I put a pair of Rainbow SL120's in the dash of my 300E, I was pretty happy with them. Easy install, take off the grille, pop out the speaker, plug in the new one, push the new one back into the dash, and put the grille back. Big improvement in the clarity (they were almost a little too bright), not too much help in the midrange/bass, but what do you expect from a 4.5" speaker!

Anthony

Are you mounting the sub onto or under the rear deck or fabricating a cabinet for the trunk?

As far as power is concerned, you can always adjust the amplifier output to suit your needs...there is a tendency to go nuts with subwoofers so that the car sounds like a pimped-out ghetto cruiser, so practice some restraint. Also, once that sub kicks in, you might discover all sorts of strange buzzes and rattles that formerly were inaudible with the stock setup...in my case, the third brake light housing was protesting it's proximity to the subwoofer!!!

And as far as fronts, Rainbow IS the only drop-in you can use on the W124...

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2009 ML350 (106K) - Family vehicle
2001 CLK430 Cabriolet (80K) - Wife's car
2005 BMW 645CI (138K) - My daily driver
2016 Mustang (32K) - Daughter's car

I'll keep the brake light housing in mind! Thanks.

I looked around locally and online and I found a DUAL XPa2500 for $52 /w tax at walmart.


It can do 150W RMS bridged. What I figure is....in the future if I decide I need more power, I can do the 2 channels and run the rear speakers through it at 75W RMS as they can handle it and upgrade to a more powerful amp. I highly doubt I need more than 150W RMS though. As I said before, I only run 120W RMS in my wagon and it suits me perfectly fine. I want my hearing to be good in later life, so I couldn't care less about brand names or potential power.

For that price, I couldn't find anything even close that did 150W RMS. Closest I found was an online bestbuy Clarion amp for $98.

I am mounting the sub onto the rear deck. Going to cut a hole. I measured it and 8" is the biggest I can go so it fits on the flat surface of the lid. I could go bigger, but it wouldn't be as clean as an install as it would be with an 8".

My sub arrives on the 27th, so once its all done I'll post pics and let you guys know how it sounds!

__________________
2016 Monsoon Gray Audi Allroad - 21k
2008 Black Mercedes E350 4Matic Sport - 131k
2014 Jeep Wranger Unlimited Sahara - 62k
2003 Gray Mercedes ML350 - 122k

With the sub on the rear deck, 150W should be fine. If the sub were in the trunk, you would probably want more, since the fuel tank is between the trunk and car (which is why I have a 12-inch sub back there). Open-air set-up should work fine for you. Try to mount the amp somewhere where it will have some space or overheating may be a problem.

And yeah, you'll probably find some parts of your car will want to dance along.

__________________
1987 300D, arctic white/palomino--314,000 miles
1978 240D 4-speed, Euro Delivery, light ivory/bamboo--370,000 miles
2005 Jeep Liberty CRD Limited, light khaki/slate--140,000 miles
2018 Chevy Cruze diesel, 6-speed manual, satin steel metallic/kalahari--19,000 miles
1982 Peugeot 505 diesel, 4-speed manual, blue/blue, 130,000 miles
1995 S320, black/parchment--34,000 miles (Dad's car)

Also, forgot to add ... if your amp is 75X2, it should bridge to a lot more than 150W. It should be listed in the specs for your amp. Bridging produces more than the sum of the two channels into one channel. So you should have plenty of oomph. Did you check to make sure the amp is bridgable?

__________________
1987 300D, arctic white/palomino--314,000 miles
1978 240D 4-speed, Euro Delivery, light ivory/bamboo--370,000 miles
2005 Jeep Liberty CRD Limited, light khaki/slate--140,000 miles
2018 Chevy Cruze diesel, 6-speed manual, satin steel metallic/kalahari--19,000 miles
1982 Peugeot 505 diesel, 4-speed manual, blue/blue, 130,000 miles
1995 S320, black/parchment--34,000 miles (Dad's car)

On the box it says bridged 150W RMS....so I guess its twice?

I know DUAL is a cheap entry level brand, but it works I was pretty satisfied with the DUAL amp in my wagon.

__________________
2016 Monsoon Gray Audi Allroad - 21k
2008 Black Mercedes E350 4Matic Sport - 131k
2014 Jeep Wranger Unlimited Sahara - 62k
2003 Gray Mercedes ML350 - 122k

Huh ... I knew there wasn't a set formula because the quality or efficiency of amps varies, but I thought it would be more than twice. On a "perfect" amp (which isn't most amps), it should bridge to 4 times one channel (50wX2 bridges to 200W). Most amps I see are somewhere in the middle. That said, as long as you end up with the power you need, it should be fine ... and like you said 150 should be plenty. You're not building a system to enter it in tuner contests, so as long as you're happy with the way it sounds and performs, it doesn't matter what the brands are.

