Update your Radio Unit & your SUV

[Rockit]

I had a few minutes today so here is something quick. I have not used it a lot yet, this X5 is a winter car for me.

If your a hard core, has to be BMW look this is probably not for you. I think it looks fine and matches well and all pictures do look much better in person. The plastic surround matches the other plastic in texture and look, its a BMW X5 E53 kit. They remove the CD changer & radio and wood cover. You can make the lights/background orange to match the other instruments but it's mostly blue. There is a small squre antenna they mount on the corner of the dash and you can hardly see it. If you don't have a black dash you notice it more.

The operation of the nav is an 10
Music quietly and adjustable & user friendly 9
Blue tooth operation 9
Back up camera 10 but it looks ugly and obtrusive.
Speaker phone-hands free 10
DVD-CD 9

This is all touch screen, no voice recognition.

You can have up to 4 phones paired, each phone you can set up a list of favorites for that user. This unit is far better than Mercedes and Lexus offer as an all in one message center. I have both cars to compare to. It's pretty much endless what you can do with it. When your older like me you don't have time to use even half the functions. I'm not a geek with this stuff, just giving a brief overview.

I found out I had the wrong model number on my initial post, this is the model number linked, click on Crutchfield link below-I did not buy it from them. I paid $799 installed. Antenna for Satellite & Nav was $100 and the backup camera was $150.
Alpine INE-S920HD Navigation receiver at Crutchfield.com






I'm not crazy about the way it sticks out and if you don't have a black car it will look funny. This is the only camera that will last they sold me from Alpine.

[admranger]

Originally Posted by Rockit

I had a few minutes today so here is something quick. I have not used it a lot yet, this X5 is a winter car for me.

If your a hard core, has to be BMW look this is probably not for you. I think it looks fine and matches well and all pictures do look much better in person. The plastic surround matches the other plastic in texture and look, its a BMW X5 E53 kit. They remove the CD changer & radio and wood cover. You can make the lights/background orange to match the other instruments but it's mostly blue. There is a small squre antenna they mount on the corner of the dash and you can hardly see it. If you don't have a black dash you notice it more.

The operation of the nav is an 10
Music quietly and adjustable & user friendly 9
Blue tooth operation 9
Back up camera 10 but it looks ugly and obtrusive.
Speaker phone-hands free 10
DVD-CD 9

This is all touch screen, no voice recognition.

You can have up to 4 phones paired, each phone you can set up a list of favorites for that user. This unit is far better than Mercedes and Lexus offer as an all in one message center. I have both cars to compare to. It's pretty much endless what you can do with it. When your older like me you don't have time to use even half the functions. I'm not a geek with this stuff, just giving a brief overview.

I found out I had the wrong model number on my initial post, this is the model number linked, click on Crutchfield link below-I did not buy it from them. I paid $799 installed. Antenna for Satellite & Nav was $100 and the backup camera was $150.
Alpine INE-S920HD Navigation receiver at Crutchfield.com






I'm not crazy about the way it sticks out and if you don't have a black car it will look funny. This is the only camera that will last they sold me from Alpine.

Looks nice and I like that you don't have to have a PhD in Android/geek to get it to work.

However, I am still curious as to how this is amp'd (did you have DSP system before?), and how they integrated into the vehicle (wiring -- how'd they do it as the amp and 'radio box' are in the back of the X5).

[Rockit]

Originally Posted by admranger

Looks nice and I like that you don't have to have a PhD in Android/geek to get it to work.

However, I am still curious as to how this is amp'd (did you have DSP system before?), and how they integrated into the vehicle (wiring -- how'd they do it as the amp and 'radio box' are in the back of the X5).

Kirk,

I don't have DSP....I've had that on other cars and I really never noticed a difference in volume from stop to hwy speeds difference...maybe once I was adjusting it on another car and heard a slight difference but it really doesn't matter. This Alpine unit has infinite adjustable to almost anything. Everything about this unit is advanced including the HD Bluetooth.

As far as installation I had it done. I told them I wanted it plug and play and no wires cut and they said the kit does that.

The best thing to do is ask Alpine directly
Customer Service
Alpine Electronics of America, Inc.
(800) 421-2284 Ext.860304
or
(800) ALPINE-1 (1-800-257-4631)

[admranger]

Originally Posted by Rockit

Kirk,

I don't have DSP....I've had that on other cars and I really never noticed a difference in volume from stop to hwy speeds difference...maybe once I was adjusting it on another car and heard a slight difference but it really doesn't matter. This Alpine unit has infinite adjustable to almost anything. Everything about this unit is advanced including the HD Bluetooth.

As far as installation I had it done. I told them I wanted it plug and play and no wires cut and they said the kit does that.

The best thing to do is ask Alpine directly
Customer Service
Alpine Electronics of America, Inc.
(800) 421-2284 Ext.860304
or
(800) ALPINE-1 (1-800-257-4631)

Cool! I think you made a great choice of head units. All the high end alpine stuff I've owned over the years has been very good, sonically.

[Lowblock]

They could have positioned the camera better, that just kinda sticks out there.

I like the alpine product, I use it almost exclusively however like in the e38/9/53 it just looks out of place I don't care what bezel you have around it, doesn't look factory however its the price you pay to get the new cool stuff.

[X5only]

Originally Posted by Lowblock

They could have positioned the camera better, that just kinda sticks out there.

I like the alpine product, I use it almost exclusively however like in the e38/9/53 it just looks out of place I don't care what bezel you have around it, doesn't look factory however its the price you pay to get the new cool stuff.

I just wonder why companies such as Alpine don't make factory looking head units for the different car models when the Chinese companies can pull it off. Can you imagine if they did how much business they would get? I mean there's ever increasing demand that is already supporting a whole host of Chinese companies already, so just imagine the already huge market demand they can tap into with their reputation for quality products if they produced factory looking headunits for the different car makes. I think they would score more sales this way than making "fit all "head units.

[Rockit]

Here are a couple of YouTube links that are helpful I found. I've seen this unit installed on other models on You tube like Porsche & MB and Audi and it looks huge or it was made for the car. Because BMW uses longer head units in the X5-5-7 series they look smaller.

BMW X5 Factory Navigation and DSP bypassed Alpine Navigation AL & EDS LA - YouTube


Alpine INE-S920HD Demo Power up VIDEO HOW TO AL & ED'S AUTOSOUND Los Angeles - YouTube

Alpine INE-S920HD Multimedia Receiver - YouTube