Retrosound Model 2 Review

[1972malibu]

I had a similar experience with a Model One, but after a quick mock-up of an old Alpine HU, the Retrosound is coming out. I REALLY wanted to like it better than I do. Make no mistake, it mounts up cleanly and looks pretty good in a stock or even lightly modified interior. The remote USB card reader and ports are a great feature and a big selling point for us. Our problem was that we couldn't turn the gains much above 20% on the external amps and we had pretty significant background noise even at minimal gain levels.

Just to see where we were, we mocked up an old Alpine CD head unit and the difference was night and day. The muddy sound stage from our separates was gone. Imaging was 100X better and everything was crisp and clean at the same gain levels. Pushing the gains increased the staging and everything started to open up even more.

So now the RS is coming out. I found an original AM/FM that we rebuilt for the dash. I'll connect the light so it looks active, but a new Kenwood HU is destined for the glove box. I'll run an IR extender to the glove box with the receiver hidden at the end of the console for the remote. The Kenwood gives us the advantage of full front/rear/sub separation so we will run an extra set of RCA's.

The system;
Kenwood eXcelon X597 HU
JL Audio C2 6" Separates in custom glass kicks
JL Audio C2 6x9 Coax
JL Audio XD 400/4 Amp
JL Audio 10W3V2 Sub (Sealed Enclosure)
JL Audio XD 600/1 Amp w/Remote Gain
Interior is fully lined with Second Skin Damplifier Audio Pro and thick MLV



New knobs arriving this week and we will pull the dash, install the OEM radio and start building the glove box false front and divider.



The RS is a viable solution. Especially if you don't want to cut your dash like us. It just left us wanting more for our build.

-Doug