"Speaking of cars"
Your choices
by Don Robertson

There was a time when a motorist with a yen for traveling music simply asked his dealer to equip his new car with a radio, perhaps specifying the "deluxe" push-button model.

Today - through the marvel of advanced electronics and new options - the choice is at once broader and yet more fundamental. For it's no longer a matter of asking for a radio. It's really more a matter of deciding upon choices in sound.

Biggest breakthrough to this new concept of sound entertainment is the eight-track stereo tape player. This new American Motors accessory is available, factory-installed and dealer-installed, on the Marlin and in Rambler Rebel and Ambassador sedans and hardtops. It is also available dealer-installed on Ambassador and Rambler Rebel convertibles and station wagons.

Operating independently of the radio, the tape player uses prerecorded tape cartridges, with four dual channels, that provide a maximum playing time of about 80 minutes a cartridge. Stereo sound flows through twin speakers mounted on the rear package shelf, or through door speakers, or both, if desired! Knobs located on the stereo-tape deck control speaker balance, volume, bass and treble. The fidelity and richness of sound are amazing-an impressive experience for those hearing it for the first time.

The tape cartridges are modestly priced and widely available in a continually expanding variety of titles at many retail outlets. Discriminating motorists can thus easily build "libraries" of musical compositions they most enjoy-to hear when they want to hear them.
American Motors' stereo system certainly is the "ultimate" choice in sound.

However, even that traditional standby in sound, the radio, has come a long way-with numerous refinements for 1967.

The familiar American Motors all-transistor AM radios continue to offer quality, value and satisfying entertainment, plus new controls and instrument cluster position that are handier to the driver.

A step up in pleasure for the buyer of Rambler Rebel, Ambassador or Marlin is the AM/FM all-transistor push-button radio, which shares the handier controls, location. Chief advantages of FM (frequency-modulation) reception include superior tone quality and near static-free reception. Unlike AM reception, FM stations that produce enough signal strength at the antenna will tune with equal volume on the radio dial. With conventional AM signals, strong signals are received more loudly than weak ones. And with the growing number of FM stations and programming, there's plenty of FM music on dial.

There's also an impressive mechanical improvement in American Motors' AM/FM radio for 1967. A separate "change-over" switch has been added to the radio to permit the setting of all five push buttons on AM or FM, or any combination of five AM or FM stations. This separate AM/FM switch also makes it possible to determine visually which set of frequencies is being used.

Buyers of the Marlin or of Rambler Rebel and Ambassador hardtops and sedans can do some interesting custom tailoring and improving of the sound from their AM or AM/FM radios. They can add a "Duo-Coustic" rear-seat speaker for a stereo-like effect and for the greater pleasure of their rear-seat passengers. Or they can range more deeply into the "stereo" world of radio sound with a "VibraTone" sound system that acoustically mixes sound waves (using front and rear speakers and transducer) to produce a unique and dramatic sound of music.

So there are your choices in sound. It might be stretching it a bit to say the driver's role has taken on some of the aspects of musical conductor or composer. But through his selection of equipment at the time he buys, and through his use of this equipment, he can come up with some exciting new experiences in sound-for himself and his passengers.