__________________
1987 300D, arctic white/palomino--314,000 miles
1978 240D 4-speed, Euro Delivery, light ivory/bamboo--370,000 miles
2005 Jeep Liberty CRD Limited, light khaki/slate--140,000 miles
2018 Chevy Cruze diesel, 6-speed manual, satin steel metallic/kalahari--19,000 miles
1982 Peugeot 505 diesel, 4-speed manual, blue/blue, 130,000 miles
1995 S320, black/parchment--34,000 miles (Dad's car)

I got a weird problem that just started....

I lose all sound to all 4 speakers at once. I was just driving and it suddenly happened.
I checked all wiring and everything looks fine! The unit still has power and functions exactly the same......so I figured maybe the internal amp on the Pioneer unit failed. I was indifferent about this unit anyway and didn't like the features too much so I decided I'd take it back and get a new unit. I bought an Alpine CDA-X200 and I am much happier...

...but the problem is still happening. It will all of a sudden while driving gain sound again for 2-3 seconds then turn off. There is a lot of static during + after.

Any ideas? I'm so confused how all 4 speakers would lose sound, but the HU is still on.

__________________
2016 Monsoon Gray Audi Allroad - 21k
2008 Black Mercedes E350 4Matic Sport - 131k
2014 Jeep Wranger Unlimited Sahara - 62k
2003 Gray Mercedes ML350 - 122k

You've got me stumped on this one. How are you connecting the wires to the harness and to the speakers? If you soldered, maybe your iron wasn't hot enough and you've got cold solders all around. Only thing else I would figure would be a power issue to the HU, even if the unit appears to be functioning. Maybe you're getting a voltage surge or drop that's cutting out the amp power, but not the illumination, which has a separate lead. Did you fuse the power lead?

Again, these are the words of an English major who's never so much as taken a physics course (these cars have been my physics course) ... so I'm not sure how useful my ideas are.

__________________
1987 300D, arctic white/palomino--314,000 miles
1978 240D 4-speed, Euro Delivery, light ivory/bamboo--370,000 miles
2005 Jeep Liberty CRD Limited, light khaki/slate--140,000 miles
2018 Chevy Cruze diesel, 6-speed manual, satin steel metallic/kalahari--19,000 miles
1982 Peugeot 505 diesel, 4-speed manual, blue/blue, 130,000 miles
1995 S320, black/parchment--34,000 miles (Dad's car)

They are just twisted together and taped together with electrical tape for now while I am trying to figure this out. There is plenty of connection.

I'll get out the DMM and see if I can figure anything out from it.

One question -- On this new HU, there is no chassis ground attached the unit like the old one. Where should I put this wire now? I don't believe this is my problem though. Can I just bridge this chassis ground wire to the ground wire?

__________________
2016 Monsoon Gray Audi Allroad - 21k
2008 Black Mercedes E350 4Matic Sport - 131k
2014 Jeep Wranger Unlimited Sahara - 62k
2003 Gray Mercedes ML350 - 122k

There should be a brown ground wire going from the chassi into the ground lead on your HU's wiring harness. On Alpine that should be the black, heavier gauge wire in the harness. Beyond that main ground, I'm not familiar with a chassi ground that needs to go to the HU.

I would go in and crimp connect all the wires. Without solder or crimp you definitely are going to have a compromised connection. I wouldn't think it would die out altogether, but you could definitely be losing something via weak connection. Crimp-ons are pretty easy (and cheap), so I'd just throw them on to at least rule that out as a cause.

__________________
1987 300D, arctic white/palomino--314,000 miles
1978 240D 4-speed, Euro Delivery, light ivory/bamboo--370,000 miles
2005 Jeep Liberty CRD Limited, light khaki/slate--140,000 miles
2018 Chevy Cruze diesel, 6-speed manual, satin steel metallic/kalahari--19,000 miles
1982 Peugeot 505 diesel, 4-speed manual, blue/blue, 130,000 miles
1995 S320, black/parchment--34,000 miles (Dad's car)

Hmm weird. I removed all the speaker connections and plugged one of the OEM speakers back in. It worked! So one-by-one I added all the speakers in and they all worked.



I already removed the connections yesterday. Well I made dang sure everything was connected up right and taped over and all seems good.

----

Now that its working again...Got a goodie through the mail

This is going on the rear deck. I picked the 8" over the 10/12 as it fits on the flat section perfectly.



I will post pics upon final completion.
Any tips on where to put the amp?

__________________
2016 Monsoon Gray Audi Allroad - 21k
2008 Black Mercedes E350 4Matic Sport - 131k
2014 Jeep Wranger Unlimited Sahara - 62k
2003 Gray Mercedes ML350 - 122k

Don't expect much with the stock Becker, they'll be better on the high end with an aftermarket headunit. Be LOTS better with a small amplifier.

__________________
I'm not a doctor, but I'll have a look.

'85 300SD 245k
'87 300SDL 251k
'90 300SEL 326k

Six others from BMW, GM, and Ford.

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