Video ads? In a car? That's dangerous.
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New Car Radios....a sorry state.
- Thread starter BruceB
- Start date
I'm getting my upgraded radio for my VW this weekend, once I install it I'll let you all know how it does for HD stations. The stock one doesn't have HD but my brother's VW did, and they were the same year but different models.
The way that video described it, no one is brain dead enough to put up with that. you're driving down the road and the system turns itself on to play an add? who would put up with that?
I get annoyed when a radio station that I choose to listen to plays 5 minutes of adds in a row.
This idea that the public will just put up with anything is a myth.Check out what happened with "New Coke"
I may've said it elsewhere, but surprisingly, the radio on my '94 GMC truck is better than the radios in all my newer cars, especially on AM.
When it's in "standard" AM mode, it doesn't sound much different than typical AM radio does nowadays, except it doesn't have the drastic LPF at 4.5 kHz, so voices are easier to understand (the "ess" sounds aren't muffled). But in "stereo" mode, it seems that for stronger signals, it opens up the bandwidth even more, and as a result sounds really decent, especially for music. However, even with upgraded speakers, the lousy acoustics of the truck don't do it justice. I'm sure I can improve upon that, but why bother? It's just a work truck. It's radio doesn't need to sound fantastic; it just happens that by its nature as a system designed by people who actually cared what it sounded like, it's less mediocre sounding than most modern car radios I've used (back in the late 80s and 90s, I think GM designed their AM radio sections to be compliant with the too little, too late AMAX standard (I believe they were among the few companies who bothered to put in a good effort to adopt the standard), which probably explains why GM radios from the time sound so much better than the average radio on AM).
Oh, and FM radio actually comes in in true analog stereo, unlike the newer of my other cars (2014 Toyota and 2017 Subaru), where the stereo pilot is, as far as I can tell, completely ignored in analog mode (I've confirmed that for all the stations that I can only receive in mono in my cars with HD switched off, I can get them in full stereo on just about any other analog radio with stereo capabilities, provided the reception is decent); only HD gets the stereo treatment, and HD doesn't work too well here in the East Bay hills (notable exception being KCBS' FM simulcast on 106.9, which only drops out in a few places).
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Have you any idea what exact make/model it is? There is a Delco 16189885 in the seldom-driven '94 I have, but it is unpowered in the dashboard due to an aftermarket unit installed beside it. This says mine isn't a C-QUAM model, but since I've never heard its AM reception at all, I have no idea whether it's "AMAX compliant."
Oh, and it's hard to believe anyone would design an FM radio to completely ignore the pilot tone and just throw mono at the owner if HD wasn't present. That's truly stunning.
Of my truck? Sure: it's a GMC Sierra K2500.
Ah, I'm quite sure my '94 has that same stereo. Mine looks like this:
With the 5 band EQ integrated into the tape player (which I'm proud to say works well; I played a tape just today):
I can unequivocally say that this unit does support C-QUAM, however; the reason for your confusion is probably because the list you posted is a bit unclear, in that it implies that units without that button don't support C-QUAM. But as I said, units without that button definitely do.
Actually finding an AM station that still broadcasts in stereo, however, is a different problem, and the lack thereof, of course, renders all that fancy C-QUAM circuitry mostly useless.
Unless you're like me, and have a Part 15 transmitter that can broadcast using C-QUAM
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I meant the radio actually. You can find the model number on its back side, and I only asked in case you already knew it. No, please don't go and pull it out of your dash for me.
Interesting. I think 1150 AM had C-QUAM many years ago here in Los Angeles. But I seem to recall something about it going away during that station's stint as the Radio Disney flagship. It's now a political talk station, and if they still have their stereo exciter running at all, it would be a complete surprise to me.I can unequivocally say that this unit does support C-QUAM, however; the reason for your confusion is probably because the list you posted is a bit unclear, in that it implies that units without that button don't support C-QUAM. But as I said, units without that button definitely do. Actually finding an AM station that still broadcasts in stereo, however, is a different problem, and the lack thereof, of course, renders all that fancy C-QUAM circuitry mostly useless. Unless you're like me, and have a Part 15 transmitter that can broadcast using C-QUAM
Alas, I think the easiest way to find AM stereo today is in archives like http://am-stereo.dharlos.de/2/The_AM_STEREO_MP3_Page.htm.
That was my fault, sorry.
However, in my defense, I brought it up to make the point that many older car stereos, particularly OEM models made by Ford and GM from the late 80s through the 90s (and perhaps into the very early 2000s) happen to be among the most popular and numerous of the stereos that happen to contain the ability to receive AM Stereo, and by that fact (due to many of them having apparently been designed to comply, to some extent, with the AMAX standard), they happen to sound better overall than most modern stereos, particularly on AM, subpar OEM and worn out speaker systems notwithstanding, of course.
Ah, OK. No, I have no interest in pulling it out again (I already did enough of that when I repaired the tape deck and added an aux input to it).I meant the radio actually. You can find the model number on its back side, and I only asked in case you already knew it. No, please don't go and pull it out of your dash for me.
960 (when it was KABL back in the 90s) and KFRC 610 both were broadcasting in AM Stereo, and as I recall, it sounded pretty good for what it was.
But, as you noted, many of the stations that were using it are no longer, and the few that still are are few and far between. KVON 1440 (COL Napa, CA) is the only one in California still using it, as far as I know. I can confirm that it still does because my truck's stereo detected and was able to decode its C-QUAM signal.
