ok, the current radio sucks. I was looking for an easy replacement of the reciever (with CD player) and replacing the eight year old speakers. I listen to rock-n-roll for the most part, some jazz. Can I do this without adding a subwoofer? If I do need a subwoofer should I give up the built in first aid box to open up the trunk?
Any advice would be appreciated.
Thanks,
-kd

'92 400e
'91 Landcruiser
'86 VW Cabrio
'74 BMW R90S
'71 BMW /2 conversion w/sidecar

I lived through this agony recently in my 400E. There is an old string in this forum about upgrading a 500E which is intsructive; you may want to search it out. In the meantime, here's what I learned.

The "head unit" is only the cassette player. The tuner controls are wired to the tuner control unit in the trunk. Pulling the "head unit" is easy enough, but running all the needed wiring is very difficult. You'd need to run an antenna lead from the truck to the console, and several wires (either line-level to amps, or speaker level) back to the trunk. Not easy.

There are two power amps in the trunk near the tuner. They drive crossed-over speakers: the door speakers are mid-subs, the dash speakers are tweeters (more or less) and the rear deck speakers are dual-voice-coil mid-subs.

I added a cd changer in the trunk -patched to the oem control unit so the head unit shows the cd and track. Easy upgrade. The sound is pretty good with the volume up a bit. I'm adding power amps and maintaining the factory cross-over points. The doors get MB Quart mid-subs, the dash gets MB Quart Referez tweeters, and the rear deck gets Blaupunkt dual-voice-coil mid-subs (check with Sounds Deluxe on Ogden in Hinsdale). Others in this forum will recommend a sub in the trunk. I prefer a stealth installation.

I work and live in the western 'burbs - be happy to show you on mine.

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1992 400E
17 AMG Aero II
HTRZ II 205.50
Alpine DC w/ OEM controls

Glad to see my four-month-long installation debacle continues to help!

I'm still enjoying the tunes...best investment I ever made.

Remember, though, upgrading as you go can be a big hassle in terms of wiring; make sure to run enough cabling to accomodate future upgrades.

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Best regards, Michael
'92 500E
'88 300TE