Great job Les. Nice work for a newcomer. Deserves to be added to the stickies...

 

Great info, thanks! The Rainbow speakers are stupid-expensive so it's nice to know there's a non-butchery alternative.

Oh, one more thing. Looks like your 88 has the chocolate interior. True? Tex or leather? What color paint? When I was looking for my 1st 88 TE a few years ago a nice Impala/chocolate example was available in NJ but the high miles scared me off. In retrospect I certainly would have been better off with that car than the low mileage disaster I eventually bought.

 

Good Eye! It's MB Tex which is some amazing stuff. A chocolate interior and kinda a Taupe brown exterior. I don't what the color is, but it's a beautiful Combo. The exterior is like Ladies Taupe Hosiery if that makes sense.

Those speakers were very reasonably priced, for what you get. Only problem with the Interior is that it seems uncommon when looking for used parts like sunvisors, which seem to be the bain of my existence!

I can't seem to find good condition used Sunvisors that the plastic pivot isn't cracked on.

 

Very cool!

 

That chocolate interior *is* very scarce. I've only seen the 88 TE from NJ. Black is another rare interior color for the early 124s.

As for the sunvisor pivots, I know exactly what you're talking about. I just dealt with that situation last week after installing a new windshield in my sedan.

I discovered that there were two style of those pivots used during the 88 model year. On one style the visor plastic elbow simply snaps over the pivot/flange. Those seem to break. The other style has a short coil spring and a pushnut to hold the flange/pivot on the metal shaft. The metal shaft is serrated. My sedan was built in December of 87 and it has the latter style. Those don't seem to break but I don't know which style came first.

 

Hmmm, didn't know that. The plastic ones are the only ones I know about. Will either one work in mine? I may look for 1987 Sunvisors if either will work. I have Palomino Visors in there presently. Doesn't look "totally" out of place! I've bought a few of the Plastic ones that all came cracked or cracked in short order. They are VERY expensive from the MB dealer.

 

I ordered them from Europe-Audio dot com. They were fast shipping, got them in like 5 days after placing the order.

Hope this helps someone!

This will help me, as I'm going to order soon.

neil

 

Very cool! Nice to hear there is a less-expensive option that will fit correctly in the W124, even for the wagon rear doors. The Rainbows have gone up in price a lot, which is a shame... IQ Car Audio now has them for $175/pair for the front speakers. The sedan rear speakers are the same but include a mounting ring. Note that for the late 124 sedans with the "sound system" that has the dual tweeters, IMO you are wasting money replacing those - they are very good and don't need upgrading. It's the dash speakers that are poor, along with the wagon rear door speakers.

Mercedes W124 Speakers, Mercedes Benz Car Speakers, Mercedes Benz Car Speaker from IQ Car Audio.

Note that the Rainbows are still in the medium-price range, as serious high-end stuff will be $400-$600/pair, or you can go with the full Jehnert 3-way doorboard setup for $750-$1k. In that light, $175 is downright reasonable. But on a budget, the Carpower units seem to be pretty slick, and MUCH better than cobbling in a wrong-size driver! Thanks for posting the great pics, too!


Direct link to the Carpower CRB-120PP front dash speakers - $27.40/pair USD plus S&H from across the pond:
http://www.europe-audio.com/Product.asp?Product_ID=7324

:sawzall:

 

Very cool! Nice to hear there is a less-expensive option that will fit correctly in the W124, even for the wagon rear doors. The Rainbows have gone up in price a lot, which is a shame... IQ Car Audio now has them for $175/pair for the front speakers. The sedan rear speakers are the same but include a mounting ring. Note that for the late 124 sedans with the "sound system" that has the dual tweeters, IMO you are wasting money replacing those - they are very good and don't need upgrading. It's the dash speakers that are poor, along with the wagon rear door speakers.

Mercedes W124 Speakers, Mercedes Benz Car Speakers, Mercedes Benz Car Speaker from IQ Car Audio.

Note that the Rainbows are still in the medium-price range, as serious high-end stuff will be $400-$600/pair, or you can go with the full Jehnert 3-way doorboard setup for $750-$1k. In that light, $175 is downright reasonable. But on a budget, the Carpower units seem to be pretty slick, and MUCH better than cobbling in a wrong-size driver! Thanks for posting the great pics, too!


Direct link to the Carpower CRB-120PP front dash speakers - $27.40/pair USD plus S&H from across the pond:
CRB-120PP - CarPower Pair of car chassis speakers 4Ω - Europe Audio

:sawzall:

Sadly... the Jehnerts are even more now... I am going to try them out and hope I am not disappointed.

 

Will these speakers fit in a 1989 300E also???

If so, im going to order the two rear ones. My two dash ones still work although they probably should be replaced also.

 

I'm sure they'll work, you just need to figure out if you need the 100 or 120mm drivers. I "think" the 300e uses 120mm all around, but not sure since I have a TE.

