Audio advice for 1999 Carrera

Hi everyone, I am the proud new owner of a 1999 Carrera in Arctic silver, and ive had a permanent smile on my face since i picked her up yesterday. The car is brilliant in all respects except the sound system, which I cannot believe porsche could fit to such an expensive car. I believe that there are a few sound upgrades that you can specify from porsche, but unfortunately i think my car has the basic system. There are no speakers in the doors, just on top of the dash and in the rear. I dont want to spend $000s on the system, so custom speaker builds housing 6.5" drivers are unfortunately out of the question. My aim is just to replace the speakers on top of the dash (could anyone tell me what size they are) with some components and add some low end from a 8" sub behind the seats, powered by a 4ch amp. Also, unbelievably for a 1999 car, the headunit is tape, so I want to replace that with a CD player. Ive been informed that Becker make the stereo for Porsche, so I may go with one of their cd units to keep things as stock as possible. Maybe this one http://www.caraudiodirect.co.uk/prod...roducts_id=282 Thanks for any advice

i had a 99 carrera which i placed mb quart speakers in the dashboard and back of the car, a fosgate amp, and an alpine cd head unit which was xm ready-the entire thing cost about $1600 and sounded great. you can do better then a becker head unit.

This is what I did.... Copy & Pasted from a prior post... Well I couldn't live with it any longer.. the stock system had to go.. and the new system is as follow... Obviosly a Cab is difficult to get decent bass out of unless you tear out rear seats or make enclosures behind the front seats.. I wasn't looking for a lot of bass just some good clean sound with a little punch... So this worked out perfect.. The system cranks, cruising at 100 on the freeway you can still hear it loud and clear!! First the deck is a Kenwood 910 DVD/TV 6 1/2" LCD Screen.. The screen folds away The Brain is hidden underneath the passenger seat.. And the antennas for the TV are behind the window pillars.. The front & rear speakers were replaced with Focal 100V2 component's 4" woofers with 1" tweeters.. The factory enclosures had to be modified for the Focal's to fit, also some glueing was involved. They sound great!! So much better then stock! What a perfect time to paint the screws that are used on the speaker grills.. In order to get some additional Bass. I bought the upgraded speaker enclosures that fit into the door panels, I then replaced the factory speakers with the Focal 5WS 5" woofer... These sound awesome! Excellent bass from a 5" woofer.. very impressive.. rock songs sound the best, when R&B Music is on the bass needs to be turned down..

The amp is a Phoenix Gold 500.4 A 4 channel amp with enough power to run everything..the factory carpet was ordered and will be replaced when it comes in.. Also I removed the factory CD Changer and replaced it with the Kenwood music Keg made by Phatnoise... This is the best thing made since slice bread I upgraded the hard drive to a 60gig which holds about 800 Cd's.. It took me 3 weeks to convert over 600 cds to MP3 format which will all be installed on the 60gig drive.. Link to more High Res Pics

Thanks for the replies. Kevin, your install looks great. Unfortunately, I dont have the speaker locations in the doors like you do - i just have a storage compartment where the door speaker should be. Does anyone know what size my dash speakers are, and if it is possible to fit a set of components in there? I think my best bet is just to upgrade these, and power them with a 4ch amp with the rear channels bridged to a single sub. Thanks

The dash speakers are a 4" and tweeter component system, same with the rear speakers. Do not bother replacing the rear speakers as they are not heard anyways and will make your amp configuation easier. Whatever head unit you use, make sure it has the preamp outputs for the amp... makes for a much easier/cleaner install. If you want to keep the stock look, I guess the Becker headunits are alright. However, there are many headunits that are far better... My old sealed sub box with two JL Audio 8w0's...

Ok, thanks for that sloth. I'll look in to some 4" component systems. Out of interest, what HU would you recommend in place of the becker? Also, that sub box looks exactly like what i'm after. Did you make it yourself? How do the 8s sound - any low bass or is it just puncy? Thanks

I installed an Eclipse headunit just before I traded my C2. The sound and functionality are excellent, though it is not the most stock in appearance. I would also suggest Alpine, and Nakamichi blends very well with the interior from what I hear. Do avoid Sony as their quality has really taken a nose dive in the mobile audio dept. I had the box made for me by a local shop in SW Florida. Car Audio Innovations ( www.caraudioinnovations.com/ ) can make you a similar box. The subs filled in the lower end very nicely, but there was no mistaking them for a 12" in terms of low bass output. They sounded nice and tight in a sealed box. Since you are just replacing the dash speakers with a 4" component set, I personaly would be reluctant to go larger than two 8" subs. Good luck.

This is the enclosure ethat we built for a 2003 996. It had 2 Kicker S8-L5 subs. The sound comes out of the area were the grill cloth is. Keeps the speakers protected. The 4" seperates in the dash are a good start, but you could add to the door if you do not mind having a round grill showing. I would do the rear sats if it were my car, even though that makes you go with 2 more channels of amplifiation. The Alpine or Kenwood headunits would be better than the becker, but you can go with it.

