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A builder of special edition Corvettes.

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vis_croceus Later stock stereo; other GM cars compatibility; CD mechanism replacement; etc.
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VA
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I have been poking around the internet looking for internal pictures of Delco head units, because my CD has started acting up and I'm looking to see what other GM units use the same CD mechanism (my guess is - most of them).

Anyway, I just ran across this:
http://www.angelfire.com/ks2/xtremeautos/cdrepair/delcorepair.htm

Look at the fourth picture on that page.

I was aware of other cars that use the same HU-CDM arrangement as the late C4, but had not seen a CDM that is bolted on to become part of the HU like this.


And, yep, physically that's the same CD mechanism.

I'm finding references to substituting CD mechanisms out of newer cars which apparently have more modern circuit boards.

Stay tuned...

Posted on: 2012/4/22 10:03
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Matatk Re: Later stock stereo; other GM cars compatibility; CD mechanism replacement; etc.
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Let us know. Might be a cheaper alternative to sending them out for repair.
Posted on: 2012/4/22 11:36
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bogus Re: Later stock stereo; other GM cars compatibility; CD mechanism replacement; etc.
Grand Imperial Pooh-Bah
San Pedro, CA
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This is a good time for a general refresher on 1990-1996 Corvette audio system topography.

1. There is a head unit.

2. There is a receiver/amp/line driver module.

3. There are speaker/amp modules.

On the base Delco system, the head unit talks to the receiver/amp/line driver module. In this installation, this module is a receiver/amp and powers speakers directly.

On the Bose system, the head unit also talks to the receiver/amp/line driver module, but in this installation, the module is a receiver/line driver and the speakers are powered by small amps, one with each speaker module.

No matter the system, all head units are dumb and compatible with each other. If you have a base Delco, you can install a Bose based CD head unit and it will work fine, for all years . The only real difference is color of the silk screening.

Speakers are not all the same, they differ for coupe vs convertible, there was a power bump in 92 so. And, very important, 1990 speaker modules were HARD WIRED.

As for internals, I would be interested in knowing what is interchangeable. If another CD transport can be retrofitted, that would be cool. I am sure a to of other units are available out on the used market for chump change.

One final thought, this topography is, to the very best of my knowledge, unique to the Corvette. I don't even think the Cadillac systems were of this nature. This means if you wish to update to an all new GM head unit from a later vehicle, it could be tricky. Also make sure that the new system doesn't have secondary controllers and things like that...

The C5, and newer, Bose system is totally different, and would require a thorough retrofit to make work. And, to be honest, wouldn't be worth it. I would rather focus on aftermarket before that, or, a GM luxury car audio system - Buick or Cadillac.

Posted on: 2012/4/22 17:02
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vis_croceus Re: Later stock stereo; other GM cars compatibility; CD mechanism replacement; etc.
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Quote:

One final thought, this topography is, to the very best of my knowledge, unique to the Corvette. I don't even think the Cadillac systems were of this nature.



GM luxury cars of the same era have the same 'topography' as the vette. That has always been well known.

The system linked in the OP, which is found in a ton of plebeian GM cars, has the same topography as the vette, and that was news to me.

Posted on: 2012/4/22 22:11
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bogus Re: Later stock stereo; other GM cars compatibility; CD mechanism replacement; etc.
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I was unaware that the Caddy's used the same topography. Their hardware sure looks different, tho.

It's been a while since I last tore into a Caddy or Buick dash; I am talking mid 80s... so my knowledge there is a bit iffy, hence the qualifier.

Well, the CCM aspect, that is odd... I guess the CCM became more popular with the advent of ASR, because now the ABS brain needed to get engine data so it could control that.
Posted on: 2012/4/22 22:34
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vis_croceus Re: Later stock stereo; other GM cars compatibility; CD mechanism replacement; etc.
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One of my initial reactions on opening one of these HU was "this is some cool shit!"

Now that I've played around with it some - this is some cool shit!

The CDM, the cassette unit, the CD unit, and the faceplate are each independent devices that live on the E&S bus.

They all auto-identify at startup. You can move them around on the network (e.g., plug the CD into the spot where the cassette was) and all works fine.

Although it doesn't like having two of the same device plugged in at once...

This is the same E&S bus that in other GM cars is used to talk to external tape, CD, CD changer, onstar, etc. devices. So you should be able to substitute some of those devices or perhaps even add them.

Whether the CDM will recognize any class of device is a good question, and of course the faceplate won't have controls for all of them.

Back to the original question - I'm pretty sure this means we can use CD mechanisms from other GM cars of the same era.

I think 'same era' means stereo systems introduced in the 198?-1994 timeframe. I've found references to "E&S version 1.5" which I think came in with cars introduced after '95, which is why all the aftermarket adapters state they are for '95-up cars.

So if 1.5 stuff is not backward compatible, then the possible sources of spare parts are all just as old as our cars. But maybe it helps to avoid the corvette tax.


Besides the CD acting up, my other reason for going inside the HU was to try and find a more elegant way of aux input. For the last few years I've been hijacking the audio input to the CDM, which meant a CD needed to be spinning.

So there's a bus there we could use - found a few people who have worked on homemade E&S interfaces but all the completed ones I found are for later cars.

I probably won't put a lot more effort into this because long term I am going a different route. I am thinking of cutting the power line to the cassette motor and hijacking the cassette audio for now.

While opening my CD mechanism for cleaning a tiny spring went sproing and now I have to search the entire workshop for it... Resized Image




Posted on: 2012/4/23 23:05
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vis_croceus Re: Later stock stereo; other GM cars compatibility; CD mechanism replacement; etc.
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Oh, and I think the references to using 'newer' Cd mechanisms were describing the one I already have in my 94 as the newer one.

The earlier versions (1990-?) didn't read CD-R from the factory, correct?

Posted on: 2012/4/23 23:09
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bogus Re: Later stock stereo; other GM cars compatibility; CD mechanism replacement; etc.
Grand Imperial Pooh-Bah
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you are right, the earlier units weren't able to read CD-Rs. I have heard of some CD-Rs working in the earlier ones, but that could have been an urban legend, or already updated.

It could also be the difference in quality of the burn and the media used...

Posted on: 2012/4/23 23:21
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-=Jeff=- Re: Later stock stereo; other GM cars compatibility; CD mechanism replacement; etc.
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Bartlett, IL
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Quote:

vis_croceus wrote:
Oh, and I think the references to using 'newer' Cd mechanisms were describing the one I already have in my 94 as the newer one.

The earlier versions (1990-?) didn't read CD-R from the factory, correct?



Correct.. I have a 1991 Headunit and when it was in my car it would read some CD-Rs I think, but not many..

Posted on: 2012/8/9 1:36
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1990 Corvette ZR-1 #1051
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