Dual XC4100 cassette car radio review & test

[@Santor-]

Perfect anti theft unit. Add big amp + bluetooth to the aux-in, and get great sound with crap looks.

[@Rainbow__cookie]

modern problems require vintage solutions

[@richardbates2367]

Funny lol!!

[@richardbates2367]

Actually my buddies usually give me crap similar over my Sony xplod CDx L600x mp3 player I'm like cool then I don't have to bother removing the faceplate and the stereo will still be there ok.. good to know lol..

[@themaritimegirl]

It's a pretty good unit for what it is, especially for the price.

[@BeccaMidnite]

omg i found this by complete chance because i follow Vwestlifes channel but we had this exact radio in our 1986 GMC Sierra Until We Sold It We Got It From Walmart After Someone Stole Our Truck And Broke The Radio. I Loved The Cassette Player On That Radio We Used It Everyday For Over A Decade. So Many Childhood Memories With This Thing

[@UHOH3300]

That's an interesting rendition of "The Entertainer" you've got on your camcorder!

[@UtkarshAmitabhSrivastava]

You could say that the aux was entertaining.

[@MatrixAlphaCWX]

When i get my new jeep. I'm buying one of these to mount just so I can still play my cassettes : )

[@jaykay18]

Way back in the day when I was in college, the car I drove had a manual-tuning radio. I had classes early in the morning until early afternoon. In the morning it was fine, but when I got into the car after class, it would be all static, I had to re-tune. The plates in the manual tuner would expand and contract because of the heat of the sun!

[@WaybackTECH]

I have a Dual XR4120 and it also has a very good sound. My issue is the lights at night are brighter than the sun, and the tuning and track selection is slow to respond sometimes. Sometimes have to push the buttons 3 or 4 times before it advances, and if there is a memory stick/thumbdrive in the unit on power on, it just defaults to that every time and begins playing from the first song, no matter if that was where you left off or not. It is buggy to say the least but it does sound amazing which shocked me and the tuner is not bad at all. I've looked at Dual's higher end head units and they look pretty nice.

[@PanaSonyc]

Wow I'm surprised by the performance of this little radio Great tuner, and also the cassette deck is alright!

[@theeecandlemaker2197]

Got one of these units in my daily 80' Pinto

[@bbishoppcm]

I believe they only make these for classic cars... I can't imagine someone shoving this into a daily driver!

[@morganrussman]

Yeah, unfortunately most cars these days as you probably are pretty well aware BBISHOP most functions of the car is built all in one device.

[@MatrixAlphaCWX]

Why not? I've seen a lot of brand new mustangs and charger brand new cars at car shows with these installed in random areas of the dash for the retro look. Even marines here in on Camp Lejeune install these in their jeeps. And they boom. Cassette's are back in. Everyone has to get used to it : )

[@JonCampos80]

A power on led (unfortunately is missing on this device) is very handy since the dial led goes off while playing a cassete. Sometimes the driver may turn down the volume while playing a tape and forgot the player on since there's no indicator light on cassete mode.

[@grod75]

Not bad audio quality for the price you paid... This stereo kind of reminded me the stock stereo that came with my 1990 Ford Topaz, which was a Clarion with manual tuning (and manual presets), tone/balance/fader controls, and a sort of loudness/bass boost button. The sound of that stereo was very good actually, and I even got to plug a Sony universal CD changer to it... Yes, through the manual tuner (lol)... The guy that installed the CD changer even asked me if my tuner didn't get out of tune, like many cheap manual tuners do, but I never ever had trouble with locking the FM frequency for the CD changer... :)

[@bbishoppcm]

I installed one of those cheap car stereos in my 1987 Nissan pickup truck; it was a VERY basic CD/AM/FM unit with an analog tuner that featured a digital readout. Very bizarre, but worked well for the truck I had. It was a "Qwestar" unit I bought new for around $50 on eBay.

