944 Lachlan

My 85.5 came to me with a craptacular aftermarket unit. While functional, it's undermining the '80s vibe of the interior. I need some inspiration and would love to see some pics of solidly '80s radios in your car!

911lnv87

You shall check Continental and blaupunkt, those two brands have some good looking one.

azbanks

Blaupunkt Honolulu

Matching blue felt on the speaker grills which are powder coated to match the wheels and several other parts on the car.

FRporscheman

I went for a blaupunkt San Francisco 320 in my old Mercedes. It looks good in that car, not sure about the pcar though.

But I must say, it's a very annoying head unit. The sd card reading is very bad - no folders, and all files mixed randomly. The menus are a bit tedious. And the sound out of it isn't really anything special.

azbanks

I'm not thrilled with the sound of the Honolulu.
I wish at least one manufacturer would make a 80's look head unit with decent sound. I may look into the continental units.

944 Lachlan

I've looked at the Continental, and it's a good compromise between low-key factory looks and modern conveniences, but I'm interested in radios that were actually built in the '80s and came OEM in ours (or similar) cars.

Litesonic

Just replaced mine with the factory monterey... I had the same issue with an aftermarket (fast and furious edition) head unit. Something about the factory stuff that I dig.

944 Lachlan

Pics or it didn't happen

Litesonic

FWIW you can look at your build sticker and know which came your car (that's where I started).

Litesonic

Still working on the harness repair... but this is what's going in.

944 Lachlan

Good idea, thanks. I'm not so picky that I would require what it came with, but I do want something period-correct.

mrgreenjeans

And this is what it will look like installed :

Monterey SQR 23 ( original fitment to the car )




I have this in four of my 944s and Love the period correct, original look. The sound not so much.... It's good but NOT great.

In my '89- 951 the original Hi-Fi Blaupunkt sound system is still in the car as well and I could take photos of it for you also, along with a Daytona, a Reno, and a Blaupunkt 2002 that are in some of the other Porsches.

One 944 did come with a stereo delete, and one did come used to me with a very early Kenwood retrofit. Which sounds incredible, but I did find another Monterey to go in it but have not put it in. It's in a box and available for installing if I ever seriously decide to compete in Concours with it

Let me know if you want more photos.....

azbanks

I'm old school enough to still use CDs but not old school enough to use cassettes.

944 Lachlan

That's quite the collection--I'd love to see photos of them all! I checked my sticker and mine came stock with the Monterey as well, but All the blaupunkts from that period look correct, even some of the ones that weren't OEM. Which of your many do you think sounds the best?

mrgreenjeans

Hands down, no contest:

the '89 - 951 unit with 10 speaker, power amp Hi-Fi sound which was an upgrade on the standard Monterey available on turbos. I'll try and take a photo of it today when in town at my garage/shop.

Am going to guess this will be a very hard to source and very expensive sound system to locate. There weren't a lot of these cars built to begin with..... I believe North America got around 1400 and who knows how many of those were the 10 speaker/HiFi selection.

I'll try and get a few more pics as well of the others, if we can get a break in this bad weather and I can pull out a few without getting soaked to the skin with these late fall rains