I’ve read a bunch of initial reviews on the Porsche Classic Radio and all were fairly positive. Curious to hear updates now that many have lived with it for a while. Any regrets, issues, etc? I’m considering getting one to replace my top of the line single din Alipine headunit but don’t want to change anything that could degrade sound quality or anything else. What’s everyone’s feeling? Price aside, Is the Classic radio really worth it?

My feelings are as follows:

Pros
-looks
-addition of Sirius
-addition of map view (will probably still use waze for nav)
-better BT call sound quality?

possible cons:
-worse audio sound quality with less eq adjustments??
-price (not a major concern)

Anything else I should be aware of or consider?

also, for install, I have to double check, but I’m pretty sure my PO cut out the oem radio harness. What are my options for install?

thanks guys!

I just purchased the PCR and will be doing the install shortly. It does come with new, replacement plugs in the event the originals were removed. Fortunately, the PO on my car used adapters for the install of a Sony head-unit but did cut into the harness that leads down to the Nokia amp. I was able to purchase a factory replacement cable from Sunset which now requires the removal of the passenger seat to route. Not exactly convenient to have to pull it, but I do want it done correctly! In short, if your PO did cut the harness, you definately have options to make it right.

Having owned a few cars with DSP in the stereos, I opted for the top of the line Alpine (CDE-HD149BT), which for a measly $210 gets you 8-band parametric EQ plus time corrections to control the sound staging, all controllable on your smartphone if you want. It makes a HUGE difference in enjoyment. At the price Porsche charges, the fact that the only sound settings are Bass-Mid-Treb-Balance-Fader is simply an embarrassment. Truly disgraceful.

And HD radio is awesome too. The cheap Alpine has it, the PCR does not. Disgraceful.

The Alpine doesn’t have Nav, meaning that its nav is about as good as the Porsche‘s, which people say they don’t use since Waze/GoogleMaps is so much better.

Porsche definitely made a beautiful little unit, but the feature selection is very questionable.

I enjoy mine and very much agree with goofballdeluxe. It is a great complement to the 993 if you tend more towards the stock/old school look with a modern feature set. I don’t use nav all that much since almost all of my 993 driving is local around town but it works just fine compared to what is in my 2017 Macan albeit with a smaller screen.

Sound quality is about as good as you can extract out of the speaker set up in the 993 (my speakers are newer replacements but in same locations and enclosures as the originals. Phone quality seems fine but I don’t really talk on the phone. Road noise from the car would be a bigger issue than anything else I imagine since our 993s don’t really prioritize noise insulation.

Bluetooth and Sirius/XM are the real reasons I upgraded and they work perfectly. Overall, I’d 100% buy it again.

I love mine. Nav screen is small as noted but I like the fact that it uses actual gps satellite signals rather than cell phone towers. It worked great deep in the Black Hills of SD last summer and also on the remote and hilly farm-to-market roads in southwestern WI. In those areas cell signals are frequently unavailable so obviously associated mapping programs don’t work. It will probably be helpful in the Smokie Mountains next fall as well.

I almost never talk on my phone while driving, but my wife and daughter spoke during a road trip last summer. I had the cruise set at 88 mph and my car is fairly loud. With the mic mounted in the upper left corner of windshield they were able to communicate comfortably for 15-20 minutes. I’m not an audiophile, but audio books and music on BT both sound fine and no complaints with connectivity. The radio reception is noticeably clearer than the stock AM/FM/tape I had before, and can be turned up louder too. Given how poor the stock head unit was, that’s faint praise though.

I’m the only one who seems to feel this way, but I absolutely hate that I can’t cycle through radio stations while the map page is displayed. I often have the radio on quietly, but would like the map up all the time...I don’t need to see which radio station I’m on to decide whether or not I want to skip to the next preset.

Like it in my 87 911. Use it mostly for telephone calls. Colorado Springs dealer did installl replacing a Best Buy aftermarket install. No problems with connections. Nav screen small but ok. Overall a good addition.

chuck

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