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RetroSound Model Two (Long Beach) radio review

22K views 20 replies 11 participants last post by  Old Buzzard 
#1 · (Edited)
I originally had an Antique Automobile Radio (AAR) unit in my '55 Bel Air but I wasn't totally happy with it and sold it.

I just got my new RetroSound Model Two installed and thought I would share my info on it. Most of this info I posted in a chit-chat thread but I wanted to consolidate it and put it all in one post here.
Edit 5/5/2018:
The current equivalent model is called the RetroSound Long Beach. The only difference I can see from the Model 2 so far is that the new model is Sirius/XM ready but a receiver for it is an extra $69 if you wanted to have it.

I first installed the radio without an external amplifier and did a full test on it. Later, I installed an external amp and did another test. I will give the results of both.

First, let me get all the negative comments I have about the RetroSound unit out of the way:

1. The knobs are metal but chrome and not stainless like the originals. They don't match exactly but fairly well.

2, The filler panel that makes the radio fit the dash hole is chromed plastic. It scratches easily so you've got to be careful with it. This piece would be much better if it were chromed metal or polished aluminum.

3. (More of a note rather than a gripe) Adjusting the 2 control shafts prior to mounting the radio takes a good while to do. A lot of trial and error. This isn't a surprise though because of the universal design. It's imperative to use the backstrap they give you as the control shafts are not mounted strong enough to hold the radio in place alone. Again, not a surprise but does take some time to do.

4. If the power is disconnected from the unit, the radio loses all it's settings including the radio presets. I have a cutoff switch on my battery and that is going to be an annoyance. I may have to put a small by-pass wire with a 1 amp fuse on that switch. But then my cutoff switch would no longer eliminate battery drain during long-term storage. This is by far my biggest complaint with the unit. RetroSound should have designed this with non-volatile memory. After all, these radios are mostly used in classic cars and many, many people put battery cut-off switches in them.

5. One bluetooth gripe explained in that part of the review.

6. When playing mp3's off of a USB drive and you have your music organized by directories, the display information regarding directories on the LED screen is poor. You only get numbers. No artist information at all (my directory names are the names of the artist).

Now on to the good stuff.
Without the amp review:


I must say I am very pleased. This sounds better than I thought it would. Power is excellent without an external amp. When I was sitting in my driveway, it sounds better than my old AAR but not a night and day difference.
But when I drove the car, it made a HUGE difference. Much more than I anticipated. It was a beautiful day so I had all the windows down in my hardtop and I could hear the radio just fine. I tried it with FM radio as well as mp3's from a USB drive. I even went on the highway for a while.
The amp in radio is very high quality. It has a smoothness to it and is very clear. The adjustably of the tone is excellent. It has treble, mid and base and bass boost. It also has 3 preset EQ settings, very nice. When I play it as loud as my ears can take, I don't detect any distortion and bass is great.

I do want to say here that my ears aren't the best. I've got tinnitus and my ears are much more sensitive to loud noises than they used to be. My ears could tell I pushed them a little too far after this test drive.

Heat.

It does get hot. When playing it about as loud as my ears can take, I can touch the back of the unit but not for long. It's hot. At a little lower volume (what I would need to enjoy music at highway speeds), it's still too hot to leave your fingers on it for more than 10-15 seconds or so.
This is where the external amp should make a difference. It will put the heat in the trunk instead of behind the dash (and into the passenger compartment). I've been told it will help with the radio's life too.

Really though, I would be happy with it without the amp. But, I've got the new Alpine and will get it installed and re-test when I do. I hope the amp will be worth it as it's a lot of trouble to install. I'm looking at where to mount it in the trunk right now. I bought bulk microphone cable and rca ends to make up my audio cables myself. I'm going run the wires out through the firewall, under the car and back into the trunk. I don't want to mess with my carpet and pull the back seat.

Later, after installing external amp:

(Note: At the time I installed this amp, I also upgraded the rear 6X9 speakers. The old ones I had were Alpine speakers but only had a 35 watt rating. I upgraded to Infinity speakers rated at 110 watts.)

HUGE difference in bass! What I like the most is that the bass has a lot more presence even at low volumes. It just has a firmness and realness to it that is hard to describe. It just sounds great. I can't see where anyone would want a better sound than this system. It is a big improvement.

Before the amp, I didn't notice any lack of bass and thought it was just right. I didn't think there would be much room for improvement. But to my surprise, there absolutely was.

I really don't notice an improvement in the highs and mids but maybe slightly. It's all in the bass and what it adds to the total sound. This RetroSound Model Two is a superb head unit IMO. I think it would make anyone that doesn't want to install an external amp very happy. For someone who wants that very powerful bass, then the RetroSound with the amp should make them totally happy.

Using the amp does make a big difference in the heat. The head unit now isn't even warm even at high volumes.

