My audio video upgrade

First topic message reminder :

Hi all,

I could never understand why Concertone seem(ed) to have the A/V monopoly on so many RV's. They are soooooo shitty and possibly the most arrogant company I have tried to deal with!!!!

Almost any after market car stereo would be better and would take up less room!!!

Here is how I got rid of mine. This is what I started with (shudders) I sold it on eBay for £65 and was the only thing I have ever felt guilty about selling ("worked" OK though)



Q. What is worse than having a shitty A/V system?
A. Having a shitty A/V system that takes up an entire shelf!

I found some sticky backed plastic to match the WC woodwork and set about making new panels.





The side panel is held on with Velcro so it is easy to get the the wiring:



I removed the uprights using a suitable drift (see my signature) and used wood filler to repair some of the collateral damage. I then re installed one of the uprights in a new location.

The wires were re-routed so that they remain hidden from view in their new position.



Phase one complete. The observant among you will notice a weird L shaped bit on the rear wall. This is to cover the hole put there when they pulled the wires in. I liberated it from behind the vacuum break cover in the bathroom!

This Pioneer unit does everything the Concertone did but waaaaaaaaaaay better. And it talks ipod and USB. It also has a proper remote control. Great for watching DVD's.



700w mono amplifier for the sub woofer. Required because the sub out on the new head unit is only line level.



The driver in the sub lasted 30 milliseconds before it over heated. I changed it for a proper driver. It needed persuading in with a router. I had a problem with "huffing". The air made noise as it exited the enclosure and sounded awful. After some experimentation I blocked off the port completely.... then I had another problem. Everything in the ceiling vibrated... Dam!



Ceiling speaker before:



During:





I used a very sharp Stanley knife to cut the holes and used about 1.5 blades per hole.



After:







Job done! This should be the minimum standard for Wildcats. The parts actually cost about the same as the Concertone system. This would be a cost neutral change. Are you listening people at WC???

For ZX75. Will it work on 600's.

Great writeup England!!!......kudos for sure! When my concerfail.....fails again......I am definitely going this route. This thread should help tremendously!!!!

I have a zx75 an so far so good but when I go camping I usually don't go for TV or Music use it some times when I get a little bored otherwise I usually go sight seeing fishing taking photos or just daydreaming. So I usually don't care to much for it my last camper had just a 12 inch Black and white GE tv in it and it was over thirty years old and still worked fine because it didn't get used that much.

We don't use the Concertone much - mostly for listening to CDs. Our TV is connected to Direct TV directly. Our VCR/DVD player connects to the TV directly, and we have better control of the sound (some DVDs are extremely loud to extremely louder - or silent when we play them on the Concertone - probably our only complaint).

But, if the Concertone were to quit, we would want something in that space that works. I really like the car stereo because of its size. This is a good mod.

Well I guess the point I was trying to make is that ANY car stereo that can play DVD's pretty much trumps everything the (very expensive) Concertone has to offer.. plus when you are done you have completely standard wiring. Any future swap will be 2 mins and you are good.

Here are some pix of the stuff I used to match the wood.

tomaasbark wrote:Well I guess the point I was trying to make is that ANY car stereo that can play DVD's pretty much trumps everything the (very expensive) Concertone has to offer.. plus when you are done you have completely standard wiring. Any future swap will be 2 mins and you are good.

Amen, you preach it brother!!

For those of us with older models of Wildcats, we still have to suffer with crappy stereos that most of us can't do anything about without doing something drastic. For the owners of newer models that have the Jensen stereos in them, all I can say is...lucky dogs!!

Wish FR would afford to retro-fit those of us who request it just as a good will gesture. But, that ain't gonna happen.

TC

TC - We do suffer. For some of us even if the retro was offered it would still be hard to change.