Hello,

Would appreciate any information regarding the factory stereo or alarm:

Location of the factory amp
Stock Speaker Sizes, Crossover builtin or on the door?
Head unit wiring harness pinouts?
Alarm sensor trigger wiring and or "on" status?

Looking to Add shock/glass sensor to existing stock alarm possibly tapping in to the hood or tilt sensor trigger
Replace rear deck speakers... MB Quart Q
Replace front speakers with separates 6.5" or 5.25? Also what is the size of that little speaker toward the rear of the door?
AMG versions also have a stock sub??? What would be the size of that cut out.


Appreciate any input:
Boomer8282

 

I have heard that most newer CLKs with Bose have a Fiber Optic/digital connected sound system, and that if you want to do anything to the sound systems (even change out the Headunit or speakers) you have to change Everything!
That is because this fiber optic/digital system does not allow a piece by piece replacement for the sound components. I was thinking of the same thing and learned this on my journey. BTW I have a 2002 CLK 430.
Hope this helps.

 

I have a 2001 CLK. I have changed out all speakers and have managed to be able to use the stock deck and the CD shuttle along with an aftermarket head unit. The only fiber optics that I've come across are between the head unit and the stock CD shuttle. With my setup the steering wheel functions still work and the stock system works perfectly.

My aftermarket head unit is mounted above the stock deck. I have placed six inch Boston Acoustic Pro's in the front doors. USD wave guides for high-end mounted underneath the dash facing the driver and passenger. And two 10 inch Punch woofers(subs) mounted under the rear deck in the stock locations. I'm using a free air application and it works extremely well. The stock head unit works through the auxiliary input of the aftermarket head unit. So by simply switching the source of the aftermarket head unit I can access the factory tape player and CD shuttle or switchback to the aftermarket head unit for single CD source.

I chose this route because I wanted to keep the stock look of the vehicle but felt that the stock head units output voltage was too low to support aftermarket amplifiers. Trust me with this I tried by using a line level converter off of the stock deck and it did not sound very good. When testing the stock deck I used a syliscope and it started to clip early which was apparent by the uneven sine wave it produced. In comparison I was uable to make the aftermarket head unit clip. It's sine wave was always perfect.

Although at lower volumes the stock setup sounds decent it's only when I'm looking for extreme sound quality that I use the aftermarket head unit. For every day driving or just background music the stock setup is excellent. I was only able to achieve about 80 percent sound quality of what I could with an aftermarket head unit.The only indication of an after market system is the new head unit otherwise the car looks stock.

 

Thanks for your reply.

You're right about the Fibre Optic connections = pain in the ***.
Found the Speaker Sizes,
6.5 front with 3/4" Tweets
4" rear door
6.5" Mid Bass in the Rear.

I have not verified the depth of the front speaker but will let people know once I try to replace them. Just ordered some nakamichi separates hopefully it wil fit.

The trick now is if and where the crossovers are at? Either built in to the factory amp or passive on the doors. Will report once I get to the amp and door panels.

Also trying to tap in to the alarm to add sensor. More to come. Ordered sensor to experiment. Founds some good material on the12volt.com

Take care,
Boomer8282

 

Whiteyford...

Did you by chance write down any of the wiring information from your factory wiring harness? Also may I ask how wired your speakers? tapping in to the factory wiring (Where?) or by runnning your own wiring??

Much Thanks,
Boomer8282

 

Sorry I didn't but if I recall there are two plugs one has all the speaker wires and the other has power, ground etc. A test lite for power will work and for the speakers you can probably get away with using the stock wires in the factory speaker locations. I ran new wiring but it is not completely necessary. If you need to figure out the speaker configuration you can use the battery test. Use a 9 volt battery and place one of the speaker wires on the positive and then use the other wires by touching them to the negative when you hear a pop or static then you found the right wires for that speaker. Continue this until you know all of them.

 

Hey guys, I am trying to improve the sound quality and am wondering if you have a recommendation on specific speakers? Are the sizes listed in this thread workable in an 01 CLK55? I am thinking of buying some eBay speakers and installing myself, since there is no car audio shop locally.

Any help on speaker sizes and specific speakers that will fit into the door is great. I know depth can be a problem, so it needs to be something shallow.

Thank you!

 

Can you post some pics of your setup?
Thanks.