Gary Knox

I'm interested in the opinions of you'all on the CD 2 Radio that was OE on cars in the early '90's. I have "very old" ears, so fidelity isn't high on the list of needs. However, good AM/FM reception, reliability, and ability to play one CD are important, as well as the OE look of the radio. I'm interested in retrofitting it to an '88 928 S4. Look forward to hearing your opinions, and hearing from anyone who has a good one they'd like to sell.

Gary Knox - email: kittyandgary@verizon.net
West Chester, PA

Bates

The CD player went out on mine. Sound is a bit canny...horrible base and I am not talking about THUMP,THUMP,THUMP.

My friend bought his '89 C4 new and has replaced the CD2 three times! I would look elsewhere for a new radio.

cobalt

Don't bother. I had them in my turbo and GTS. They suck. The reception was poor, sound quality is very poor and the CD unit skips over bumps. Old technology.

I replaced the one in the GTS with a Nakamichi CD-500. http://www.nakamichi.com/home.html
This unit may be overkill for you but the 400 would be perfect. The sound quality is great the power is tremendous and reception is the best. The unit never skips and if you go with the 500 you can play MP3. They look almost like stock units and are very easy to use.

The unit in the GTS using the built in amp with stock speakers sounds 1000 times better than the CD-2 in the turbo with a very high end amp and top of the line MB quart speakers. If you upgade the speakers it will sound even better. Although there is only so much you can do in the 964 using stock speaker sizes and locations.

Good Luck,

dutchcrunch

funny you mention this as i am getting my car all cleaned up i thought i would listen to the cd player. i speak of this relating to my car and i must say this is the worst cd player i have ever listened to. before this post iwas looking at a different radio for the car and i think its going to be the nakamichi cd-400, it looks like factory and has it own built in amp. to be specific the porsche cd 2 sound is harsh on the ears to say the least. i think there are better cd player out there.

cobalt

Dutchcrunch,

You will not be disapointed with the CD-400. It is the same deck as the 500 but doesn't have the MP3 capability. This is probably the best car deck I have ever heard by far. Trully outstanding and the 47W x 4 is a tremendous amount of clean power for a built in amp.

DustinTarditi

If you want to stick with Blaupunkt, they have several good MP3-playing CD recievers...
I had a San Jose in my H1 and was pleased with it, went to put another in my 911 and couldn't find one readily, so I went with a Casablanca unit. Very pleased with this model.

Gary Knox

Thanks guys, your experience with the CD 2 is very helpful to me. I've had two Blaupunkt Torontos in other Porsches/MBs for about 6 years, and am pleased with them. The Nakamichi sounds like it's worth investigating as well. THANKS again,
Gary Knox

Jay H

I'll also throw in a vote for the Nak units mentioned above. Still outstanding head units of high quality.

The CD-2 should only be left for concours type cars where originality counts. That's really old technology...

Jay
90 964

9-kevin-11

How easy is it to switch in the Nakamichi unit? Would I have to cut my wiring harness to re-wire for the new radio? Or will the stock wire connectors plug into the Nakamichi?

Thank you

Marc Shaw

Kevin,

I can't tell you about the Nak but I just installed a new Denison unit in my car so maybe can help.

The plugs on the back of the cassette Blaupunkt unit were definately non-standard so I doubt the Nak would just plug in. I'm sure you'll have to cut the wiring harness to install it.

I cut the wires off the car and installed a standard male ISO plug on the car - my new Denison unit already had a female ISO plug so it was just plug-in. I then wired a male ISO plug on the back of my Blaupunkt so it is now just a simple plug-in to reinstall it if I ever want to.

Marc

Jay H

I would not cut your wiring harness. Just get a harness that is made for Porsche 911's from your year. That harness will have a plastic plug that fits the plastic plug attached to the radio wiring in the car. The new harness will then have pig tail ends that you can attach to the new CD player for the various connections.

A good audio shop could source this for you or try www.Crutchfield.com.

Jay
90 964

pete000

I like the OEM look, but the FM reception is really bad.

Jeremy Pinsly

I have the NAK CD-400 with an Alpine MRV-F450 amp under the passenger seat. I'm also running 2 8" JL Audio subs in custom enclosures made by Car Audio Innovations. It's important to me since I have a cab and I keep the top down almost all the time. Sounds is crisp, clear and non-distorted.
I'm using Focal Polykevlar 130kp components in the front and Focal 100ca in the rear.

cobalt

Crutchfield does not sell an adapter for the factory unit. I did not cut my harness. Instead I crimped matching spade connectors to the wires off the Nak deck and plugged them into the factory connector. The connector keeps the wires separated and I just taped over and around the wires to make sure they do not touch. This way if I decide to reinstall the factory radio I just remove the wires and plug it back into the unit without any splicing.

DarrylH

*Mild hijack alert* Hey Marc, do you have any pics yet of the Dension in situ?