[Kosfactor]

Our '95 Esteem had a BPL cassette deck, I do not think many have seen it. It was awful but you could hear wonderwall from Oasis, so all good then.

The '97 Esteem had a hole in its place, I bought it used and the standard practice was to remove the stereo and speakers before you sell your vehicle those days, this practice was so strong that a friend of mine wanted to remove the stereo of his old vehicle in 2017 while exchanging it for a new car that came in with Android Auto & Carplay!! I told him that his car is not sold for scrap only because of that stereo, leave it alone.

Wish I could have some of those Pioneer, Ralliart, Kenwood, Alpine stickers on the car!

[Prakritij]

Our 1998 M800 got an aftermarket Pioneer Cassette player (front fascia detachable) and a couple of unbranded speakers in the front doors. I was in 8th Std then and really enjoyed the device. At that time we didn't had any sort of music players at home and Sundays would be spent cleaning/ washing the car with the music playing in the car. I remember purchasing cassettes with a separate album on each side. Companies like T-series etc. used to take the popular songs from a movie/album and release cassettes like this.
It had the auto reverse feature and a 7-band equalizer which really worked. Only let-down was the speakers. I don't remember the model of the Pioneer but it was the first music player in the family as a whole.
Fast forward to 2013, I replaced the unit with a generic Chinese USB/FM/AM player along with the speakers (again unbranded). A cigarette lighter was also installed at the same accessories shop. This new unit blew the very next day when a friend wanted to light a cig. As there was no warranty, I had to get a new one (again Chinese). This one had 6 months warranty and was working till the car was sold in 2016.
The M800 was with us for around 18 years and we have fond memories with her.

[sharanvenu]

Great Thread! Brings back so many memories!
The earliest car stereo I remember is a Pioneer Radio Cassette Receiver in our '86 Premier Padmini. It had a manual tuning knob at one end and a volume knob at the other end with the frequency indication in the middle.
It looked somewhat similar to this.

Somehow, this player had an issue with International Albums, the cassettes used to get stuck in it. There was one incident when we were travelling to native (240km~8 hrs drive those days) and MLTR got stuck in the player. It refused to eject, but was playing well. The same cassette played over and over through out the journey while I got an earful for playing that cassette!
Everyone at home still burst into laughter whenever that incident is mentioned.

Later when stereo players where available with high speed dubbing, I used to painstakingly record cassettes before each long journey. Used to spend hours to get an hour long play list.
Later I started burning Audio CDs, then MP3 discs in the same fashion, selecting each song. I still continue the same habits, but now with ZipDrives and neatly numbered and organized files and folders in them.
Spotify has taken over now and I cannot remember the last time I downloaded a song. Life has gotten more easier these days, but I somehow miss those days.

Going slightly off topic;
Even today, I cannot shake away that feeling that the earlier receivers added more charm to automobiles whenever I see retro fitted touch screens in today's cars, I just love the OEM ICE in earlier VWs.
Few among the modern receivers bring back that charm; the notable being Blaupunkt Bermen SQR 46. Looks are very deceptive and this unit for sure packs a punch up its sleeves according to ace tuners.

https://blaupunkt.com/cus/product/bremen-sqr-46-dab/

I have this first generation Duster which came with a non Touch Screen ICE system. I upgraded the system moderately with a 4 channel amplifier and better component speakers, but left the head unit untouched to retain the old school charm. It is almost at the end of its life cycle and I am yet to find a head unit which will blend into the environment. Physical buttons and dot matrix displays
The only worthy product is the Pioneer MVH-S622BS unless something else catches my eye.

https://www.pioneerelectronics.com/P...ers/MVH-S622BS

[Thegermanbadger]

Attachment 2239446

The Sony XR-3757 currently fitted to my Maruti since 1998. It has features to skip a song at the touch of a button, repeat a song as many times as needed, SW 1 and SW 2 apart from MW and FM radio stations. The shortwave stations would be heard only with the antenna upped. It also memorises the user's favourite radio stations if programmed to do so. We hardly have any good MW and SW stations to be heard these days.[/quote]

Ahh .. this was what we had in my dad's esteem in 98-99. It was great. Also had some Sony speakers. 4 inch in the dash and coaxial in the rear tray. Don't remember the details as I was like 7 years old.

Had a neat denon and infinity set up in one our Cielos.

It had a denon cassette head unit with the 12 disk changer in the boot. And infinity speakers all around. It sounded sweet.

I had got a pioneer p1 and jbl gto speakers in the ohc vtec and later used that in the Octavia as well. Now it's all apple car play and Spotify. Morels and focals.

The last cassette I used with a used cng palio I had in 2010 during college. It had Fleetwood Mac stuck in it and that's all I heard for 2 years of ownership.

Cheers and thanks for the memory refresh.

