Figured I would do a review of the RetroSound Hermosa M2 radio I bought for my truck. I had a hard time finding a lot of information about them before I bought it.

What it looks like installed:



There is a chrome version and many different **** sets to choose from. I just keep it simple.

View from the back:

I know it looks tight but there is more room than when I had a standard size radio. Don't worry, the wiper arm clears everything.

At first I was going to go with the cheaper M1 but it lacked RCA outputs and bluetooth. By the time I ended up with the outputs for an amp and a bluetooth addon I wanted I was too close to the m2s price with more work. So I bought the m2.

​Install:
Installation is very much like a radio lego set. It comes in pieces and you have to put it together and make it fit your application. Not a big deal but it adds work. In the picture above you will see I had to bend the side brackets to fit. The instructions tell you to modify them if needed so I was not worried about voiding the warranty. It says you must mount it from the rear and front because the **** shafts cannot support the radio alone which was not to hard.

Radios features:

Aux input- It has two but I have not used them.

Usb input- I have not tried it yet but will probably put a thumb drive in it at some point and try it out.

Bluetooth- it has worked great so far. There is a little low end noise but I can only hear it if no music is playing and I am listening for it. You can skip back and forth on songs with the right **** as well.

Radio- the radio has been surprisingly good. Better than the last radio I had. Picks up stations well.

Internal amplifier- I read complaints about the internal amp of the m1 being weak but I was surprised by how loud and clear the m2 played. I am using an amp to power all my speakers but I tried it out before I used the amp. There was definitely enough sound to drown out road noise with only two 3-1/2 speakers in the dash.

User interface- it is not the most intuitive but in there defense it has a lot of settings and features to control with just 4 **** controls and the face buttons.

Using the radio- I find the two main ***** can be a pain if you want fine adjustment (like skip a song). Sometimes if you click the **** one clockwise rotation it will read it as a counterclockwise rotation and vise versa. I mostly notice this when trying to skip to the next song. The volume I am usually turn multiple clicks at a time. Other than that everything works as advertised.

cool features- you can change the display color. There are a lot of options. You can have it remember the last volume setting or have set to a specific volume when it come on.

Wish list- I would like a remote since the radio is a reach while driving but that is also because Ford put it so far away from the driver.

Summary- I like it. It is not the most OEM looking option or as nice as some name brand radios (wont fit the dash without modification) but looks to be good quality and work well. Your milage may very. If you have experience with RetroSound good or bad please comment about your experience.

 

Thanks for posting this, I like the look of that radio.

 

Appreciate the review. I have been looking into the same thing, but have heard some spotty comments in regard to quality. I'd love to find a junk factory radio and try to convert the ***** to use as a bluetooth controller, but that would leave me without am/fm radio. I too would plan on using an amp for door/dash/behind the seat speakers, and a small sub.

 

How many bullions of gold did it cost you matey?

 

It was 300 with tax to my door. I think the cheaper one was 200 without bluetooth and rca outputs.