not literally..

Hi all, new here was on bimmerforums but the forums are very quite...

anyway UK, 2001 x5 4.4 sport....love it...BUT hating the original media set up it's the 16:9 widscreen satnav/TV etc., i have no sound from FM radio, static from the MW, its searches and finds stations but no sound, sound from TV obviously static as it's analogue..so my misery is only being able to play CDs...

I have tried disconnecting fuses, even left the battery off for 24 hours but no radio sound still??

so my question is...

1} can i simply take the head unit out leave the blue and white leads where they are in the dash and just run a 5 metre extension cable from the rear radio connector to the dash and fit a simple new aftermarket head unit, will all the speakers etc be connected would the sound improve as i have the basic set up

i know aftermarket look mostly horrific but i just want a newer system with bluetooth, radio etc...as the OEM is pretty pointless apart from looking neat it would cost silly money to bring it up to date!!

thanks in advance guys