AMGDave

They are a funky metric size. The only thing which is a 100% drop-in fit are Rainbows, which I would highly recommend, they're worth the ~$140 cost per pair. Click here to see photos of them.

Uh, check that... the price seems to have gone up 20%! They're now $175/pair, ouch. This is the only vendor I know of who still carries these in the USA. I would still pay it though. I have done the work of making a wrong-sized speaker fit in the 124 dash, and the result is never worth the effort expended. If you can find them cheaper elsewhere, please let me know...

Gioffa

Hey RHW, did you order the Jehnert panels with or without the drivers and if so did the tweeters end up being too "bright" coming off the windshield? I'm debating putting down the money to order a set. My other option would be as mentioned above, getting the drop in Rainbow set and then adding some 5-1/4" or 6-1/2" in the doors xover at 50-200hz for some much needed midbass. I'd appreciate anybodys thoughts on this...

Regards

RHW

Gioffa,

The Jehnerts are not too bright.

Hands down, without any hesitation: Buy the Jernerts. I have 5 124s I've spent stereo money into, and the Jehnert - Sportline is the most satisfying, full sound.

I've spent more and I've spent less. The Jehnerts are the best choice.

And Rainbows are always reported to be a "very good" choice.

The mid bass of the Jehnerts is just better than my other systems.

If you are thinking of buying Jehnerts, PM me, as I think I can help you get best price.

AMGDave

RHW, do you know if there is a dealer in the USA now, or do we still need to buy direct from Jehnert.de in Germany?

RHW

Dave, I do not know of a dealer / distrbutor in USA.

But I helped set up a website for a local stereo place and that friendly connection allowed me to pay Jehnert wholesale price for 1 set.

I wired money into their account, and when they were convinced it was there, they shipped my panels. turn around time of a couple weeks.

I may order 1 more set so if one of you is going to order, I think we can continue to enjoy wholesale price.

(Were you already paying wholesale? I thought it a savings, as they were ready to bill me retail)

GIOFFA: Your car DESERVES Jehnerts. Just noticed it's a 500

Gioffa

Wholesale price? Count me in! I'm convinced this is, by far, the best way to go. PM me and we'll set it up....

Regards

ZedStyle

just stumbled upon these guys who claim to have rainbows for w124... found them online, never dealt with them or have any connection to them at all:
http://interactiveadconcepts.com/contact.html

Gioffa

Interactive AdConcepts has partnered with IQ car audio, they are now the same company.

RHW

Gioffa,
Dave and I are both in a holding pattern at this moment, our stereos are very good or better, so the incremental improvement's not worth the money. We both agree these are the best way to go and are a no brainer when starting from scratch.

PM me if you want to work out arrangements for a set for your car. I also wouldn't hesitate to drop in Rainbows.

Chappy

I have the stock radio in my wagon. Adding Rainbows was the best simple upgrade I could have done.

Golden Ears

Does anyone have any used Jehnerts that they would like to sell me?

I don't necessarily need drivers with them if you happened to blow your drivers as I might consider using something else.

1994 w124 E500 black interior.

RHW

Where are you located? I am selling my Sportline and kept the original door parts to put it back if I ever wanted. New buyer is not a stereo person...also gonna let me pull the Recaros, steering box and steering wheel for my wagon.

SportlineCE

The size is 4.75".

I went with the Cadence Zxs-120 2 way speakers, they sound great and were a huge improvement over the worn out stock speakers. The only problem is that they're geting hard to find. Only $45 when you do find them!

RHW

SPORTLINECE:

Do these bolt in, front and rear to replace stock speakers?


http://www.bestaudiodeals.com/products/ZXS120.html
39+shipping

I like the note about special clip in for MB cars.

Certainly looks like a good choice for inexpensive stock upgrade - the Rainbows...I expect a big portion of that price is due to the brand's recognition.

http://www.cadencestore.com/ProductC...&idproduct=205 (manufacturer?)

SportlineCE

I've only done the front so far with these speakers, can't speak for the rears.

They were a drop in except for having to remove the foam that comes around the speaker magnets and to slightly modify the clips on the speakers to fit the thicker mounting pad on the MB. Very easy.

RHW

I love your coupe, btw,
welcome and all.

Post up some pics on the pic thread?

SportlineCE

Thanks RHW

It's a '93 300 CE Sportline with 68K miles. I found this car back in Georgia last fall and drove it out to California. It is completely stock except for the Depo headlight buckets and the AMG Aero I wheels.

It was in pretty good shape when I got it and had been maintained well, but over the last six months I've been doing a complete bumper to bumper maintenance/mechanical upgrade on it. Some of the parts swapped out included the blower motor/regulator, all steering links, brakes, headlights, all fluids, front speakers, and front stops and strut mounts. Next is the cooling system and I should be done after that.

I've created an album off my account with more pics, I can add some to the pic thread as well.

Sorry about highjacking this thread with an intro.

