Well, I'm new to the 500E club, and my whiskers, what a car! I love nearly everything about it.

"Nearly everything" because I'm not overfond of the Becker Silverstone in it (car is a '93), and the Becker was the first thing to break. I'm trying to repair that but am juggling upgrade options, either in case repair fails or if I just decide that it's time.

The specific failure on the Becker was the trunk changer failing to eject on command. I removed the unit and called Becker; they quoted something like $200 to repair, realign and clean. Yipes! Spendy for something I may not keep.

Dove in myself and finally got to the deep heart of the unit (it is -very- German: heavy, overengineered, hard to service, matte black and with a huge ACHTUNG sticker on it :-)

There's a little worm drive gear that has slipped off of its shaft, which is the obvious source of the eject failure. Not in an easy spot, but I think I can weasel it back in place, cyanoacrylate it on, and re-grease the gear teeth.

Assuming this works okay, the Silverstone is still nearing ten years old, so even if it's fine now, I need to think on alternatives. (I'm also covetously eyeing the trunk space that it consumes.) I understand that the 500E Becker system is kinda odd, and that piecewise upgrades aren't going to work.

I'm not a superduper autoaudiophile intent on recreating my living room system's capabilities in the front seat, nor do I require the sort of deafening Hoover Dam wattage that goes into many car systems these days, and which doesn't do much beyond annoying people on the sidewalk a block away. I would prefer to not spend $2k on audio (that money is for gas and tires! :-)

So with those thoughts and budget in mind, the line I was thinking along was to remove the two main components of the Becker, along with removing the speakers. I'd then think about installing a competent mid-priced CD/MP3 head unit with reasonably good quality speaks.

Couple of issues here, most of them fitment related. I am sure I can get the old Becker headend out, but the eccentric large hole it will leave in the dash will be an issue. What does one do when dropping a standard small DIN chassis headend into such a big space? Get custom burlwood to fill in around it?

Also, it seems from prior posts that the speaker dimensions can be a challenge and that direct aftermarket fitments aren't easy to find. Any specific recommendations or measurements which people can offer would be very gratefully received.

Cheers,

s/b

Becker units are quite possibly the worst radios ever built. By an aftermarket unit and you will notcie dramatic differences immediately. Congrats on your carby the way. those cars are amazing.

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W126 1983 300SD 286,000 miles and ticking
Baby blue exterior Grey MB tex
Recent work:
Replaced air cleaner mounting brackets and heat shields
Replaced alternator, fan and power steering belts
Replaced positive battery terminal
Replaced negative battery terminal and cord
New Duralast Battery

My car needs work.

The head unit in your car is of standard size-not sure why you think it's larger than it really is, but I can tell you that nearly any DIN head unit will fit fine. I popped an Alpine into both my 500E and my 300TE and they fit great.

As to speakers, the easiest thing to do is to pick up a set of 2-way component speakers and put the 6 1/2" woofer in the door and the tweet up in the dash ( a 4" - 4 1/2" speaker will fit up there, depending on speaker depth). However, this will compromise midrange since the tweet & woofer are so far apart.

Another way to go is to put a 2-way coaxial up in the dash, and a woofer down in the door. However, this involves bringing in either crossovers or bi-amplification.

Yet another option is to find a set of 3 way component speakers and coincidentally mount the tweet and mid in the dash, and the woofer in the door.

Let's try to narrow this down with a few questions:

- Do you plan to retain rear speakers?
- Do you plan to add a subwoofer?
- Are you considering installing amplification beyond the head unit's power?

FWIW, power/wattage is not and should not be about volume, but rather control. Here's an example that comes to mind: when an Olympic powerlifter picks up a 100 lb plate and holds it in front of himself, he can hold it longer and in a much more controlled manner than can your average Joe. Same thing with wattage-if you have a big reserve, it's much more able to control the speakers' actions. My 750+ watt system is indeed fairly loud, but at any volume it's sparkling clear, right down to barely audible volume levels. I personally went to great lengths to avoid any boom-box effect...volume without control.

Hope we can help you out with this-definitely the achilles heel of an otherwise stellar car

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"If God had meant for us to walk, why did he give us feet that fit car pedals?" Sir Sterling Moss

Michael
2014 E63S Estate
2006 SLK55
1995 E500
1986 Porsche 944 turbo

Following up here, after much longer than I originally anticipated (had wanted to try to get the Becker back in and working as a stopgap while I decided what to do next, but that job took a while).

I did get the little worm drive gear reinstalled on the motor shaft, removed the crufty oxidized factory grease from it and the gear which it touches, regreased with an appropriate synthetic grease, and threw a small voltage across the motor contacts. Pop! Magazine ejected. Seemed okay. I cleaned the optics with medical isopropyl alcohol and buttoned the whole thing back up.

