I just rewired my whole system to bypass the trunk-mounted Becker amps in my 1991 300E W124 and enable the use of a cheapo $69 aftermarket AM/FM/CD/MP3/aux deck from Best Buy. Man, it sounds great! The Becker amps are still in great shape, so if anyone needs them, they are for sale here:

FS 1991 300E W124 Becker Stereo Trunk Amps Original

Rewiring was pretty easy - all I did was cut the plastic front speaker wire connections off and them splice them together in parallel with the front speaker wires of the new stereo. This picked up both the dash speakers and the door sub-bass speakers. The connectors are wrapped in foam and can easily be found just behind where the factory stereo normally sits.

For the rear, I connected new wires directly to the rear speaker connections of the new stereo and passed it out into the passenger area right where the carpeted console and the carpeted panel under the glove box meet (you can fish it through there with a coat hanger). Then I just "flossed" the wire right under the trim along the console, under the rear edge of the front passenger's carpet mat, under the door and B-pillar trims (pulled off easily by hand and screwdriver), under the rear seat cushion (remove for access) and finally through a hole near the gas fillup which gains access to the trunk (you will need to loosen and lift one side of the rear seat back, 8 mm bolt in the corner). Once in the trunk, I tapped right into the speaker wires which run out of the parcel shelf. They are yellow and black and all 4 of them are bunched up in a sheath.

This $69 stereo provides a ton of kick and has really nice highs. I also like the aux input feature which I use with my iRiver mp3 player (you could use an iPod too I suppose). But I know why it costs only $69 - the signal is not extremely clean, there's a faint trace of noise or static in between songs. Barely audible, but definitely there. Once the music's playing, though, you don't notice it. Audiophiles might cringe, but for the average user they might not notice the difference at all.

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08 W251 R350
97 W210 E320
91 W124 300E
86 W126 560SEL
85 W126 380SE Silver
85 W126 380SE Cranberry
79 W123 250
78 W123 280E
75 W114 280

I'm thinking of doing the same job on a 91 300e, but I'm a novice at this, so pardon what might be a silly question:did you need an electrical harness to match the power and antenna connections? BTW, do you have any pictures of the splicing you did? thanks.

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87 300e (white/black; amg body kit)
88 300ce (red/cream; amg body kit)
93 300ce cabrio (white/blue/blue top)
93 300ce cabrio (black/grey/black top)
98 ml 320 (totaled @ 137,000 miles)
99 clk320 (black/grey/black top)

Anyone else complete this upgrade? I thought about doing this as well. I could cut about 100lb out of the car if I replace all that stuff, LOL. I guess I should just bite the bullet and run the wires and antenna extension forward, put in a new deck (which will cost a heck of a lot less than than buying one of those iPod interfaces to the stock system) replace the speakers and not worry about it too much. I'm getting tired of not having CD's in my car.

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I was just talking to my mechanic today and he described pretty much the same thing.

Please keep us posted if you do it because I think I am going to give it a try.

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Ben
Cincinnati, Ohio
1993 500E - Smoke Silver

I just looked at my car budget for this month and I pretty much wiped it out with the emergency rim replacement. So I had just enough for some basic (JBL) speakers to stuff into the car so I can at least listen to something. So the BIG upgrade will have to wait.

What I did find out when I was down at the audio shop is that there are supposed to be some units coming out in a couple of months that have proper iPod controls built into them (ie. USB 2.0 interfaces) so it will have what the guy called 'fast' iPod control, and all you would need is your usb cable on the iPod and not have to purchas a $250 interface system to get partial control.

The unit he was in Las Vega (CES - Consumer Electrics Show.. I think that's the right acronym..) changes the volume control into the iPod's 'wheel' and it's supposed to mimic the iPod dispaly on the head unit for audio selection.

So.. I'm going to hold off until these units hit the stores and see if they really are as promising as they sound. In the mean time I'll be planning out the system change and getting some new parts.. and trying to figure out what speakers to really put into the dash, doors and deck. (MBQuart, Focal, something nice this time...). I'm glad I did not toss down the $500 for the speakers I was looking at today.. with the stock system.. I just don't think it would have been worth it and who knows if the system is defective and melted down those left speakers (the front looked like it massivly overheated).

Enough babbling. I have audio, at least OK audio now on all chanels. Man.. I had the fact those dash speakers are 120mm what a pain in the butt..

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My right channel is out and I have no FM. (I had no AM either until I plugged in a loose wire in the antenna but unfortunately that didn't fix the FM band.)

So I am thinking that the tuner module and probably one of the amps is shot. My thought is to get a new head unit with an auxiliary input on the front face so I can plug in an ipod or my portable xm receiver.

