Recently picked up a 996.1 with an aftermarket Kenwood BT stereo. I’m thinking of retrofitting the original Becker radio with a Bluetooth adaptor. Are most aftermarket radios superior in sound quality vs. aftermarket or can I expect similar quality?

 

Complicated answer. Im sure other more knowledgeable replies will follow. I have a different Becker in my 2003 cabriolet with MOST and Bose system so it is different than yours. But I would worry if you went back to a Becker, it may be less reliable than aftermarket options. Even mine seems to stop working for an occasional drive, only to resume with the next start up. I would have replaced mine if the aftermarket was a simple plug and play like yours is (MOST make rewiring needed and other changes). It is not, and the sound is probably fine as I have a cabriolet and the noise of the ride would negate high quality audio changes.

Also if you get a Becker, you may need to get the code to install it.

 

I'm probably in the minority but I think the CDR-220 in my 996.1 Cab sounds great. I have the factory "Hi-Fi" option and I don't know how much that adds. I have a Bluetooth adapter that plugs in where the CD Changer connection would go. It works great for hands-free calls and streaming and has been very reliable for 7 years. I got it from Discount Car Stereo and it was Plug & Play for the Becker CDR-220. The downside of the radio is the AM reception but I think that is more about the antenna.

 

Mine came with a Kenwood deck and mix of Boston and Kenwood door and rear speakers. The installer cut the harness wires in the dash as well as in the frunk in order to wire the Kenwood deck directly to the rear speaker wiring (skipping the amp). The fronts were wire directly to the deck. And the factor tweeters were wired to a crossover off the fronts. The dash speakers were cut and not used.

I wanted to retrofit in a CDR-220 I picked up, but running into issue of not being able to use factory amp because the amp is 8ohm but speakers are 4. So I'm in middle of trying to re-re-wire the factory harness, plus the amp harness and then need to find an amp that can work with the cdr-220. Issue being I'm not sure how to connect it. I thought I could use the line-outs from the harness, but I need RCA. And now the CDR sits in my garage and I have a hole where the kenwood was