[@vwestlife]

That reminds me of the "QuantumFX" car stereo that Chris Cuff found in the Heartland America catalog (jump to 4:07): kzbin.info/www/bejne/bHmaeGSGhKqcn9E

[@richardbates2367]

@Stephen Tidwell roadmaster, Sherwood and Rockwood and urban audio..I used to refer to these and road gear as flea market brands because almost any time you go to flea market like the Pyle and pyramid stuff you'll usually find them too. My dad actually used and had decent sound and good luck with kraco,I have one but never tested it came out of a truck I got ahold of it is a shaft style u din with a 3 band eq and a cassette tape player,but I had a known working sentrek auto reverse cassette tape player shaft style u din so that was what I used.

[@The8TrackChap]

The last I knew there was a Pioneer car cassette deck still sold by Crutchfield.

[@Joe8648]

yea i got one of these still in the box never used it was going to install in a classic car i had at the time but never got around to it.

[@NelsonBigGunP200Fan]

out of all the car stereo's ive had and seen, Pioneer is the best for car. Never seen a deck that was better than pioneer.

[@dwoodog]

LOL!!! I believe in the 80's my top of the line sony deck and external CD changer in the car was getting on for $1700

[@MatrixAlphaCWX]

Wasn't that the one with the equalizer and all the fancy bells and whistles found on most home cassette decks. I'm only 30 but i remember seeing those.

[@infinitecanadian]

Would you be willing to do a shop tour in the future?

[@jeepguy95]

I have a shaft style radio... it's a Jensen radio that I pulled out of an old Ford crane truck that had only one speaker in the headliner. It hasn't been used in a long time but I'm sure it would still work if I had it hooked up. My collection of radios other than the shaft style one consists of two factory Chrysler radios and a basic Ford A/M-F/M radio out of a 2001 Ford truck.

[@Richiecandylover]

If I had one of them in a car (haven't got a licence) I would be happy, sounds good to me!

[@jeffreyhickman3871]

Car 🚗 radios 📻 of yesteryear were built so much better. Analog tuning was so simple to use. Your friend, Jeff.

[@rickjames6647]

It's really not a bad unit given the price. Sounds clear...with preouts too.

[@hakemon]

If you have a tape and an aux cable in it, which does it prioritize?

[@coolguy2370]

Michael MacEachern probably tape

[@albear972]

What is really, super cheap is that this thing doesn't even have programmable mechanical preset buttons like the car radios had in the 70's and 80's!

[@kenhaze5230]

Those FR figures are probably the only time a cheap piece of audio equipment is 2x or more UNDER rated.

[@Evansmustard]

That shaft style radio is something i've never noticed before. This whole unit is interesting. Maybe about 10 or so years ago I used to watch the Speed channel with my dad and every now and then a commercial would come up advertising near identical (they would match the dashboard trim and chrome) replica car stereos that match your classic cars original stereo they had stereos based on many models of cars from the 60's and 70's. If they are still in business today I would rather have a genuine looking stereo instead of this plastic thing in my 60's era car.

[@IAmNotAFunguy]

I think that cassette mechanism is the same exact one as those cheap Crosley reproduction units.

[@MrEthan043]

TheDutchOwner's Tech Channel It's got no cassette player, but the ION profile LP isn't bad.

[@TheGreenDoggoOfWisdom]

This radio gives me driving in a semi truck at night on a non busy road vibes

[@zsombor_99]

Why you want even more? This is a pretty good "minimum" for a car radio! ☺

[@haweater1555]

It has RCA pre-amp outs.... but ? Are they full line level output all the time? (External amp would need its own volume control ). Or does the output level vary with the volume control? Back in the day, quality units were switchable or had a second set of outputs for functioning both ways.

[@gerrylouis5787]

The Bass button is probably what they mean by tone control...

[@iamdigitalman2]

What about the Pioneer KEH-P2030? it appears to still be in production, but it's $100. Not designed for the older cars like this one. But it does say it has 40 watts per channel, and it has 4 channels. Pretty good. I go OEM though. I managed to find an original Becker 754 for my mercedes for $20, and my Saturn, I found a spare identical tape deck for $5 at a thrift store. No idea if that one works, as my original still does, but some of the lights are burned out on it, so I might replace it soon.

