Chelsea's question about using a US-spec Volvo in Europe reminded me of some hidden functions that I recently found in my S70's SC-816 stereo. This is kind of lengthy, so I put it into a web page so disinterested parties wouldn't have to sift through this post in a digest.

Audiophiles and dealer mechanics might find it interesting, though. See the link below.

James,

My S70 has the CR 915 radio. I followed your instructions and found that preset number five toggles the USA/AUS setting the same way. SO, swapping the radio is one less thing I have to worry about at the moment...

Thanks!

Chelsea

Glad I could help. "CR-915?" First I've heard of that one. What's it equipped with? AM/FM I'm sure. Cassette? CD? Dash mounted 3 CD-Changer?

James,

CR 915 is single DIN with AM/FM and cassette only -- police car special (read: cheap!) I'm not sure what other Volvos use it.

Chelsea

Chelsea,

If you don't like that stereo, it's extremely easy to replace most of the Volvo stereos. No tools are required for every one that I've seen. (That one might be different, as I've never seen one before, so you might have to investigate this a little.) I've been keeping my eye out for a local junkyard that has a car with the SC-901 stereo installed. If I can find one for an (unlikely) low price, I might go for it. Check out the link below for sources for wrecked 850/70-series cars.

James,

Does it work on the SC-813 AM/FM/Cassette receiver too ?

Kenny

'98 S70 GLE; '00 Focus ZTS; '00 BMW X5 4.4i

Posted in another place about the 813. Yep, it does work.

Pete.

Got the X5 back, huh Kenny? :-P What happened to the armored limo?

Don't know. Send me your SC-813 and I'll try it out. :)

Or, when you have about a half hour to spare, you can try some of the presets yourself and let us know.

Interesting - I'm going to play with that changer/power up feature and see if I notice a difference.

MAT

The latest thing that I'm thinking about regarding the "Chgr" function at power up is that MAYBE the person who started the rumor about the "static reduction compensation" had his acronyms wrong. Maybe "SRC" doesn't mean that at all, but instead refers to "speaker response compensation."

Several of the owners manuals within the last several years made mention of a preset function (on the SC-900 only?) that enables or disables bass boost to compensate for the lack of rear deck speakers in certain models. (Most wagons without a subwoofer would fit into that category.) I've seen this in online versions of the owners manuals for 97-00 70-series vehicles. It was on a Swedish Volvo web site, in English, and I can't find the URL at this time.

To add to this, the poster of the original message claimed that SRC2 was the default setting on his car, as it was on mine. If that default setting is different based on which model of car the stereo is installed in, then that would tend to confirm any theory about this being a "speaker response compensation" setting and not for static reduction.

I never did try a bass frequency response test against each of those SRC modes. Maybe I'll try that this weekend. I'll let you all know.

I have a V70R and find that I max the speakers' bass handling with BASS set to neutral with a few of my CD's. I have an Erasure CD that I play in my TT Roadster (it has a subwoofer) that I can't play in the V70 because the bass is just too much. I tend set the BASS setting down a bit in order to enjoy the CD in that car.

I've seen other CD's max out my speakers capabilities in bass. Oh, I have the SC-901. I'm not very impressed with it at this point -- I'll start another post on this subject.

The SC-901 DOES have the built in equalizer function, and it's probably set for one of those preset curves that compensate for the lack of bass response without the parcel shelf speakers. V70 mode should have such bass boost. Try using a custom setting.

See the URL below for more details.