Car Stereos - A Question and a Rant

[Beatle]

Warning:  Grumpy Old Man..........

I need to fill the DIN sized hole in the dash of the 90 with a simple, relatively inexpensive, music producing device.  However, I have one important criteria  It MUST NOT HAVE BRIGHT LIGHTS/SCREEN.

In the 'old days' I enjoyed covering lots of miles at night in the Alfetta with the dash lights turned right down low, sometimes off.  Back then the blue glow of the high beam telltale was blinding so I'd cover it with tape.  With almost no ambient light in the cabin, I found I had excellent night vision.  These were the days of chain mesh crash barriers (armco was for bridges and racetracks), no fog lines, and solid road marking lines were in yellow paint.

Now though, I find there is so much extraneous light inside the modern vehicle that I struggle to see the road.  No wonder we need 100000000W of HID headlighting in modern cars!!!  I hired a top-of-the-line Aurion the other day and even with the centre screen turned off, it still emitted a disturbing glow.  I just know the car was reading my mind, and luckily I got out before the alien/government probe came up through the seat.

Does anyone make a readily available stereo CD head unit with minimal lights, or the ability to dim the lights?     I found one at Supercheap with dimming capability, but it would dim the screen text so low it was invisible but still had lots of unnecessary blue lights on the dials and surrounds.  The blank screen however still produces a dull glow which my old eyes find irritating, and distracting in my peripheral vision.

To make matters worse, while the cheaper aftermarket head units have lots of lights, the lighting doesn't actually illuminate the names on the controls themselves so you still can't read what each button is for unless you turn on the overhead light........

[Cool Jesus]

There's some old classic style "modernised" radios at this US based eBay store http://stores.ebay.com.au/Woodys-Custom-Shop/Vintage-Style-AM-FM-Radios-/_i.html?_fsub=174354919
You'd have to ask them whether any particular unit can be dimmed, I would think its possible IDK.
How necessary is the CD, the store above can have a unit shipped here for $60, all black, classic push button, and radio dial indicator with memory card and usb capability (better than CD)

What about placing the radio in the glove box and place a cover or pocket in lieu of the radio in the console. Did you give any thought to not connecting the lighting cable? although it sounds like you want some light... not connecting the light cable would eliminate the dials and buttons being illuminated, yet the LED screen should still show info for you like the supercheap unit you mentioned.

Have you given night vision driving glasses, the yellow lense type, any thought old man?

[Beatle]

Thanks Cool Jesus,

The USB/card option sounds like a good one.   I didn't know there was a separate lighting wire.  I thought the illumination was just powered from the unit main power wire.

Not sure if I could drive in yellow glasses though.  I threw out my rose-coloured-glasses a while back 

Would a USA market unit work with Australian radio frequencies?

[shiny_car]

Would a USA market unit work with Australian radio frequencies?

FM yes, AM no (AU = 9MHz increments; US = 10MHz). Though some a region-selectable; doubt one of those would have that feature, but check.

As mentioned, the illumination (input) wire on aftermarket headunits is designed to dim the backlighting. This happens when you turn the parking/headlights on; it switches the illumination wire from 0V to +12V, which triggers the dimming feature.

There are various headunit I can suggest, but these are probably priced to 'meet your needs' and may not be priced to 'meet your low budget'. Often is the case, you want something in particular, but you can't always expect to have it for little money.

However, you could look for a secondhand older Alpine with the 'Blackout Mode' feature. Remember what Saab dashes are like? You can make them go 'blank/black' and they only come back to life temporarily when something changes. Same with these Alpine models; the main display goes blank (turns off) and only temporarily comes back on when you change something (eg: change volume/track). It's a feature on higher model Alpines (ie: would retail for >$500), and isn't designed for what you actually want; it is designed to improve sound quality, by reducing EMI and power consumption by the display. Secondhand may find one for $200~300 depending upon model/age.

Some of the models include the CDA-117, then older models like CDA-9887/9885/9886/9855/9853/9835/9833, etc.

You could also look at Nakamichi headunits. Again, expensive when new, but older models like the CD35z are classical.

[GTVeloce]

I sympathise Paul! I can't stand my car radio looking like a disco ball. I had a number of per-requisites when I was looking for a head unit and finally settled on this one from these guys;
http://www.ryda.com.au/JVC-KD-R90BT-Car-CD-Tuner-p/kdr90bt.htm
It has completely customisable colours (so you can match your gauges etc), you can control the brightness independently and/or you can hook it up to your headlights so it dims automatically when you turn the headlights on.
A few other good features include full Bluetooth compatibility (including phone calls) and three RCA connections (important for people like me running two amps). It does also have a hidden CD slot still.
Downsides are price and in the 75 it can be hard to read but I think that is mainly because of the mounting location (so low down).