I'll admit I'm somewhat old school. The first car I owned was a 1970 Chevy Malibu convertible with bucket seats and an AM radio. I've come a long way since then. One of the cars I'm driving now is a '92 Ford Taurus with countless dings and dents, but it gets me where I want to go. It came with its factory AM-FM radio and I thought I might upgrade it to play cassettes. That's right, cassettes. I've got hundreds of them, copied over the years from off the radio, from friends' vinyl LP's, and even some recorded live when I work with rock n' roll bands. Some think I'm hopelessly retro. But I also like to listen to new stuff too. It keeps this old soundman's ears fresh.

Well, I got Crutchfield to let me try out a CD-Cassette combo and report how it worked out. The Sanyo FXCD-550 is a single-box unit that contains AM and FM radio tuners, a CD player, and a cassette player. Best of all, it fits into the factory radio opening perfectly. Crutchfield's vehicle information as to what fits into which car was an essential starting point for this job. They didn't let me down.

Cassettes

Removing the old car stereo

Being fairly new to the car stereo field, for a successful installation I absolutely depended on Crutchfield's MasterSheet™ instructions and the kits and tools that came with the receiver. This included handles that snapped into place to remove the old radio. I have to admit this was somewhat of a struggle. Not because of my lack of skills but because time had seemed to glue the unwanted pieces together. But with perseverance and patience I got it out and even cleaned up the dash frame with some sandpaper and paint where I pried at it with a screwdriver. I was ready for the install.

Installing the FXCD-550

This part was a dream. Everything fell into place. Installation has 2 parts: wiring and the physical mounting of the new unit into the car. A supplied mounting sleeve holds the new receiver. After fitting it in the space, I only needed a screwdriver to bend a couple tabs to secure it. Wiring demanded another set of tools. Fortunately, the Crutchfield wiring harness adaptor comes with perfectly clear, well-illustrated and detailed custom instructions identifying every wire by color and function. They also tell you what tools you need to make the proper electrical connections. They recommend crimp connectors or soldering. Being skilled with a soldering iron, I opted for soldering and within just a few dozens of minutes the wiring was done and I plugged it all up. The new receiver was now integrated to the car's existing connections. I did not feel apprehensive in the least about shoving all the wires into the space behind the unit when I finally got it all positioned and snapped into place. And it powered-up and worked perfectly on the first try.

Installed in Dash

Design/Look

The FXCD-550's a cute package. There is no superfluous moving nonsense in its display, just indication. Good design. The buttons are big enough for my American fingers, and they beep to let you know your touch was understood by the machine. The display figures are bright and easy to read at my age with glasses. I like reaching across its face to the far end for the volume buttons. It gives me something to aim for that I can hit. The FXCD-550 matches my interior with its blue and silver and black trim. Looks good.

Testing

For my first test, I just sat in the parked car and played around with all the buttons and pre-sets so I wouldn't be distracted while driving. I realize this wasn't a fair test of what the unit would sound like under driving conditions but it gave me valuable time to get familiar with the controls.

First up on cassette: "Don't Stop" by Michael Jackson, produced by Quincy Jones. This old tape has been one of my main test tapes for over twenty years. With its bass kicking and roaring, cowbells and horns blasting, and a delicate midrange for Michael's vocal, this cut has all the extremes in one song.

I started with the tone and balance controls at zero, flat, and turned up the volume. I listened. Then I made notes of what I thought was wrong with the EQ and balance.

Controls

The FXCD-550's sound adjustment controls are surprisingly easy to use and completely understandable. I read the owner's manual. Not every word. But I did read carefully about all the unique aspects of the FXCD-550.

To get to what Sanyo calls the electronic controls, you have to press a selector button through a short series of function menus that show up on the display. Press the selector once for the bass control: the plus or minus buttons make it go up or down. The selector re-sets back to a volume control after about 3 seconds. Press selector twice: treble ("TRE"). Then balance, then fader, then back to volume. I'd prefer my controls to be separate, but with space being an issue here, I won't complain loudly. I was especially thrilled that I could now change the balance between right, left, and front and rear speakers, which I couldn't do before with the factory box.

Balance and fader

The Ford radio didn't have these controls. I got the left-to-right balance where I wanted using just the front speakers. Then I got the balance for just the rears. Then I set the balance to the compromise.

I adjusted the fader back and forth, front and rear. This gives music depth. I got good 3-dimensional presence with the fader set to the rear speakers by 6 out of a possible 15. This gave the music excellent stereo imaging and staging. Good staging makes it sound like you can place the individual instruments of the band across an imaginary stage in the front of your car, balanced for your ears, in the driver's position, of course.

Tape

By then, I'd been backing up the tape to continue with my settings by repeating the song, or a part thereof. "Don't stop ?til you get enough." The fast forward and rewind worked so well and quietly I thought they weren't working at all at first. Touch the rewind button and the thing softly clicks and whirrs and snaps itself to where you want it. Fast forward, rewind, push the play button: excellent and quick response.

I tried the automatic music select system, the AMSS. Push a button, "AMSS" lights up, the rewind or fast forward finds the next song break, stops, and plays. This thing's a genius. I pushed fast forward twice, it sped ahead, skipped a song, and started playing the song after. I love this feature for skipping around my oldies tapes. I now know that this is a common feature in cassette decks nowadays. You live and learn.

Tone

I then went for the idealization and perfection of the musical sound to the extent of the equipments' capabilities. I started with the tone controls flat. I turned up the volume as loud as I could stand using two criteria for limitation:

• Were the speakers going to blow?
• Was this sound uncomfortable?

Well, flat was out of the question. At high volume, the upper mid-range, around the vocals, distorted my front speakers and sounded thin, shrill, and shallow.

