My car has the CD-changer-ready stock radio system. I currently have a FM modulator for my MP3 player but the sound quality is pretty mediocre. I would like to add a music player/aux-in so I was browsing through what connections there are. The CD changer is controlled through the i-bus but the audio connection seems pretty basic. Would it be this simple to tap into the line-out from the back input of the radio to the CD-changer to a 3.5mm jack on a music player? I have seen an Alpine M-Bus to 3.5mm cable, but I'm not sure if by using only that and plugging the player I will have sound. I think that the changer (if it had one)sends some kind of signal to the radio saying that it is there and can be used. I don't know if the same thing will happen with the MP3 player or will it just sit there without sending sound. I think is just too easy to plug the cable adapter and hope for it to work. Does anybody have experience with this?
Sorry...didn't even read your whole post the first time. Your MP3 player needs nothing to tell it to send sound other than what you would do to use it with headphones. I found a pinout of the m-bus that seems to show that it is just a simple Left/Ground/Right input...so a cable like this one: http://www.amazon.com/PIE-ALP-M-3-5..._2?ie=UTF8&s=automotive&qid=1282983084&sr=8-2 should work. Here is the pinout if you want to try to make it yourself. http://kiora.ath.cx/alpine/7513din.gif ...or if you already have a 3.5 to twin RCA adapter, you could save a few buck by getting this cable: http://www.amazon.com/PIE-M-RCA-Alp..._4?s=automotive&ie=UTF8&qid=1282983358&sr=1-4
I bought the cable off ebay, installed it, but it didn't work. I pushed the AT-M button (don't know why it is called that)but all I could hear was a very faint sound of music in the background. I have a Suzuki 10 disc-changer-able radio.