Kevin, You upgraded the music keg to a 60gig HDD. Is it just a case of taking the old one out and putting the new one in? Is it a 2.5" or 3.5" HDD. Thanks, Matt

Yes it justs slides in and out.. not sure of the 2.5 or 3.5" check www.phatnoise.com

i got the so called "high end" sound system in my C4 and i've blown all of the speakers so many times that i don't even bother getting them replaced any more! i would never go for that option again. the only good thing i can say is that at low volumes the sound quality is excellent. but i can't listen to snoop dog and dre at low volumes!

Zish, I just recently overhauled the entire system in my '99 Coupe and installed the following: Alpine CDA-7995 XM ready head unit MB Quart 5 1/4" seperates in the front (5 1/4" in the doors - 3/4" tweeter in the dash) 4" Boston Acoustic Coaxials in the rear XM Satellite tuner Alpine MRV-F450 5-channel AMP 850W custom subwoofer box on the deck behind the rear seats by Car Audio Innovations in Cally, which houses (2) 8" Image Dynamic subs with factory carpet. My car had the upgraded factory system with the seperates in the dash and in the rear with the speaker housings in the door. The Porsche factory systems are pathetic, so any changes you make will most likely be an improvement. Let me know if you would like some pix. Good luck! M-

MLA 911 ... any details you can give would be greatly appreciated. How did you install the speakers in the dash? I removed my factory Nokias just to look at them, and it didn't look very straightforward at all; nor did it seem like it would be simple to return to factory later as it looked like you'd have to butcher the components to get them out of there. And was the amp plug and play or did you change the location? Lastly, how's it sound? Vic 99 C2 cab

Doh.. I just bought some nice Focal polykevlar components for the dash but they probably too big since they are 5 1/4... Darn...

I had the hi-fi sound option on my 1999 C2 Coupe and the sound quality was embarrasing to say the least! I spent big $$ to have Innovative Audio custom build a fiberglass sub enclosure with twin 8" kicker solobarics inside. OEM quality with factory carpet and leather to boot. In addition, they rack mounted a big Kenwood Amp in the front trunk, left the hi-fi amp driving the OEM rear speakers and dash " and I had them also install a K40 front/rear radar detection system with LED's between the seat heater switches. Very clean. When I moved from the 1999 C2 to a 2001 C2 I moved the sub enclosure over, upgraded to an XTANT Amp, and also to Memphis Audio speakers all around. Night and day difference over the first car and every single person who listened loved it!! Even with PSE installed (wide open full time) on long highway trips having great sound is essential IMO. Subs, good speakers and decent Amp is a solid investment. FYI, if I had to do it again though I'd go with Reus Audio in CA as I've heard they have wicked good system that's best upgrade bang for $$

OEM lookin' sub enclosure. There's an aluminum grate on back facing window for added appearance.

Vic, I had the system professionally installed at Sound Advice in Boca Raton, Florida so I can't say that I have first hand knowledge of the actual fit; however, the MB Quarts and Bostons are built on the european specs, and as far as I know they fit seemlessly, and was assured that the system could be put back to stock without any problems. The AMP is huge and actually sits on the floor of the trunk. The factory AMP was pulled and in its place went the XM tuner and the crossovers for the MB's. The Alpine head unit is standard DIN size so it fits just the same as the Becker. The only non-stock side effect of the head unit is that all of the buttons and display are BLUE, so its obviously conspicuous, but pretty cool. The sub box has the same carpet as the rest of the car and looks like it was meant to be. Lastly, the sound is one thousand percent better...man is it LOUD!! BTW, Car Audio Innovations makes a pair of subboxes that sit on the floor behind the seat in the Cab...caveat though, if you're 6' + you might not be able to put the seat all the way back. If you need any other info let me know, I'd be glad to pass it along. Mike

Westcoast996, looks great!!!!

thanks MLA. Strange how I miss the stereo more than the actual 996. Had I purchased an 02 or newer car with the factory Bose System I'm not sure that I still would have upgraded since for the most part I've heard that the Bose is adequete whereas anything Porsche offered previously was simply terrible by any modern car audio standard. Hi-Fi sound system in the 01 and earlier cars was laughable.

Just get a set of GT3 Muffler bypass pipes from fabspeed... then you won't care about the radio! trev

Just get a set of GT3 Muffler bypass pipes from fabspeed... then you won't care about the radio! trev

Does anyone know if its possible to attach an amp to the Porsche CR22 tape headunit. I ask because looking at the rear of the unit it doesn't look like there are any RCA preouts to connect an amp to. Thanks

Westcoast...I'd have to agree with you there. My neighbor has an '03 TT with the Bose system in it, with navigation and it sounds pretty decent. Unless you were going to go with a DVD screen in place of the nav unit, I'd be hardpressed to rip it out; however, the only thing that I would want to integrate is Satellite Radio. If you don't have it yet, get it! I don't know about Seattle but SoFla radio sucks, to put it mildly. Satellite Radio is the only way to go! I've been an XM subscriber since its inception, and will never be without it again. M- Zish - without RCA's I think you're SOL, unless you can obtain an aftermarket wiring harness. But why do you want to keep the CR22 anyway?????

Kevin M. Sorry to bring up an old thread, but did your car have speaker enclosures in the doors, or did you add these yourself?

Matt, Yes they did have the enlcosures already, just the smaller ones, I purchased the bigger enclosures and they also fit perfectly.