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There was! KCJJ 1630 had an AM Quad broadcast in 2010.
And there's the good folks at WION. They're still real troopers when it comes to (((AM Stereo)))
(Resumes programming my Timex Sinclair 1000 radio station text adventure game.....)
I listened to the Quad show live, and it sounded great, even though I was just listening on the radio.
Don't get me started on useless, horrible AMAX. What a joke that was.
Sometimes we need to walk a mile in average media consumers' shoes to realize that they don't give a crap about any of what is discussed here. AM stereo? Don't care, never has. FM stereo? Heard of FM, but don't know nor care about the term stereo. Quad? My friend has a surround sound thing in their home theater that sounds cool, but the sound of my EarPods is fine for me.
'Normal' folks aren't plugging old gear together, reliving the old days of Hi-Fi, or anything we write about here. Content is King, whether it comes from their smartphone or smart speaker, that's what people today care about. They can get it when and where they want. That's what matters.
To me it's great to relive the radio nerd nostalgia of the past, but it's still the past. In the case of ridiculous AM stereo, never to return because you could count the total number of people who care on both hands.
I have posted here that there is an AM stereo station where I live, and in the car on a few songs I have heard some music coming out of one speaker while other music comes out of the other speaker. The songs were recorded in the 60s or 70s.
I had this happen with an FM station with a similar format.
A lot of songs back then were mixed that way:
https://radiodiscussions.com/thread...ocals-on-one-channel-only.657216/post-5942613
Stereo on AM may have been a lost cause after the majority of music listening shifted to FM, but its standardization of 10.2 kHz audio bandwidth was never a terrible idea. It wasn't even an idea, but an attempt to coordinate manufacturers into restoring some of what had slowly been eroded away over the years with narrower and narrower front ends.
"Normal" folks aren't trailblazers and do whatever the trendsetters and marketers they follow or get influenced by steer them into doing. There was no stereo on FM or vinyl originally nor were there "hi-fi" modular component systems in the early '50s and prior. Yet those things became fashionable among the cool kids when they appeared and as soon as the "normal" people noticed the right cool kids buying and using them, they all needed to have and use stereo and hi-fi component systems too. To the point, in fact, that everyone had them in the '70s, up to and including everyone's grandmas, even when half the brands they were buying were pure garbage (recall "Del's Stereo and Sound" from WKRP). Right now, we're in another time period where those things have no appeal to anybody "normal" and where everyone "normal" is listening through the sonic equivalent of pocket transistor radios -- crap earbuds and tinny, piezoelectric-sounding speakers on the bottoms of their iPhones. But lots of people who still care about and buy/restore real gear continue to exist and at some point, the right influential something or the right influential someones will make decent gear trendy again, and a brand new gold rush will begin where the "normal" people all need to have it, and manufacturers will step in and fill the void. Will it blow back up to the proportions it was at in the '70s? I don't know, but what goes around, comes around, and I don't think the future of audio is going to be the black, sucking hole of hopelessness you seem to be thinking it is here.
It was never that disinteresting to the public. It was just the ship had already sailed and stereo FM was more interesting. The sheer number of automotive tuners it got into alone showed that the appeal was there. In the same way car makers want to rip AM out of their new models today for the lack of interest, they wouldn't have wasted resources designing and integrating C-QUAM capable receivers in their latest cars and trucks at the time if they thought nobody would've cared.
Absolutely no way - phones have stereo speakers and can be casted to soundbars/bluetooth Bose speakers that sound great to average ears. No one is going to lug home and set up a 50-60 lb amplifier/tuner and wire up big speakers when they can swipe up and play audio through a speaker in less than 30 seconds without getting off the couch, or buy big wireless party speakers on wheels like these: Amazon.com
B-b-but... you make it sound like they would need to lug around that 60 lb amplifier daily, or wire up big speakers every time they wanted music. People don't shun microwaves and large flat screen TVs because they take some lifting and connection connecting post-purchase to install. Also, if wattage-generous amplifiers and big room-throbbing speakers came back in style, there wouldn't be enough of those vintage units like in the shop I linked to go around anyway. Most of what people would buy would be look-alike new production units the consumer electronics industry would spin up to meet any sudden resurgence in demand, and those would include all the modern musts like bluetooth to make them zoomer-compatible.
It would work out just like the vinyl resurgence, where vinyl pressing plants and new turntable manufacturing came back to satisfy the renewed demand. And I can easily see good sound reproduction equipment coming back someday when the right cool kids light the fuse on it. It's only a matter of when. In the meantime, no, I don't think people are so insanely lazy that having to actually put something on a surface and connect some wires would make them give up and not care.
It would work out just like the vinyl resurgence, where vinyl pressing plants and new turntable manufacturing came back to satisfy the renewed demand. And I can easily see good sound reproduction equipment coming back someday when the right cool kids light the fuse on it. It's only a matter of when. In the meantime, no, I don't think people are so insanely lazy that having to actually put something on a surface and connect some wires would make them give up and not care.
Over the years I'm sure we've both seen claims from oldsters about how something is definitely 'coming back', but really never did.
Bell-bottom pants are a good example. To an extent, vinyl music is another. Sure, there's been some interest for collectors, but like radio DX'ing, those are pretty few as compared with modern media consumption.
When compared to multi-million selling vinyl albums in the 70's, a plastic disk with "big sales" today moves a couple of 10,000 album lots. Only exception might be that colored plastic Taylor Swift plastic item but I think that one sold as a collector's item and not to be played for its "superior audio quality".
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