ehanauer

Bluetooth is indispensable to me. No wires. I can listen to my tunes or Pandora with my iPhone in my pocket and control it from the radio.

olly964T

I`ve got a Becker Cascade pro in my 993 C4s. Got everything you could possibly need, sat nav, phone (takes sim card, but also has bluetooth for the iphone), SD card slot for MP3`s etc, 5 band graphic EQ and 3 manual EQ`s the list just goes on and on.

Also got an amber Becker Indianapolis which looks exactly the same as the Grand Prix model but doesn`t have blue tooth. It has Sat Nav instead.

Basically any Becker unit will sound great but the Cascade Pro is the best head unit i`ve ever had.

palmfish

Thanks for all the advice everyone. I called Becker in NJ and ordered a Grand Prix 7990 with iPod interface and bluetooth. I'll report back when I receive and install it.

Pricey, but well worth it I think.

psav74

Hey guys found this forum, searching for some help.

I bought the GP 7990 with ipod and bluetooth, installed it today and everything sounded good until I turned my iphone on. I only got sound from the left bank of speakers, passenger side had no sound. I put it back on FM and all the speakers worked.

Any ideas on whats going on?

palmfish

When you say you turned on your iPhone, do you mean Bluetooth?

I installed a Kenwood stereo in my BMW E30 and when I stream Pandora via Bluetooth, only the front speakers play. Any other source, all speakers function normally. I wonder if it's just the way Bluetooth functions?

Also, have you checked your balance and fader controls to see if your speakers are wired correctly? I would think that a "side to side" problem indicates incorrect wiring.

On a related note, I got my 7990 one month ago and after several unsuccessful attempts to install it, I will be returning it to Becker Autosound after the holiday weekend. I am very disappointed with their customer support and their inability to help me get a "plug and play" head unit to function in my car.

M. Schneider

The P99RS head unit is considered to be the best of the best in the automotive high end HiFi circles.
The head units understated aesthetic was sought after when wrestling with the idea of changing out the OEM CDR 210.
Have a look…. at a few iPhone pictures.

The active (input either pre out or spkr. ) sub-woofer (2 x 6.5" horn loaded) is a product offered in Europe & Japan but not here in North America. The unit easily wires into any vehicles stock HiFi system.... I'll play around with the 77a coupled with the CDR-210 via the rear spkr channels and 12v power sourced from the battery. The unit has a signal present on/off.

GC96

Just out of curiosity what is the issue you're having with trying to get the 7990 working? I have a Becker Indianapolis in my car and the installation was relatively straightforward. But I do not have the factory hi-fi option so perhaps that makes a difference.

GC

M. Schneider

GC96 - The inclusion of the HiFi speaker option (490) in our 993s has an external amplifier located under the passenger seat. The audio system relies on the external amp and not the head unit radio for output power.

Edit: A glimpse of the painfully obvious .

M. Schneider

Here's a modern day DSP module that when coupled with the 993s stock Becker/Porsche CDR-210 or 220 head units - is transformative. http://mosconi-america.com/dsp.html
Simply add a small-modest output amplifier and you have hurculean EQ capabilities amoung other filters. Oh,,,, and change a few of the drivers while you're at it; Dynaudio or better. At the end of the day its all stealth...

palmfish

My car has what I'm told is an upgraded factory stereo system. Three-way speakers in the doors and an Alpine head unit.

Factory system


Factory radio


Factory connections


Becker speaker connector


The two problems are 1. the antenna has no way to connect to the Becker (still waiting for them to figure that out) and 2. The speaker connector in the dash is a rectangular 10 pin plug. The speaker connecting cable that came with the unit is yellow at one end to plug into the top left port of the Becker and a round plug at the other end. The round plug isn't a match for the rectangular 10-pin plug. They sent me a different cable after I e-mailed photos and called to explain the issue, but the new cable doesn't work (although it does fit). Looking at the wiring of the new cable compared to the factory speaker output, it is obvious even to my novice eye that they are wired differently.

GC96

For the antenna you need an antenna adapter to go between the Motorola type of plug and the DIN plug on the Becker like this. http://www.swstereo.com/accessdetail.php?prodID=100 When I installed my radio I was a bit surprised that the factory antenna connector was a Motorola connector, I had presumed all German vehicles used the DIN connector. Luckily I happened to have an adapter on hand from installing a Blaupunkt radio in another car several years ago.
For the speakers it looks like you need an adapter like this http://www.swstereo.com/accessdetail.php?prodID=99. If Becker can't provide this, it might actually be cheaper to make one. You already have the yellow pre-amp connector for the radio from the cables they have sent you, any VW/Audi adapter harness will provide the 8 pin adapter you need to connect to the factory harness. I can help out if you want to go this route.

GC

palmfish

Wow, thanks for the info and links! Very helpful!

The speaker adapter you linked is exactly what they sent me. It doesn't work. It's wired differently.

Here's a picture of my factory connector (forgive the soldering, I reassembled it after a Best Buy installer cut it off to recycle it before I bought the Becker.





What's interesting to me is that upper left pin that's double-wired. Coming out of my factory unit, I have three lines. One is a single black wire, and the other two are two-wire bundles, which I assume are the left and right channels, although they could be front and back.

Each bundle has a red wire and a white wire, and each of those wires has an unshielded wire wrapped around it. I looked at the wires and insulation and this is my best guess on how it was originally wired. I started with black-black, then I connected red-red and white-white, and tied the unshielded wires together assuming it is ground. I then soldered each unshielded wire to the double pin. The cable you linked (and the one they sent me) does not have a "double wire" pin.

It appears to me that each channel shares the same ground. I have no idea what the center black wire is, and I also have no idea how the fader can work with only two channels - I'm guessing those unshielded wires are the key, but it's been over 20 years since I've worked with electronics so I'm pretty much flying blind.

Wired in this manner, music plays and the balance and fader controls work as they should. My passenger-side rear speaker is silent, though I don't know if it's because of my awesome wiring job or another, unrelated problem.

GC96

Here's an old thread might help you figure out the wiring for that connector, the two pdf files have the pin locations identifications you need. https://rennlist.com/forums/993-foru...ng-digram.html
Another potentially simpler option might be to forget about the 10 pin connector altogether rather than try and piece it back together. Looking at the picture of the Nokia amplifier in the above thread as well as the wiring diagram it appears that the connection at the amp is actually an 8 pin round connector (DIN I think) similar to the white one in the adapter Becker originally sent you. You might just need an extension cable to go from that adapter straight to the amp.

GC

palmfish

Thanks again GC - you have been really helpful!

All of your links seem to confirm my suspicions that somehow the ground layout for my system is unique (ie: each channel wire is paired with an unsheilded ground wire that gets tied in to a common ground). Based on what you've shown me, I can't think of a way to replicate the speaker/ground layout of the factory system with a modern head unit. I think the only way to get a modern unit to work will be to wire it directly to the amp with the cables you've shown me.

I think your DIN plug extension idea may be the solution to making it work.

Edit: The 8 pin DIN cable I have and the 8 pin DIN input on the amp are both female. This is getting ridiculous. I just ordered a 6' male-to-male DIN extension cable on eBay. Maybe I'll get lucky with this and successfully bypass all the original factory speaker wiring.

palmfish

I got a reply from Becker Autosound today regarding my continuing installation problems. Their response was for me to contact SW stereo with my questions. So much for support after the sale...