johnw

Just bought me another 1985 928, the radio (Blaupunkt scr 23) had the face plate missing so I have no radio, does anyone know which radio I could use to replace it with, without to much trouble

Thom1

I stuck a really cool high powered JVC Chameleon CD into mine. The aftermarket Alpine died soon after I bought the car. Original stereo is obsolete, & IMHO terrible.

928 Brothers

Everything fits, it should be no big deal.

2V4V

John,

Depends on what you want. You can easily get a used Blaupunkt that will look factory and plug right in. You can also go aftermarket and get a unit that might perform better and have more features (though frankly, most of the $199-$299 crap at BestBuy won't) and the wiring will just need to be a little bit modified.

If you are able to find someone decent to do it, the stereo install is a piece of cake either way you go. Just depends on what works for you.

If you are looking for factory radios, I have couple extras and have a friend with a few as well.

Greg

Nicole

If you like the factory look, you should consider a Blaupunkt unit.

I had a Toronto put into my car, and it looks as if it had been designed for the car. However, the US version is no longer available. There are Euro versions, which are essentially the same, and I have heard of 928 owners over here, who are happy with the Euro version of the Toronto. Nice touch: You can adjust the display from red to gree, and match the orange to the later 928s LED display...

If you are in the SF Bay Area, call SoundWave in San Carlos, and ask for David. He's done lots of 928s and other Porsches over the past 30 years, and is very professionsl.

Jim Nowak

I think Blaupunkt is German for Blue Crap. No offense meant to those that still have a Blaupunkt stereo. But, sorry, I've been shown the light and have finally experienced a really good car stereo.
I just replaced the Blaupunkt radio that was in my Mercedes with a Pioneer Premier DEH-P730. Wow, what a difference! The Pioneer unit is amazing and has soooo many features it would take me an hour to discuss everything.
I also installed the XM radio, satellite radio, decoder and antenna. XM radio sound quality is as good as most cd players and probably better than many. There are over 100 stations to choose and most are virtually commercial free and many are totally commercial free. It's really cool, the song's artist and title appear on the display while the song is playing.
I bought the head unit and decoder from SBH enterprises. The head unit, which has a CD player, was only $230 delivered to my front door; in fact, the price was almost half that of any local Premier dealer. Total investment for all necessary components for the satellite radio decoder, antenna, and head unit was less than $500 delivered. The monthly fee on the satellite radio is only $10.

Jim Nowak

2V4V

Nicole,

FWIW, the Toronto (us spec) might be/is still out there on the secondary market. I found one on eBay about 2 months ago, for $350 with 10 disc CD changer - new in box, functions perfectly. Waiting for my "thummer" unit so I can control all the basic functions from the steering wheel.

I would agree that it looks like it belongs in the car - most aftermaket stuff (except perhaps Nakamichi) just doesn't look "right" to me. (This is of course, one of those nasty contentious matters of personal taste.)

I am considering doing the sat radio thing, waiting for it to get competitive. Once the other service comes on line, it might be more attractive to me.

I have had issues in the distant (20 yrs ago) past with Blau units eating tapes every so often, but you could never beat their radio sections. They have proved about as reliable (for me, anyway) as older Alpine units - that is to say, they rarely die - unless you kill them.

BTW - Jim, does this mean your car is up and running? Do tell, enquiring minds want to know. Especially since I'm going to do something similar.

Greg

Jim Nowak

Greg,

I installed the radio in my 560 SEC because the Blaupunkt went kaput.
No, the 928 is not up and running. I visited Lucky this past weekend to check on the progress of the 928 engine and it still has a while to go before it's finished. He has all the necessary parts for the final assembly. So for now, I'm in a waiting game.

Jim Nowak

DaveG

A higher end, lesser stereo componenet will generally sound better than a lower end model of a better stereo manufacturer. jim, in detail, makes this point by explaining the capabilites of his new stereo. That's probably why jim's pioneer sounds better than his previous blaupunkt. technology has obviously effected this market, consquenlty, alot of lower end new systems will sound better than older, higher end models. Comparing apples to apples, blaupaunkt is consider by most to be a better audio manufacturer than pioneer. japan made components, with the exception of sony and yamaha, are not cosidered the better sounding systems. Kenwood, which is also made in japan, has also fallen from is previous status over the last decade. this being said, sound quility is still very much subjective. Crutchfield.com has some helpful information.

