Updating to a new radio?

[wrs986]

I want to update the factory radio that came with my 1999 Boxster. It’s a Becker CDR 210 with an amp in the front trunk. I’m going to purchase a Kenwood BT 525 HD. Does anyone know if the amp that comes from the factory will work with this style Radio?
I’ve looked online and I see two different amps that came with this car. one is a Nokia and the other is a HAES. Both look to be the same type amplifier.
I’ve talk to an installation guy and he said until he can pull out the old radio he won’t know if the sample work or not. Something to do with the wiring harness.

[MichaelV]

The installer at bestbuy was able to hook up my kenwood unit to the stock amplifier. Apparently kenwood is the most compatible with our car

[wrs986]

Michael, thank you for the quick reply. I too am going to Best Buy. The installer seems to know his stuff and is asking me a lot of questions which I appreciate. Other places I’ve called don’t seem to know what to ask. Is your car and radio the same as mine?

[Cunningr]

There is an adaptor that will allow you to use aftermarket radio with the factory wiring. I ordered my pioneer from crutchfield prewired was a plug and play install, 20 minutes. You need to unhook the ground on the chassis and tape it up. Can cause some issues with the alarm.

[dghii]

Not dissing all Kenwood by any means but...
Please take some time to try a few things in the store with the Kenwood (and JVC). I've found both to be very slow to connect to my phone via BT.

My 2003 911 came with a very expensive (at the time) Kenwood double din radio with dvd, GPS, wifi, BT etc. I think it was about an $800 radio in its day. When I would start the car, It took 40 seconds for the radio to start to play, along with always initializing to a 'home' screen. When I would select radio (HD), it would take about 7 seconds before the radio display would appear, which would allow me to change stations etc.

I could connect my phone to BT to stream audio, yet only successfully made 1 phone call before i could no longer pair my phone for calls (for some reason, in set up, you had to pair separately for audio and phone).
I gave up.
I have removed the head unit and replaced with an inexpensive double din pioneer media player that works like a radio should....music plays within a couple of seconds after starting the car. My phone connects with ~5-10 seconds as well. I didn't care about GPS and Wifi so this unit was only about $160 on Amazon.

I like the radio so much, I bought another for my 2002 4Runner!

I'm not pushing my choice, only telling you that my experience with the Kenwood bugged the crap out of me. BTW, I had a JVC single DIN in my 2000Box that worked better but was still slow to connect.

[wrs986]

Certainly appreciate it!

[MichaelV]

Originally Posted by wrs986

Michael, thank you for the quick reply. I too am going to Best Buy. The installer seems to know his stuff and is asking me a lot of questions which I appreciate. Other places I’ve called don’t seem to know what to ask. Is your car and radio the same as mine?

I got it a couple years ago its a higher end kenwood one with bluetooth and hd radio. However I'm actually gonna upgrade mine to the new kenwood excelon double din radio with wireless apple carplay. https://www.crutchfield.com/p_113DDX9906/Kenwood-Excelon-DDX9906XR.html

As far as my car its a 1999 with dash and door speakers. I added in rear speakers at the same time but the stock amp was only 4 channel so the rear speakers are amplified by the head unit.

[mgfranz]

This, from Crutchfield, install went perfect. The only issue I ran into was with the Sirius antenna, but I fixed that too. I put the mic in the factory location with some epoxy.

What did you do with/to your Boxster today?

[wrs986]

Michael: I'm curious where did you mount the phone speaker and how well does it work with the top up and down? My car didn't come with the wind screen, I have one coming next week.

[MichaelV]

Originally Posted by wrs986

Michael: I'm curious where did you mount the phone speaker and how well does it work with the top up and down? My car didn't come with the wind screen, I have one coming next week.

The microphone you mean? The installer put it right on top of my steering wheel in front of the gauges. However people could never really hear me that well because they would hear themselves in the car speakers. So i just use my airpods if i'm going to talk on the phone.

[mgfranz]

Originally Posted by MichaelV

The microphone you mean? The installer put it right on top of my steering wheel in front of the gauges. However people could never really hear me that well because they would hear themselves in the car speakers. So i just use my airpods if i'm going to talk on the phone.

There is a factory location right on the console depending on which switch package you have.

[Deserion]

Continental CDD7416UB-OR
Pic in a 986S:


Pic in my 964:

[Traco]

I really like that continental. Watching some on eBay. Hopefully I will get a change to have a look at current setup this weekend

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