cjdrum

What are the recommendations for after market radios on my 2000 clk 430. I would like to retain the use of my original cd changer and steering wheel controls.

MarcusF

I like Alpine, but before making a recommendation, I'd need to know what features you’d prefer. Navigation? DVD movies? Satellite radio? iPhone/iPod compatible? Bluetooth? An internal amp, external amp, combination of both, or do you have Bose and would like to keep those amps and speakers? Single or double DIN?

The steering wheel controls are doable. Here is a link that explains how I did mine.

The bad news is, I know of no accessory that will allow you to connect an aftermarket head unit to an original equipment fiber connected 6-disk changer. The good news is, many new head units read solid state drives, and solid state drives are far superior to CDs.

This is just my opinion, but I think CDs are an obsolete way of storing music. CDs are bulky, skip, degrade in quality over time, and only hold about 70 minutes worth of music. Solid state drives (flash drives) are small, never skip, take much longer to degrade (when one does, it can be easily copied and replaced), and has a much larger storage capacity. For example, my factory 6-CD changer can store 420 minutes of music. A 16GB flash drive will hold over nine thousand minutes of music. That means I would need a 21 disk CD changer to come close to matching the capacity of a $20 flash drive.

Lastly, regardless as to the head unit manufacturer, I think you'll enjoy this upgrade.

gun4hire

I second this. If you get a BT capable headunit, you can stream the music from your mobile phone (Pandora too). I'm looking at getting a nice Kenwood that has a USB dock right on the front. Get a huge thumb drive full of Mp3 music and call it a day. Ditch the CD changer (mine always skips).

cjdrum

Thanks, waiting for delivery of my Kenwood KDC B7755HD. By the way, my CD plyer hardley ever skips, but I'm looking forward to not changing the deck.

HWYSTAR

have to agree with them,i plan on keeping the bose and just replacing the head unit and using hiw little trick to keep the controls. Kenwood had the one i want and can stream directly from my phablet (note II) via bluetooth.

City Rat

I ended up pulling the factory head unit and cd changer for the reasons stated above. I went with Alpine 138 BT and am having an Alpine amp and Helix subwoofer installed this weekend. I kept the Bose speaker system except i am swapping out the factory sub which just doesn't give me the fullsome bass line that I'm looking for. On the upside the newAlpine head unit really brings outa crisp sound crom the Bose speakers and I love pandora for road trips. The downside is despite trying the steering wheel control adaptors didn't work for some reason so no steering wheel controls anymore.