DIY Double Din CDR-24 & stock amplifier replacement

Cayman CDR-24 & amp upgrade Hi all, I thought I would submit a thread / article to run through my experience of installing a Double Din head unit into my Cayman S which has the CDR-24 head unit and upgraded Sound Package (not Bose). I must stress this is a DIY install and I am not a professional installer. I chose the Kenwood DNX-5260BT unit as a replacement unit Kenwood Electronics UK Ltd. | All-in-one > DNX5260BT - It’s got built in Sat Nav, Parrot Bluetooth, USB, iPod etc. etc. I am also going to run through removing the stock Amplifier that comes as standard and replacing with an aftermarket amp. Hopefully this will help others looking to do the same thing along with the other fantastic posts available. OK, first things first, on the 7 speaker upgrade pack, the bottom door speakers are the only speakers you cannot power directly from the head unit, when you plug in your new unit in with the ISO connector, it will power ONLY the top fronts, dashboard and rear 2 speakers out of the box. The BIG problem with this is there is absolutely no base at all – hence the requirement to replace the stock amp and powering the bottom front door speakers. My old car was a Boxster and I never went for upgrading the system as so many people spoke about the Fibre Optic cabling and how difficult things are to change. I am glad I have done this on my Cayman as I can assure you; it’s not a major issue, as long as you are prepared to change out the old amp. Even though this is straight forward, It is a fairly lengthy job and all in all took me about 6/7 hours over 2 days to complete. I purchased a small 2-channel amp for the job, I used the Mutant MT1202 from - Mutant Car Audio, Subwoofers, Amplifiers, Bass Packs, enclosures, Component speakers, coaxial speakers, tweeeters | WWW.MUTANT.UK.COM - it’s the perfect size to fit in the storage compartment under the bonnet. It is too large to fit in the space where you remove the old amp (I couldn’t find any decent amp to fit in this space!). Here is what you’ll need: Double Din Unit, Double Din fitting Kit with facia surround, Fakra aerial converter (depending on the aerial connection on your new unit), Amplifier, wiring kit for the amplifier OK, here’s how I did it: - 1) Firstly, use the article to help you remove the old CDR-24 head unit (thanks K-man) PCM 2.1 Install (CDR-24 Radio Removal) - Articles 2) Wire in a 12v ignition wire to the fuse box (really easy job, see pic) – choose a spare slot for an item which would have power with the ignition on (rear wiper for example) – and run the cable through to the back of your unit. Connect the 12v ignition and 12v constant to the correct wire on your harness - I find these connectors useful Wire Tap-In Squeeze Connectors (7-Pack) - RadioShack.com - you will see from the photo that you will only use the 2 ISO blocks) one run the power, the other runs the speakers) – the other 2 will not be used 3) Run the Navigation aerial and microphone to a suitable position, connect in the iPod and USB cables to a suitable position so you can access them 4) Run a Phono-phono Cable and Remote amp cable (single strand cable is fine) from the back of you new unit through the bulkhead and into the compartment under the front bonnet – I found this job a nightmare, took ages to find a suitable route through! Connect the phono cable to the SUB output on the rear of your new unit. 5) If your new unit has a cable which requires you to connect it to the Handbrake (so the DVD player will work), just mount this to a suitable ground point and it will work all the time (just don’t use it while on the move! ☺ 6) Fit the new Double Din cage, slide the new unit into place and fit the new facia surround. If you turn on your new unit you will notice it works fine, sound out of all the speakers (except the lower door speakers), but, there will be little or no base at all. Amp: 1) The old amp is located behind the lower panel under the bonnet, where the locking wheel-nut key is. Remove the wiring harness, and unclip the old amp from the mounting point. 2) The front bottom speaker cables come through to the harness (please see pic), so cut the wires at a suitable point from the harness in case you need to use it again, you will notice the wires you need will be thicker than the other speaker cables. Also, cut the thick brown and thick red wire (brown = ground and red = live constant 12v) – double check, but that is what it is in my car. 3) Run the live, ground and speaker wires from the old harness up through to where the new amp will be, also wire in the remote cable and phono cable you have fed through the bulk head from your new unit. Turn on the stereo and ensure the light comes on on the amp, and you are ready to go. The Amp will feed bass through to your front lower door speakers and the head unit will feed mid-range and treble through the top, dash and rear speakers. I am very happy with the results (please excuse the mess of wires around the amp, I did tidy them up and mount it properly ☺), the sound is far far far better than the old amplified system, you won’t regret putting in the time and money to upgrade. Plus, you get sat nav, Bluetooth (through all speakers), DVD, USB and iPod. If anyone would like any further info or help, feel free to PM me.

Awesome work, about to do mine. How much cable was required to route from the head unit to the amp? I am going to be careful and get shielded rcas from bluejeans, but they are to length. How much did you use?

Thanks I used about 4m for the remote cable and 5m for the RCA's (it came pre-cut hence so much!) - You need more cable than you think though - when I started, I thought I could get away with a 1m cable, no chance..... I think you will be fine with a 3m RCA cable.

Actually, thinking about it, go for a 4m cable to be sure.

Re: Cayman CDR-24 & amp upgrade Where come from the border around the unit ? The shape and color are matching well with the rest of the console!

Excellent explanation for install of the Kenwood DNX-5260BT. I am getting ready to install a Pioneer AVIC-z120BT as well. I am just not clear as to why you replaced the amp to drive the two lower speakers and, assuming the center? Your stock amp should have don that I assume? Where/how did did you connect if you used an ISO connector for all others? Thanks! Mike

Hi Mike, My Cayman has the sound upgrade pack, which means it runs a separate amp which uses an optic connection from the existing Porsche head-unit. Hence, upgrading the unit to a Kenwood , meant upgrading the amp as well. Plus, the aftermarket amp is far far better than the porsche one.

Sorry for necroing this puppy, but I'm currently doing this and for the life of me can't figure out what adapter I need for the radio-antenna-plug, which I suppose to be the black connector that looks similar to a GPS plug? I'm about half way there, only have the amp-install left...

It is this one: My Avic installation here, with some splash top screens, you may use for your double din: Installation d'un Avic F-20-BT Pioneer dans un Cayman My website for more DiY, but in french (lot of pictures, anyway): Porsche Legend - Accueil

Where did you get your 2Din bezel? The antenna adapter comes with the EuroMotorSpeed kit.

hi folks, apologies for raising this old post again but have a query i'm hoping someone may be able to help me with. i'm a new owner & member on the site having recently taken delivery of my 2006 CS. the previous owner carried out numerous modifications & has updated the original HU with an Alpine INAW900. However, the main front speakers don't work & having read every post I could find I came to the conclusion that the Ask amplifier had failed. However, reading one of the posts above has got me wondering whether the new HU is capable of driving this amp due to the amp & original HU having a fibre optic connection? any help would be very much appreciated!

The ASK amp does not have fiber optics. It gets the signal through regular speaker wires and can be powered by any head unit. It's probably just broken.

brilliant. thanks for the confirmation. a new amp it is then!

Great post! I had "finished" my install of a sony xav601bt or so I thought. After reading your post I have a few tweaks to make, namely the hand brake cable and the accessory cable. I hadn't wired the hand brake cable at all, not realising that my DVD function was disabled until I drove home last night and wanted to test my iPods video only to see "video blocked for your safety"! Now I understand why! Thanks for the tips. Also, I have what appears to be optical cables (orange) which were connected to my cdr24 but I have no solid idea what they are for - except maybe the multichanger cd in the front boot. Any ideas? Cheers. Boxster 987 (2008)