[@wilkes85]

That stereo performs better than it looks like it would! The sensitive tuner would be very nice for a car, like for long trips where you'd be mostly driving in areas with no local radio stations. The tape deck performs great too... usually this style of mechanism doesn't work well. Does it have standard car radio knobs that can be swapped out? Also, I think that is the antenna trimmer in the back of the tape slot, try it out and see. I bet the AM reception would be even better than it already is! The only unfortunate thing is that it looks so cheap and modern, so it would stand out like a sore thumb in the type of cars it was designed to fit in. I've seen these plastered all over eBay and I wondered what they were like. It's good to know the Dual works well... and that the Pyle decks are worthless (the ads don't even show the actual unit either, just a CGI image!). I wonder how easy it would be to take the mechanism out of one of these and put it in a similarly designed vintage radio, or just modify it enough to fit a vintage faceplate for use in a classic car?

[@richardbates2367]

I've had these in gbody cars, 78, and 84 Cutlass, and several gm square body trucks.. the shaft style road gear with digital screen I had was in my 74 Chevy Cheyenne super 10 longbed with a road gear 80 watts amplifier and a set of Optimus 125 watt 8 inch subs in separate truck boxes sounded way better than the same system with the 175 watt audiovox rampage 8 inch subwoofer truck box I bought the same time as the road gear 80 watts amplifier and the audiovox rampage shaft style cassette tape player I was in highschool.

[@84ohms8]

would be nice to see a tear down video, to see what's inside.

[@bobg69]

I wished we still had great radio stations here in Flint, Mi like you have there. Back in the 70's and 80's we had the highest rated rock station in the U.S.A. WWCK 105FM which today plays modern music these older set of ears just don't care for. On AM we had 1330 WTRX which was a mix of oldies and top40. Casey Kasem every Saturday morning and Sunday evening. I'm curious how this would hold up in my 16ft fishing boat? Fresh water so no worries about salt.

[@jeffk7734]

I am familiar with radio in Flint when I have gone through there. Radio in Detroit isn’t much better though when I come back to Michigan I always just go for a spin on AM and FM to see what’s going on.

[@bobg69]

@@jeffk7734 We just got a new oldies station here They play the 70's, 80's, and 90's. 107.3 FM. It's not quite up to par as 105 back in the day but it's better than the majority.

[@Punky-Boy]

the Auna TCX-1-RMD is also a vintage looking car radio but it has a digital display and cd

[@DanceToTheRhythmXD]

AUX nice and clear. I like it.

[@JonnyInfinite]

Looks pretty cool, but I can't help thinking if they'd have made this maybe 10 bucks more expensive and put in a treble control and maybe a rewind/fast forward mechanism, it would be much more appealing. Incidentally, just got the new Argos catalogue in the UK (a very large retailer here), and Bush are making brand new personal radio cassette players again. Looks like the cassette revival is here to stay :)

[@Lachlant1984]

Bush? Eww yuck. OK, I do have a Bush portable DAB+ radio and it's OK, but I suspect their personal stereo cassette players you speak of are the cheaper type which just have stop, fast forward and play, I can imagine that the quality is probably not that great.

[@JonnyInfinite]

Lachlant1984 Bush aren't known for great quality, but I thought the fact a well-known manufacturer that doesn't make niche products has begun making new players was pretty significant.

[@Lachlant1984]

Well I suppose it is, and you never know, the manufacturers may surprise us, who knows.

[@JonnyInfinite]

Lachlant1984 I'd prefer a quality Sony Walkman though

[@bradmann85]

i used to get this at pepboys. i have three units. one is in a portable speaker box i made about ten years ago. and i have another for backup. it's not the greatest but it's a good radio. the tone on mine is on the warm side. kinda like them old vintage tube radios i find perfect for am stations.

