posted 11-04-2002 07:48 PM                  

First off, I installed it via FM modulation. I had installed one of these a few years ago on a regular CD changer. I don't recall the performance being as poor as this was. The hiss was incredible! I would not recommend wasting anytime installing the FM modulation unit available from the manufacture.

Second, the manufacture has a device that will convert the DIN that connects with the existing CD player and converts it to RCA jacks for use with the jukebox. I have a 2001 Prowler so I got the one that's for that year. Didn't work. However, the one for the previous years did work. The sound is awesome.

I also decided to expand on this device to bring the power that was running the CD player from the DIN straight to the Jukebox. For whatever reason, this would not work. The device has some electronics in it that "fool" the in dash unit into thinking a CD player is present making it available from the source list. I don't know why, but the voltage coming from that unit seemed to be low as in 11.5V as opposed to 12V. Then when I hooked it to the Jukebox, the voltage dropped to around 2V and the unit did not power on nor was there an option in the head unit source "list".

So I ran power from the head unit back to the Jukebox that is to be located where the CD player was. That worked fine. Now all I have to do is find a way to secure it. I really don't know what is behind there the CD player goes. So, my preference is to cut the fabric to use some Velcro like strips to connect the unit.

Also, I had all sorts of problems with the USB port to connect the drive to my computer. Could not get it to work. I finally just ripped the drive out of the slide in unit and connected straight to my computer. There is supposedly an updated USB driver available. Didn't seem to solve my issue but I would check into it if you try this product. I'm just going to get the external drive bay so I can slide the unit in for recording.

Also, there's a size limit on the number of songs you can have on the unit. 2048 maybe. Seems like a lot I know. But given that a typical CD compressed down to 300M, the larger unit of 80G seems like a little overkill as I could see surpassing the song limit. Just my opinion.

So why with all these issues am I still using this. To me the CD player that comes with the cat just doesn’t work. I thought about trying mounting it flat, but felt the “ride” of the car is probably more at issue as opposed to changer position. I looked at the new Music Keg from Kenwood which is similar but smaller in disk capacity. It looks OK but you either needed to install a control panel that’s the size of a typical stereo (one DIN that’s also used as an interface to their satellite radio system) or get a Kenwood head unit. I didn’t see any Kenwood head units that were our size (1.5 DIN). I did consider getting a unit with a “screen”, but the clearance isn’t there when the shifter is in park. There are also new head units with hard drives built in that are 10 gig in size. These retail for $1500 (sony) and $2100 (pioneer). The Pioneer unit only copies to hard drive when the radio is on at real time speed. The Sony copies at 8 times speed and will complete a CD even after the vehicle is turned off. But, these are again only 1 DIN height and I just didn’t like the idea of the converter cover. So I stuck it out with the jukebox. We’ll see if the decision proves to be a good one.

Sorry for the long message. I just felt that I had spent so much time and effort tracking this down that it was a good idea to write it down here so others could benefit if they pursue this path.