Want to play CD's but keep the stock look... I found a CD player for sale, guy on eBay wants $249, says it's like new (?).

Is this a decent deal? And would it look good in an otherwise stock '87 IROC? He says it will plug right into the stock harness on my car. I currently have the ERS am/fm/cassette w/ 5 band eq in my car. It works okay (radio, don't know about tape player, don't have any tapes..), but speakers are blown. I thought maybe I would replace the speakers and upgrade to this unit, but not if it looks totally out of place.

Any opinions? Here's a photo of the cd player... thanks!

 

ANY stock unit would appear normal to the untrained eye. i think it will look fine. i wish i could get a stock appearing unit in my car...

 

Why can't you? Even if I want something louder, I suppose to a certain degree I could even put an amp on it if it wasn't loud enough...(I'm sure it will be fine - I mostly listen to stuff like Fox News on XM with my wireless MYfi and music on Friday nights...)

 

I'd go for one of the newer delcos with the speed sensitive volume control. You can probably get it a lot cheaper than $250, and it's a higher quality unit.

 

How about a cd changer with the FM modulator running through the stock deck?

 

Hmmm - that would work, although being able to use the radio to control my cd's would be better. And I could feed them in the desk one at a time as I want to play them.

Or, I could give up on CD's and just listen to my XM with it's wireless FM modulator - they have an 80's channel!

 

I have XM through my DirecTV subscription, and so far I've found their 80s and 90s stations to be a major letdown.

But anyway... if you're running stock (or crap aftermarket) speakers, then the XM will sound fine compared to CD, but if you've got good equipment, you'll easily be able to hear the limitations of satellite radio compared to CD. The sound will be flat and lifeless compared to CD. One option might be an FM modulator that can control an XM tuner and a changer. I know that Kenwood has one that will control a Sirius tuner and one of their cd changers. I would expect most brands to offer a similar product.

 

In your experience, are those common across the GM lines? I wouldn't mind having a stock deck in the 'Bird, and that added feature would be a plus. Of course I'm A$$uming that the units use the VSS feed in some way, but I've been wrong before.

 

They're very common. All of the late model f-bodies and full size truck lines used them, among other models.

There are a couple tutorials on this message board about implimenting the speed sensitive feature also.

 

Really? Damn. I don't recall the speedo feature from any of my roaming throughout 3G. Sorry to burn a post when a search would have done. Thanks Jim.

K

 

Don't worry about burning a post, I like to hijack 'em all the time!

 

At least now I'm honor-bound to reporting what I do with the stereo on the Formula

 

I just posted a how to not too long ago.....Do a search on my user name and you will see it...Heck...You might be able to scroll down and see it still sitting there on the front page.

Later

 

Thanks 1fastformula. I searched and found this posted last week. My mistake was having "sensitive" in my search. That's so easy it's sad. I think that since I rarely do more than install the basics with stereos, I went straight to asking for help. Ehh, live and learn. Thanks much to you and Jim.

K