Fast Marina Magazine

I have a Radiomobile radio fitted in my Marina, I like the look of it and it suits the dashboard but it only has LW/MW so is very limited in choice of stations. I would like a better choice of music but would like to keep this radio. Now I could just hide a modern stereo in the glove box but where is the fun in that? What I would like to know is, is it possible to fit an aux input on this to play an mp3 player or phone through it. Also is it possible to fit pre outs as well to run a seperate amp to drive some decent speakers?

The next question is, do you do this kind of conversion or can you recommend some who can?

You could possibly add an input but you have to remember that old tech is analog whereas new tech is digital so it would have to be connected to the headphone output. Getting signal levels right could be tricky. Unless someone has already done it before and has already sorted that out.
Now if the radio had a cassette player it would be easy as you used to be able to get little adapters that plug in where the cassette should be....
Cheers Robin

Josh converted my old radio so I could plug in an iPod or phone ( though unfortunately now no good for newer iPhones with no Jack )
The sound quality through the 1970’s speakers is atrocious which I love! Just what I wanted. Authentic.

balmy wrote: Sat Feb 27, 2021 12:04 pm Josh converted my old radio so I could plug in an iPod or phone ( though unfortunately now no good for newer iPhones with no Jack )
The sound quality through the 1970’s speakers is atrocious which I love! Just what I wanted. Authentic.

You can get Bluetooth receivers that output to a jack, that's what I've got in the 406. Auto connecting and everything.

If you get an FM radio...
You can effectively Bluetooth into it from smartphones IPods etc using small adaptors .

Yes, easy enough to add a 3.5mm jack lead onto it so you can connect it to the headphone output of any portable device. Signal levels are not a problem when done correctly.

Driving another amplifier with it is possible but it would be more effort than what it's worth. Rather than a pre-out you would probably be best looking for an amp with a line in option if you went down that route.

Personally I would either fit a 3.5mm input and have the authentic experience, or fit a hidden bluetooth amplifier. Technically you could do both and with the latter have it playing through some parcel shelf speakers whilst retaining the original speaker behind the dash for the old radio.

There are companies that retrofit new tech into old car stereos. Don't know what price would be like, would expect it to be up there. Or you could look at buying a new retro style head unit with everything you need.

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Thanks for all the replys on this guys. I have seen a few of the FM bluetooth devices that have been mentioned but the radio only has LW/MW. I thought that if a aux input could be added I could connect an MP3 player that has an FM radio built into it so I could pick up the normal stations I listen to and and have my own saved music on it. The MP3 players are pretty cheap now from Amazon/Ebay and even places like argos do them for about £25 so I was going to have one that would stay in the marina rather that using my phone. This radio only has a single speaker so the pre out to a separate amplifer could have boosted speaker numbers and volume.

I had pretty much decided that the orginal radio could stay in the dash purely as a decorative piece and I would install a hidden amp to power the parcel shelf speakers which would run off of a 3.5mm phono jack to RCA lead plugged into the previously mentioned MP3 player. The problem with this set up is the ease of use or lack of ease of use. It's fiddly to use and thats not good when driving.

I have now statred to look into replacing the radio with something modern but retro styled.


When searching "retro car stereo" on google/ebay/amazon etc this unit seems to alway come up first. I contemplated it for a moment but its just not right. These are incredibly cheap at £20-£25 dependant on where you shop, the problem is they also look incedibly cheap and garish.

A bit of further research has brought up this unit "Classic Car Stereo CCS200" this is far more in keeping with the Marina's dashboard and it has all the features you would expect of a modern unit plus it has the added bonus of DAB radio. It will require a separate DAB antenna which is included with the unit but I have yet to find out what it looks like and it suitablity to blend in with the Marina. The cost is also considerable more than the cheap unit at £190 but it does look to be a better unit.

I do quite like the look of the stereo that hamish575 has posted above and would like to know more about it.


I have also turned up a couple of NOS spindle mount Sanyo radio cassette players on Amazon. I do like the look of these and as they have FM radios then would be fine for most of my listening needs and could they work with the Bluetooth/FM devices for playing music off of my phone?
£135 with auto reverse! Remember when that was a big deal?


£175 and this one has auto replay (whatever that is).

I have one of the super cheapo units in my Stag. It does exactly what it says on the can, but it does look a little glitzy. I have been thinking about keying the ribbed chrome plate and spraying it matt or silk black.

Yes Chris I think less bling on that stereo would improve its look. I am always wary of things that seem to be too cheap for all that they promise. Good to know that it is actually an ok unit and works as it should. I still don't think it is right for my car as it fits into a DIN size hole which would mean a lot of cutting to get it into the dash but may well consider it for another project in the future.

I follow a company on Facebook that retrofit stereos, but couldn't and still haven't figured out what they are called here in NZ. But that image was just from an internet search, looks like there's many options for those in the US as that's where it was from.

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Buy a 12v MW transmitter thats bluetooth and use that on your phone no modifications required.