AMGDave

Close-up photos of Cadence:
http://www.w124performance.com/image...adence_ZXS120/

They fit the front dash only... may fit early 124 sedan/coupe in the rear deck with some mods. Later 124 sedans/coupes have larger rear speakers, with dual tweeters, which is actually a very good setup and perfectly fine for rear fill duty - I would never bother upgrading these. If you have the early type then it wouldn't hurt, but again for rear fill it's not a big deal. Spend the money up front first!!

Wagons obviously have a bit more of an issue due to the location in the door. There was a thread on BW with an alternate solution for wagons, IIRC. Not sure what the Cabbies have in the back.

http://www.benzworld.org/forums/w124...ent-cheap.html

http://www.benzworld.org/forums/w124...uetooth-2.html

chlippo

I just ordered one of these for my amg sedan.

http://www.bestaudiodeals.com/products/ZXS120.html


PS: Dave are you getting my emails?

Golden Ears

I am in Venice CA- right near the Marina del Rey about 1/2 a block from the Venice Pier.

Did you do Don A's website..?

http://www.exquisitemarketinggroup.com

I was going to ask you for the wholesale Jehnert deal.. didn't know you were selling yours.

I do need a steering wheel.

To contribute to this.... IMHO, amazing thread...

I know we all battle with tuning issues in our cars..which IMHO aren't bad cars at all when it comes to their Transfer function (Ie the acoustics of the car that layer atop the original recording)

I've heard a lot worse cars..I actually think the Stereo that came in the 1994-1995 W124s wasn't bad for stock.

What I did notice is that the stock 4 inch dashboard driver does not have extended frequency response.. and perhaps that was chosen on purpose to reduce the amount of glare and hash you get reflecting off the windshield.

My drivers door midbass speaker went out- so I figure I may as well try and upgrade to Jehnerts.

I already have upgraded my alternator.

In this months issue of TAS (The Abso!ute Sound) they talk about a new app for Iphone 3 and 3GS, ipad and ipod touch)

http://www.studiosixdigital.com/audiotools.html

its about $40..and you can buy other modules.


I think that this can be really valuable when it comes to tuning your car...at least you can chart where you were in tuning..So let's say you configure your amps in Bridged mode for midbass as opposed to stereo using dual voice coils... you could tune each system for its best sound and then be cable to switch quicker between each to compare.

I think you get an RTA , SPL, polarity checker, and a Mic in the base application and you can buy other tools too.... go for the after market mic.

I've read a lot of threads and I think it is really important when trying to design a true hi fidelity system to take a few things into account.

1. Transient response- if your speaker cones don't move swiftly and in time with each other… sounds will appear to be smeared. So if for instance you have fast midrange drivers but a subwoofer with an incredibly thick surround and heavy duty cone… that sub will not be able to keep in time with the rest of your system- and lower bass areas near the crossover point will sound muddy and smeared.

2. For stock and particularly for custom speaker installations…. The HAAS effect. Which deals with time arrival differences from the speakers to your ears. Certainly you can try to address this with DSP and time delay.. but IMHO its is a bandaid approach and not a true fix. For the left hand driver for instance in our W124’s our left ear is much closer to the left speaker than the right ear is to the right speaker. Oddly- the bulge in our dash may deflect some of the sound coming from the left speaker to do a 2nd bounce off of the driver side window glass adding slightly more delay to the sound to reduce the HAAS effect. Putting speakers in kickpanels can help with the HAAS effect as the path length increases for the left ear and the ratio of left to right path lengths becomes more equal. But you can have frequency steering (when you hear sounds dive down into the kick panel) and reduced height image. We sit fairly high in our w124’s as compared to some sporty coupes which have a lower driver position that makes kickpanels sound a bit better. I think you should try to physically reduce the HAAS effect as much as possible through speaker placement..and perhaps even crossover choices.. BEFORE thinking about DSP.

3. Signal to noise ratio in the entire signal chain. Signal to noise is like a dirty window. Every component you have adds a layer of dirt. The important thing to remember is this… S/N is measured in db and hence is a logarithmic scale. So for instance 110db is ten times quieter than 100db. And 110db is one hundred times quieter than 90db. So the 90db S/N ratio window is a hundred times dirtier. So adding a 90db component with a 110db component will not give you 100db S/N…. nope… the 90db component is a huge polluter. So if you are really going for great sound… be very careful about S/N in your components. There is a bit more to it than just a plain number… for instance if a component has a S/N ratio that looks bad on paper…. But lets say most of that noise is at 25hz…. It will sound much cleaner than another component that has the same S/N ratio but has most of its noise centered in the midrange frequencies where our ear is more sensitive and more musical content with detail resides.

4. Gain structure. Also very related to S/N ratio… because setting your gains improperly will harm your S/N ratio. For instance, setting the gain of your head unit way up and backing way down on your amp might not be a great idea if your amp has great S/N ratio- and your head unit adds a lot more distortion above say ..3 volts.

