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rocky5517

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Jason recommended Precision Stereo, upstate NY, 315 797 5219. He has a new address which he asked me to post- 6475 Stage Rd, Utica NY 13502. His name is Rob Pacini and he gave me quite an education over the phone re our old radios. For instance, most of us know when replacing speakers to use 8-10 ohm speakers. But when I told him I was going to hook up a second ( rear) speaker he said that it's important to know if the car had the "fade" feature. He said, that if the car was born with 2 speakers than it would have had "fade", but also some things like this were dealer installed. So I'm checking the build plate ( Thanks Jason)) to see if the code 2 R appears. That will tell if it came with 2 speakers. The fade is important, he said, because most people set it at 25% front and 75% rear. But if you don't have a fade setting I think he said he has to make a change inside the radio, or the radio will be fighting itself to power 2 speakers. Please excuse if I got this translation wrong, but like many other things, it's all in the details. He's going to give me an external jack for accessories. 

  For what it's worth, he knows a lot about show cars, and judging etc as he's a member of the Nat'l Corvette judging team, and that in a judged show, they'll listen to the radio and see if the sound is correct for the period. iIthink he was warning me that if a let him upgrade the radio sound-wise, which I am, a sharp-eared judge may deduct points.

Wow!

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8 hours ago, Riviera63 said:

Robert redid my AM-FM radio. He gave me an education as well. Love the work he did. Reliability, improved sound, better speaker with a correct plug and I can run my i-pod through it. All of that for a very reasonable price and the stock look.

 

Bill

Are you saying that he gutted the stock radio and stuffed in new innards?  I can't see how you can run an iPod through a stock radio unless you have some intermediate low-power transmitter.

 

If you can find someone who can truly get the old AM/FM radios working well, that's a good score.  My experience is that those radios are marginal at best and the repair components are all but impossible to find.  IMHO, both the Sonomatic and Wonderbar have better AM sections, and I got better FM reception using a cheap plug-in receiver with the Wonderbar than I ever did with the AM/FM radio.

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4 hours ago, KongaMan said:

Are you saying that he gutted the stock radio and stuffed in new innards?  I can't see how you can run an iPod through a stock radio unless you have some intermediate low-power transmitter.

 

If you can find someone who can truly get the old AM/FM radios working well, that's a good score.  My experience is that those radios are marginal at best and the repair components are all but impossible to find.  IMHO, both the Sonomatic and Wonderbar have better AM sections, and I got better FM reception using a cheap plug-in receiver with the Wonderbar than I ever did with the AM/FM radio.

 

He did not gut my stock radio. He replaced any original components that were bad with new, like components. My FM works great now. He adds a pigtail connector that plugs into the i-pod/Mp3. I'm thinking he creates an audio pathway using the pigtail into and through the radio to the speaker somehow. No different than plugging into a speaker, ear buds or headphones. To play my I-pod/Mp3 I tune to an AM station, plug it in and let the good times roll. The AM works just as it should when you don't plug in. You would have to talk to him to get the technical aspect of how he does it. I have the pigtail come up through the ashtray opening. It is thin enough that the ashtray can be in place. If you want it hidden, you just pop the ashtray out and shove the pigtail into the console and put the ashtray back in.

 

Bill

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6 hours ago, KongaMan said:

Are you saying that he gutted the stock radio and stuffed in new innards?  I can't see how you can run an iPod through a stock radio unless you have some intermediate low-power transmitter.

 

If you can find someone who can truly get the old AM/FM radios working well, that's a good score.  My experience is that those radios are marginal at best and the repair components are all but impossible to find.  IMHO, both the Sonomatic and Wonderbar have better AM sections, and I got better FM reception using a cheap plug-in receiver with the Wonderbar than I ever did with the AM/FM radio.

 

Robert did mine and does not gut them. He did bass and treble sound enhancements and added the ipod/iphone jack with cord which I routed to my console.

