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Car Stereo Guru's

UDT89

UDT89

Diamond Member
I'm looking to get a new stereo in my truck this winter for christmas. I'm looking at buying all kenwood. They have lcd screen receiver, KVT 815-dvd, at which point i'm going to get the GPS system, and sirius receiver. I'll probably wait to get the sirius equipment until stern goes over.

My question is, i have a BMW X5 and when i get the receiver installed are my steering wheel controlls going to be worthless? Anyone know any sites where i can see how people installed these types of things in X5's and somehow kept the steering wheel controls working?

My last question, is there any system that will allow me to hook my phone up to the stereo that will mimic the factory installed phone system thats in the truck already?

Thanks
 
I would strongly advise you to look at other brands such as Pioneer,Alpine, and Eclipse as they usually make superior products compared to Kenwood. I'm pretty sure you'll lose your steering wheel controls.....thats the downside of aftermarket...but I see it as a little inconvenience for a dramatic increase in sound quality. I've never worked on a BMW as far as installs go......but I am assuming all those factory stuff is going to be useless if its connected to the stock stereo.

Whatever brand you get.....provided you do the installs correctly I'm sure you'll be happy with the sound improvement.
 
Originally posted by: GT578
I would strongly advise you to look at other brands such as Pioneer,Alpine, and Eclipse as they usually make superior products compared to Kenwood. I'm pretty sure you'll lose your steering wheel controls.....thats the downside of aftermarket...but I see it as a little inconvenience for a dramatic increase in sound quality. I've never worked on a BMW as far as installs go......but I am assuming all those factory stuff is going to be useless if its connected to the stock stereo.

Whatever brand you get.....provided you do the installs correctly I'm sure you'll be happy with the sound improvement.
Click to expand...

All of the above make good car stereo's, kenwoods can be very nice also.. depends on the model, the excelons are still awsome. Alpine is awsome too, Clairion was nice.... but they really dropped the ball on their latest models, especially the touchscreen ones... no buttons, what where they thinking on a normal sized radio, sure maybe on a 6" LCD... but not on a normal radio.

The AVIC N1 is a awsome awsome pioneer unit, but it doesnt support Sirius. However I have heard nothing but good things about Kenwoods offering also.

And yes your going to lose your steering wheel controls, very few things out there have the hookups for that.... the only one I can remember is sony has the option to use GM controls on some of their units... but I dont know if that is the case anymore.
 
yea i guess i shouldnt complain since the lcd is touchscreen.

I like kenwood, and the model i'm looking at has a lot of features that i want and isnt that expensive.

Sure i would love to go alpine, but i feel there is too much money in the price allocated for the "name"
 
just looked at taht pioneer AVIC N1

um hi, yea thats a lot better deal. basically something that is programmed for XM cant be changed to sirius???
 
is there a unit that is like the pioneer AVIC N1 that is sirius ready? I like the fact the GPS is built into the pioneer.
 
Nope, there will be, within the next 6 months to a year youll likely see XM tuners that work on sirius ready stuff, and sirius tuners that work on XM ready units. It's starting to hit now, XM just got the XM Direct Tuner which is getting adapters to different types of units, Ive only seen Pioneer and Sony adapters so far. So even if you do go with the AVIC N1 you will beable to get Sirius on it in under a year.
 
My car(firebird) has steering wheel controls too. There is an aftermarket adapter for $30 that you can buy and plug in to keep them functional. There might be something similar for your car. You should check on some X5 boards.

It's easy to get an FM modulator to use with the phone.
 
Originally posted by: scorp00
My car(firebird) has steering wheel controls too. There is an aftermarket adapter for $30 that you can buy and plug in to keep them functional. There might be something similar for your car. You should check on some X5 boards.

It's easy to get an FM modulator to use with the phone.
Click to expand...


That's only IF the unit supports the controls, it has to have something to plug that adapter into... and most do not, I know Sony did, but dont think many others do.
 
i went to the website for the AVIC N1, and i'm a little confused at the features.

Its a single disc player, and i saw that it saves the route you are taking in its memory so you can use it to play cd's mp3s etc. But with the Navi disc in the system, can you listen to the radio while the map is on the screen?

I'm not sure i like the fact that i would have to keep taking out the Navi disc, and keeping it in a safe place. Knowing me, i'll scratch the cd in the first 2 weeks.

Man i gotta research this a lot more than i thought. My kenwood plans were way too expensive, too many components to install when i can get one unit with everything included.
 
Originally posted by: scorp00
My car(firebird) has steering wheel controls too. There is an aftermarket adapter for $30 that you can buy and plug in to keep them functional. There might be something similar for your car. You should check on some X5 boards.

It's easy to get an FM modulator to use with the phone.
Click to expand...

anything besides FM modulator that i can used to get my phone going? i have had nothing but bad experiences using FM modulators.
 
Is there a head unit that can read MP3's burned to a DVD or Dual Layer DVD? Do they support reading off a double sided DVD? Talk about never needing a disk change on the longest trips!

Cheers!
 
Originally posted by: sharkeeper
Is there a head unit that can read MP3's burned to a DVD or Dual Layer DVD? Do they support reading off a double sided DVD? Talk about never needing a disk change on the longest trips!

Cheers!
Click to expand...


I know the kenwood LCD ones support DVD +/- R/RW and MP3s... no idea if it supports MP3s ON a DVD however. I know the AVIC N1 supports -R/RW but not MP3s on a DVD. Then again you can always get the 20GB Music Keg for kenwoods 🙂

Edit: Kenwood doesnt support MP3s on a DVD either.
 
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