Here's the first draft:
(Sorry for the night iPhone photos)
Summary:
-AppRadio is better than expected
-Steering Controls Work
-Microphone is wired in factory location by sunroof button
-GPS Antenna located behind speedometer
-iPhone cord routed through ash tray
(thanks for the ideas XOutpost users)
How it looks:
The double din kit I picked up from a local stereo shop looks a lot better than I had originally thought. I'm not sure if it needs anything more, I might order matching black vinyl as the dash and wrap it so it looks a lot less obvious but for now it'll do.
Its not quite as clean as some of the other touchscreen installs I've seen but for a first effort I'll take it.
So how good is the AppRadio deck?
Waiting for the install I ventured online to read up on some user reviews along with a few how to's so I could lessen the learning curve. This is hands down the best head unit I've ever bought functionality wise but it does have its quirks. The most obvious is the missing clock from most screens, which doesn't bother me that much. The touch gesture is a little more frustrating as the screen essentially is running apps off of your phone yet you cannot interact with it the way you would with your phone, only sometimes. Let me explain, when I'm making a call through my iPhone I go to contacts and scroll by flicking my finger vertically on the screen until I find the person I want to get a hold of. When I pull up my contact list on the AppRadio, its in the same order and format, however I have to use arrow buttons to go one by one (unless I've missed something), until I get there.
Its not that hard to get used to and the App/iPod control is actually pretty impressive. A lot of reviews will pick this aspect apart when in fact its actually the best piece. Many of the reviews say you can't listen to music while navigating using Motion GPS-X. You can. You can listen to music the entire time whether you're in that app, another, or just changing settings. To do this, before you go into the navigation menu you need to simply launch the iPod or Pandora or anyone of the 6 streaming music apps available. Its that simple.
Overall, the interface was not that difficult to get used to based on its iPhone similarities; add in the functional steering wheel controls, bluetooth handsfree, GPS antenna and Pioneer quality and you've got yourself a really nice media station.
If you're thinking of doing this too, I'd recommend it. Its a really nice setup. The AppRadio2 will be out later this year and solves a few of the minor issues above but will also come with a $7-800 price tag. I'm happy with this and who knows, that warranty might come in handy in the future.
Ok, but how does it sound?
Currently the HU is wired into a conversion harness just as if it was a stock deck. I've made no modifications to the speakers, wire, amp, etc. Today I only had a few hours to listen to it but made sure I ran it through its courses of various music types, especially music I know well and can listen for the added or missing intricacies. As a reminder, since I didn't bypass the existing factory amp (My X5 is non-navi/non-DSP), we're sending an active signal to a passive 10 channel amp with crossover built-in.
In general, it actually sounds better than expected. This is only a 50x4 deck. At what I would call 'normal volume' which is 50% power (Volume setting at 25 on a scale of 50) from the HU through the factory amp, it is at its best. You can use a 10 foot voice and still talk if you want another volume gauge. Mids are thumping but not blaring, highs are high but not screeching, lows can be felt. Anymore than that and all of the channels start to peak and bleed into a mess of distortion approaching maddening eardrums of crappy sounds of your favorite music.
To be fair, some more balanced songs can be played louder and sound really good. Led Zeppelin is a good example.
For probably more than half the people that use their X5 as a daily driver, this is probably more than enough. It sounds good for the price and will play next to any type of music cleanly.
But this is the Xoutpost.
Time for Stage 2: speakers, amp, swearing at wires and more.