BUT, I have seen several of their installations and they are very nice.

Although you can no longer post (unless you pay the $35 for the magazine subscription) there due to a recent decision by the Trustys there is some information on what/how to do what you're doing on the 356 registry forum and elsewhere by searching the site. I'm told that non-members still have access.

Thu May 03, 2012 2:16 pm

Stock vs Sebring.

Thu May 03, 2012 3:37 pm

MMW wrote: What do you all do for music in your 6 volt 356? The stock radio in my car lights up but that's it. Besides it's only am. I know I could just take it somewhere for an expensive set up but looking for something not to complicated that I can do myself. I don't need it really loud either.

SupaNinja (Nick) in the T-3 forums, and some others here, do radio repair. Nick got his to work nicely for not a lot of money, and added a jack to play his iphone. Period correct looking and sounding, with a modern ipod/iphone.

If you are ok with hiding stuff under a seat, someone here in the classifieds sells a Sony amplifier converted to work on 6v and also provides a 12v output to power a modern CDE player, that can be hidden under seats, in gloveboxes, etc.

There are a lot of things you can do, exhaust is great, but sometimes I need my tunes

Fri May 04, 2012 6:23 am

I installed this. Its friggen awesome and super easy to install. Works great!

http://www.rediscoveradio.com

Fri Nov 23, 2012 5:45 pm

So I'm trying to plan what I'm going to do to my car this winter. One of the things is to put music in it. The original radio doesn't work so I am thinking of going with this radio from Woodie's custom shop. It is 12 volt so I'd have to get the 6 to 12 converter & new speakers as the originals probably won't sound good if they work at all. Total it would cost about $300 for the setup. Anyone have this radio? The only drawback I see is it has black knobs vs. the original ivory.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Look-Radio-AM-FM-i...53f06e3b1a

Sat Nov 24, 2012 8:40 am

MMW wrote: What do you all do for music in your 6 volt 356?

My A coupe has never had a radio in it but whenever I drive it the music is always on: the engine.

If you need actual music I suggest an iPhone or iPod and an Arriva "Leo" Bluetooth headset. 356's are so noisy that installing a radio and speakers seems pointless to me.

Sat Nov 24, 2012 9:06 am

Mic,

That solution looks very neat. I reckon you could prime and paint the 2 larger operating knobs ivory to match, even maybe the tuner push buttons as well. I still use my 6v original valve ( tube) Motorola but, I only seem to be able to get 2 UK radio programmes and several French ones.

When the radio system over here finally goes fully Digital like the TV I will lose even the ones I can tune to now.

I will have to then decide what to do, but will probably keep the original in place and run it just to the hear vibrational sound you get when it changes the DC output to the near AC Hertz value. And I like the red Motorola script that alights when its on. Sad.. or what :?

Thanks for posting that link Mic,

Roy

Sat Nov 24, 2012 9:17 am

Mic,

If you want to keep your original radio for the "correct" look, there are outfits out there that will recondition your original unit with modern internals that accept IPods etc. (Edit: Sorry Bill, I see you already posted that!)

The cost is a bit more that Charle's $300, but you have the benefit of an original radio with the correct look, knobs etc.

I am contemplating this myself and will go with the original radio setup if I do it, but like everyone else, that is just a personal preference.

BTW, unless you are a complete audiphile that insists on nothing but the best sound quality, you will find that these setups will give you a pretty good sound.

To each his own, many just like the sound of the engine, but many want some music to enhance the experience. Just know that the sound will be decent enough, just not up to some people's standards.

Regards,

Sat Nov 24, 2012 1:02 pm

Sebastian Gaeta wrote: Mic,

If you want to keep your original radio for the "correct" look, there are outfits out there that will recondition your original unit with modern internals that accept IPods etc. (Edit: Sorry Bill, I see you already posted that!)

The cost is a bit more that Charle's $300, but you have the benefit of an original radio with the correct look, knobs etc.

I am contemplating this myself and will go with the original radio setup if I do it, but like everyone else, that is just a personal preference.

BTW, unless you are a complete audiphile that insists on nothing but the best sound quality, you will find that these setups will give you a pretty good sound.

To each his own, many just like the sound of the engine, but many want some music to enhance the experience. Just know that the sound will be decent enough, just not up to some people's standards.

