Alpine CHM-S620 6-Disc CD Changer

I bought one of these in Jan 2002 as it interfaced directly with the OE Head unit in my Alfa 156 [which I had just bought 2nd hand]. It is a brilliant bit of kit - excellent sound quality, hardly ever skipped or missed a beat. But something fell against it and the sliding door broke about 1 year ago (or so I thought) but this seemed OK as well, until the boot leaked last Autumn. The moisture found its way into the unit and the head unit started flagging up 'no disc'. Eventually it would't read a single disc. Alpine wanted £75.00 for a service exchange but I bought another on e-bay for about £30. Oh - and when I took the old one apart, the door had just come off the runners - should have dont that sooner and kept the moisture out!

Basic but functional CD changer, plugs into Ford CD Compatible Cassette head unit.
If you manage to get a good long cable with it you could fit the unit in the boot of the car.
Brackets should come with the item when sold but you may need to buy a seperate Ford Box unit (5 pin DIN).

Basically this is all I wanted from a CD Changer. It's an Alpine, so you know it's coming with good sound quality and build quality. It's a compact unit, so it is hardly noticeable in your boot, or can fit easily into your glove-box or under a seat etc. Hasn't skipped a track or jumped during playback, thanks to the excellent damping.
It's a good player. Obviously, if you are wanting flashing lights and MP3 playback you will have to look elsewhere, but for good quality playback of CDs and CD-Rs I would recommend this.
Missed out on five stars only because it does not have MP3 playback.

I fitted this unit to my 1990 jaguar xj6, just plugged straight in, no wiring required, and no need to change the radio in the dash.

So much cheaper than the jaguar branded one!

The sound is excellent and I've experienced no skipping even over the bumpiest of roads.

The only downside is no mp3 playback, but hey, what do you want for the price?

Summary:

This is the only changer that was compatible with my car's Alfa Romeo head unit, but I was pleasantly surprised with the sound. Excellent build quality f

Strengths:

Fantastic sound quality. Never skips. Can be installed in a variety of configurations.



Weaknesses:

Changing CD's is much easier with Pioneer's cartridge.