I'm looking for dimensions of the Mazda factory CD player that came in some of the FCs. It looks like the mounting locations are the same as in my 85 FB, but I just want to make sure.

The measurements of my Mazda stock stereo are: 4.75 in. tall X 6.25 in. deep X 7 in. wide, with the faceplate measuring 7.0625 in. across.

I hope I'm not posting this in the wrong area. If you can help me out, I'd appreciate it. Thanks.

 

Is this CD player any good? Sorry for the lame question, but how else am I going to find out?

 

The quality is actually pretty good for a 15 year old cd player. Theres little noise, volume is pretty good, clarity is good as well. Hardly any bass. I would say it sounds like an extreamly good tape deck with a good discman hooked up to it. It skips a lot.

Dimensions are 8.25 inches wide by about 5 inches high. not sure of depth. Unit weighs about 20 pounds.

You can probably take an inch off the right side. THeres a MUTE control, called the AE system which you may be able to discard and rewire main unit.

The best thing is, its an icebreaker piece. People get fasinated by a working factory cd player from an 80s vehicle.

 

Oh yeah, I'd be unique to have it in the car. If I could find a working one I would swap it in without question. Is there a picture of the back with the connections? I'm wondering if the connections are the same on the CD player unit as on my 85 stereo. Thanks SaabGuy

 

the connections for all second gens are the same. My cd player plugged right in where my standard radio plugged in.

Not sure about 1st gen.

 

SaabGuy what model of RX-7 did you get ur CD-Player off of?

Did u use one from a convertible or a Series 5 and put it on a Series 4 coupe?

A guy locally says that he has one from a Convertible for me but I know the verts have a much different system than the coupes.

 

My cd player came out of a vert. Not sure of the year but probably s4 model.

It just plugged right in. The only thing what wouldnt work right was the anteanna, so I just wired that to extend with the key.


The vert version of the stock cd player has a different sound stage. What this comes down to is less volume in the rear. See, I think the verts had the rear speakers right on the seats and very close to your ears. It still sounds great though. I like more juice in front than the rear. You'll get used to it in like 3 minutes.

Also the vert models had only one button on the right side - a mute button. Non-verts had a second button for something.

 

I really don't know why you'd want to waste your time with the factory CD player. Yes it was amazing stuff 15+ years ago but it's stone age stuff compared to modern CD players. Even entry level namebrand CD tuners will outperform the stock stereo in all respects, some by a considerable margin. Most important would be resistance to skipping. Who wants average quality sound with persistant skipping?

 

The thing with the antennas and aftermart cd players in our cars is rather weird. At least it's not how you think it should work. Apply voltage to the player and the antenna goes down, remove voltage and the antenna goes up.

What you can do is go down to radio shack and pick up a pos/neg gate relay to reverse power signal to the antenna. Maybe not the best solution but my antenna works now.

 

actually the stock cd player has better quality than you think. Sure it wont make Q or anything but its still clean. Its CD quality.

 

SaabGuy, My CD player skips like hell, could the lens just be dirty or is this normal for a 12 year old car? This is in my 1991 Coupe.

 

My factory cd player skips too......what could it be? I tried cleaning, but that didnt seem to help.

 

It skips because it wasn't very good at not skipping to begin with, and it's got 12+ years of wear on top of that. I'm guessing you guys are a bit too young to remember what early CD players were like. Skipping was normal in any CD player that wasn't stationary. In the last decade car CD player manufacturers have spent millions developing technologies to eliminate skipping. Not just transport mechanisms but memory buffers that read several seconds ahead to fill in any gaps from heavy jolts. Having it cleaned by a professional might help a bit, but it'll never cure the problem. Buying a new one will...

 

It's a bit more complicated than that. Most namebrand head units would have several times more power than the stock unit, and the more power you have the cleaner the sound will be at higher volumes. Plus what use is clean sound reproduction if it's skipping all the time?

 

So how much do these stock cd players cost?

What about the special edition 10th AE cdplayer/cassette? IS that worth more because there was only 1500 of them made or???

One of my friends seems to think the stock 10th AE unit is worth more than 120CAD?? Is it?

I don't see anybody paying it for a15 year old cd player....

 

No, that is incorrect. The power antenna on Mazdas in the 80's was a negitive trigger. They work on a ground signal instead of a positive trigger.

If your antenna is going up when your aftermarket radio is turned off (besides that the antenna trigger is wired wrong) your aftermarket radio is not properly grounded.

A simple relay can be used to change the positive antenna up signal that most aftermarket head units put out, to a negitive trigger that the FC's stock antenna can use.

 

bah! I hate the stock CD player in my vert. It skips a lot, and seems to take 15-20 minutes to "warm up" the radio, before it decides to go ahead and read the disk.
I have used several cleaners to no avail.

 

bump

 

If it works perfect and you got $50 USD for it I would be very surprised.

They were crappy new, they didn't get any better after 15 years.

 

hehe i think what most are trying to say in one way or another is...just get an aftermarket setup! you will be more than happy with the quality of sound as well as it will be warranteed if it ***** up. compared to the reliability of the older stock units.

 

HAHA Same problem here with the "warmup" lol I thought it was just me....and mine only has about 30,000 miles so it was barley used. So now I use my Pioneer and sounds so much better with no "warm up" time . And like said above.it does wiegh about 20lbs

Nick

 

I LOVED my stock CD/Tape/Radio in my convertible when I first bought it in 1988 - I think it may have been one of the first cars available from the factory with a CD player. I loved it until I started getting crackling in the amplifier around two years ago. That is the only reason I changed it out.

I used to be able to 'high speed' over railroad tracks without skipping. I think it may have started to skip when it got old only because I had never cleaned the laser(s)?

Maybe that might help?

As for the low power to the rear, the convertible does have speakers in the seats, but it also has a separate amplifier in the rear (where the storage bins would be in the coupe).

Having this amplifier may help you - I don't know. I don't know anything about amps and connections and such.

The upshot is that I replaced the stock head unit with a new system and had the rear amplifier bypassed.

If you want to try it you are welcome to have it for shipping cost.