All,
My '91 with the aformentioned radio and a new antenna is unable to find any radio stations in South Florida with enough strength to broadcast. My other car has no issues. Any help would be welcome.
Blaupunkt Arizona poor radio performance
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dr bob
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Just reread your post way late, and have a partial response that may or may not help you at this point.
First, I offer a reminder that the stubby roof antenna from mid-production S4/GT and beyond has an RF amplifier between the antenna and the radio itself. Power for that amplifier is fed by the aux power lead on the radio itself, so on and off with the head unit. From feeble memory it's via the blue wire from the radio itself in my upgraded Blau Alaska replacement head unit, if that helps. That wire often gets repurposed/connected to aftermarket audio amplifier turn-on circuits, and that affects the radio performance when the RF amplifier is disconnected. Then virtually no antenna and no signal gates through.
The RF lead from antenna MUST plug into that RF amplifier first, and not directly into the head unit itself. The RF amplifier is only shown on the wiring diagram, not in any physical descriptions. Without doing a bunch of searching, I'm thinking it's located in the dash above the glove box, but it may also be in the roof above the headliner. My instinct would be to use a tracer tool to inject a tone in the RF amplifier power lead at the head-unit end, and go hunt down the other end with the receiver part of the tracer tool.
FWIW, that same market-insensitive current flow diagram shows the RF amp power exiting the factory radio frame via a pin 4 and a white wire. I replaced my original "Reno" radio/cassette unit with an "Alaska" with a different connector pinout. I have the docs for the Alaska, and they offer pin ID's for the rear connector plugs but no wire colors.
Sorry I can't be of more assistance. I did the sound system upgrade in my car within a couple years of purchase, so it's been a LONG while. My support package for the car's log shows the work and all the wiring and connections added, but I made no actual changes to the antenna and amplifier circuits so nothing is detailed in my notes.
First, I offer a reminder that the stubby roof antenna from mid-production S4/GT and beyond has an RF amplifier between the antenna and the radio itself. Power for that amplifier is fed by the aux power lead on the radio itself, so on and off with the head unit. From feeble memory it's via the blue wire from the radio itself in my upgraded Blau Alaska replacement head unit, if that helps. That wire often gets repurposed/connected to aftermarket audio amplifier turn-on circuits, and that affects the radio performance when the RF amplifier is disconnected. Then virtually no antenna and no signal gates through.
The RF lead from antenna MUST plug into that RF amplifier first, and not directly into the head unit itself. The RF amplifier is only shown on the wiring diagram, not in any physical descriptions. Without doing a bunch of searching, I'm thinking it's located in the dash above the glove box, but it may also be in the roof above the headliner. My instinct would be to use a tracer tool to inject a tone in the RF amplifier power lead at the head-unit end, and go hunt down the other end with the receiver part of the tracer tool.
FWIW, that same market-insensitive current flow diagram shows the RF amp power exiting the factory radio frame via a pin 4 and a white wire. I replaced my original "Reno" radio/cassette unit with an "Alaska" with a different connector pinout. I have the docs for the Alaska, and they offer pin ID's for the rear connector plugs but no wire colors.
Sorry I can't be of more assistance. I did the sound system upgrade in my car within a couple years of purchase, so it's been a LONG while. My support package for the car's log shows the work and all the wiring and connections added, but I made no actual changes to the antenna and amplifier circuits so nothing is detailed in my notes.
dr bob
1989 928 S4, black with cashmere/black inside
SoCal 928 Group Cofounder
928 Owner's Club Charter Member
Former Ex Bend Yacht Club Commodore Emeritus
Free Advice and Commentary. Use At Your Own Risk!
1989 928 S4, black with cashmere/black inside
SoCal 928 Group Cofounder
928 Owner's Club Charter Member
Former Ex Bend Yacht Club Commodore Emeritus
Free Advice and Commentary. Use At Your Own Risk!