Robert also sold me Delco Coaxial speakers. My AM/FM stereo is phenomenal......for a 50 year old car. Now keep in mind sound quality is subjective. I'm comparing it to the originals. Remember back in the day as teenagers when you installed a new stereo system with maybe even a cassette player, an equalizer/amp from K-Mart, and Jensen Triaxials? Then all you wanted to do was sit in the car and listen to the stereo? It was a similar experience how I was smitten with the sound after the work Robert Pacini did. I still occasionally just sit in the car and listen.

Certainly it would not be relative or fair to compare it to a modern sound system. I know there are a handful of good radio guys out there but Robert is a true gentleman and technically is at the top of his game. IMO of course:)

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2 hours ago, JZRIV said:

 

Robert did mine and does not gut them. He did bass and treble sound enhancements and added the ipod/iphone jack with cord which I routed to my console.

Robert also sold me Delco Coaxial speakers. My AM/FM stereo is phenomenal......for a 50 year old car. Now keep in mind sound quality is subjective. I'm comparing it to the originals. Remember back in the day as teenagers when you installed a new stereo system with maybe even a cassette player, an equalizer/amp from K-Mart, and Jensen Triaxials? Then all you wanted to do was sit in the car and listen to the stereo? It was a similar experience how I was smitten with the sound after the work Robert Pacini did. I still occasionally just sit in the car and listen.

Certainly it would not be relative or fair to compare it to a modern sound system. I know there are a handful of good radio guys out there but Robert is a true gentleman and technically is at the top of his game. IMO of course:)

 

I second all of what Jason has said. As Jason stated it would not be fair to compare to a modern sound system. If we are truly honest those of us who drove and had cars in the 60's will remember that the quality of what we listened to in our car was pretty bad. Static, weak reception, interference from power lines and storm activity. That did not matter because we were thrilled to be able to get and listen to rock and roll whenever we wanted. The station that I remember listening to a lot was AM WLS in Chicago with Johnny Lujack. FM even though around since the 40's was still pretty much an unknown to me as a teen in the 60's. I remember hooking up an 8 track, running wires to shelf speakers in the back. I even went as far as mounting a portable cassette player under my dash somehow and found an external speaker that would plug into the audio jack. Having the ability to play whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted was heaven. Of course, dictated by my meager supply of extra cash for tapes. That is why I love listening to music in my Riv. It brings me back to the memories of those high school years just sitting in my 61 Chevy or 65 Pontiac and doing nothing but listening to the radio. I too, sometimes just sit in the car and listen to the radio. I've had fun just thinking about those things right now. This now concludes this week's installment of "Nostalgia Theater".

 

Bill

 

 

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9 hours ago, Riviera63 said:

 

He did not gut my stock radio. He replaced any original components that were bad with new, like components. My FM works great now. He adds a pigtail connector that plugs into the i-pod/Mp3. I'm thinking he creates an audio pathway using the pigtail into and through the radio to the speaker somehow. No different than plugging into a speaker, ear buds or headphones. To play my I-pod/Mp3 I tune to an AM station, plug it in and let the good times roll. The AM works just as it should when you don't plug in. You would have to talk to him to get the technical aspect of how he does it. I have the pigtail come up through the ashtray opening. It is thin enough that the ashtray can be in place. If you want it hidden, you just pop the ashtray out and shove the pigtail into the console and put the ashtray back in.

 

Bill

There we go.  It sounds like it's the same setup as the old FM converters you used to buy back in the day in which the antenna is rerouted through the converter box.  When you wanted FM (or, now, MP3), the antenna was disconnected, and the box generated a pseudo antenna signal that was fed into the radio.  That is, the radio sees the MP3 player as a radio station.

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7 hours ago, JZRIV said:

My AM/FM stereo is phenomenal......for a 50 year old car. Now keep in mind sound quality is subjective. I'm comparing it to the originals.