I boosted the bass control, first. Interesting, but the notes affected just didn't give the bottom end a good shape. (Yes, you heard that right.) The bass control also effects the vocals tremendously. I experimented with the treble. I returned the bass and treble to zero.

I turned to the Bassxpander (BASX). A separate button, BASX has 3 settings: off, b-1, b-2. I knew what off was. B-1 boosts the low end and boosts the high end too, a classic "smile" EQ curve. B-2 boosts the low end and cuts the high. That's the one I like for the bottom end. For this song, for these speakers, for this medium, which is tape.

I went back and tweaked the treble, and then the bass again, then the treble again and came up with +2, out of a possible +/-5, for both sounding the best. I liked it. The BASX was set for b-2, and the bass and treble controls were set to +2. Using the BASX in combination with the bass and treble allowed me to customize the sound the way I wanted. The volume was at the top of my listening tolerance. The speakers did not sound like they were breaking up. They sounded good. Michael and Quincy sounded extremely good.

Playing Tapes

Cassette Player

Then I dug out a demo cassette of The Bombers, a garage band from the ?80's I once recorded. All the ambient reverberation and echoes of the original recording were reproduced exactly as I remembered them sounding. The mid-range vocal tones were fine and coherent. I did not notice any wow or flutter (the skittering sounds and wavering pitch heard in some tapes). I went through the whole tone control procedure again and came up with the same settings. This was as good as tapes were going to sound on this system. I still think that the search function that allows you to skip and find tracks is the cassette deck's greatest feature. In general, I'm thrilled to be able to play cassettes in my car. And this is a much better tape deck than I expected.

Radio

Radio is another matter altogether. Warning: Do not switch your system from cassette or CD directly to radio play without first turning down the volume. You may damage your speakers and ears.

The radio of the FXCD-550 worked fine. It had all the features I expected a radio to have plus one that searches for and memorizes the strongest 6 stations in your listening area. This would seem to be great for traveling through unfamiliar territory. Not that I listen to much radio normally, but this gave me a chance to get acquainted with the tone controls even more.

The settings for cassettes did not sound good for the radio. The bass was way too loud. Taking the BASX off mostly did the trick. In fact I ended up using this as a "radio" switch that deals with the compression and bass heaviness of radio sound with the convenience of a single button.

Each style of music was a little different. Classical sounded good with BASX set at 1 until the DJ spoke and I thought my rear woofers were going to blow along with his dulcet "FM-for-Fine-Music-voice." Jazz, pop, oldies, and country sounded best with the BASX off. I never got classic rock to sound good. I could get the vocals okay but the bass was too loud. Fiddling with your tone controls while you're driving down the road isn't safe or desirable. Simply turning off the bass-boost would have to do.

I don't listen to talk radio (it upsets me too much) so I rarely get to the AM band. But I do listen to a game occasionally. There, I tolerate the AM radio honk tone but make sure I have the BASX off. Otherwise one clunk into a microphone and my rears would explode.

CD Player

I stuck in a well-recorded, multi-dynamic song, "Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes" by Paul Simon. I ran through the tone adjustment procedures all over again, sometimes starting with the bass sound, sometimes starting with the higher end and middle sounds. The settings ended up being the same as what I'd tuned for cassettes: BASX at 2, treble and bass at +2. Then I played some more CDs and CD-Rs and fiddled with the controls some more. Through hip hop, jazz, classic rock, and acoustic country music, I didn't have to change a thing. I could listen to music. The bass sounds were full, the midrange clear, the vocals pleasing, the treble crystalline. The Sanyo's power puts the old Ford's original radio to shame.

The FXCD-550 delivers 20 watts continuous power and 50 watts on peaks so there's plenty of volume to overcome road noise. I checked that out by driving around the neighborhood playing music. The volume I found to be the most comfortable and able to be heard over the wind and car noises was the same as my maximum-level testing volumes when the car was parked. Note that: Music blasting when I was standing still just overcame the mask of the road noise when I was moving. Better speakers would take care of that. The new Sanyo in my dash had plenty of headroom left for loudness. I never got the volume above 40 out of a possible 50.

Playing CDs

The CD player shuttled between songs just fine and never skipped a beat even when we ran over the bump by Mrs. Martin's driveway. If I have any complaint at all, it's that the CD ejector only shoves the disc out so far and I have to touch the shiny part with my greasy fingers in order to get it out. The quality of the CD player's sound is, of course, much, much better than the cassette player's. This was to be expected. The music never sounded sweeter in my little Taurus than with this new unit's presence and clarity with volume.

Sanyo FXCD-550

Some of the tone twiddling I ended up with — combining a high-cut with a high-boost, and the fader toward the rear by 6 out of a possible 15 — might seem odd at first thought. Don't be afraid of settings that seem extreme to the intellect. It's the ears that count. A useful tool is to close your eyes while you run adjustments. You'll be surprised at what the numbers say. Don't listen to them. Listen to the music.

If it seemed like I spent a long time setting the tones and balances of my new unit, I did it for a reason. I always want to maximize the quality of the sound versus the equipment at hand. Well-tuned old stuff — stereos, cars, people — can still please and satisfy. The (next-to-be-replaced) 4 paper-cone speakers in the 15-year-old car played music I could not complain about. In fact, now I could brag about finally having a real stereo in my car.

Yesterday, while driving to work, I got to listen to — I mean really listen to and hear — Ray Charles' "Rollin' 'Round Heaven All Day", followed by the Drifters' "This Magic Moment", timeless thrills captured on tape. That's right, cassettes.

The Sanyo FXCD-550 is a compact, well-designed, and pleasingly multi-functional in-dash stereo head-unit that I heartily recommend for all us old retro car stereo upgraders.