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GTR_Skyline

Hi

Currently have a "face off" ken wood unit which is grey and it's backlight doesn't match the BMW display colour. Any recommendations on best car audio unit to change to, to make it more Oem in look ?

Thanks
Prashan

bpoliakoff · Bigcoupe supporter

Find a Nakamichi CD400. Looks old school and you can adjust the lighting to match the factory lighting

falcotim · Bigcoupe supporter

The Nakamichi does look more old school.

Many Blaupunkts also have the adjustable backlight. I have one and it matches the factory backlights just about as good as you could ask for.

Lumilinna

The Nakamichi CD400 lighting is more yellow than the BMW. Becker is more reddish. The Becker is far better in quality, my Nakamichi used to skip quite a bit with sports suspension.

Becker Grand Prix is also MP3, bluetooth and Ipod compatible where the Naka is not.

GTR_Skyline

Thanks for the feedback - will look for the Blaupunkt and Becker units online - there seem to be some BMW Business radio CD too which looks like a good flush fit...u

horsetan · Senior Member

I have a BMW Business RDS unit going spare, which came out of an E36 - it uses the ISO-type plug-and-socket connection, so ye'll need to do a spot of rewiring from E24 to ISO (as I've been doing with a Pioneer KEH-P4300R unit + CD Changer, with Brucey's help), but it does give ye the facility to plug in a cable from a CD-changer.....

GTR_Skyline

Brucey · 6 Series Guru

some Kenwoods support green or red illumination and this can be changed over via one of the menu functions. Others just have (say) blue.....

many UK cars were fitted with Pioneer kit at the dealers from new, since it was as good or better than the BMW OE stuff on offer, and a fair bit less money too. Most Pioneer stuff supports red panel lighting as a default condition.

The current Becker stuff is nice though.

cheers

horsetan · Senior Member

Paul Humpage · Senior Member

This thread seems as good as any to pop in this question. I'm using a re-conditioned Becker Mexico tape/radio combo that is really despite it's reconditioning a big bag of shite. The local Becker rep here in Sydney (yep, there is one) has a new old stock last model tape/radio/amp set up for a reasonable price. The player will only work with the additional amp so i'm thinking of getting some decent speakers and getting someone who knows what they're doing to plumb it all in.

My question is; behind the radio now is a real dog's breakfast of wires that have been spliced and joined and cut and respliced and rejoined so many times as different owners have had their new head units fitted that it's all rather a mess. Would a professional installer be able to run a new power connection from the battery or fusebox and some new lengths of decent speaker cable throughout the car without it catching fire or do you need to use the supplied wiring in the jungle behind the current radio?

I'd love just to be able to ignore all that old wire and the electrical gremlins inherent with the mess and have a few runs of lovely modern five nines copper wire away from everything else so i can play my hi fidelity compact cassettes properly again.

Thanks.

bpoliakoff · Bigcoupe supporter

I have not installed my new radio yet, but did cut the rats nest of splices back to the original wiring. I ran all new heavy speaker wire cable to new speakers, and it looks like the new harness for the head unit will wire up fine. So, yes a pro installer can do this properly for you without you worrying about a fire.

Brucey · 6 Series Guru

+1 on that, and it is an excellent idea too, 'specially on a RHD 6er;

many 6ers have OE speaker wiring that is very thin, and is set for a four-speaker- six-wire arrangement, i.e. the -ve connections are commoned. This is a really bad idea with most modern amps.....

A further kick in the nuts with some RHD 6ers is that the OE speaker wiring is simply wrong i.e. the right side rear speaker wiring actually runs to the left rear pod and vice-versa.....

For a 'standard' setup an ISO plug to the head unit is a good idea, with breakout connections for extra amplifiers etc as required. If you intend to use 'BMW' type head units or amplifiers it may make sense to fit the Multiplug system used in E36, E34, E31, E32 etc, not that it is particularly good mind.....

good luck

cheers

Paul Humpage · Senior Member

Thank you both for the information.

I was discussing this with a fellow 6er owner yesterday and mentioned about how poor the stock in car entertainment was in our cars despite their original selling price and the excellent reputation of Becker. I had a new Mk 2 Vauxhall Astra in 1988 with the stock AM/FM/Cassette and just a couple of speakers and the quality was far better than that of my 1986 6er who's Becker would have retailed for probably 4 times the cost of the head unit in the Vauxhall.

Kunama Lodge

Paul, when I removed the Alpine that was in my car at purchase, I found a rats nest of different coloured, different diameter wires with joins ranging from soldered and coated with heatshrink to twisted together and covered in masking tape.
I ended up rewrapping all the underdash wires with insulation tape. Replaced all non factory and some factory wiring with colour coded (to DIN standard) new wiring and simple male/female multiplugs. Although time consuming a thoroughly rewarding job once finished.
I also removed 2 milkcratefuls of old wiring and cabling as well as the non working Becker preamps, power modules, headunits etc.

The new Becker is excellent and simple to install.
Cheers,
Matt (ex OZBMW)
Jindabyne

Paul Humpage · Senior Member

Thanks Matt, the one i'm looking at getting as a replacement looks almost identical to yours you've posted above apart from the fact it is a tape head unit. It was seeing your photo above after a full day in mine listening to the music struggle out that has made me pull my finger out and get it sorted.

Regards
Paul

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