[@OSMDRG91TA]

9:50 Oldies Cassette player heard on the AM or FM radio.

[@pi6706]

Sorry for being off topic but I would have loved a recording car radio cassette back in day (if such a thing were ever invented). Just pop in a blank cassette, if a song was played on the radio that you liked - just hit record. Create your own mix tapes whilst on the road! As a bonus maybe a built in condenser mic in the head unit also so you can record family sing alongs or even sneakily record conversations 🤔

[@vwestlife]

They did make some car stereos which could record on cassette, but they were very rare.

[@pi6706]

@@vwestlife I didn’t know that, thanks for you reply.

[@ManiacalMichael504]

My dad had a similar unit made by Jensen around 2000. It never worked right. This one doesn't seem so bad but I don't know how it would hold up installed in a vehicle.

[@Amy-ft5mt]

honestly the only thing I would get this thing for would be the cassette deck cause the only things I have that has an output is my laptop and my walkman I never bring my laptop anywhere and the walkman... plays cassettes

[@wildbilltexas]

You would be better off buying and restoring an 80's-90's era cassette deck with a digital tuner. This one reminds me too much of those no-name cheapo cassette decks that they sell for $10 at those warehouse car stereo sales at the fairgrounds.

[@urbanodagrippino8433]

Looks those One carstereos of the 1980's ......i have many vintage units like this

[@andreypolidor1986]

Wanna sell any

[@GeoNeilUK]

You'd have thought that a unit with a cassette player nowadays would have come with a cassette to line in adapter though an actual line in socket would be more convenient (and give a higher quality input) The specs they give make the unit look far worse than it actually is, especially when you demonstrate it, why would they do that? Yes, MW stations sound really good on that. Much higher frequency response than what's given on the box. Maybe the tuner is designed around our European 9KHz per station rather than the American 10KHz per station (I think we have the same bandwidth for LW, which we supposedly use) You don't need a balance control in my experience. Would have been nice to have had some sort of digital tuner (DAB in my country) I think the tape doesn't sopund as good as FM (or even MW) radio on this unit. I'm thinking that might not be the tape. Also, it's a shame there's no auto reverse on the tape player. To be honest, I'm all about the Tunein app on me phone (thank Christ for my network only charging 1p (1.5c?) per megabyte of data making listening to online radio not that expensive, especially at low bitrates like 32kpbs AAC) And it seems like excellent value for the price $30 is like what, £20? So yeah, not bad.

[@jeffk7734]

I get that 10-watt station on 1710 from across the state from you here in Rochester.

[@jeremylafleur8957]

Wow.cassette tapes play great

[@1marcelfilms]

i once saw a picture of a car radio that had cassette, aux, cd, usb, mp3, fm/am, and some more

[@Rustbelt_Research]

Most modern car radios have all those things.

[@leostechnikkanal]

Hey!

[@douglasallen9428]

I wonder if this model is still on the market nowadays......

[@crystalstanborough4053]

sweeeeet! i still rock Metallica on tape! Alpine deck, got a Sony Walkman too! cheers

[@mercuryoak2]

That polka music sounded like what you would hear in east side German restaurant in new Britain or Berlin ct I forgot where it is

[@kevinpatrickmacnutt]

I think I would rather have a Bluetooth, SD, or USB port than that particular style of deck. I listen to cassettes, but I like to have rewind and at least an setting for type II tapes, which on a radio lacking any sort of treble control, the high frequencies are going to sound awful.

[@TheBrainwasher82]

u can buy a used car stereo with cd/mp3 player and aux port for same price

[@adi060]

What does a cassette's enthusiast do today when driving a car? What is the way to listen to cassettes?

[@EzeeLinux]

Hey, i thought this would turn out to be a POS when you started talking about it but that radio is not bad at all. The am is good out to 6 or 7kHz, at least. Not bad at all. The tape deck is a bit fast but listenable, too:)

[@jefferyclark2340]

Radio Shack isn't bad, they make decent electronics.