Installing my amp was a lot of work. So, I'm really glad it made a noticeable difference in sound (and heat at the head unit). It took me several hours to do over 3 days. I made my own RCA interconnects using bulk shielded twisted pair wires and soldered the connectors on. I ran them under the car in corrugated conduit. I used #8 power leads and installed a 50 amp midi/ami fuse holder at the battery. I had to make one bracket to for one of the amp's 4 mounting locations and I used rivet nuts for anchoring all of it.

Bluetooth review. Both playing mp3's and talking on the phone:

(Note: My phone is a Samsung Galaxy Note II.)

I had no problems pairing my phone with the unit. Did everything the radio instructions said to do.

First the mp3's:
This is the first time I've ever tried this in any way. I'm very surprised. It really works well and sounds great. I expected some quality loss compared to playing mp3's off a USB thumb drive but there wasn't much. I did a A/B test using the same mp3 song from the phone and on a thumb drive. The bluetooth isn't quite as good but you have to listen closely to hear the difference.

Phone not driving:

Again, very surprised and impressed. I made 2 calls and both people said I sounded really good. They sounded really good through the car speakers also. One of the calls was to my brother who I talk to over the phone all the time. He said while I didn't sound quite as good as I did talking directly from the phone, it was still very good and clear.

Phone driving:

(Note: My car is insulated well but sure isn't as quiet as a newer car. I've got a hardtop as well and I don't think they are as quiet as a sedan.)

Again, I made calls to 2 people while driving the car.
While driving around town up to 50 mph at times, my wife said while not great, i sounded acceptable. She sounded great to me. That fact that I can turn the volume to amplify the incoming sound, hearing is really, really good. I then got on the highway (60 to 70 mph) where she said it's not good and she wouldn't want to talk to me for very long that way. She could catch most of what I was saying but would miss a word here and there and I would have to repeat. It would work for something really short but that's all. Again, I could hear her just fine. And btw, while going 50, I rolled the driver window down and she said there was no difference doing that. I didn't try rolling it down on the highway.

On the second call to my brother (who I wouldn't expect to be as tolerant with much less than a normal call quality), he was much less pleased with how I sounded driving around town. He said he would not want to have a long conversation doing that but something short would be OK. I didn't try the highway with him as there wasn't much point. As I said in my last report, he's fine with how it sounds when the car is stopped but he is also fine with it while stopped with the engine running. One interesting thing my brother said is that I actually sound better to him with the RetroSound unit than I do with the factory unit in my 2014 GMC Acadia Denali.

Note: One little gripe I have here with the RetroSound is that I can't just turn the power off to the unit to cut the bluetooth pairing off. The on/off switch is disabled when a phone call is active on bluetooth. Sure would be handy if I could cut it off by switching off the unit so I could then pick up the phone and talk. I think I'll contact RetroSound with this comment. A software update may be able to change this.

All-in-all, I'm pleased with the bluetooth. It is a feature I wanted to have and it's a little better than I thought it would be before I bought the unit. What I really like about having it is that I won't miss a phone call. Before, I would not be able to hear my phone ring and now the radio will mute and allow me to answer. I can then decide whether it's a short call or a call I will want to either pull-over and talk or turn off the bluetooth and continue to talk directly on the phone.

System details with links:

Radio:
1955-56 Chevrolet Bel Air Long Beach Radio

Amp:
Alpine MRX-35
Note added 4/16/15 - It appears Alpine recently discontinued this model but it is still available at some retailers.

Rear deck speakers:
Infinity Kappa 693.9i

Front door speakers:
Infinity Kappa 42.9i

Interconnect wire (4 colors):
Canare L-2T2S

RCA connectors:
Neutrik Rean NYS-373 Male Plugs

Fuse holder:
Cooper Bussman AMI/MIDI fuse holder

Adhesive lined heat-shrink and non-insulated wire terminals also came from Waytek.

For my RCA audio interconnect wires, I used the twisted pair for the signal. The shield is only connected to the ground/signal at the head unit end and not the amp end.

Photos:


Bluetooth mic location:

Amp during install:

Amp complete:

50 amp fuse holder for amp:

The unit comes with a few screen protectors to make them look more vintage. I do think it looks really good on there. I don't know yet how much it will interfere with being able to read the digital display though. Don't know if I'll keep it on there all the time either. It would be good to have it on at a car show though. I can get extras for cheap if I need them.

Here a few pics from a while back that I took of my speaker setup:


 
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#3 ·
You are welcome. I enjoy doing this kind of stuff.
It would be great if you would post your review to this thread when you get yours installed.

The more reviews we get, the more it would be helpful to anyone considering a radio purchase.

Also, if anyone has the RetroSound Zuma, a review posted here would be good too since that is the same radio without the bluetooth.
 
#4 · (Edited)
Just wanted to make an update to this review.

