993 stereos and Blaupunkt nostalgia

[chrisgaia]

I have finally traced my demon battery drain to my Blaupunkt Travelpilot E that was retrofitted in 2006 at a fitted cost of £500. It is not period correct, it is old and it has no in-built connectivity, so I thought I would just replace it. After much machinating, I bought a well-discounted top-of-the-range new Blaupunkt Bremen SQ46 for the princely sum of £325 (RRP about £500).

After loads of research I concluded there is no good information on getting a retro stereo with serious hi fi sound. Continental/VDO seemed the sensible option but I was concerned about replacing an expensive Blaupunkt made in Germany, with a Chinese built value unit costing £125. The Bremen is also made in China but I figured I will get a lot more for the premium price.

When I plugged it in, to my horror it sounded nowhere near as good as the 22 year old throw-away unit I was discarding!! One caveat is that the comparison might have been slightly unfair as I had to compare the old one using its CD player, with the new model streaming Bluetooth from my phone. I will do more tests but the top dollar Bremen definitely sounded unremarkable. I am wondering if they use the same quality amps in all units costing £100-£500 and you are paying the much higher price just for all the bells and whistles, which look great on the dash but I do not need.

So, my first question is, when did Blaupunkt lose its quality? My old unit states Made in Germany in mid 2000s. Tracing EBay sales I found another made in Malaysia in 1994 and I was wondering if high end models were made in Germany and lesser models in Malaysia? Another 2013 unit was Made in China. The original company was sold to another German company in 2009 and they went bankrupt in 2015. Now the name is “licensed out” to make various products - not a good sign, I guess! The modern problem seems to be that as soon as modern tech standards were reached (Bluetooth, USB, Aux), standards of the original high quality units was dropping.

So what do I do now? Choices are:

1. Buy similar BP unit to the one I am replacing, for peanuts on EBay
2. Buy a second hand 90s reconditioned BP with Bluetooth fitted on EBay for £250 (1994 Casablanca CM62, made in Malaysia)
3. Buy period inauthentic but great sounding Kenwood/Alpine/Pioneer even if it looks like a Christmas tree
4. Buy cheap but reliable Continental and possibly give up my hi fi quality.
5. Fix battery drain on stereo I already own!

And also what would help the community in future when upgrading/replacing their stereos?

1. A list of which BPs, Beckers, etc were fitted in 993s in what periods, including hi fi upgrade systems.
2. An idea of which BPs were the top models, which were poor and what they might have cost as the time.
3. Confirmation of whether quality at Blaupunkt was affected by the sale in 2009 and whether high end models were made in Germany. This could identify sought after models accurately.
4. List of reputable reconditioned unit technicians. Original units with modern tech retro-fitted!
5. Expert reviews of the newer models of BPs, Continentals, etc

I have not even mentioned PCCM as the price is too ridiculous.

Thanks kids!

Edited by chrisgaia on Sunday 24th November 21:25

[chrisgaia]

Scrump said:

This place sells a lot of retro blaupunkt head units

https://www.classiccarstereo.co.uk/

Thanks Scrump, yes I bought the one featured in all the ads. Just rather disappointed with sound compared to my old one.

[chrisgaia]

Castrol for a knave said:

I have an SQ46 in my 928.

It has a pretty decent sound, although I have replaced all the speakers and have a sub.

It also runs through the original Blaupunkt amp, which gives it a nice mellow analogue sound.

It might be as you say, comparing CD quality at 1,400 kbps with compressed MP3 via bluetooth at 360kbps.

Thanks Castrol, I was thinking of adding an amp to the Bremen as I absolutely love the look! But the old Blaupunkt did not really need any extra gear. It just sounded great as is so I did not really want to go through all the hassle and expense of modifying. I have great speakers fitted by Auto Audios.

One other thing…I could not get the unit to automatically switch to Bluetooth streaming when i enter car. It connects automatically to phone but then I have to press the selected button 4 or 5 times. I was also annoyed at that. Do you have a fix for that?

[chrisgaia]

Koln-RS said:

Ignoring the 911 cabin’s poor acoustics, for sound quality, is the issue not as much the speakers as the head unit ?

But guess most people would want to keep the original ‘look’ ?

Definitely! I have great speakers fitted by Auto Audio 10 years ago and it made the world of difference. My difficulty is chucking away a great sounding unit and paying out a lot of cash for a worse sounding but better looking one.

I actually have a rag-top but even roof down a good stereo makes a difference. You really need one, in fact.

I probably should mention that I blew my whole student loan for a year on a Linn amp and Epos speakers for my bedroom in 1992…. Gentlemen of a certain age get a bit fussy, forgive me.

[chrisgaia]

Orangecurry said:

So many questions... IMO some new stuff today is made as cheap as possible yet still costs too much.

Got to keep you on your toes, OC :-D

Orangecurry said:

Many bits of audio electronics were at their best in the 80s and 90s, when people interested in music spent most of their money on Hifi, rather than iphones or 90inch TV or xboxes, and competition was high and British and Japanese companies fought it out for the top spots. Consumers wanted sound quality over convenience, and so that is what the manufacturers delivered.

