Alpine CHM-S601/M-Bus/Mini Headphone Jack

Hi-
My CD changer on my Honda is kinda broken, and I'm looking to hack my
system to take my audio from my hand held mp3 player.

I have a Honda Civics LX 1997, and the CD changer is a Alpine CHM-S601
installed by the dealer when vehical was purchased new in 97 - The CD
and track control are on the dash (sharing with radio control buttons
there); the changer recently started to skip terribly toward the ending
5-6 tracks of any CD and no amount of cleaning helps. With a flash
light I went into the trunk and found that next to the changer there
are two cable, one from the car, one from the changer - they are
apparently a pair of so called M-Bus connectors (male to female), after
some googling and reading.

I found on the net these interesting M-bus to 3.5mm headphone jack (or
M-bus to RCA jacks) cables with parts ID KCM-123B and KCM-121B,
respectively, that can let me hook up my own portable audio players to
it as source, but my question is - would this work or do I need to
config something else too or more parts??

Bill

 

I'm in the exact same situation with my aftermarket Alpine CD changer
(probably same model as yours). However, my head unit has an Alpine tape
deck and I've been using one of those tape adapter to plug in my iPod. It
works great and is a cheap fix. However, I've recently noticed that one of
my speaker is blown and the display light head-unit has quit. So, I'm going
have to throw out the two front speakers up front (hopefully the rear
speakers are still good. All the speakers were top-of-line 160watt Sony
3-ways). Also, I'll need a new Head Unit/CD player. The new unit is going to
have an Aux input in the front for the iPod. surprisingly, the 100amp
Bazooka subwoofer (with built-in amp) has survived all the abuse. At lease
there was one component of the entire sound system that didn't fail me.

Or, I can retire the car and the hardaches from the stereo system can be
someone else's problem.

Pars
98 Civic Hatch

 

I recently replaced the stock Alpine unit in my '93 Accord because of sound
drop-outs. I wonder if it safe to say that Alpine makes crap?

 

Quite possibly, although I know people who have cars older than mine that
still have their original factory radios working properly. Also, I Google'd
for my problem before replacing it. I found that quite a few 4th-gen Accord
owners had the same problem, with some happening much sooner than mine.

Heh, my replacement unit is a Sony. Every Sony product I have owned has
been virtually trouble-free, so I hope this one is the same. I didn't
replace the speakers, but the sound quality has improved quite a bit with
the new unit.

 

Considering that deck is over 10yrs old it just be time to replace it.

I would rather have a low end Alpine deck vs top end SONY or Pioneer.