I recently acquired a 2005 Outback with the 6 disc CD changer and automatic HVAC controls.
Following a battery discharge, I found the 20A fuse in the engine bay kills the equalizer, which I traced to a bad audio deck, from a few more wires. The CD player doesn’t actually work at all. Radio does, but trying to switch to CD does nothing. The load/eject buttons don’t do anything either.
I had a 2008 Outback with a single disc player, and manual hvac (it’s in the trash now, so I can’t easily compare).
Will the head unit be changed from 08 to 05? Is there a better alternative to making the CD player at least stop the parasitic drain? I would like to spend as little as possible on this. All I need is a working radio that doesn’t kill the battery. 