[@Thanson199415]

Sweet vid, thats not a bad little radio :)

[@pandapie4216]

Dad's EU car radio does not have aux and it's from 2005 - 2006 -.-

[@taunusv4power]

i'll always say that factory radios are the best at least on sound, except of the one on my 2005 Nissan primera, 8 speakers and 6 CDs with no aux port or a cassette player either! the worst of all is that I cannot put an aftermarket radio because there is no place for one. but i'll think twice, look at the reception, this dual radio works amazingly!! I cannot even use an FM transmitter on my car because it ends up catching radio stations instead of my transmitter and cannot receive AM. :\ yeah, stock radios suck when you cannot remove it.

[@the66volks]

sounds great!! I love that you play Metallica wherever i may roam from 1992 at the end! Awesome song!!

[@bluejayoutpost9170]

Say do you know where I may find one of these radios today,and If not another like it. Great see on this good job and thumbs up Thanks

[@dictare]

Might be better off with something used from the 90's. Even my cheapie had a 3 band equalizer.

[@EastAngliaUK]

Think I prefer the JVC Car stereo I used in my latest DX videos as its digital and has RDS. Though does not use a tape.

[@Land0fAsh]

Has anyone here been using this for a while? How has it held up in the long term?

[@Madness832]

So, now the big question is: do you have an old car to fit it in?

[@rachellara6605]

300zx 1984

[@joehowe9020]

COOL RADIO WHERE CAN I GET A ANTENNA LIKE THE ONE YOU USED PLEASE LET ME KNOW THANKS

[@rasstriga]

Современная (!) кассетная магнитола, которая воспроизводит аудио с подключённой камеры🤣🤣🤣👍🏼

[@KillerCobble]

It has aux and my 2008 suzuki sx4 which was around 16k when new does not, that pissed me off so much. If i want "ipod" compatibility i have to buy a special 100 euros cable which only gives me the 30 pin ipod cable or i have to replace the whole stereo...fml

[@dennissalamante6785]

you could have use a digisette mp3 player in the tape deck.

[@Fuzy2K]

I've seen those in U-Haul trucks. I guess people who move stuff like cassettes or something. :P

[@HPad2]

Who knows what PYLE stands for? :P Not gonna say that here lol.

[@JoshuasRecordings]

I got a Pyle Power subwoofer for $12.88. 6.5inch, works great! Best $12.88 I had ever spent!

[@richardbates2367]

I've had the 2000's dual shaft u din stereo, the road gear both versions, the Jensen 60 watt one, the clarion one, and the sentrek one, honestly the audiovox,road gear, and the sentrek we're the better one's the clarion I was not impressed with,or the Jensen but it was actually a early 90's shaft style cassette tape deck, the dual worked better and sounds better it has better power wattage output power though.

[@PetruV]

The bass boost button does not make really a lot of sense since the radio isnt powerful at all,so it would distort very easily. 4 watts , why ??

[@brigganthewolf1461]

This thing could be more powerful than it is, or the reason why is because most speakers in automobiles back in day were only 1-5 Watts, However they were very efficient and that's why this thing probably doesn't have much power.

[@mjmcomputers]

Wish it was still available to buy online. Want to sell it?

[@vwestlife]

Sorry, I already sold mine.

[@roeykidron1997]

I have one and I am throwing it out/ Complete garbage of a stereo. Putting SONY MEX instead.

[@FeralFoxDX]

My Pyle radio had a bad tuner, very cheep radios lmao I've always loved Dual radios rbh

[@traxonwax]

Almost as if who wrote up the specs pulled numbers out of their ass. 2khz isn’t even phone quality. That AM is pretty decent.

[@EastAngliaUK]

Is that tape playing a little high pitch?

[@warrenf5821]

Did they stop making this model? I was looking for one, but unfortunately have not had any luck finding one.

[@vwestlife]

Yes, this model has been discontinued.

[@warrenf5821]

@@vwestlife That's too bad. Looks like I'll have to get one off Ebay like you did.

