Cheap van stereos and crap reception

Post by **Sven** » 14 Feb 2006, 20:49

I've had cheap and decent stereos in the van. Is it just me or is the fm reception poorer at the cheaper end of the market.....or is it a case of the manufacturers using cheap components(receivers) in the units.
Cant be the aerial as that is fine...its the long retractable type that fits on the pillar.
Sven

Post by **Cruz** » 14 Feb 2006, 22:47

I've had a few cheap stereos with varying reception. Once had a crappy goodmans years ago that could hardly pick anything up, recently had an aldi MP3 radio that picked everything up but was crap on MP3 playback (kept skipping)

I've now got a Sony fitted that I got from Argos for £70. Great MP3 CD Radio

This one at Argos would be good for a van

MP3 is the way to go as you can get upto 8 albums on one 20p CDR and suffle between all the tracks on the CD. Great for long drives.

Just download The lame MP3 Codec then rip CD's to MP3 using Windows Media Player and then burn the albums onto a cd

Post by **ozzy** » 14 Feb 2006, 23:07

sounds abit tech to me i use nero does everything from cd music to mp3 to vcd svcd n dvd covers the lot and easy to use .
You gotta have an mp3 player in ur bus its a must 5-8 albums on one disc its the future

Post by **Cruz** » 14 Feb 2006, 23:09

ozzy wrote:sounds abit tech to me i use nero does everything from cd music to mp3 to vcd svcd n dvd covers the lot and easy to use .
You gotta have an mp3 player in ur bus its a must 5-8 albums on one disc its the future

It's for encoding them to your hard-drive as CD's get scratched. Puts them in a named folder and tag the tracks....the lot

get yourself 2 sunvisor cd holders from maplin for £1.48 each. Holds 20 cd each. Thats about 160 albums

Post by **Mocki** » 17 Feb 2006, 14:27

the pillar antenna's are crap. and too long for FM reception, you need to shorten it to 75cm for best reception on broadcast FM, and it will still be very directional, being situated up the pillar......, cheap antenna is more like the problem, no matter how good the reciever, bad antanna, = no reception

Post by **rustydubs** » 17 Feb 2006, 15:22

had a cheap crappy aerial on a sony stereo, hardly any reception, changed to pillar mounted type, no problems at all now!!!

Post by **Cruz** » 17 Feb 2006, 15:51

Had a wonderfully new aerial on a cavalier and a new but cheapio goodmans radio..........no signal. Dumped the goodmans and got a sony.........wonderful signal.