Jim Nowak

Dave,

Wait a minute! Look on the back of your Blaupunkt. They're manufactured in Indonesia. Where did you think they were manufactured?
The Pioneer Premier is not even sold at Crutchfield and if it were it would probably be $500+ given their mark-ups. Not only did this stereo sound great but it sounded better and had more features than any line of car stereo I reviewed from any other manufacturer for under $800 and believe me Crutchfield doesn't sell components that are that high-line. Pioneer is one of the only manufacturers that has remained at the front and often is the leader in car audio technology for the last decade. However, if you said buy a Pioneer in the 70's or early 80's I would have said you were crazy. But now, only some of the manufacturers are stepping up to Pioneer's level of performance and Blaupunkt is not one of the manufacturers I would mention.
In fact, only the new Alpine units can compare to the head units that Pioneer is producing and Alpine is just now stepping back into the game after resting on their laurels from success in the late 70's and early 80's.

Jim Nowak

DaveG

In terms of quility, I was talking about the performance of the component itself, ie: THD, range ect., not what you call features. Getting all those features for less money should tell you something

Nicole

Features or performance?

Most of you would agree that a Porsche 928 has less "features" than a Cacillac, yet it is the better looking and performing car.

For me, a car, a radio, an appliane, or whatever else it might be should do it's job the best possible way, without distracting from it's actual purpose. It should also integrate with it's environment. That's when I personally consider it well designed.

This might explain why I own a Porsche and bought a Blaupunkt radio for it.

The japanese brand car stereos with their tiny buttons and colorful LED effects remind me of Star Wars and other science fiction.

I really don't care if they have a lot of extra features, or sound a hint better - the limitation in the 928 is the speaker system, not the radio/CD unit.

Drivers wanted, not Nintendo players! ;-)

dr bob

I gotta go with Nicole on this one. When I decided to do an upgrade, I looked at head units with the primary concern that it look at home in the dash. The flashing lights/lots of moving display stuff is fine for showing off at the drive-through, but it can be an unneeded distraction while driving. I went with the Blau, though not the Toronto; the Alaska looked fine and does what I want. The specs for the head units are so close that I didn't think I could hear any difference while driving. I spent the extra $$ saved on speaker upgrades... which are resting in their boxes, waiting for some spare time to show up. In the meanwhile, with only the brain-pounding 6.5 mid-ranges replaced with new, it sounds OK. Nothing spectacular, but OK.

I have the rest of the speakers, the amps, all the wiring, etc, waiting for somebody with a couple days to get it all installed. All the low-level wiring is pulled, all the speaker wiring is upgraded, just need to grit my teeth and sacrifice a couple inches of vertical luggage boot room for the woofer and the amps. Maybe I'll get it all done by next summer's Devek Days Tour...

Anybody adding dome tweeters in the corners of the package tray to pull the soundstage forward a bit?

Jerry 87 928S4

Nicole, , I have to agree with you. I installed a great sounding Alpine and mine looks like Star Trek ( not Wars ).

I saw your Toronto and it integrates very nicely. Just today I was trying to figure out where I might integrate a sub-woofer, just not sure where I could put it where it would not overwhelm the car.

Jim Nowak

Dave,

THD and signal-to-noise is what I was referring to as sounding better and performing better. I think if you did your research you would be very suprised at how poorly Blaupunkt stacks up against other manufacturers in terms of THD, signal-to-noise, etc., etc....
Once again, I'm not trying to say if you have a Blaupunkt you will not like it but I'm saying they don't perform at or near many of their competitors.
As Nicole said, they do fit the conservative Porsche interiors well. However, Nicole, wake up! Blaupunkt is not a German manufactured radio. THEY ARE MADE IN INDONESIA!

Jim Nowak