I will probably keep the stock speakers (unless I find out the right side ones are all blown, which I doubt). I know I need to run an antenna lead to the front. I am not sure how to hook up the existing speakers but my thought was to run wires to the back and hook up to the wires coming from the output side of the amp.

The first poster here seems to be picking up the front speakers by cutting the wires which go back to the amp in the trunk. I would rather not do that - especially since I have to run wires back to the trunk anyway.

Shouldn't this work? Am I missing something?

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Ben
Cincinnati, Ohio
1993 500E - Smoke Silver

I'm curious if there is a part I can buy that does this "antenna extension" .. There is no Coax in the front of the car. I don't know if I need an adapter or an extension all the way from the trunk. I would love any help. =)

(I have a 92 300E 4 matic)

I myself did run dedicated speaker wire from the trunk to the aftermarket head-unit. I cliped into the black/grn wire and the (thicker) black wire on the amp harnesses just like above. That does work well. As for runing the speaker wire to the front of the car... I'm having dificulty with those running board panels. There are no screws.... and when I start wrenching up on em... I don't doubt I could get em off... I just don't know if they will crack... it takes a lot of force. ARE there screws holding them down? (You mention screwdriver) .. Because I was pressed for time... I just have speaker wire running open in the cabin right now.

WellI did some changes to my setup, which involved 6.5" subs in the doors wired up on a low pass crossover, not sub low pass, but normal low pass, with 5.25" in the dash (some minor cutting and some trimming on the underside of the grills and they fit great, and relocated my tweeters to my a-pillar.

The amp I have is a prototype 6 channel amp with built in 3 way crossover, so the tweets, mids, and low pass are all wired direct with no external crossovers or capacitors on the speakers. the sound is totally different in my car now. it sounded great before, and now it sounds excellent too, but in a different way. different sound staging I am getting used to.

I don;t even have my rear speakers in as I took them out because I was going to do the rears as a 3 way setup as well just like the fronts, but I havent gotten around to it.

My plan is when I have time to strip the seats out of the car completely, and rewire everything including all new wires to each speaker new RCA cables, and route everything differently. But I need to do it when I wont have to drive the car for a few weeks, because I only have a couple of days a month to work on it, and it is a lot of work. took me an entire day just to do the front speakers with the cutting and grinding and custom fitting, and dismantling the front lower dash panel and doors and such to fit int he new speakers. the rears are easy, but I really want to replace all my cabling with new cables. The old cables have seen better days, especially the RCA cables. they are probably 10+ years old, and while they still work, I would like to get around to replacing and rewiring the system cleanly. prevoius owner had different deck installed and their wiring wasn;t as clean, and then a friend of mine before I got into installing who knew how to do it, did a rush job on my car and the wiring is a mess, but it works. so I want to essentially get around to gutting all aftermarket wiring in my car completely and cleaning it all up, and mapping out where things will go with custom amp racks etc, and how they are going to be wired. its a serious project, but a lot of fun if you have the patience to get it done..

Now I just need the time, say a week and all the parts in hand to do it.

Alon

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'92 300CE - Sold
2004 C240 - 744 - C7 Wheels - Android Radio
2002 C320 - 816 - Sport Wagon

I'm close to putting in a full system. I haven't had a system in my car in about 8 or 10 years. I'm currently doing massive research on the latest technology.

I'm almost thinking I'm just gonna get the stuff I know is good from back in the day on Ebay... I can't believe how cheap some of it goes for now.

I used to have in a hatchback.. (I was in school. ) 1 12" JL audio w6 sub connected to a soundstream reference 500 amp. I had boston acoustics seperates in the front powered by a Soundstream Reference class a 3.0. That was it for speakers. Crossover was handled by a Clarion ProAudio deck and EQ. I had the EQ panel mounted in a coin tray upfront that could flip up or down into the dash. Girls dug it. =)

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I really don't know what's going on with stuff today really. But I am reading lots and lots. I'm definately into sound quality more than spl. In the end the system does both anyway. I still have the head unit and EQ / Crossover--- But they operate at 1.8v on preamp out. (was good for the time) The deck is only Preamp out.. no internal amps. (clarion 7770) .. This deck is very old though now... and from what I last remember it was starting to skip a lot. I also do have a set of 6.5" MB Quart legacy Q series from back in the day when MB quart was good. don't have the tweeter or crossover though. The tweeter I thought always sucked anyway in that component set. I do think I'm going to put these in the door speakers that fire into the seat.. and build a passive crossover or buy one and match it with a tweater for the dash that can be clean down to the 2500 Hz or a lower crosover point. I don't want to go as expensive as I did last time... .. but so far.... it looks like with todays prices, it would be very hard to spend that much even if I wanted too.