just wanted to post that I had a Becker radio installed in my 560sl.

I bought the car about 2 years ago -- a PO had replaced the original Becker with a Pioneer head (with a single CD) and placed a 6-CD changer in the trunk and had placed two 6x9 speakers on the rear cargo deck (behind the seats). The Pioneer was already old by the time it got to me (sounded ok, but just ok) and the CD changer was skipping -- I wanted to return to a more-factory look.

I have a Becker 754, but upon hooking it up to 12volts (via my trickle charger) it showed the dreaded 4 dashes (----) and I didn't want to go to the dealer with an iffy head unit just to have the dashes cleared (if its even possible to get this done) to find that the head unit was shot. I went to ebay and bought a 1480, which the seller said was removed from a 1991 300se (paid about $85), and this weekend I took it to Best Buy and had them install it ($65). It sounds great, it looks great.

I took it to get installed as the installer of the Pioneer had cut the original harness apart and there was too much wiring for me to feel comfortable. The 1480 came with all the harnesses intact (cut, but with pigtails) and I ordered a harness and speaker wires from Becker to use with the install. The installer wired it so that the dash speakers and the rear deck speakers split the sound (I know the rear speakers are not original -- but I figured I could always easily remove them if I wanted to).

The 1480 looks slightly different than the original 754 but it is a head unit that can be cleared with a code rather than needing a special instrument at the dealer. The 1480 includes a steel colored band (across the front) of face (as opposed to all black for the 754) and has the words "Mercedes Benz" with the Star symbol instead of the words "Becker..." on the cassette door. I may try to paint out the band so that it looks more original.

The car looks so much better with a more original head unit.

__________________
Dan

1986 560SL (52.5k miles) sold 11/24/04

1987 560sl (55.6k miles)