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Pcarpenito+11741
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Hey Dr. Bob. Question for you. I replaced my factory blaupunkt. I don’t remember exactly what the issue was..tinny, crackly volume knob..not sure but I still have it. Is it possible to have the radio reconditioned?
Thanks!
Thanks!
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blueline
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Paging @dr bobPcarpenito+11741 wrote: Sun Jun 14, 2026 6:10 pm Hey Dr. Bob. Question for you. I replaced my factory blaupunkt. I don’t remember exactly what the issue was..tinny, crackly volume knob..not sure but I still have it. Is it possible to have the radio reconditioned?
Thanks!
Tim
Current:
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Current:
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dr bob
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Sorry for the lagged response.
Tinny/crackley sound is usually blamed on tired crispy speakers, and is only sometimes an issue with the head unit itself. To your question, I have no experience with having a head unit refurbished. I've seen advertising for those services though.
At the same time Bosch/Blau offers contemporary units with retro faces for folks interested in keeping the correct period look. They are a bit spendy compared to the cost of a current mid-range head unit, but I have trouble with the contemporary ultra-technical looks of modern head units so they would be a good option for me were I redoing the audio in my car.
Tinny/crackley sound is usually blamed on tired crispy speakers, and is only sometimes an issue with the head unit itself. To your question, I have no experience with having a head unit refurbished. I've seen advertising for those services though.
At the same time Bosch/Blau offers contemporary units with retro faces for folks interested in keeping the correct period look. They are a bit spendy compared to the cost of a current mid-range head unit, but I have trouble with the contemporary ultra-technical looks of modern head units so they would be a good option for me were I redoing the audio in my car.
dr bob
1989 928 S4, black with cashmere/black inside
SoCal 928 Group Cofounder
928 Owner's Club Charter Member
Former Ex Bend Yacht Club Commodore Emeritus
Free Advice and Commentary. Use At Your Own Risk!
1989 928 S4, black with cashmere/black inside
SoCal 928 Group Cofounder
928 Owner's Club Charter Member
Former Ex Bend Yacht Club Commodore Emeritus
Free Advice and Commentary. Use At Your Own Risk!
I put in one of the Blaupunkt "retro" units:
I liked it well enough that I put one in my M3 as well:
- IMG_0543.jpeg (3.67 MiB) Viewed 23 times
- IMG_0651.jpeg (2.64 MiB) Viewed 23 times
'87 944 NA
'68 Series 2A, '96 E36 M3, '02 Vanquish, '15 Flying Spur
'68 Series 2A, '96 E36 M3, '02 Vanquish, '15 Flying Spur
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Tom
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I put the Porsche retro radio in my 944 and like it. It's overpriced, but has the Porsche logo on the screen when it boots up, so that's got to be worth something. 
Looks very much like something that might have come with the car.
As for repairing vintage radios, I had very bad luck with Becker Auto Sound (which gets all the press) and ended up finding Short Circuit Car Audio Repair here in Silicon Valley. They open up and fix virtually all older vintage stereos -- i.e., true electronics repair down to testing circuit boards and finding that one capacitor (or whatever) that failed. They restored the old Becker Mexico from my Mercedes, which was not getting a good signal, and rebuild the cassette deck with new drive belts, etc. I was local, but they do a lot of work through the mail.
https://www.shortcircuitrepair.com/services/
Looks very much like something that might have come with the car. As for repairing vintage radios, I had very bad luck with Becker Auto Sound (which gets all the press) and ended up finding Short Circuit Car Audio Repair here in Silicon Valley. They open up and fix virtually all older vintage stereos -- i.e., true electronics repair down to testing circuit boards and finding that one capacitor (or whatever) that failed. They restored the old Becker Mexico from my Mercedes, which was not getting a good signal, and rebuild the cassette deck with new drive belts, etc. I was local, but they do a lot of work through the mail.
https://www.shortcircuitrepair.com/services/