Mark Hubley

Not long ago I sold a Saratoga sunroof to finance purchase of a new CD deck for my '86 944. The Blaupunkt Indiannapolis I had in the car was a POS, and I was sick of the CD skipping every time I ran over any sort of bump.

I have a '99 Boxster and love the Becker CDR-220 that came in it. So, I figured I would get one for my 944. I purchased a new unit from SWStereo (easy to find in Panorama and Excellence). The service was great, and I love the unit in my 944. It looks and sounds great. Here is a pic:



One thing to beware of. I love the amber digits on the display of the unit in my Boxster, and I figured they would match nicely the lights in the 944. Stefan at SWStereo said the amber display would not work well in my 944 because of the different viewing angle. He said I should purchase a different faceplate. Assuming I knew better than Stefan, I said stick with the amber. Well, after installation I right away realized that Stefan was right. You can't see the amber display clearly at all. Stefan was great about shipping out a new faceplate with the black digits on amber background.

Anyways, anyone looking to upgrade the CD player in their 944 ought to consider the Becker. With the black on amber faceplate I paid just under $500. After my experience with the Blaupunkt I just decided it wasn't worth going cheap anymore.

Cheers,

Mark

JonH

Got to tell you I love that Stereo, put that on the list. So much better looking that some of the blingy things that most stereo companies are putting out these days, IMHO. Great to hear about SWS, I have seen their ads and was wondering if they are legit.

AndyK

Looks AWSOME! But $550!? Kinda steep to me.

UncleMaz

Looks nice. What happened to Blaupuncht? I have a POS Seattle.

flosho

Personally, I love that it matches, but you could get a hell of a deck for 500$.

Serge944

Some of the 1-2 season old panasonic and clarion decks look very OE and clean. Many also have selectable backlight colors so that you can match the rest of the interior lights. They cost peanuts on ebay. $500 is a lot for a deck that gets schooled by units, without the Porsche logo, for half the price. I guess that's the price you pay for trying to be as 'original' as possible.

ELLSSUU

Good to hear. I'm about to install a CD220 I got on Ebay for $25 plus I found a place to sell me the faceplate for basically $100 plus my current Boxster style faceplate.

Mark Hubley

I've been leery about buying electronics on E-bay. Maybe that's being paranoid, but . . .

Anyways, I've gone cheap a couple of times with car stereos and ended up unhappy. Combine that with the fact that I had a windfall from the sale of my sunroof. I decided to splurge. If I didn't have the $$$ from the sunroof sale I would not have spent $500 on a car stereo.

Also, since this deck matches the one in my Boxster, I only have to remember how to use one deck!

SpecialtyConcreteCoatings

Will it play MP3 cds and is it iPod ready?

ELLSSUU

There is a Ipod hookup that you can get for it. Haven't investigated it fully. I was looking for a stock look and while my Blaupunkt Key West looks great I thought that the CDR 220 would look better. Sound quality is secondary in this car as the SFR exhaust is exquisite and I don't drive it often enough to listen to music.



Thanks for posting the picture. It just confirmed what I thought it would look like. Anyway you could get a picture of it at night?

white924s

If anyone's looking for a slightly cheaper option, the Eclipse CD1000 integrates pretty well with the OEM dash and has great SQ but only costs around $150

SpecialtyConcreteCoatings

This unit looks better than any I've seen in a 944.

I just bought a Alpine-9856 for $170 + $30 ipod cable and 2 pairs of Infinity 4x6's for $75/pair. I'm tired of listening to crackling...

Charlie

Mark,
For $50 you can send the original CDR-220 faceplate to Becker and they will send you an amber plate that is viewable in the 944. I did this with my CDR-220. I then replaced the CDR-220 with the Traffic Pro which looks just like the CDR-220 but has navigation.
I can play and control my ipod through the radio by using an Icelink hookup.

whiz944

I've had a Becker 2340 in my 944 for some years now. The Becker units of that era (e.g., CDR-210, CDR-220) match the 944 dashboard styling better than the original equipment Blaus. Very understated and European vs the 'arcade game' Asian alternatives. I've often wondered if the person who styled the units was a 944 fan?

And of course sound-wise, the 20 year old Blaus - especially the two-channel units used prior to 1987 - are not that great compared to more modern units. Plus the newer Beckers have the usual preamp outputs, CD changer connections, etc.

Walt
86 944 NA (which I purchased almost exactly 20 years ago)

(P.s., I'd post an image. However it seems that even though I've been subscribed to the email lists since literally the very first day of Rennlist, I have to make a few posts here before being allowed to post URLs...)

darylcjackson

I'd like to throw in a plug for SW Stereo since the original post'er mentioned the name. I've been purchasing from him for almost 20 years. Great guy. Real honest and easy to deal with.