My car was recently broken into and my Sony in-dash stereo/CD player was stolen. When I bought the car used, the stock unit was there, but the CD player didn't work so I replaced it with the after market one. I have a 10-disc Sony changer in the trunk.

My question is:

Is it possible to use the Sony changer with the stock head unit or do I have to go the RF Modulator route?

Thank you

 

im not sure what company it was, but i think it might not have been sony, it might have been alpine. In my friends civic he bought an aftermarket changer that connected right to his radio. So find that out and you'll know. Post this in one of the other HT sections where it will pertain more to the information in that section, that will help a lot more my friend.

 

I don't think a Sony CD changer can be directly wired to a Honda head unit. My best advice would be to call Crutchfield (1-888-955-6000) and ask them.

On my '99, I hooked up an Alpine CD changer to my head unit with an adapter, but then again most Honda head units are made by Alpine so it kind of makes sense that it would work.

Assuming you can't directly hook up your Sony changer to your head unit but you want a trunk mounted CD changer, your options are:

1. Buy a Sony head unit;
2. Sell your CD changer on ebay and buy a Honda CD changer (~ $350 or so from places like http://www.handa-accesories.com) for your stock head unit; or
3. Sell your CD changer and buy an Alpine CD changer along with an adapter.

 

Here's a photo album with pics of my Alpine trunk mounted CD changer:

http://tinyurl.com/cc4ok

 

Thank you! I like that solution using the stock head unit again. I feel like if I put another aftermarket system in the my car it will get broken into again. Do thieves steal stock units too?

*S*

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by stephon &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">...Do thieves steal stock units too?

*S*</TD></TR></TABLE>A stock CD player, even if it's broken? A thief won't know it's broken, though it's not as likely that they'll steal a stock radio. If you really want to be safe, buy a stock cassette player like what I have (a photo of it is linked to above). I can't imagine somebody stealing a stock cassette player. You can buy one off of ebay for ~ $30 shipped, and if it works fine you can sell your broken CD player for something on ebay (point out that it's broken, but somebody'll buy it hoping to be able to fix it). Make sure it's from the '98 or '99 so that it'll have the auxilliary input in the back, '00 might also work but beyond '98 and '99 I'm not sure which has the input and which doesn't.

Remember that you won't have any CD's in the front of your car since they'll be in your trunk, thus a thief looking through your windows won't see any tell-tale signs of a CD player being in the car.

One thing that you have to get used to if you do this: with the stock head unit you can't fast forward or rewind within tracks, you can only skip from the start of one track to the start of the next track. Also, my changer plays CD-Rs with no problems.

Where is your sony CD changer mounted? Same spot? Remember that you'll need to make a mount for the Alpine changer, something like what I did works great and is cheap.



Modified by Heat at 10:48 PM 5/15/2005

 

Wow, I didn't think of that. Not being able to FF or RW; just going to the next track. My Sony changer is mounted in the trunk, with brackets & screws to the right of the inside trunk light, secure and out of the way. The stereo works in my stock system, but not the CD player. I wonder what it would cost to get it fixed. I can remove it myself.

I like your Alpine changer option. I'm going to call Crutchfield tomorrow like you said just to make sure the Sony won't work. It would be great if it did.

I think I'm going to tint my windows too. I really appreciate the help you all have given me.

*S*

 

What is your OEM CD player doing?

And note that Alpine makes Honda stock radios (which is why they work with Alpine changers). From Alpine's FAQ:

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Subject: Is my Honda radio made by Alpine?.

Alpine provides car audio, security and navigation systems for various car manufacturers such as Honda, Acura, BMW, Mercedes Benz and Jaguar as the original equipment manufacturer (O.E.M.). Please refer to your vehicles factory authorized dealer.</TD></TR></TABLE>
This is from the FAQ today, but it also said this back in '99.

Edit: Come to think of it, try asking the question about how to fix your stock CD player on the Security / Audio / Video forum here at honda-tech.


Modified by Heat at 12:11 AM 5/16/2005

 

I didn't work when I bought the car. When you put a CD in it just doesn't play and usually won't come out. It's been a long time since I messed with it since I had the Sony one in there.

I'm just kinda paranoid about putting another aftermarket one in there since I live in LA and park on the street. I'll post on the other forum and inquire about getting my stock one fixed. thanks!

 

Another option would be to plug in an ipod, keeping it in the glovebox so it's hidden. Looks like the adapter would cost ~ $120. I've not done this, just read about it in this thread:

https://honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=1240442

If you're looking to make your radio as least desirable as possible because of where you live, put in a cassette deck and either put an ipod in your glovebox or an Alpine changer in your trunk. The ipod would use the same input into the radio, so you apparently can't have both the ipod and the changer.

 

I was thinking more about this today, since you have a stock CD player you might be able to fast forward and rewind within a track with it if you hook up a CD changer.

With my stock cassette player I can only skip between tracks on CDs in my CD changer.