I have a 2003 Chevy Blazer with a factory cd changer that the disk input and ejection is giving out. What is your suggestions for a cheap replacement? I like to the route of putting songs on a thumb drive, seems more reliable than cd players. Also the easiest installation. Don't want an inferior sounding one over factory, nor radio with worse reception. What tools and other parts do I need? Go place to buy the stuff. Never did this before.

 

I have an Alpine in mine with a front usb connector that I plug my Ipod into. I thow the Ipod in the glove compartment and it works great with stock speakers. In my conversion van I put in a kenwood with front and rear usb, bluetooth, xm radio.... It's a nice unit and my 2ond Ipod is plugged in back and sits underneath it. Never take it out because it also keeps it charged up. It also give me hands free phone. Both units install easily with kits that are sold everywhere. Get adapter plugs so you can plug it into the existing harness. I installed the one in my van on thanksgiving after dinner, took me about a half hour. hardest part was the mic for phone calls.
I like the alpine for ease of use. Kenwood is more menu driven and takes some time to get used to.


Google the installation, there's a you tube video around somewhere.

 

Can someone help me. Is there a wiring harness to plug into factory wire connector to stereo? I really don't want to be slicing wires, or is that impossible to avoid with my vehicle?

 

There are plugs for the factory plug. Does the stereo have bare ends of a standard port on it?

 

The aftermarket stereo? I didn't buy one yet. Maybe you could direct me on which ones I wouldn't have to splice.

 

https://www.google.com/search?q=2003...utf-8&oe=utf-8

 

Is the Aux. button on the stereo for plugging additional items in? Where would there be a place to plug things into the stereo?

 

Depends what you want out of your stereo. Do a bit of googling to see what is offered and make a list of need and want for your stereo. That's going to narrow things down fairly quickly for you.

After you have your list down to a few, you can look at their wiring options. Sometimes one unit will come in a few wiring options (such as bare wire or universal plug). Either way you are going to need to get the GM plug adapter to go from the GM plug to either bare wire or universal plug on the unit. I would recommend waiting on the plug until you know what the head unit wiring situation is

 

Can't remember if 2003 is double DIN or 1.5 DIN like my 2001.

If you want to play with a ton of features, and don't plan on upgrading the factory speakers and add an amp, the higher end Kenwoods are pretty nifty for play anything/do anything! (For serious sound other choices are probably better, but Kenwoods will certainly sound better than factory)

For a couple hundred you can get one that Bluetooths with your cell phone, and also plays pretty much anything you throw at it on a flash drive (WMA, MP3, WAV, AAC). Note that only the higher end units do WAV. I have a KDC-X898 which is now an older model. Has both front and rear USB inputs - the rear on a fairly long cable attached to the rear of the stereo. I have a very large flash drive in my glove box on the rear USB input with pretty much everything I have. Radio lists directory/sub directories of flash drive using song tags according to artist/album/song. Takes maybe 5 seconds to re-read info on drive every time radio starts up with USB selected or if you change to rear USB, but I think that's not bad for reading over 30GB of MP3s in one location. You don't want a cheap slow flash drive here. I tried a CD in it once, but really no need for CDs with your smart phone and a flash drive. Paired (bluetooth) with my Iphone or Android, it automatically connects for hands-free phone when in range and the phone stays in my pocket. You make/receive call through the stereo and a dash mounted mike. INcoming calls interupt whatever is playing, and then resumes when call is finished. I found the stereo remembers exactly what song was playing when shut off and will go right back to that point (even through bluetooth and phone, it came back to same song I was listening to on the way to work). The stereo downloads and displays your phone list. USB will charge both of my phones, but only connects with Iphone data. My particular new Android does not do the old mass storage protocol required for the stereo to connect via USB and Kewnwood software on the phone. Your experience with different Androids and different Kenwoods may vary. There may be work-arounds. Point is to not assume it will work for everything Android. For me I can still play music and do phone through bluetooth, I just cant connect to Android data with the cable to do other things. My Iphone 4s did everything advertised right out of the box.

Yes, they also have an aux in for a mini stereo jack but who uses that anymore when you have bluetooth and USB. FM reception is slightly better than factory IMHO.

Crutchfield has good install kits with everything that you need and they usually have everything in stock - a reason for me to pay a little more. I needed antenna adapter, mounting system for single DIN, & wiring adapter. At the time, they included the kit for free. You have to wire the adapter to the stereo, but you don't have to cut or splice factory wiring at all.

Like all modern stereos, they are one **** and sound controls other than volume are buried in menus and are pretty difficult to set. Better pull over to adjust until you get very experienced if you want to have punchy bass on all music.

All input displays are individually customizable if you want to do this.

Only real things I can say are truly bad about my Kenwood KDC-X898 is that you lose all your settings if your battery is disconnected, that the default displays are all missing a clock, and if you add a clock in a custom display it takes up an entire line for just a tiny clock (on the far right, at the expense of something else that could be put on that same line). Other than that I am very happy with it. IMHO the failure to connect by old USB protocol is a Samsung Android screwup for not providing a previously utilized USB protocol. My new phone might not connect to data in Linux either (just Windows and Mac), but I have only tried it in Windows, and not on my Linux Box so far. The Linux Geeks may have already worked things out to allow connection using the newer USB protocol.