Please keep checking for updates to the FAQ Section! This area is under construction! Please feel free to call us for questions at: 909-364-1372

Here are answers to some of the common questions we get:

Q: I have a VW bug, other than my voltage (needs to be 12 V Negative ground ) is there anything else I should be concerned about before purchasing one of your fine radios?

A: Yes, Liquid damage issues have been becoming more apparent recently, Here are photos taken of one of our radios that exhibit sigificant liquid damage, this has become a large issue with VW bugs and radios installed in these cars. Due to the position of the radio behind the dash and the age of the cars, these leaks can easily occur, please check your vw very very carefully behind the dash and install a rain guard to protect your radio behind the dash. Also check the seals and other areas around where the radio is installed in for liquid damage. Please email or call us for questions about this issue (support@retrosoundusa.com / 888-325-1555 ).

Want to learn more about how our Infinimount Shaft & Bracket system works?? click here to check out some close up pix in a 70-72 dash, click on "show info" to see some explanation while the show is playing: Infinimount shaft & bracket detail


Question: When I plug in my flash drive I get an "Error 4" on the screen of the Model One B / C, what can I do about that??

Retrosound answer:
Please note our radio is designed for use with a flash drive ONLY--- Do not connect an Ipod! Usually, and Error 4 has to do with the file format of the flash drive you're using. We've seen that happen when the flash drive is NTFS formatted. Try to use the FAT32 format, do a full format rather than a quick erase, and make sure none of the files or folders have names longer than 64 characters total. Also (very important) make sure none of the audio files are DRM or protected, use only .mp3 files or unprotected Windows Media format files. Also, make sure the files you use can play in Itunes, sometimes when you use other programs to convert the files they may not play properly and cause this error, for a test, use Itunes to convert a cd to .mp3 format, if that works ok, it should work ok. The drive size should not matter too much, so long as you do not have more than 999 songs on the drive. Please call us (909-364-1372) or email us at support@retrosoundusa.com for further support.

No Speaker Output Problem.

Our units do not suffer from “No Output” or “Low/Weak/Distorted Output”. More often than not, it is a simple issue with a speaker wire or the way the radio was wired up to speakers. With the way that the amplifiers are put together inside of our units, all it takes is one wire to have one issue and it will shut down the entire amplifier section. This means if you have a wire shorting to another speaker wire, arcing across a speaker terminal, pinched below a piece of sheet metal or running board, insulation that has been shredded back and wire touching body metal, or a speaker that is far below 4 ohms, these things will cause the amplifier to go into protection and shut off all output. By removing the issue, the amplifier will immediately resume play.
Please note that when the radio is in this state, it will appear to function, just there will be no output, you will even be able to adjust the volume output, but there will be no sound--- see below for more details on this situation.

Our radios are not a “common ground” style. This means that the negative terminals of the speaker wires are not linked to a ground path or a piece of body metal. They will not function if hooked up this way. It will cause the internal amplifier to shut down. The speakers need to be wired with one wire for the positive terminal and one for the negative terminal, and these wires need to go from the radio to the speaker and no where else. If you link two or more speakers together and the resulting impedance is lower than 4 ohms, the amplifier will shut down. If you wire both coils of a dual voice coil speaker together in parallel, you will shut down the amplifier. Parallel wiring means jumping a wire from positive to positive, and one from negative to negative and then wiring the pair up to the radio normally. If you wire the voice coils of a dual voice coil speaker out of phase, you will shut down the amplifier. Out of phase means that you have the left hand voice coil wired properly, but you have the positive and negative wires reversed on the right hand side. This essentially forces the speaker to attempt to move in both directions at the same time, resulting in zero motion and a short back to the radio. If you are taking a dual voice coil speaker and wiring it to be 8 ohms, you need to place a wire between the left hand voice coil negative terminal and the right hand voice coil positive terminal. This leaves you with a single positive and a single negative terminal on the speaker. Now wire it up as a normal speaker. Do Not place a single wire across the left or right hand positive and negative lead. This shorts the coil and acts like a parking brake on the speaker, resulting in a short back to the radio.

Engine Noise Issues.

If you are experiencing engine noise, ground loop, alternator whine, charging system interference, “an audible tachometer” issue, or other unpleasant high pitched noise that varies with the engine RPM, and have an external amplifier installed in the system, there are many things to help troubleshoot the problem.

Make sure that the amplifier gains are not all of the way up. If the radio is at around 20 on the volume level, and the system is louder than you can stand, then the gains are too far up. Back them off until the maximum volume level is right around 40 on the meter. This may resolve the noise issue immediately. Amplifiers amplify. If you have the gains too far up, the amplifier will amplify everything.

An easy part of any amplifier install is to add wires before reassembling the car. It is best to run a ground lead along with your RCA leads and remote turn on wire. If noise occurs, you can disconnect the radio ground from the dash or firewall point, and set it to ground back with the amplifier in the rear. This removes part of the “loop”.
There are many noise filtering devices on the market. The ones that tend to have the best results are inline RCA noise filters, such as Pacific Audio Corporation’s (PAC) SNI-1. These mount behind the radio on the RCA leads.
Other inline power noise filters can be used, if everything else fails. These install on the power leads behind the radio. If you choose to use these, make sure that they are a three wire design, as in a lead for the ground, switched power and constant power leads. These need to be rated at 5 amps per lead minimum.
On rare occasions, noise can be introduced through the antenna lead. The easy check is to unhook the antenna lead from the back of the radio. If this corrects the noise issue, there is an easy fix. You will need to purchase an antenna extension from a car audio dealer or an auto parts dealer. With a set of wire cutters or straight blade, remove about an inch of insulation only from the middle of the extension. From there, cut only the outside braided shielding. Do Not break the center conductor or the insulation around it. Once you have done this, you can wrap the extension with electrical tape or shrink tubing.

QUESTION: WILL CUTTING THE MODEL ONE'S INFINIMOUNT BRACKETS VOID THE WARRANTY OR HARM THE UNIT??


RETROSOUND ANSWER: No, this is the beauty of the radio's patent pending bracket system, cutting or modifying the radio, not your dash is what this radio is all about! Cutting / drilling the radio's bracket is ok and this allows many owners of foreign (British, German, Japanese, etc) cars to fit our radio into their vehicles. You will not harm your warranty in any way. For questions about modifying the bracket system please feel free to email us at support@retrosoundusa.com or call us at 909-364-1372. Keep in mind, no other radio made today is as flexible as ours and modification to the radio is encouraged to ensure proper fit!

Here's some info on fitting our Metal Knobs to our shafts and how to fit them properly:

For those of you purchasing our VW/Euro radios, currently you will need to modify our bracket system prior to installing the faceplate, but don't worry, this will not harm your radio or brackets, that's what makes our radio fit into virtually any car, no other radio can do this! below are some notes on how to do this:

For advanced installers only, the model one's faceplate unscrews from the main body of the unit about 3.5-4" allowing for some serious custom applications!

Check out the photos here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/cntstpdrmn/sets/72157605558653916/

Final Model One b and c Manual 5 Pm 120808