EONON Amp vs BMW HI-Fi Amp (bypass?)

[xskizzx]

Hello Everyone,

I'm new here and recently scored a 03 x5 3.0i with 58k miles in Cali. I'm normally a DIY guy, but just had am now a dad and free time is a premium. I just recently had a local shop install the EONON GA9166a and backup cam, but I'm noticing a high end distortion.

I noticed right after install that the sound was extremely loud so I went into the settings and dropped it 6db, but I'm still getting quite a bit of distortion on the highs (high hat crackle). I did notice that the Eonon unit has it's own AMP and there is a factory BMW amp in the back. I was wondering how others have worked with bypassing one or the other. I'm assuming the crackle has something to do with the signal being double amplified so I kind of want to know what my options are. Unfortunately the shop doesn't provide warranty because it's not their equipment, but I think they still might help a little bit. Ultimately what I want to know what are my options and what will work best.

This is a NON-DSP, NON-NAV car

I do plan on upgrading the amp and speakers in the summer, but wanted to have tolerable listening right now.

So I'm thinking either bypass the BMW amp somewhow and use the onboard Eonon amp.

Disable the Eonon Amp by dropping it to the lowest -DB setting (not sure if that actually will disable anything)

Or do I need to put back the old equipment and mess with the volume control and set it to 0? Does the old system/amp retain any of the settings from the original equipment.

Any help would be greatly appreciated this is my first BMW so I'm in for a bit of learning. My last car was a 06 Nissan Sentra Spec V and those are very simple cars. : ) I feel like this install should have been simpler

[Crowz]

That's strange as my Seicane is going thru the bmw factory amp the same way I imagine the eonon is and I didn't run into any of that. Unless something went wrong on the install I have no idea what is causing that.

[jayarc]

My experience putting an Eonon GA8150 Android 7 head unit into my e46 was that I personally found the sound quality to go down, way down. I have a feeling the digital audio card or amp inside the head units is pretty bad. My head unit had an anemic, no-low-end sound, almost all high end. You'd hear almost all cymbals and no mids/bass so much so that half the time I just turn it off. No matter what EQ adjustments were tried it sounds so bad. I have heard that people have solved this by adding an additional pioneer head unit inside the glove box and then they use that to push better sound to the speakers.


Here's the post, https://forum.e46fanatics.com/showth...7#post16654977


I haven't tried the pioneer in the glove box yet but I do plan on it. The experience outside the sound quality has been ok.

[wpoll]

Originally Posted by Crowz

That's strange as my Seicane is going thru the bmw factory amp the same way I imagine the eonon is and I didn't run into any of that. Unless something went wrong on the install I have no idea what is causing that.

In most cases you are no longer using the factory amp if you fit an android head unit; the most obvious exception is with DSP.

If you have only a CD Player and MID unit up front (and no rear amp) then the factory amp is INSIDE the CD Player head unit and is removed when you remove the CD Player head unit. The speaker cables (on the 17-pin or 40-pin connector) connect directly to the android HU amp.

If you had a BM54 radio/amp in the trunk/boot then this is also disconnected when you attach the long android loom to the 17-pin or 40-pin connector that WAS in the factory amp. It makes little difference if you pull the BM54 unit from the trunk at this point - it's no longer connected - it's just ballast.

[xskizzx]

Originally Posted by wpoll

In most cases you are no longer using the factory amp if you fit an android head unit; the most obvious exception is with DSP.

If you have only a CD Player and MID unit up front (and no rear amp) then the factory amp is INSIDE the CD Player head unit and is removed when you remove the CD Player head unit. The speaker cables (on the 17-pin or 40-pin connector) connect directly to the android HU amp.

If you had a BM54 radio/amp in the trunk/boot then this is also disconnected when you attach the long android loom to the 17-pin or 40-pin connector that WAS in the factory amp. It makes little difference if you pull the BM54 unit from the trunk at this point - it's no longer connected - it's just ballast.

What is weird is that there is a factory amp in the back as well hidden from normal view. As far as I know the guy just did the plug and play. Modified the inside bracket to fit it and then ran the backup camera to the back. I'm eager to know how this is wired.

Having two amps (eonon and factory) seems like a bad time to me. It would explain the extreme loudness and distortion when I picked it up.

I probably should have just put this in myself from the beginning... sigh

If it is indeed the DACs... I might play the quality lottery with eonon if they will work with me, otherwise I'll probably return it despite the awesome amount of features and I'll just cut my losses from the install. Not sure I want to ad additional hardware just to make this work. Thank you for that option though.. I may bite the bullet later on.

EDIT: Without taking it out the amp reads
Model No. AMP E53
P/NO 65. 12-8 379 376
Amplifier
Car Specific Equalizing
12V D.C Negative GND.

[tmaxx445]

Originally Posted by wpoll

In most cases you are no longer using the factory amp if you fit an android head unit; the most obvious exception is with DSP.

If you have only a CD Player and MID unit up front (and no rear amp) then the factory amp is INSIDE the CD Player head unit and is removed when you remove the CD Player head unit. The speaker cables (on the 17-pin or 40-pin connector) connect directly to the android HU amp.

If you had a BM54 radio/amp in the trunk/boot then this is also disconnected when you attach the long android loom to the 17-pin or 40-pin connector that WAS in the factory amp. It makes little difference if you pull the BM54 unit from the trunk at this point - it's no longer connected - it's just ballast.

All US market cars have a separate discreet amplifier mounted in the rear. We never got the lowest tier stereo setup that other countries did. We had the Hifi and the DSP only.

[wpoll]

Originally Posted by tmaxx445

All US market cars have a separate discreet amplifier mounted in the rear. We never got the lowest tier stereo setup that other countries did. We had the Hifi and the DSP only.

Interesting - that explains why the long loom is so popular! But it doesn't change the fact that when you unplug the rear factory Amp connector (17-pin or 40-pin) to attached the long loom, it effectively removes the factory amp from the system....

[tmaxx445]

Originally Posted by wpoll

Interesting - that explains why the long loom is so popular! But it doesn't change the fact that when you unplug the rear factory Amp connector (17-pin or 40-pin) to attached the long loom, it effectively removes the factory amp from the system....

And if you unplug it you will have no audio at all

[Crowz]

Originally Posted by wpoll

Interesting - that explains why the long loom is so popular! But it doesn't change the fact that when you unplug the rear factory Amp connector (17-pin or 40-pin) to attached the long loom, it effectively removes the factory amp from the system....

No the long loom is if you have nav or such. The normal business cd or tape you just plug into the factory harness in the dash. There isn't a long loom to run. As long as you don't have to cut the dash frame you can install an android radio in 15 minutes flat and start listening to music when its the business cd model.

[wpoll]

Got a picture of the wiring?

Unless I'm very much mistaken (entirely possible!) it would be very hard to wire a new android head unit in series with a factory amp - it would NOT be a plug and play task - you would need to cut and splice many wires and it would be a totally useless exercise.....

DSP-equipped cars are wired differently - they effectively already have two amps in series.