Exactly, see student loan admission above.

Orangecurry said:

Times change.....

However - for you to compare like with like, first you have to rip a CD using a decent bit of (free) software such as EAC - Exact Audio Copy.

It's a pain to set-up, but the actual conversion quality is (apparently) one of the best. You will then end up with decent quality but convenient music, and even an MP3 with 320 kbps should show whatever the hardware is capable of. Or you can save your recordings in a higher kbps, or lossless; these files are simply larger in size, which may be a problem, or it may not.

Did that all sound like geek nonsense? Well it is, but doing a bit of learning at your age isn't a bad thing. Do internet search thing to find tutorials on EAC.

Fellow Geek! I ripped all my CDs with Apple Lossless codec and organised them beautifully until my family forced Spotify on me and I have barely listened to them since.

Orangecurry said:

It is a long time ago now, but I swopped my 993's original Blaupunkt for a VDO(Continental), which incidentally has a CD player, and I thought the sound quality ( back then playing a CD to compare old with new ) was as good if not better.

That is really interesting! Which BP was it? I do wonder if that weird looking mid-2000s thing I have is possibly a superb sounding stereo. Time wise they could have been at the peak of their game before the fall.

Edited by Orangecurry on Monday 25th November 10:01[/footnote]

[footnote]Edited by chrisgaia on Monday 25th November 14:31

[chrisgaia]

gareth h said:

I’ve got the Continental head unit in my 993 with Audison speakers and it’s perfectly adequate considering how noisy the cabin is.

I keep hearing about that unit! I also noticed for the first time all the instruments are VDO!!

[chrisgaia]

AAAH! Look what I found in my folder!

My upgrade Option 334 was listed as a Blaupunkt Bremen RCM 42 but as you can see the original stereo was a London RCM 43.

Key card present so that unit was probably binned. Would sell on EBay today for a couple of hundred quid if it was working. Ironic that the replacement stereo (2006) was probably faulty from the start as I have found previous battery drain problems from 2009!

I am spending all my desk time doing Blaupunkt research unfortunately…who needs a tax return anyway? This is more important.

Edited by chrisgaia on Tuesday 26th November 17:53

[chrisgaia]

grogger993 said:

The comment about 're-allocating' your student grant to hifi purchases made me chuckle. I did something similar in around 1983 with my Tube Investments sponsorship grant-supplement cheque (£500 per annum IIRC) for a set of Linn Kan speakers. I still have the speakers 40 years on. (I didn't even take the job that TI offered me on graduation, ungrateful wretch that I am...)

Fantastic, Grogger! Ironically, my Epos ES11 speakers have become a classic and the £330 I spent back then has seen 25 years of stunning sound and if you look on EBay today you will find them priced £360+ :-D

[chrisgaia]

stevewak said:

Continental is good and streams well from my iPhone. Internet radio, Spotify etc. As I have previously posted, it's not that loud.

When I bought my ex-PCGB/AFN car it was fitted with a Sony with a million tiny buttons and front-mounted CD player. I am sure original and I believe that was standard in the UK ca. 1995. Same on all VW-Audi as a contract. Top of the range one. Sony XR-C620RDS with CDX-705 Cdx 605 CD player.

Reason I took it out was the tiny buttons and CD player was pretty useless. I have kept it. Then went through some eBay Blaupunkts that looked good but did not work well and ended up with the Continental. My aerial is not right but there is not much I would listen to on FM anyway.

Ah! You've been there Steve...so the path I am on, as fun as it is, might well be fruitless, then. All those lovely old Blaupunkts I am looking at might not work. Did they really fit Sony OEM or at least at the delaer when they messed about with the alarms? Did you check your upgrade codes?

I was seriously thinking of returning the new Bremen and buying an old one (possibly reconditioned) and having Bluetooth fitted. I found a place in Bishops Stortford that does that. They look like they repair as well.

I will do more tests but the sound of my faulty 2006 unit is probably similar to having a separate amp. It is fantastic, I now realise. The speakers I had fitted by Auto Audios in 2014 were “Morel Maximo 6”. I recommend those guys, Greg knows his stuff.

So yours had the hi fi option, OC? What exactly was that? Presumably a good head unit, upgrade to cruddy Nokia speakers and an amp under driver’s seat?

Edited by chrisgaia on Tuesday 26th November 18:41

[chrisgaia]

Orangecurry said:

Can't you simply get your existing HU fixed so there's no battery drain? And Bluetoothed as well?

Yes, that would be the easy option but as you well know, I seldom take a simple approach...

Problem with that is it would cost probably the same as a Continental unit to sort it out, and while sounding stunning it does not look good as it is partly silver. I have been looking at similar BP units in black, which would be a close enough match.

Unfortunately, I am on one with this now. Steeped in nostalgia and chasing that elusive perfect head unit...

I should have just got the Continental, eh :-)

[chrisgaia]

gsewell said:

If you want a level of originality, how about the pccm?

