Installation Tips
Here are answers to some of the common questions we get:
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.
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!
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:
Retrosound Euro/VW Bracket Modification
##########################
Here's how to fit our new metal knobs to your Retrosound shafts!!
For any questions regarding this bulletin, please contact our tech support via email: support@retrosoundusa.com or call us toll free @ 888-325-1555 or 909-364-1372
#################################
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!
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.
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!
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:
Retrosound Euro/VW Bracket Modification
##########################
Here's how to fit our new metal knobs to your Retrosound shafts!!
For any questions regarding this bulletin, please contact our tech support via email: support@retrosoundusa.com or call us toll free @ 888-325-1555 or 909-364-1372
#################################
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/
Installation Tips and Tricks are coming soon!!
Please check out these videos to learn more about our revolutionary radio system!
USB & function Overview of the Model One C