Now that it's been almost 6 months since I've installed my RetroSound Model II with the Alpine power amp, I must say I'm still as thrilled with it as I was when I first installed it. I've only taken the car on one trip since then but the radio sounds just great when cruising along the highway at 70 mph for hour after hour. It's a pleasure around town too.

From my review, you can see what I think its the biggest shortcoming the radio has. To address that I designed and installed my own setup for a battery powered memory keep-alive for it and wanted to post the link to that discussion. See post #38 of this thread:

Audio Memory Saver Wiring

Here's some of that post from the other thread explaining my setup:

I bought an Antigravity XP1 and you can see that here:

XP-1 Micro-Start

Schematic:



I ran the wire to the trunk so I could keep the battery there. I also wired in the charger wire to an ignition source so the battery only charges with the engine running.







All hidden when the spare tire is in place:

 
#7 ·
Glad that you like it Roger . I still haven't made up my mind. Mike
 
#8 ·
I know nothing of this radio, but have looked it up for possible future use.

Two questions...where do you plug the USB thumb drive?

And in your first pic, I see "#2 Big Log"...is that song title (as Robert Plant's Big Log...which I love) or ?? I ask because you wrote that you were not impressed the lack of artist info on the display, and wondered if it showed song titles along with track numbers...

Very cool to hear that it has such a great sound...thanks fr taking the time to put this write up together!! :shakehands:
 
#10 ·
I know nothing of this radio, but have looked it up for possible future use.
Two questions...where do you plug the USB thumb drive?
And in your first pic, I see "#2 Big Log"...is that song title (as Robert Plant's Big Log...which I love) or ?? I ask because you wrote that you were not impressed the lack of artist info on the display, and wondered if it showed song titles along with track numbers...
Very cool to hear that it has such a great sound...thanks fr taking the time to put this write up together!! :shakehands:
Hi Dean.

Here is a link to the owner's manual:

http://www.jegs.com/InstallationInstructions/700/700/700-model%202.pdf

There are 2 inputs for USB thumb drives and they are both on cable ends. I have them routed to the inside of the glovebox. Page 14 of the manual.

Yes, the display will show artist info when playing from USB. That's explained on page 31. My complaint is when you are scrolling through directories on the drive to find an artist.
I organize my mp3's by artist and have artist names as directory names. However, when scrolling through directories from the Model 2, it shows a number, not a name. So, you don't know what artist you've selected until you start playing it.

And yep, that's Robert Plant. Cool song and cool video. Wouldn't mind having that 55 convertible!
 
#11 ·
I just got a model II for the 57 and your review really help me make a decision. Thanks Roger
Joe
You are welcome Joe.
I'd like to see how it looks in your '57 dash. Post photos here if you would like. Add your review if you want too.
 
#14 ·
Im having the hardest time getting everything lined up correctly, I want the Chrome Bezel to match seemlessly with the dash, seems like whatever configuration i do with the infini mount on the retrosound radio, it doesnt want to line up. Any body have any tips on this?
 
#15 ·
Did you get this worked out OK Troy?
 
#16 ·
Thanks, Roger, for the review. I have been thinking about upgrading my Retro Sound Model I to the Model II you installed. I have a similar experience with external amp on my Model I in our 57 BelAir...sounds great with good base and runs nice and cool even at volume.
 
#17 ·
I know this link is old but I want to reach out to Roger and say thanks. I was considering one of these radios and this tips the scale for me. I just want to follow up on one of the comments made in his review about the Retrosound Zuma, has anyone purchased the RetroSound Zuma? Please provide any input you have on the Zuma. Roger states on the Retrosound II the bezel that centers the radio face is chrome plastic and scratches easily, was wondering if the bezel has been upgraded to metal on the Retrosound Zuma?
 
#18 ·
Thanks!
Sorry for not responding until now. I wasn't notified that this thread had been posted to.

It looks like they've changed their lineup again. The Model 2 and Zuma names are no longer used.

The current model called the Long Beach or Long Beach Motor 4 has same amp and feature set as my Model 2. So my review of that should still be valid today.

From looking at the photos, it appears that the bezel is still made of chromed plastic. That's OK as long as you are careful with it during the installation.
 
#20 ·
Update to my last post.

I was reviewing the feature list of the Long Beach Motor 4 model and it does include 2 features that my Model 2 doesn't have.

One is that the Long Beach is SiriusXM ready. The other is that it has non-volatile memory. That sure does address one of my complaints about the Model 2.
 
#21 ·
While we are discussing the various models, my rust bucket came w/ a bunch of new parts, one being a CAS Direct Fit model radio. I don't know when it was made, but the box shows:
300 W peak
USB for MP3 and WMA file playback
Direct Ipod charge/play
DSP eq
CD changer control
Clock
7 color choices
AM/FM with RDS and 25 presets
Subwoofer line out w/xover
Aux input.. Whatever that is.
NE1 have feedback on this unit?
 
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