6-Disc CD/MP3 Changer

[RCK]

I am interested in upgrading my "business cd" system with a cd/mp3 changer. I want something OEM so I can plug it directly into the harness in the trunk of my 530i. I was doing some searches on the web and i noticed the PHATBOX, but thats a little over kill. I didnt see anything directly from BMW, however I did do a search on ebay and located an ALPINE 6-Disc CD/MP3 Player and the seller claims that it is made especially for BMW 3 and 5 series. Any suggestions?:dunno:

Thanks:bigpimp:

[DKSF]

The Alpine CHA-S634 will work in your car....now not so sure about the "specifically designed for your 3 or 5 series thing" :)

In order to make this work you'll need to get the following things:

1: CD interface -- Soundgate and Blitzsafe make them. Look for Alpine to BMW converters. If you have DSP, you're out of luck and will need to get a factory changer. Try www.logjamelectronics.com, they seem to have the cheapest prices on them.

2: KCA-130B -- Ai-Net to M-Bus adaptor cable. The changer is capable of working in Ai-Net or M-Bus (with this cable). The CD interface is an Alpine M-Bus to BMW I-Bus converter. As a result you will need to put the changer into M-Bus mode and use the adaptor cable to attach the changer cable to the CD interface.

3: Factory CD changer mounting bracket. The Alpine changer is the same size as the factory one. This should only be around $20 from the stealer.

Couple of things to note.....

- There is a noticable lag time in changing tracks up/down. Probably a result of the the need to convert the BMW I-Bus protocol to Alpine M-Bus. It's kind of annoying since you could have more than 100 tracks per disc, makes navigation a bit slow.

- The factory head unit display is only 2 digits, so it will display something like this CD 1-99 for track 99, then CD 1-01 for 100.

- There is no way to display the track names on the screen. Only the track numbers. Not a big deal, but again, does make navigation a bit challenging.

Otherwise it sounds and works great. Let me know if you have any other questions. DK.

[RCK]

Hey DK....

Thanks for the info man:D

I should be able to get away for about 4bills after adding all those accessories

Thanks Again :thumbup:

[DKSF]

No problem. It's a great upgrade, so I'm sure you'll enjoy it. Just let me know if you run into any problems. DK.

[Ågent99]

Hey DK,

Wasn't there some new product at BF this year?? BillP was telling me about it. Something about being able to swap in and out any old hardrive you have filled with MP3s??? Bill??

Chris :)

[BillP]

Yeah, the Dension DMP3 (http://www.dension.com)- similar to the Phatbox with two huge differences:

1. The harddrive is a standard IDE drive, so you can pick one up cheap (or you may even have a spare one sitting around). You can get an 80GB drive for ~$100 compared to $250 for a 40GB cartridge from Phatbox.

2. The basic package is much less expensive - apples-to-apples, the Phatbox is $900 whereas the Dension is more like $500 (and that doesn't include the less expensive upgrade path in #1, I am assuming a 20GB drive for both.) If you have an old hard drive sitting around like I do, that lowers the price even further.

Pretty cool solution. I checked it out in Brad's car (Evosport) during B-fest and it works as advertised. No lag, kick-ass display, controls work as expected, good sound, nice.

Phatbox does come with the cool voice system that Dension lacks.

Evosport will be selling the DMP3 , thoug their website doesn't seem to reflect that at the moment.


Bill

[justcor]

Bill do you need a R&D rig?