Regards,

Locally, sort of, (Fairless Hills, PA)there is a guy named Mike Hagan who has a business called "Antique Auto Radio" (add .com for website) and his phone is 215-547-7145. I put one in an already converted to 12v 356 with an iPod jack and new speakers behind old grilles and it was great. Yes, about $500 plus speakers and inverter, but if the noisy exhaust isn't enough and you are in an insulated Coupe, the choices are few. (We used to use a Walkman, back in the day.)

The last thing I want is to repeat driving a long drive in a Speedster with a Jim Constas peashooter exhaust and a Schnauzer named Jack (see below). Their owner and I tried to talk while driving in the Texas hill country and our voices lasted about an hour into an all-day tour!

Sat Nov 24, 2012 11:29 pm

History Repeats Itself

The current fad among many of today's "performance" cars, rich or not, is a sound tube piping engine room sounds into the cabin as an aural enhancement of the driving experience.

Herr Doktor Porsche was prescient enough to include this feature in the heating systems of each and every Porsche sixty-some years ago.

I've maximized the sonic qualities of this system by excluding the "mufflers" in the system and as a result, the treble of the orchestra has gained new brightness and presence, striking a more equitable balance with the once-dominent bass of the burned-out glass pak I call a muffler. I find the ever-changing tempo of puttering about town to be an entertaining (and informative) soundtrack to what might otherwise be mundane motoring.

Lest I be too quickly deemed a masochist (tho I won't deny it, either), I will note that thru the miracle of 12v electrics, I have a moderne CD deck mounted in a fabbed alloy box below the radio pod that pushes tunes to co-ax ovals, for those long bits of road work when the drone is less interesting. And serial plays of "Keys to the Highway" are just a button push away. (Back in the day, I made an "extended" version by segueing together a triple play....)

Sun Nov 25, 2012 4:59 am

My car doesn't have a place for a radio, who am I to improve on perfection? Also, with the top down you can't hear much anyway, so enjoy the music of 4 Zyl.

Sun Nov 25, 2012 7:37 am

bbspdstr wrote: Sebastian Gaeta wrote: Mic,

If you want to keep your original radio for the "correct" look, there are outfits out there that will recondition your original unit with modern internals that accept IPods etc.
The cost is a bit more that Charle's $300, but you have the benefit of an original radio with the correct look, knobs etc.......
To each his own, many just like the sound of the engine, but many want some music to enhance the experience. Just know that the sound will be decent enough, just not up to some people's standards.

Locally, sort of, (Fairless Hills, PA)there is a guy named Mike Hagan who has a business called "Antique Auto Radio" (add .com for website) and his phone is 215-547-7145. I put one in an already converted to 12v 356 with an iPod jack and new speakers behind old grilles and it was great. Yes, about $500 plus speakers and inverter, but if the noisy exhaust isn't enough and you are in an insulated Coupe, the choices are few.

Sorry, my previous post wasn't clear. Mike Hagan replaced the guts of the Blaupunkt radio ORIGINAL to the 356 I mentioned, so the visual appearance was totally the same as ever, but the sound performance was far superior, with accessory capability never available when the 356s were new.

Sun Nov 25, 2012 8:37 am

Installing a good stereo in a 6-volt 356 is challenging, although neither do I really any longer desire to have one in my T5 coupe because I just don't seem to care about listening to anything while I'm driving it.

Years ago I installed a 12-volt stereo in my car by using 2 6-volt batteries, and rigged up a series of diodes so they would charge in parallel but output in series. I forget how I did it. Maybe there was a relay and a couple of transistors involved, too.

Sun Nov 25, 2012 10:13 am

Pictured is the perfect sound system for a 356. If you are on a long slog over an interstate or some such, an Ipod or equivalent with buds is compatible with 6 or 12 volt systems..... :wink:

Sun Nov 25, 2012 11:52 am

I put a fancy stereo in my 993 with custom subs but I don't listen to it much and the acoustics aren't very good anyway. My 356 has radio delete which suits me fine. I drove it home 2000 miles and didn't miss it. If I really needed music I think I would go with something portable like my Iphone or Ipod.

Mon Nov 26, 2012 9:26 am

So far this is the best inverter I have been able to find.

http://community.pressenter.net/~cmeyer/

It has an 8 amp compacity and it would be nice to have more as the radio will not be the only thing it will run. Does anybody out there know of others. Dan