Hi,

I’ve been reading this forum for some time and I wanted to share with the group the installation of a new stereo system in my 1996 C220.

System components:

Amp – Xtant X603
Head unit – Alpine 7892
Speakers – Diamond Audio 6 ½ “ drivers with silk tweeters
Sub – JL Audio 10W0

System details:

The subwoofer is a ported 4th order bandpass box constructed of ¾” MDF. I decided to port the box through the armrest in the back seat in order to give the system a stealth look and to eliminate any unwanted vibrations which might be caused by mounting the driver in the rear deck. I secured the box to the back of the rear seat panel and then mounted an amp board to back of the box. Having the amp close to the battery made power & ground connections short and easy. Front door speakers were fitted to the door with custom made ¾” MDF mounting baffles. The tweeters are mounted in the dash just above the air vents with the crossovers mounted under the driver and passenger seats. I ran new speaker wires from the trunk to the crossovers and from the crossovers to the door and dash speakers. The Alpine HU fit perfectly in the stock location without any need for modification. I made a Alpine to factory wiring harness interface cable with connectors obtained from Becker USA. The system sounds awesome! A nice clean sound, with a flat frequency response and zero hum/noise or rattle. The entire project took about 5 weekends to complete and cost around $1300 (thanks to eBay ). I was getting quotes of around $3500 from the local install shops so I decided to DIY. This saved me a few bucks plus I was able to learn a few new things and have a little fun.

BTW… I love my Mercedes and having just removed most of the interior during the install, I was really impressed with the way they are constructed and insulated.

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