While I'm on the topic of buttoning up, I should mention (in case any Becker owners find this in the archives someday) that unbuttoning the Silverstone was an ordeal. I have a good set of small electronics tools, but even I had to buy a new small Torx arm for this job. And it took several hours of cursing. Not a friendly design for the servicer. My advice: if your eject breaks, have the factory fix it (quoted $200-$300 as of this writing) or can the entire system for something new.

I reinstalled the Silverstone changer in the trunk, at which point I may have made a mistake. Had an empty magazine inserted and had the sliding magazine door closed. As soon as voltage hit it, the unit coughed and ejected the magazine, into the closed sliding door. Thud. D'oh!

Well, at least it *can* eject now, which it couldn't before. And I got the magazine out by opening the door. Reinsert mag. Command eject. Nothing. Again. Nothing. Hmmmm. Power cycle the unit. Repower with eject button down. Mag ejects. Maybe something else was broken besides the motor... Internal sensor?

Load one CD in the mag and insert it. Go to headend. Radio and tape functions are okay. Changing to CD mode shows "CD M E" on display -- CD magazine empty, as I am told. Back to the trunk. Command eject. Nothing. Powercycle with command eject. Nothing. D'oh again!

I'll probably have to take the unit apart to get that one CD out. Shame on me for not using a sacrificial disc. Shame on Becker for not building in a manual release for the magazine. How hard is that? Anyway, I figure at this point that I am through with das Beckerfussen. Time to look into an end to end system replacement for this ten-year-old technology. Besides, if I can get a good MP3 headend, that will let me pick up some more trunk space by removing the bulky Becker.

So, resuming with the old thread, let me reply to some of these points. Michael wrote a number of things -- let me stress to novices that they should dig up his other postings to the Car Audio section, they're very informative -- starting with this:

>The head unit in your car is of standard size-not sure why you think it's larger than it really is, but I can tell you that nearly any DIN head unit will fit fine. I popped an Alpine into both my 500E and my 300TE and they fit great.

You're absolutely right. I don't know where I had gotten the impression that the Becker head was of DIN-plus size. That is a considerable relief.

>As to speakers, the easiest thing to do is to pick up a set of 2-way component speakers and put the 6 1/2" woofer in the door and the tweet up in the dash ( a 4" - 4 1/2" speaker will fit up there, depending on speaker depth). However, this will compromise midrange since the tweet & woofer are so far apart.

>Another way to go is to put a 2-way coaxial up in the dash, and a woofer down in the door. However, this involves bringing in either crossovers or bi-amplification.

>Yet another option is to find a set of 3 way component speakers and coincidentally mount the tweet and mid in the dash, and the woofer in the door.

I think that's what you ended up with, Michael, if I recall correctly? And you sounded happy with that. MB Quart speakers?

>Let's try to narrow this down with a few questions:

>- Do you plan to retain rear speakers?

Yes. To be more precise, I want rear speakers. I can't retain the originals if I change the system and amplification, though, because of the impedance issue. Different rears mandatory. Or so the other threads suggest.


>- Do you plan to add a subwoofer?

Perhaps. If I can weasel a small one into the rear parcel shelf area or under a seat somewhere. Not a priority, though.

>- Are you considering installing amplification beyond the head unit's power?

I thought I would try a typical consumer-grade headend first with no amp, in the 50Wx4 range, but leave provision for an amp later if that would be found to be insufficient.

>FWIW, power/wattage is not and should not be about volume, but rather control. Here's an example that comes to mind: when an Olympic powerlifter picks up a 100 lb plate and holds it in front of himself, he can hold it longer and in a much more controlled manner than can your average Joe. Same thing with wattage-if you have a big reserve, it's much more able to control the speakers' actions. My 750+ watt system is indeed fairly loud, but at any volume it's sparkling clear, right down to barely audible volume levels. I personally went to great lengths to avoid any boom-box effect...volume without control.

That's an elegant analogy. And I'm familiar with that design principle from residential sound systems.

I believe I may have been put off by that contrasting school of thought which says that car audio is not about reproduction, it's about distance, which is to say, being able to be heard in the next block. Which means that the repro on some of those cars is so bad that I can hear the music rattling and distorting from outside the car, and yes, even from in the next block. Can't imagine what it must be like inside. Deafening and awful at the same time. Something of a metaphor for Our Modern Times.


>Hope we can help you out with this-definitely the achilles heel of an otherwise stellar car.

Yes, I agree. But your comments have already been helpful -- thanks! If anyone else has pointers, tips, tricks or warnings, please feel free to chime in at this point.

s/b

I have an excellent drop in dash speaker made in germany spec to 124 dash opening front and rear. It is a 5" opening and most speakers are 4" or 5.25" and they are not direct fit. This snaps in and plugs into the stock wiring. They are a two way speaker with excellent sound quality. Check out the pic

Scott@lajollaaudio

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