| The Becker 374 Mexico Cassette Vollstereo Reverse was the standard radio installed in the S-Class from 1979-1981 models in Australia. It was seen on the last of the W116s and I believe the early W126 too. This radio replaced the 485, the last of the pinstripe models in the W116s. It was the last of the older style radios with knobs to be found on the S-Class before the digital display radios were introduced. The most significant difference between the Becker 374 and the similar looking Europa was the auto tune feature. This is commonly known as the ‘Wunderbar’. This […] In Australia, the 560 models were standard with a Becker 868 or later 874 Mexico CD Player. This doesn’t sound like much of a deal in 2022, but back in the mid 80s this was a huge deal. Should you have wanted to upgrade your 300SE or 420SEL from the standard Becker Cassette player to the CD, you would have paid more than $2,000 extra in 1990. This is almost $4,500 in todays money. In most countries, the CD Player was an optional extra even on the 560 models, but Mercedes-Benz Australia priced them so high they needed justification for […] I am currently installing a Becker 1402 Grand Prix electronic in my 560SEC. I don’t have the original owners manual packet for the car, so I didn’t have an instruction guide. In any case, since my 560SEC is a UK version, it would have originally had a slightly different Becker that looks visually the same. There were a couple of buttons I wasn’t able to to identify, so I borrowed the instruction manual from a friend with a 1989 420SEL. The Becker 1402 was standard on the W126 from 1988 in Australia (other than the 560) and at least some […] I’m currently planning to install period correct Becker radios into my 450SLC and 560SEC. I previously outlined the radios I plan to use, and tested them. I was able to confirm that the Becker 1402 destined for my 560SEC was working correctly. Rather than using the internal 2x25W amplifier in the Becker, I planned to connect it to an external amp. While I could have used speaker level inputs, I was hoping to leverage the Becker Line out module to connect to the amp using normal RCA inputs. The Becker Line out module was part of the Premium sound […] I installed the Classic Auto Sound Becker tribute radio in my 250SE a couple of years ago. The W111 series are supposed to have a slimline radio instead of a DIN size. Unfortunately, a previous owner cut my dashboard to DIN size. This meant putting the correct radio for the year was now practically impossible. Instead of putting a 70s Becker instead, I went with this tribute radio which is based on a Retrosound radio with an actual Becker faceplate. I’ve been happy with the radio in the car, and would recommend it to anyone who had their dashboard modified […] In the two years of owning my 560SEL, one of the things I have appreciated is the original Becker CD player. I’ve owned many classic Mercedes-Benz models over the years, but until the 560SEL none of them had their original Becker intact. The Becker radios just look and feel right in the dash of the car. I had never really understood that before. That got me thinking about putting some of my other cars back to stock. The first car in line is my 1977 Mercedes-Benz 450SLC. When I purchased the car in 2003, it had a 90’s era cassette […] A couple of weeks ago I installed the Classic Auto Sound Becker Tribute Radio in my 250SE. I’m really happy with it, it worked really well on my recent drive down to Canberra. One of the only things I thought could have been improved on the radio was the buttons were unlabeled. The real radios had LMKUU buttons. Classic Auto Sound, who build these radios have recently improved them with stickers for the LMKUU buttons. They were good enough to send me a set of the stickers for my radio. What great customer service! The LMKUU stickers really make a […] The Retrosound Model 2 radio in my Citroen DS has been playing up. It would randomly adjust the volume on its own, mostly down. The practical effect of this was not being able to listen to the radio. A while back I removed the face of the radio to take a look and the wire from the volume knob to the radio looked chafed. The face of the radio is separate from the main unit as there is not enough room in the DS to install it in one piece. Retrosound sell replacement shafts so this seemed like a […] Today I completed the install of the Classic Auto Sound Becker Tribute. In the first part, I removed the old Clarion, and installed the the Retrosound wiring harness. I also tested the radio and it was working fine. The new radio looks great and is a huge improvement over the Clarion CD player. Installation Step 4: Convert the Becker Tribute radio to DIN At some point in its life, somebody cut the dashboard of my 250SE for DIN. To fit the new radio, I also needed to order a DIN kit. The radio was supposed to be already set […] I have been wanting to change the radio in the 250SE since I have owned the car. It was a basic Clarion unit that looked totally out of place. The dashboard in my car has been cut to DIN size, meaning going back to the original Becker wasn’t really an option. Unfortunately many W111’s had their dashboards cut up in the 70s and 80s as owners demanded cassette decks and CD players. My plan was to customize a Retrosound radio with a real Becker face plate. I even went to the point of purchasing the face plate about 18 months […] | |