 

I used to drive a 70 Olds with factory AM/FM stereo (with the secondary box behind the glove compartment).  I never had any complaints about it (I've still got it somewhere; I pulled it when I junked the car).  My issue with the earlier Buick AM/FM was that it just didn't seem to be as good as the AM-only radios; it wasn't as sensitive.  It didn't have anything to do with the sound quality.

 

When I used to drive the car daily I had a Pioneer Supertuner with a Clarion equalizer/amp and two speakers on the package shelf.  The Clarion burned up (smoke and everything), and I don't remember what happened to the Pioneer (I seem to remember the drive belts for the cassette got kinked and I couldn't find replacements).  I've still got the bracket and the slide mount (remember them?) that I used to install it below the passenger side dash.

 

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These days I use the vintage Buick AM/FM with the front/rear speakers and a factory reverb unit.  The sound is OK for what it is and how it's used, but I keep thinking that it would be better if I went back to the Wonderbar and the 40-year-old FM converter sitting in the ashtray.

 

To be fair, maybe this has more to do with this specific radio, but I've got a couple (one of which was overhauled by a guy with a good rep), and they seem to work the same.

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I had Fred rebuild my AM/FM for my 64.  He also rebuilt my OE  speakers with modern materials - no more paper cones.  I think the new speakers did as much to improve the sound as anything.  My reverb was corroded beyond his abilities.?  But since then, I let the base, which had all of the corrosion on it sit in a shallow bath of Evaporust.  It looks great now but I've never taken it back to Fred to have him look at it again. Someday.

 

http://www.fredsclassicradios.com

 

I've recommended him to others as well and everyone of them was very happy.

 

Ed

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12 minutes ago, Bill Stoneberg said:

 The station that I remember listening to a lot was AM WLS in Chicago with Johnny Lujack.

 

His name was Larry Lujack.

 

I have not listened to WLS since the early 70's, so obviously my memories have dimmed somewhat over the years. As soon as I read your post i knew you were absolutely right. Thanks for the correction. 

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From my home in central Kansas, it was either WLS in Chicago - remember "Sunday, Sunday, Sunday drags" sponsored by "Mr. Norm's Grand Spalding Dodge?", or we'd listen to KOMA out of Oklahoma City.  But you could only pick them up after 10 PM when they could boost their output to 250,000 watts. If atmospheric conditions were right, we could get a station out of Del Rio, TX which would use equipment across the border in Mexico which allowed them to push their output to 500,000 watts.

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I grew up listening to WLS and WCFL in Chicago. Dick Biondi was my favorite back then.

 

Ed, later on in life I drove trucks late at night for the bands I worked with all over the central US and one of my favorite stations was the the one from New Orleans called WWL.

WLS & WWL were known as clear channel stations back then.  Stations that had the same frequency elsewhere had to shut down at dusk to protect their signal.

 

On a good night with skip, you could get WLS all over the middle part of the country as you found out.  in 1980 though the FCC limited the protection of these stations to a 750 mile radius  around the station. Consequently you can not get them like you used to be able to. Plus, now WLS is all talk radio, no more rock and roll.  

 

I still travel a lot and Sirrus is my friend.

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4 minutes ago, Bill Stoneberg said:

"I grew up listening to WLS and WCFL in Chicago. Dick Biondi was my favorite back then.

 

Ed, later on in life I drove trucks late at night for the bands I worked with all over the central US and one of my favorite stations was the the one from New Orleans called WWL."

WWL is a great, balanced station.

I had to evac. my station at NOLA to MS to escape Katrina. Storm hit me there and at about 0430 I heard the first victims flood calls come in live.

A very sad day....

