Zish

Hi everyone, I am the proud new owner of a 1999 Carrera in Arctic silver, and ive had a permanent smile on my face since i picked her up yesterday.

The car is brilliant in all respects except the sound system, which I cannot believe porsche could fit to such an expensive car. I believe that there are a few sound upgrades that you can specify from porsche, but unfortunately i think my car has the basic system. There are no speakers in the doors, just on top of the dash and in the rear.

I dont want to spend $000s on the system, so custom speaker builds housing 6.5" drivers are unfortunately out of the question.

My aim is just to replace the speakers on top of the dash (could anyone tell me what size they are) with some components and add some low end from a 8" sub behind the seats, powered by a 4ch amp.

Also, unbelievably for a 1999 car, the headunit is tape, so I want to replace that with a CD player. Ive been informed that Becker make the stereo for Porsche, so I may go with one of their cd units to keep things as stock as possible. Maybe this one http://www.caraudiodirect.co.uk/prod...roducts_id=282

Thanks for any advice

docjackson1

i had a 99 carrera which i placed mb quart speakers in the dashboard and back of the car, a fosgate amp, and an alpine cd head unit which was xm ready-the entire thing cost about $1600 and sounded great. you can do better then a becker head unit.

Kevin M.

This is what I did.... Copy & Pasted from a prior post...

Well I couldn't live with it any longer.. the stock system had to go.. and the new system is as follow... Obviosly a Cab is difficult to get decent bass out of unless you tear out rear seats or make enclosures behind the front seats.. I wasn't looking for a lot of bass just some good clean sound with a little punch... So this worked out perfect.. The system cranks, cruising at 100 on the freeway you can still hear it loud and clear!!

First the deck is a Kenwood 910 DVD/TV 6 1/2" LCD Screen..


The screen folds away


The Brain is hidden underneath the passenger seat.. And the antennas for the TV are behind the window pillars..


The front & rear speakers were replaced with Focal 100V2 component's 4" woofers with 1" tweeters.. The factory enclosures had to be modified for the Focal's to fit, also some glueing was involved.
They sound great!! So much better then stock!



What a perfect time to paint the screws that are used on the speaker grills..


In order to get some additional Bass. I bought the upgraded speaker enclosures that fit into the door panels, I then replaced the factory speakers with the Focal 5WS 5" woofer... These sound awesome! Excellent bass from a 5" woofer.. very impressive.. rock songs sound the best, when R&B Music is on the bass needs to be turned down..

Kevin M.

The amp is a Phoenix Gold 500.4 A 4 channel amp with enough power to run everything..the factory carpet was ordered and will be replaced when it comes in..



Also I removed the factory CD Changer and replaced it with the Kenwood music Keg made by Phatnoise... This is the best thing made since slice bread I upgraded the hard drive to a 60gig which holds about 800 Cd's.. It took me 3 weeks to convert over 600 cds to MP3 format which will all be installed on the 60gig drive..


Link to more High Res Pics

Zish

Thanks for the replies. Kevin, your install looks great. Unfortunately, I dont have the speaker locations in the doors like you do - i just have a storage compartment where the door speaker should be.

Does anyone know what size my dash speakers are, and if it is possible to fit a set of components in there? I think my best bet is just to upgrade these, and power them with a 4ch amp with the rear channels bridged to a single sub.

Thanks

Sloth

The dash speakers are a 4" and tweeter component system, same with the rear speakers. Do not bother replacing the rear speakers as they are not heard anyways and will make your amp configuation easier. Whatever head unit you use, make sure it has the preamp outputs for the amp... makes for a much easier/cleaner install. If you want to keep the stock look, I guess the Becker headunits are alright. However, there are many headunits that are far better...

My old sealed sub box with two JL Audio 8w0's...

Zish

Ok, thanks for that sloth. I'll look in to some 4" component systems. Out of interest, what HU would you recommend in place of the becker?

Also, that sub box looks exactly like what i'm after. Did you make it yourself? How do the 8s sound - any low bass or is it just puncy?

Thanks

Sloth

I installed an Eclipse headunit just before I traded my C2. The sound and functionality are excellent, though it is not the most stock in appearance. I would also suggest Alpine, and Nakamichi blends very well with the interior from what I hear. Do avoid Sony as their quality has really taken a nose dive in the mobile audio dept.

I had the box made for me by a local shop in SW Florida. Car Audio Innovations ( www.caraudioinnovations.com/ ) can make you a similar box. The subs filled in the lower end very nicely, but there was no mistaking them for a 12" in terms of low bass output. They sounded nice and tight in a sealed box. Since you are just replacing the dash speakers with a 4" component set, I personaly would be reluctant to go larger than two 8" subs.

Good luck.

Eric Holdaway

This is the enclosure ethat we built for a 2003 996. It had 2 Kicker S8-L5 subs. The sound comes out of the area were the grill cloth is. Keeps the speakers protected.

The 4" seperates in the dash are a good start, but you could add to the door if you do not mind having a round grill showing.

I would do the rear sats if it were my car, even though that makes you go with 2 more channels of amplifiation.

The Alpine or Kenwood headunits would be better than the becker, but you can go with it.

mattmarsden

Kevin,

You upgraded the music keg to a 60gig HDD. Is it just a case of taking the old one out and putting the new one in? Is it a 2.5" or 3.5" HDD.

Thanks,

Matt

Kevin M.

Yes it justs slides in and out.. not sure of the 2.5 or 3.5" check
www.phatnoise.com

teflon_jones

i got the so called "high end" sound system in my C4 and i've blown all of the speakers so many times that i don't even bother getting them replaced any more! i would never go for that option again.

the only good thing i can say is that at low volumes the sound quality is excellent. but i can't listen to snoop dog and dre at low volumes!

MLA911

Zish, I just recently overhauled the entire system in my '99 Coupe and installed the following:

Alpine CDA-7995 XM ready head unit
MB Quart 5 1/4" seperates in the front (5 1/4" in the doors - 3/4" tweeter in the dash)
4" Boston Acoustic Coaxials in the rear
XM Satellite tuner
Alpine MRV-F450 5-channel AMP 850W
custom subwoofer box on the deck behind the rear seats by Car Audio Innovations in Cally, which houses (2) 8" Image Dynamic subs with factory carpet.

My car had the upgraded factory system with the seperates in the dash and in the rear with the speaker housings in the door. The Porsche factory systems are pathetic, so any changes you make will most likely be an improvement.

Let me know if you would like some pix. Good luck!

M-

vjd3

MLA 911 ... any details you can give would be greatly appreciated. How did you install the speakers in the dash? I removed my factory Nokias just to look at them, and it didn't look very straightforward at all; nor did it seem like it would be simple to return to factory later as it looked like you'd have to butcher the components to get them out of there.

And was the amp plug and play or did you change the location?

Lastly, how's it sound?

Vic
99 C2 cab

VORLAND

Doh.. I just bought some nice Focal polykevlar components for the dash but they probably too big since they are 5 1/4... Darn...