[sohanbala]

This thread came in time, I started my father's Esteem rebuild in Feb 2021, since April end I've been trying to revive the Sony Casette player, I was told Sony was one of the go to options back then since it came as a bolt on kit with 2*4 1/2 speakers for the front and 2* 6 inch speakers for the rear.
This made it easy rather than having to hunt for matching speakers.
The player worked untill around 2009, now the main board is beyond repair.




After going through several players, I've finally managed to get a Kenwood Maruti OEM Casette player to go on the Esteem, it's wonderful to hear the motors churning inside, I've forgotten most of the function like Blank Skip as we rarely see them in modern players.
Just got the player hooked to the new speaker setup today, since casettes are making a comeback, got the new Lady Gaga chromatica tape to try on the player.
It's absolutely soulful listening to good old tape.






I shall update my Esteem thread with detailed description on the audio setup.

[parsh]

Originally Posted by sohanbala

Similar Sony Single DIN with Sony Front Door and Boxed speakers/woofers in dicky used to be in our beloved Maruti 800 of 1999 with removable face plate, used to be considered theft proof. How beautiful it used to be to carry your own cassette recordsing on travails and we used to have great stock in the car which is still lying around in house and are played onced in a while.

Unfortunately, not just the deck but the Car with the deck got stolen from Noida, parked on street within a matter of hours. No trace could be found. It had received fresh makeover. Other than the wonderful deck, what we lost was extremely handy pocket rocket that could zip through literally anywhere.

Call me fanatic, I still use the Pioneer Double DIN, FH-P5000MP which hosts the good old Cassette player with CD and AUX capability. Amazing still on SQ with the stock speakers of Innova G2D Type I. It still feels so blissful to listen to those good old cassette stocks we have, including old Hindi, Marathi, English recorded cassettes, Rafi, Yesudas, Kishore, Lata, Asha on the move...indeed feels soulful and we usually keep a good stock in car during travails. Its a half flip face specifically for the cassette input and supposedly theft proof unless someone manages to steal the Innova itself.







However, I did get it adapted to use its AUX capability with Pioneer's IP-BUS cabling, got made specifically, AUX/Power button in the lower 12V socket facade and adapted to BT streaming through the BT adapter attached to AUX, so we can also stream from any BT gadget during travails. The adapter works better than the FM Modulator adapters.

[sohanbala]

Originally Posted by parsh

Similar Sony Single DIN with Sony Front Door and Boxed speakers/woofers in dicky used to be in our beloved Maruti 800 of 1999 with removable face plate, used to be considered theft proof. How beautiful it used to be to carry your own cassette recordsing on travails and we used to have great stock in the car which is still lying around in house and are played onced in a while.

Unfortunately, not just the deck but the Car with the deck got stolen from Noida, parked on street within a matter of hours. No trace could be found. It had received fresh makeover. Other than the wonderful deck, what we lost was extremely handy pocket rocket that could zip through literally anywhere.

Call me fanatic, I still use the Pioneer Double DIN, FH-P5000MP which hosts the good old Cassette player with CD and AUX capability. Amazing still on SQ with the stock speakers of Innova G2D Type I. It still feels so blissful to listen to those good old cassette stocks we have, including old Hindi, Marathi, English recorded cassettes, Rafi, Yesudas, Kishore, Lata, Asha on the move...indeed feels soulful and we usually keep a good stock in car during travails. Its a half flip face specifically for the cassette input and supposedly theft proof unless someone manages to steal the Innova itself.

Attachment 2252902

Attachment 2252903

Attachment 2252904

However, I did get it adapted to use its AUX capability with Pioneer's IP-BUS cabling, got made specifically, AUX/Power button in the lower 12V socket facade and adapted to BT streaming through the BT adapter attached to AUX, so we can also stream from any BT gadget during travails. The adapter works better than the FM Modulator adapters.

Attachment 2252905

Very sorry to hear about the theft, very unfortunate.

I think Sony units were a go-to option back then, with it's auto tape flip and matching speaker set.
Lovely to see that you still have a tape unit, it's so cool to see the flip door open up.Nothing beats some good old tapes winding up.Nice to see the bt aux adapter set-up.Moreover awesome to see another fantic.My esteem is on a Kenwood tape unit, and a Kenowood disc changer hooked to it.The casettes in my dash makes the most noise in my car on a bad road now.

[narayans80]

We had a 1970 Ambassador from 1986 to 2004. For the most part, we used to carry a tape recorder from home and used to play the cassettes we had. The in-car stereo didn't last long. Not sure if it was stolen or we just got rid of it.

The last car that I saw a tape recorder was on my long time friends' 1991 Honda Civic in US, which he had between 2002 and 2006. We didn't have cassettes, but used a CD player hooked to a cassette adapter during those years.