Replacing Becker CR 21 Radio
 

Recently purchased my first Porsche, a 1999 Boxster and it really does live up to everything that as been written here and elsewhere. The original Becker Stereo in the car, unfortunately did not come with a code so even though I was told a code by a specialist it failed to work and therefore currently have no radio. I was looking at replacing it with an up to date CD/MP3 player but wanted to check with those that know that the CR 21 does have standard ISO wiring so I would not need to cut cables.

Thanks in advance for anyone who can help

I upgraded my nasty, low quality, failing Becker factory CD/Radio with an Alpine that had satellite inputs, plays MP3's, and even has an iPod connector and controller through the display. It was $225 new in the box, bought from Ebay. It totally blows away the Becker as far as features and sound quality. One would think I replaced all the speakers and the Porsche amp, but I did not.

No, it does not look like a factory unit. But after you hear the improvements it makes, you will not care.

I highly recommend buying an Alpine head unit and then have a local stereo shop that has worked on 996's do your install. Mine cost $100. (Do not let a stereo shop experiment on your car as they'll screw it up). There might be a wiring harness you could buy for it, but last year when I tried I didn't find one that was a simple plug and play. Wires had to be spliced, and while that's no big deal for me, no one could tell me which colored wires to cut on the car side to make it work. That's why I went with a professional installer.

If you don't have a rear speaker box and speakers, you need to buy that too as soon as possible as it makes top down driving far better when it comes to listening to the radio or the CD player or whatever you have plugged into the head unit.

Ive been looking for a stereo wiring harness adaptor for the boxster ever since I bought the car and havn't found anything either... Youd think that someone would have it...

Randall is right, I used to work for a cheap stereo install place ($35 full install), and they were undescribeably brutal to the cars. The faster the better in their opinion. Choose wisely :-)

Doesnt Crutchfield sell a harness?

Toss the Becker, it is worse than junk.

Alpine makes several nice units as Randall can attest to! :cheers:

Unless Crutchfield has come out with something new, the one they sell is a universal harness. And I'm betting it doesn't employ the factory amp and speakers the way my guy wired my Alpine. But I won't put money on that.

I will look at an Alpine and at a professional installer, the car is located in Spain so I think that I will have my work cut out for me to find a good one. Does anyone have a wiring diagram describing the output from the old Becker, could be useful to pass on to installer.

Many Thanks to all

Here you go...

Many Thanks