5. Speaker placement and direction. Separating your tweeter from your midrange by a great distance is generally a no-no. ie tweeter in a pillar midrange in a kick panel or lower door. Try to keep them close to each other. Keep in mind different diffraction effects when placing tweeters or midranges in A pillars as they will be reflecting off of glass- which is harder than our dash. You can control some directivity with an acoustic lens.

Try to take a string…. And if your drivers are in different places… ie for us our midbass is in our door try to keep the distances for drivers to EACH ear fairly close. One thing to note… crossovers add delay…and can affect phase… so IMHO it is ok for the distances for low frequency sub drivers to be slightly more than for midbass drivers which can be be slightly more than for midrange drivers.

But midrange and tweeters should be no more than 2-5 inches from each other.

Our Midbass in the door is fine as directionality lessens as frequency lowers.

So having exactly the same distances for all drivers might not sound the best because our systems are 4 way sound systems and there is so much crossover delay introduced. If we were 2 way systems only..say a Dome tweeter that can go low and a 6.5 inch driver that can play relatively high - then trying to design with the exact same arrival times for a point source.. would work better...if you use shallow crossover slopes. but for the most point- we do use steeper crossover slopes of 12-24db per octave....so I think that the delay introduced and phase change allows for the midbass and subwoofer drivers to be further away. Since we have a 4 inch driver in our dash which can play relatively high we might benefit from 6db per octave slopes crossing to the tweeter but then using a steeper 18 or 24 db slope to the midbass driver so we can play our midrange louder without feeding it bass frequencies that would make it hit Xmax early at lower volumes.

Using the tools in the above link...might allow for better driver time alignment for the entire system... I have not tested this... it is just a theory I have. But I know from setting up large format home speakers with separate woofer towers such as the Infinity Reference Standards, Martin logan Statements, and Magnaplar Tympani's- that such time alignment issues exist. In the home... they amount to about 4-8 inches of time arrival distance depending on the system.

So think about that when you choose your speaker locations (caveat) ... Porting bass in from the trunk adds even more delay as the end of the port tube is even further from the woofer cone....perhaps this is why some free air subs have sounded good as they are in the rear deck...with the cone closer to the ear than sealed subs or ported subs in the trunk.


Anyhow.. I hope this helps add to the thread.. I really appreciate everyone’s responses. I personally am still debating over running free air in the back deck with JL audio subs (I am considering JL because they make a decent free air sub as compared to other free air subs- anyone have any free recommendations?) … or running sealed boxes with conventional drivers.. Personally I like Sealed boxes- but some have had good results with free air in w124s. I could go on……..and on… but likely this would put everyone to sleep.

RHW

Hi Goldenears,

I was just interested to see if you were a business friend of Don, (confirmed, thanks for posting his site) who days ago protested back to the factory about 124 owners receiving wholesale pricing on the Jehnert door panels here.

AMGDave

For the record, I too am interested in finding a decent free-air sub to mount in the center of the W124 sedan rear parcel shelf. I'd rather not take up trunk space with an enclosure (although I know, I know, the freeair won't sound as good or play as loud as a properly designed box). But we need *something* back there to fill in the bottom two octaves, as even the Jehnert doorboards can't push that much bass (I have them in two cars, btw). A single 10", or pair of 8", would be adequate... don't think a 12" will fit with the 90L fuel tank in the E500E though.

BTW, Golden... since you have an E500... have you checked out 500ESpot yet?
http://500espot.com/forums/

kluvsbenz

Nice!! Did you DIY or did you go pay for install? 90 300E needs help in the music dept.

RHW

Where are you in the Poconos? I just left my lake cabin, it's the mountain west of Camelback.

That's a real old post you pulled.

No nothing DIY here, and many on this thread have pointed out less expensive quality choices...

I am a creature of habit, moving from one 124 to another, 8 in family, so I use same amps, head units, speakers for consistency. The PDX5 amp, a similar Alpine head unit, Jehnert doorpanel speaker system, and a factory boxed 10" W6 subwoofer.

But this thread is full of DIY options just as good or many better, for less budget. Or you could call Blossum installations, he is in your area and does great work.

stormtigers

Hey Dave

You may not like the brand - many don't - but I recently decided to try something unobtrusive and less take-up-room to solve the issue I have in my 88'CE with crappy bass from the rear 5.25" speakers I have.

The product is :
http://www.poweracoustik.com/pa2011/subs-THIN-13.html

"did have a picture posted but it was HUUUUUGGGGGEEEEEEE !
Okay the plan is this thin woofer will be mounted into the top of the F.A.B (first aid box cover) and a thin bottom cut and attached to the sides and front of the FAB. By doing this I achieve
1. better bass than I currently have (not licence plate rattling bass but better than standard)
2. a cutout under the back of the FAB in the metal (may have been for the rear blind motor maybe ???) means no extra drilling other than a small hole in the rear shelf to pass the wire through so it can be connected to the amp in the right rear well.
3. not overly huge outlay $100 odd for something that may work for my scenario and importantly NO LOSS OF TRUNK SPACE.

Cheers