What happened to Becker

Zitat von revtor;83785

I put the GPS antenna on top of the ventilation tubes behind the center vents - directly underneath the dashboard surface. If you want to use the same location, it's best to reach in through the instrument cluster opening as the center vents are quite difficult to remove, prone to breaking and ridiculously expensive to replace... I used strong, thick and somewhat heat-resistant double-sided tape to mount the antenna.

My GPS antenna installation. It works fine.



many greetings

That's exactly where I have mine, Martin :).

Mine went in nice and easy. Thanks for all the pointers on GPS installation, the instructions were nowhere near as helpful. Although the Indianapolis that Rob sold me is a vast improvement over what I had, the overall system is still not great. I guess speakers are my next stop, which ones should I start with? I don't want anything fantastic, just to be able to go reasonably loud without distortion.

The speakers in the E31 aren't high quality, but they aren't bad either. Of course the woofers are way too small and underpowered to produce reasonable bass levels - especially at higher volumes. But one of the main issues with the sound quality at higher volumes is the E31 amplifier in the trunk. With a total harmonic distortion (THD) of 10%, its distortion levels are out of this world (to be considered hifi or high fidelity a THD of less than 1% is required).

If you are looking for a considerable improvement in audio quality at higher volumes, you can't go around replacing both amplifier and speakers.

Becker unit now fitted. If anyone else has to do this, this is the way I did it:

http://www.meeknet.co.uk/e31/b…g_Becker_Indianapolis.htm

Good write-up Timm! Although I would really recommend getting the Becker removal keys to make it easier to get the head unit out without damaging its front.

As far as I know the calibration run is mandatory, but yours probably still had the calibration data of the previous vehicle it was installed into.

Fantastic write up, and very nice pics of the Becker Unit, I have to admit it looks like it would be the best option for the 8, does it have bluetooth?

Deep: The Becker/BMW Indianapolis does not have Bluetooth, but the Becker Indianapolis Pro does. Mind that it's a bit primitive. The head unit does not have access to the phone's contact list, so incoming calls never show the sender name (if in you contact list) and for outgoing calls you have to dial the number manually.

Thanks for the replies!

After a few day's use, I love the way the Becker unit works, especially the way you can scroll quickly through an MP3 disc, the best that I've used. The sound quality is so much better than the original head unit.

The only down-side is, if you are listening to a CD and use the Nav, it asks for the Nav disc. This is quite difficult to do due to the siting of the CD storage being slightly behind the driver. Takes a lot of contorting!

Zitat von Timm;84916

The only down-side is, if you are listening to a CD and use the Nav, it asks for the Nav disc. This is quite difficult to do due to the siting of the CD storage being slightly behind the driver. Takes a lot of contorting!

In case you didn't know: You can listen to audio and mp3 cds during navigation. The navigation disc is only required when entering a new destination and calculating the route. Obviously this doesn't help the disc swapping. You might want to consider the Becker Remote Kit as a future upgrade. The Becker Remote Kit allows you to connect an Apple iPod and enjoy its music while the navigation disc is permanently in the head unit.

Thanks Revtor, I have had a look at quite a few units and still cannot decide. I looked at some Alpine's but just cannot stand the silver/metal finish. Some of the Blaupunkt units look acceptable but have a big blue button on the fascia. The Beckers seem to be the best, but I am finding it hard to justify spending in excess of £500 on a head unit in a car I use infrequently.

I've just removed my my Becker head unit to check for a model number - it is the BE2455.



Somewhere I have read that this unit is special in that it will work with both IBus and MBus.

Does this mean that I can now fit one of those SD card/Aux input modules after all? (The cassette adapter route just didn't deliver the sound quality).

An example of a unit I've been looking at is:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayI…&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

I asked the seller, but get the impression they'd say yes to whatever unit I had.....

Zitat von ukzero;87602

I've just removed my my Becker head unit to check for a model number - it is the BE2455. Somewhere I have read that this unit is special in that it will work with both IBus and MBus.

Interesting, I didn't know. If that's correct (I've seen it mentioned on the Internet but not really confirmed) I-Bus compatible media players should work with your head unit. Please note the BE2450 and BE2455 do not support CD TEXT, thus the media player will not be able to show information on the head unit's display. That might be a problem if the media player requires configuration.