 

Also, since those speakers are so reasonably priced, the shipping so high, and replacement so easy, if you have any inkling, order front and rear.

 

There's a guy on German E-bay that sells a set for wagons, for 89 EUR:

Mercedes E-Klasse W124 T-Modell komplett Lautsprecher bei eBay.de: Lautsprecher (endet 19.05.10 23:53:41 MESZ)

(ships to EU only though)

 

Just a quick quality follow up. I got the rears installed today and had already put the fronts in. I was waiting on door stops to come in, was one of those whhile you're in there kinda things!

These speakers sound real good, at least compared to the rotted facto units! VERY happy with the $89 I spent on these. They sound like they're worth twice that to me. I sprayed some Cramolyn R5 into the Fader and worked it for about 5 minutes and it sounds new as well.

VERY HAPPY!

 

very helpful. i just ordered some!

 

Thanks for this info, perfect timing!

 

a few months ago, i bought this rainbow speakers for my w124.
they are nice speakers with amazing sound quality but the new "clip-in" ring for the rear speaker is really a stupid design.. when you push the speaker into the ring, it has a 95% chance to pull out the wiring connections automatically. such a pain!

 

nice work. but that is not budget friendly in my book.

i bought 2-Phoenix Gold 5.25" speakers for up front- fit in the dash without
any cutting
2- Phoenix Gold 4" speaker for the rear door.

*speakers deal at $80, usually $150 for all 4.

I Dual 4 way amp, 600 Watts

*on clearance at walmart. bought with 1 year warrenty for
$50. usually $110

1 Eclipse 5305R deck. - Free, already had it laying around.

New speaker wiring, power cable and RCA cables ~$100

total= $230 installed it all myself.

everything works together great. the sound is actually pretty good. I'd still like to add a subwoofer in the hatch for some bass.

 

I used eBay to update my speakers. for the fronts I bought a set of Cadence 4.75 which are a direct drop in and perfect fit. Paid $45 inc shipping.
For the rears, I bought a set of 4 inch Harmon Kardon that had a plug for a BMW. I just cut of the plug and connected the wires directly. these were about $60 inc shipping.

it sounds like i have a whole new system for the whopping cost of $105

Mark

 

For some reason the original pictures were gone. Does anyone know where I can find those pictures? Also if I do a search on europe-audio.com what keyword should I use to search for these 4 replacement speakers and what's the model#? Many thanks!

 

The pix are there, you even have them in your quoted post.

I think you have something blocking them like an adblocker maybe.

The model numbers are on the box in the pix

 

Les_Garten, yes you were right. I think it was adblocker on my browser that blocked those pictures. Thanks for helping out.

So I decided that I would replace my speakers in my W124. For the front dash speakers, I found a good deal for Cadence 4.75 which is only $33.95 free shipping. But I'm still searching for a good and cheap one for the rears. Someone seems to mention that JBL (Karmen Karden) GTO428 4-inch speakers would fit, can someone please confirm this? Any other recommendation (other than rainbow) for the rear speakers? Thanks!

 

Original dash speakers.

I have original dash speakers if anyone is interested for $45. They are from my 1994 E500 and that system sounds significantly better than the Becker systems. I found the midrange to sound really good, only my Scan Speak 12M significantly betters it in the midrange, but the stock driver really needs a tweeter.

 

I really really like the Kappa Infinities I put in the rear doors. Magnets were a bit large though. Sound is wonderful! I went to replace the dash speakers, but these were already in there.

 

Sorry for a quick side question. If I am to replace the head unit do I really have to replace all 6 speakers (2 dash, 2 front doors, and 2 rears)?

Someone mentioned that probably replacing the two dash speakers would be enough (unless I have passengers who sit in the back all the time).. others said that I should "replace the speakers as the old ones will be blown by the different head unit you will install. Different impedance and power rating will destroy you paper stock speakers most likely." Thoughts or comments about this? Did anyone replace the HU without replacing the speakers and was still able to get decent sound? Thanks!

 

The speakers in my TE were junk the day they were new. 20 years and 3000 miles of road time didn't improve them for some reason.

So, they had to go!

 

Ordered!
Timely resurection of this posting!

 

Hey Wagenmeister, did you have any problems putting the Kappa Infinities in the rear doors?

Thanks.

 

Ohman, I replaced my system a few months back. I Installed a Kenwood Excelon HD system, the same Cadence speakers you ordered for the dash, and Harmon Kardon speakers for the rear doors.
Sorry cant help you re: the front door speakers, my 87 wagon only has the dash and rear door speakers.

My system sounds great!

Mark

 

I just bought the Alpine power pack KTP-445
Alpine Electronics of America, Inc.

It boosts 15W RMS to 45W RMS to all 4 of my speakers.

Hopefully this will make the sound better all the way around the car

 

Ive got the cadence too, x-over @130hz, and they sound great. Running a
sub takes care of the lows, so they sound clear. Factory rears.