New Radio, anyone?

[Stuts]

Does anyone have a good suggestion for a replacement radio (A modern one, not an original Blaupunkt or Becker) for an old '84 300td? As any owner knows, the placement of them is horrible. The driver's view is non-existant. Has anyone found one with decent visibility?

[e300d97]

Does anyone have a good suggestion for a replacement radio (A modern one, not an original Blaupunkt or Becker) for an old '84 300td? As any owner knows, the placement of them is horrible. The driver's view is non-existant. Has anyone found one with decent visibility?

I went to Crutchfield.com and searched for what would fit in my 97 E300. I ended up getting a Sony that had a front Aux input for an IPOD and and hookup for SIRIUS receiver, now I have SIRIUS without excess devices to plug in.

[lkchris]

Great radios for Mercedes here
http://swstereo.com/Products/Becker/becker_recs.shtml

[Marshall Welch]

Those Beckers look nice. Nakamichi CD-400's look really nice in W-123's and are supposed to be good units. Also consider getting a separate amplifier.

[Highway Star]

How do you manage to get a CD past the shifter? I can barely get a cassette tape past it when it's in park.

[dropnosky]

its not impossible to move the vent and blower controls down, and place the radio above. that makes it a good 5 or six inches higher, and increases visibility. I tried this on my 1981 240 with good effect. you can fabricate a bracket to hold it easily. the only potential problem would be with the length of the antenna cable, mine was a little too short.

[Johnson Chan]

I would look for a radio that is Ipod/MP3 compatible, that is going to be the way of the future (gotta plan ahead). CD's are already on the way out...

You can hold 400-1000 songs on a device the size of a pack of cigs and take it from car to car. You dont have to worry about songs skipping, losing or scratching CD's, etc.

Or just keep your existing radio and get a FM modulator/cig adapter and play the ipod though a radio station. This way you retain the looks of your car and save money on a new CD player

[bro frank]

i have a sony cd-mp3 player, with line in on the front.

best of both worlds. cd's go in at the top of unit w/out the face plate moving.

no problem changing cd's even in park because of the angle it sits at, about 15-20 degree's above horizontal.

the display is very bright and easily read.

i am going to have to upgrade the speakers. oems can't handle it.

[robert m]

I would look for a radio that is Ipod/MP3 compatible, that is going to be the way of the future (gotta plan ahead). CD's are already on the way out...

You can hold 400-1000 songs on a device the size of a pack of cigs and take it from car to car. You dont have to worry about songs skipping, losing or scratching CD's, etc.

Or just keep your existing radio and get a FM modulator/cig adapter and play the ipod though a radio station. This way you retain the looks of your car and save money on a new CD player

I sort of did just that. I have my sirius receiver (replay) sitting in front of the ashtray area and it has a built in fm modulator that works well. I use one of those cassette adapters (about $7) for my mp3 player. I removed the ashtray and installed a couple of 12 volt power taps too (about $5). Kind of ghetto, but it works well.
I can't tell the difference between using the cassette adapter and the built in modulator. Although that may be more due to the condition of my speakers.
I'm pretty sure that the 22 year old paper cones are on their last legs. Anyone found decent speakers that go in with little to no modification? I think I may have read here somewhere that the factory replacements are pretty good.
I agree though, that if you are set on getting a cd player, make sure that you get one with a auxillary line in on the face.