 

http://www.wwl.com/

 

 

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Here in the New York / New Jersey Metropolitan area, back in the late 60's. we listened to WABC-AM, cousin Brucie and company. But FM was coming on strong, with more progressive rock. One clever radio syndicate owned WABC AM and started WPLJ-FM.  Their clever idea was, ABC was 77 on the AM dial, and PLJ was 92.5 I think on the FM. The gimmick was, you could flip your selector from am to fm and be right on 77 or 92.5 ( or 95.5?)  Anyway it was a really great gimmick; remember most of our radios back then had the AM-FM selector. Still works today, and you can impress the young ones.

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54 minutes ago, rocky5517 said:

Here in the New York / New Jersey Metropolitan area, back in the late 60's. we listened to WABC-AM, cousin Brucie and company. But FM was coming on strong, with more progressive rock. One clever radio syndicate owned WABC AM and started WPLJ-FM.  Their clever idea was, ABC was 77 on the AM dial, and PLJ was 92.5 I think on the FM. The gimmick was, you could flip your selector from am to fm and be right on 77 or 92.5 ( or 95.5?)  Anyway it was a really great gimmick; remember most of our radios back then had the AM-FM selector. Still works today, and you can impress the young ones.

Get the Bruce Juice! Yup, grew up on Long Island. Quite the range from Brooklyn! My Key Wallet is from Mid-County Buick. (Brooklyn)

Bruce is at 81 years. God Bless

 

BTW Brooklyn is the source of the world's only Buick-powered Buick F/C ever constructed. ;)

Yeah, that's right - 1967 430-4

DSC07843.jpg

Edited by PWB (see edit history)
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I had to evac. my station at NOLA to MS to escape Katrina. Storm hit me there and at about 0430 I heard the first victims flood calls come in live.

A very sad day....

 

We came west from the Mobile area for Hurricane Ivan the year before Katrina  and listened to WWL again.

Katrina was sad and when most people don't realize is how bad the coast of Mississippi was hit. Going down Hwy 90 and seeing the houses that were destroyed that had been there for decades just broke my heart. This was overshadowed though by the disaster the happened in NOLA.

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4 hours ago, Bill Stoneberg said:

I had to evac. my station at NOLA to MS to escape Katrina. Storm hit me there and at about 0430 I heard the first victims flood calls come in live.

A very sad day....

 

We came west from the Mobile area for Hurricane Ivan the year before Katrina  and listened to WWL again.

Katrina was sad and when most people don't realize is how bad the coast of Mississippi was hit. Going down Hwy 90 and seeing the houses that were destroyed that had been there for decades just broke my heart. This was overshadowed though by the disaster the happened in NOLA.

Indeed. One gets real close to ones ride when the only source of electricity is your car battery and a.m. radio to keep one informed for 3 weeks.

No power to pump the gas to start your ride.

Even the cell towers couldn't transmit. Zero communicado.

That's why we love our rides. A true extension of "home".

 

 

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Ed: A bit of trivia; The high wattage radio station you listened to in Kansas late nights was from Del Rio TX. It was XERB broadcasting from across the border in Ciudad Acuna, Mexico. It could be heard in over 30 states in the mid west/west only at night. Founded by Dudley J LaBlanc who made millions from Hadacol - a patent medicine sold mostly in the South and who's primary ingredient was 12% alcohol therefor popular with consumers in areas where there were "blue laws" prohibiting sale of booze. XERB was where"Wolfman Jack" -an iconic rock and roll DJ from the 1950'-60"s and featured in "American Graffiti" - got his start.

 

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  • 5 years later...

I just want to toot the horn for Robert Pacini of Precision Stereo Repair again! Robert did the repairs on my AM/FM radio 7 years ago. This spring I lost the FM function on my radio. I survived as I could play songs through my MP3. Had to miss a few Brewer games on the radio along the way but, I survived. I pulled my radio last week as it is getting to the time I need to put the car away for the winter. I sent the radio out to Robert and told him that there was no rush and he had all winter to do the repair. I just got off the phone with Robert as he called to tell me my radio was done. Less than a week since I sent the radio. Apparently, a transistor had burned out causing the radio to lose the FM function. He also said he did a few other tweaks to improve the radio function and quality. When I asked him how much I owed him, he said, nothing. He said he was very lax on his warranty enforcement. I told him that it had been several years and that I had not expected him to do the repair for free. We finally agreed on $25.00 which seemed like a bargain to me. He is very personable and does great work. I know there are many good repair people out there and different routes to go with your radio. If you decide to go the route I did give Robert a try. He is top notch in every way. I have attached a photo of his flyer. The prices may have changed but, all of the other info is good. 

