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MG MGA - MGA Stereo

Folks, I would like to hook up a cheapie single disc/fm stereo in my 1956 1500. Do I really need to be concerned about the reversed polarity damaging a unit? I was just going to hook it up reverse of instructions. Should I hook this directly to the fuse box?
Jim

Jim - Bad idea! Hooking up the stereo backward requires isolating the unit completely from ground because to hook it up backward you will be applying 12 volts to the chassis of the stereo that is normally grounded. Not only do you have to isolate the chassis of the stereo from ground, you also have to insure that any metal piece of the stereo will not have any chance of making contact with ground (including the errant coke can that may make contact with the chassis and ground. Any contact like that will cause instand sparks and release of smoke from your wiring harness, and we all know what happens when the smole is released. Not mentioned above is the problem of an antenna connection to the stereo. One side of the antenna cable goes to the chassis of the stereo and the other end goes to ground on the vehicle. Thrying to isolate the shield of the cable from ground is not only difficult, but well result in very poor reception.

A much better approach is to a) use your Ipod. This is probably the best approach in that a stereo is almost totally useless in anything other than a MGB GT when it is being driven because of engine and road noise. or b) convert the car to negative ground. This is not hard to do and will make your MGA compatible with any modern electronic equipment. If you want to make the conversion, send me an e-mail and I'll send you instructions for making the conversion. Cheers - Dave
David DuBois

If you do this, it will not work - there will be diodes in the power supply, and the unit will not power up.

If you try to et round this by mounting it "insulated" from everything else, there is a very strong liklihood of getting a short by something touching between the chassis of teh car and the radio, which then has a strong possibility fo burning out the entire loom.

Much better (and easy) to change the polarity of the car - check Barney's site for easy instructions.
dominic clancy

radio?!why??
sportscarfan

What is the best way to mount a stereo in my MGA. Of course we are now talking about the luxuriuos interior of an "A" Coupe,not those wind blown roadsters. Men of quality like comfort. And as we know ,there is no raod noise inside of a Coupe . LOL...LOL...LOL...LOL

But seroiusly I wish to put speakers in the front kick panels, one in the front dash grill mount and two speakers in the rear panel shelf. As a system are there any suggestions.
Gordon Harrison

I put a lot of thought into the car radio set up for my MGA. I had two priorities: making the radio look original in appearance, but upgrading the sound so I could actually HEAR it over 40mph.

I settled on an old Blaupunkt Frankfurt radio (you can get them on eBay) since it was available as an aftermarket item when the MGA was new. All these German radios have a little DIN socket input that was originally intended for outboard tape and phono (yes PHONO) sources.

By connecting this socket to the output of an iPod or CD/MP3 player you can listen to it through the radio. Volume/tone is controlled by the radio. And by connecting an outboard underdash power amplifier and speakers to the radio output it will yeild a nice clean LOUD signal. I recommend at least 40WRMS/channel. Speakers can be mounted under the dash (or in kickpanels) but I also added a Bazooka bass subwoofer in the trunk. Yeah it takes up a lot of room but the sound is AWESOME. I did have to remove my chrome luggage rack though...it vibrated in sync to the bass notes so much that the harmonics drove me crazy!

I documented my experience with the ipod on my web page
http://www.jimpaul.tv/mga/mods3.htm
Jim P


OK, Jim, you get the Resto-Mod Award for April. That mirror antenna is something I have not seen before. BTW, I use my iPOD with one of those little FM gizmos that sticks in the top and transmits the iPOD signal to a frequency on the radio portion of my CD player. But don't tell those coupe guys.
Frank Nocera

Unfortunately, you won't hear zip at normal speeds. My MGB has CD player and the volume necessary to hear anything at 55 mph is intolerable at a traffic light. Consequently, I am always playing with the volume. The MGA is noisier. Put your money in original tools or TLC. IMHO
Bill Haglan

I agree with Jim. I installed a Blaupunkt Frankfurt in my 62 MGB. These can be switched between positive or negative ground, 6 or 12 volt. They look very period and were top of the line for the day. Heck, they still sound decent today!
Emmanuel Kafant

This thread was discussed between 02/04/2006 and 04/04/2006

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