2001 Alpine CDX6 Audiophile - Looking for all information possible!

[drslinky]

After Superstorm Sandy, I ended up buying a little old lady's 2001 LS v6 for a steal. New to the car, after driving 4th gen F-bodies for over 12 years.

Little old lady kept everything, including the window stickers. Says I have the Alpine Audiophile system (575.00) and CD-6 In Dash Changer (605.00). The goes with what I've seen so far. Speaker in all 4 doors, amp and 2 woofers mounted to the deck in the trunk, 2 small speakers on the center console.

Of course, I now have a non-functional CD changer. The credit card trick worked a few times, but now it's just CD ERROR no matter what I do. So it's time to replace the head unit. Not such a bad idea, seeing as I have a lifetime SiriusXM subscription that I haven't been able to use since the storm, and I'd really like a head unit with USB options.

From what little I was able to learn from hours of Googling, swapping components for this system isn't always easy. I can't even manage to find any full component specs or diagrams. I went to BestBuy and picked up a Metro 70-5519 wire harness, figuring I can can use it to hook up an older aftermarket head unit, just to see what works and what doesn't work by simply using the wiring harness. Seemed like the logical first step in troubleshooting.

Ideally, I'd like to replace components in phases. For now, just a new head unit that's SiriusXM compatible. If needed, I'll replace speakers, amps, etc., later, as needed. Seriously leaning towards the Pioneer AVH-X series, probably the AVH-X3500BHS or the AVH-X5500BHS.

Does anybody have a hoard of resources about this audio system? Diagrams, specifications, basically anything and everything I'd need to know about what I can do, can't do, and what I'd have to hack, to replace the stock head unit with an aftermarket one?

Thanks in advance!

 

[1LoudLS]

well it wouldn't have taken very much searching at all to find out that this is one of the easiest cars to do any stereo work on.

changing the radio is as easy as buying the parts and putting it in, wire up the harness and follow the directions that come with the dash kit to figure out how to put it together. for a radio you just need a dash kit to mount it, and a harness to hook it up, the extra harness will make you subs work, you dont really want your center effect speakers to work, and there is an adapter you need to get to have the steering wheel controls work. if not really sure why you would have seen that it is hard or problematic by googling

http://bit.ly/1eVHamK
hell, one of the results from the very first page is the instructions set from here... dont get much easier than that.



hardest part of changing the speakers is taking off the door panels, which as far as door panels goes, these are cake.





I just replaced my AVIC-F900BT with a AVH-X3500BT. so far I'm pretty happy with it, BT works much better, pandora is great. personally, I would never get the 5500 as i dont like monitors with moving faces.




if you really know how to install radios, then you should have no problem installing into this car, or if your really good at reading and following manuals then you should have no problems installing in this car, if you can search for and follow very easy to follow threads with instructions with plenty of pictures hen you should have no problem installing in this car.

however if you do not fall into one of these groups, then this is a great week to save some money at that best buy. because till the end of this week they are offering free install on that radio ($100 off) plus 25% off of any of the parts while not as cheap as you can get them online, thats $5 off each for the dash kit and wire harness. they are also having a sale on their adapter for retaining steering wheels controls. its normally a $105 part (ASWC) an $60 to put it in but thats $105 installed.