It’s just a silly price £1050 and I’m not sure it does anything your phone cannot. Do you have one? Are they actually good sound as a stereo?

[chrisgaia]

stevewak said:

I had a new Golf GTi in 1983 (best car ever) and that had a Panasonic with separate amp. Radio was pinched soon after...

Edited by stevewak on Wednesday 27th November 13:54

I would have love a Golf GTI. I had a 205 CTI in early 90s, one of my favourite cars ever. Lighter feel than the Golf.

Of course car stereo theft was a massive deal hence all the key cards, removable heads etc. You can just spot the 8 Blaupunkt security stickers that came with my 993 new in the pic above! God knows where they were all meant to go :-D

[chrisgaia]

Koln-RS said:

Porsche Classic PCM in 993.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Inayq6Ld3vY

Now that does look top notch! Top dollar as well, that fit out must be £1750+

[chrisgaia]

Okay kids, so the top notch, very expensive approach is the PCCM with an amp and speakers if you don’t already have a good set up. Established.

For those of you who want to come on the old skool shed guy approach with me…I have just bought my first “untested” Blaupunkt unit from EBay for the grand sum of £15.65 including delivery. Throwing cash at it, this will not be.

I have established that mid-2000s Blaupunkts seem to have superb sound, equivalent possibly to modern head unit and an amp. Unfortunately they don’t look good. So I have gone back a few years to possibly early 2000s with this puppy. It’s not period correct but it is good enough and it’s black!

Problems ahead…

1) Will it work?
2) Will I crack the code it almost certainly doesn’t have?
3) Will it sound like the travelpilot head unit it is replacing?
4) What will it cost if it is possible to fix above problems?
5) Should I buy more of this junk because I am having fun and I don’t want to do my tax return?

Even if you don’t like head unit this experience should apply to earlier ones as well…

Edited by chrisgaia on Thursday 28th November 14:32

[chrisgaia]

Orangecurry said:

I only replaced my Blaupunkt as it was becoming flakey - it would cut-out now and again.

Any overhaul specialist recommendations please?

I found a guy on EBay who fits Bluetooth inside the unit for £75-£100. He is obviously messing around with them, I might ask.

There are definitely some guys in Lithuania I found but might. Be more hassle than worth.

Found these guys online https://retrocaraudio.uk/car-audio-repair/

[chrisgaia]

Orangecurry said:

I've finally visited my Audio Museum, Cars section; Found the Blaupunkt - it is an RCM-43. With the same card as yours.

Getting it overhauled sounds like a plan. Love the 'tray' that the card sits upon.

Oh you beauty! And it’s the actual actual original stereo! Blaupunkt porn, bring it on :-D

Now, if these old stereos sound as good as my my old one I might look for one of those. Let’s see how much of a disaster my latest purchase turns out to be…

Edited by chrisgaia on Thursday 28th November 23:54

[chrisgaia]

stewart rix said:

Here’s what was available for the 96MY

Fantastic info! Star! So Blaupunkts branded as Porsche? Interesting. Any other pages?

Edited by chrisgaia on Friday 29th November 11:06

[chrisgaia]

Orangecurry said:

I presume that is the original. As it was in the car in 2008, I can't see how that 1990s unit would have been installed in the 2000s?

Anyway - I'm not sure Bluetoothing them is the answer to high quality music... if I understand these correctly.

Check your upgrade option codes to confirm. Mine was 334 Blaupunkt Bremen/London.

Yes this is a really interesting point only understood by gentlemen of a certain age (and pedigree). The input is often as important as the output. However the sound of my old Blaupunkt seemed to make up for the Spotify streaming. It still had a good sound. I’m not sure if that new Bremen would sound that much more dynamic with some serious bytes of input, much to my disappointment.

Edited by chrisgaia on Saturday 30th November 00:17

[chrisgaia]

stevewak said:

Agreed - mega info and backs up my Sony theory. Porsche ones might be rebadged Becker?

Just what I thought when I saw it. I knew nada about the Sony connection!

[chrisgaia]

So my first £15 EBay purchase pictured above was…completely dead and will be used as a novelty Xmas hat in a few weeks.

Second purchase of a Blaupunkt Munchen CD53 on its way! I think this is slightly earlier, maybe early 2000s, but during the front removable “face off” era, whenever that was. More than double the price at a heady £37.50 but apparently this one works!

I have also purchased an FM Bluetooth adapter for a tenner until I can be bothered to wire one in to the back. For those who don’t know this kit it sends your phone stream the FM radio on any stereo. I have a CD player for the quality side of music.

I re-tested the Bremen SQR 48 and I am so sorry to say that I think it is cheap crap. For those of you who have forked out, don’t worry because I have not found anyone to agree with me yet. I think it is partly to do with the comparison of JUST HOW GOOD those German Blaupunkts were. They are obsolete units now and few people actually do a side by side test. Like us oldies keep saying any kind of quality of sound has been replaced with height tech connectivity and Chinese engineering.