[@FSM_Reviews]

Even my 1997 Toyota Corolla DX had a better radio/cassette player than this. Soft touch controls was one of the benefits from Toyota at the time.

[@jjcoolaus]

What's the name of the album playing? (ie what's the name of the tape please)

[@whydoihavetousemyrealname305]

They forgot to photoshop the iPod’s reflection on the box art!

[@The_Laser_Channel]

I wish my car stereo would automatically switch over to Aux.....but then again, 90% of the time it is on Aux setting anyway

[@MrEthan043]

I guess this would be a good radio if your radio got stolen and you don't have much money....

[@HPad2]

lol, I actually picked up a Brand new Pioneer AM/FM with USB and AUX for only $30 over the holidays. For my Friends new car.

[@FrancisLitanofficialJAPINOY]

Is this receiver expands AM band up to 1620 kHz?

[@vwestlife]

It should tune up to at least 1700 kHz.

[@christianjohnson7228]

WHY? Just go on eBay and buy an old car stereo that’s Kenwood! Great video, big fan of your works!

[@hypercube33]

What is the piece at 12:50?

[@vwestlife]

Just some royalty-free music my Canon camcorder came with.

[@rchuncleskeleton]

Reminds me of music from the Professor Layton games.

[@eljheids1115]

6:20 Is that polka music???

[@vwestlife]

+Joshua - Drummer & Vinylcollector Redefined Yes.

[@planetX15]

No rewind?

[@vwestlife]

No rewind!

[@mlxoc712]

Ayy, I'm from CT!

[@MrLIDLfan2]

whats the name of the song you played at 14:11-14:29 ?

[@tmq1384]

Yeah i know it sounds familiar.

[@tmq1384]

Lipstick Promises - George Ducas

[@tmq1384]

And it looks like he's playing it off a tape that was recorded off the radio when that song was new in 1994...very cool :)

[@Simone-qr6mq]

4w rms !!??

[@Odessia-ij5ys]

Vintage car stereo

[@MRandMRSmaltliquor40]

Pioneer still makes a cassette deck.

[@MRandMRSmaltliquor40]

You can get good used decks that were $300 new for next to nothing on Ebay.

[@fedsinnorth-dakota9810]

I hope no 8 track players will not be replaced by this piece of plastic crap

[@james42519]

had a dual radio in a car i got before. didn't like much. was something like this. www.dualav.com/mobileaudio/xd1222.php right now have stock radio that cam in 94 toyota camry. it still sounds better to me then any after market i tried. has something to do with speakers are 6 ohm and after market radios are either 4 or 8 ohm usually. picture of one like i have btw. messed up tape adapter stuck in it and light don't work for lcd but works. i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff107/davesintegra/1993%20Camry/CIMG1648.jpg i do have 2 roadmaster vr3 vrcd400-sdu. they both seem to have the same problem can't fix though. when use memory card/usb get error 13. no place online seems to know what that means.i got a second in the mail because said that it was doing this. they didn't ask for the other one back. still like sound of stock radio better because again 6 ohm speakers 4 or 8 ohm radio i guess. wish could link there site that had video of it but it is gone now. www.amazon.com/VR3-Stereo-MP3-In-Dash-Player/dp/B000FGF4OG sorry. probably don't really care about this stuff.

[@urbanodagrippino8433]

Not bad

[@pmkleinp]

That polka music is a Mexican station. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norte%C3%B1o_%28music%29

[@vwestlife]

No, it is Polka music, not Norteña. There is enough of a Polish and Eastern European immigrant community here in the Northeast that some radio stations have Polka music shows.

[@pmkleinp]

vwestlife Oh wow, that's pretty cool. I live in South Louisiana, so all I hear is those Mexican border blaster stations.

[@4clive]

Musicians in a small black box, what is this sorcery?

[@willwalters6928]

Yes.

[@richardhudson3014]

Who uses an iPod anymore now days doesn't everybody use there "smart" phones in today's world?