 

Bill

 

 

Precision Stereo.jpg

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  • 2 weeks later...

Same here. The gent fitted my AM radio with an Aux input to play my MP3’s. Precision supplied my new 10 ohm speaker that sounds good. The sound volume is just fine.

The sound is not like the sound in a modern car or good sound system retro fit, BUT I’m delighted.

 

I would recommend Precision.

Turbinator

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  • 6 months later...
On 10/20/2022 at 5:35 PM, Riviera63 said:

I just want to toot the horn for Robert Pacini of Precision Stereo Repair again! Robert did the repairs on my AM/FM radio 7 years ago. This spring I lost the FM function on my radio. I survived as I could play songs through my MP3. Had to miss a few Brewer games on the radio along the way but, I survived. I pulled my radio last week as it is getting to the time I need to put the car away for the winter. I sent the radio out to Robert and told him that there was no rush and he had all winter to do the repair. I just got off the phone with Robert as he called to tell me my radio was done. Less than a week since I sent the radio. Apparently, a transistor had burned out causing the radio to lose the FM function. He also said he did a few other tweaks to improve the radio function and quality. When I asked him how much I owed him, he said, nothing. He said he was very lax on his warranty enforcement. I told him that it had been several years and that I had not expected him to do the repair for free. We finally agreed on $25.00 which seemed like a bargain to me. He is very personable and does great work. I know there are many good repair people out there and different routes to go with your radio. If you decide to go the route I did give Robert a try. He is top notch in every way. I have attached a photo of his flyer. The prices may have changed but, all of the other info is good. 

 

Bill

 

 

Precision Stereo.jpg

 

I just put my newly repaired radio in yesterday. Robert did even more enhancements on it this time around so it works and sounds even better than it did before. Very happy and satisfied with his work. I e-mailed him to compliment him on his fantastic job. He sent me a link to an article that was published in Hemmings Muscle Machines magazine which talks about him and what he does to bring these old radios back to life. Very interesting. Give Robert a try, you won't be disappointed.

 

https://www.hemmings.com/stories/article/weve-got-the-jack

 

Bill

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4 hours ago, Riviera63 said:

Robert did even more enhancements on it this time around so it works and sounds even better than it did before.

Great outcome! Feels good to have as much as possible functional on our Rivieras.

What Delco model number is yours Bill?

 

I usually prefer to farm out modules for re-installation and be done as is the case with Bill's Delco. But, I DIY'd my AM/FM Delco 980659 and am quite please with my handi-work so much so, I'd like to do more.

AM/FM electrical schematic is not in the Shop Manual so, I had to purchase a Photo Facts Book from Steve Johnson in Syracuse, not far from Robert Pacini.

https://antiqueradioschematics.org/contact.htm

 

A big improvement in my upgrade was to replace the final stage amplifier with a German 12W Class-A Mono Unit that allows for a modern 4W 3-Way 6X9 speaker. But hey, I kept the old distortion prone amp in-place and can select with a toggle behind the tuner knob provisioned for a Fader in other cars. No need for a Fader. With the increased dynamic range of that big 6X9 pointed towards my back, talk shows and sporting events come in loud and clear, not just tunes.

 

If I have the Delco out again, I'd like to replace that inefficient Choke hanging on the outside of the cabinet with a modern DC-to-DC device below.

image.png.d7eee27f2f22038983a08fad8bb88d88.png

image.png.9f27f04faba7bd717c34628e84075269.png

 

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