BeemerGaz Posted July 27, 2016 Report Share Posted July 27, 2016 Hi folks, I'm after your sound advice again regarding changing the stereo which is the usual 'Business tape 6 CD changer' and would like your thoughts on my choices. I've got about 4 USB memory sticks with stacks of music on them so I'm basically after a new stereo which has a USB connection. An AUX in and memory card slot would be nice as well but not important. I'm not after one which has the sound capability of Motorhead (RIP Lemmy) playing live in a small pub with floor to ceiling Marshalls...just one which is audible with a good sound. I've been looking at a few on eBay and I'd like your opinions on them. Also any other options that you reckon I should look at. I'll attach a couple of them here for your perusal... http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/271032824686?_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/221825516619?_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT Thanks all for any help and advice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ibrahimx2001 Posted July 28, 2016 Report Share Posted July 28, 2016 I would go for this 122057129784 - eBay item number Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BeemerGaz Posted July 28, 2016 Author Report Share Posted July 28, 2016 Cheers Ibrahim, I'll keep watching the item to see how much it's going up by. You never know the seller might be okay with it being collected! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kal187 Posted July 30, 2016 Report Share Posted July 30, 2016 I prefer the stock look personally. I am going to order a Dynavin N6 this week. Just picked up my Bavsound Fronts and rears after paying eye watering USD conversion rates and duty charges. They better be good! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DennisCooper Posted August 8, 2016 Report Share Posted August 8, 2016 Hi, The BSW speakers were designed and constructed for the BMW OEM audio systems as they 'make the best of the oem amplifier'. They will play with the N6, but they won't be performing 'as designed' and you'd have got pretty much the same or perhaps even a little bit better by going for some good quality/brand £100 front components, £50 rear's that are already in the UK officially, and saving yourself £350 or so! Due to their 'custom' design, then the best amplifier to drive them with is BSW/Bimmertech's oem amplifier upgrade as that is also 'customised' with BMW specific parameters. Once fitted, if they sound good to you, then that's fine. I'd personally not recommend anyone getting an aftermarket head unit to go with the BSW's for the speakers as there's so many quality speakers available for a lot less which would be a better setup. Cheers, Dennis! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bennno2005 Posted August 8, 2016 Report Share Posted August 8, 2016 (edited) On 7/30/2016 at 09:27, kal187 said: I prefer the stock look personally. I am going to order a Dynavin N6 this week. Just picked up my Bavsound Fronts and rears after paying eye watering USD conversion rates and duty charges. They better be good! Mate had bought a Dynavin for his M3. The only difference to the Chinese thing I had in my old one was his cost an extra £400 and didn't fit properly as they're designed for a LHD E46. He had to chop a big chunk out of his air duct and glue a piece of plastic onto it to stop air leaking out Edited August 8, 2016 by bennno2005 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DennisCooper Posted August 13, 2016 Report Share Posted August 13, 2016 Hi In all the UK forum's postings about the supply of Dynavin N6's for the E46, I've never heard of the unit's being 'handed' until this post. The units are NOT designed to be different for LHD and RHD in all of the advertising and the website they own, so something was different/incorrect about his car itself in that area or he made some installation errors. Cheers, Dennis! RichS 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kal187 Posted August 14, 2016 Report Share Posted August 14, 2016 On 8 August 2016 at 13:37, DennisCooper said: Hi, The BSW speakers were designed and constructed for the BMW OEM audio systems as they 'make the best of the oem amplifier'. They will play with the N6, but they won't be performing 'as designed' and you'd have got pretty much the same or perhaps even a little bit better by going for some good quality/brand £100 front components, £50 rear's that are already in the UK officially, and saving yourself £350 or so! Due to their 'custom' design, then the best amplifier to drive them with is BSW/Bimmertech's oem amplifier upgrade as that is also 'customised' with BMW specific parameters. Once fitted, if they sound good to you, then that's fine. I'd personally not recommend anyone getting an aftermarket head unit to go with the BSW's for the speakers as there's so many quality speakers available for a lot less which would be a better setup. Cheers, Dennis! My plan is to run a 5 channel JL audio amp and sub woofer as well and amp up the speakers too. I'm not going to just run them off the head unit. The the reason I went for BSW is because they were the only company that supplies a set of rear speakers for the e46. Maybe I didn't look hard enough but I couldn't find a decent set of rears (Rainbow, Focal) etc. Will document set-up and feedback. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bennno2005 Posted November 25, 2016 Report Share Posted November 25, 2016 On 8/13/2016 at 17:39, DennisCooper said: Hi In all the UK forum's postings about the supply of Dynavin N6's for the E46, I've never heard of the unit's being 'handed' until this post. The units are NOT designed to be different for LHD and RHD in all of the advertising and the website they own, so something was different/incorrect about his car itself in that area or he made some installation errors. Cheers, Dennis! Sounds like you are speaking from hearsay rather than first hand experience. It was installed to a UK spec M3 and wouldnt go in until he cut a chunk out of the air duct. We pulled the unit and compared it to the Eonon which was in my E46 and it was clear to see that the shape of the back of the Dynavin was causing the issue. Definitely not worth the extra £400 extra. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RichS Posted November 25, 2016 Report Share Posted November 25, 2016 9 hours ago, bennno2005 said: Sounds like you are speaking from hearsay rather than first hand experience. It was installed to a UK spec M3 and wouldnt go in until he cut a chunk out of the air duct. We pulled the unit and compared it to the Eonon which was in my E46 and it was clear to see that the shape of the back of the Dynavin was causing the issue. Definitely not worth the extra £400 extra. Quite a number of the double DIN replacement units need modification of the ducts behind the unit so it isn't listed as LHD or RHD, so Dennis is right and your friend wasn't advised the cutting up might be necessary. And I'm talking from experience, not secondhand, as i own an E46 vert with a decent amount of high-end audio (including a Kenwood DNX8160DAB h/u) installed and a very good relationship with my installer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bennno2005 Posted November 29, 2016 Report Share Posted November 29, 2016 On 11/25/2016 at 17:42, Rich (BoxClever) said: Quite a number of the double DIN replacement units need modification of the ducts behind the unit so it isn't listed as LHD or RHD, so Dennis is right and your friend wasn't advised the cutting up might be necessary. And I'm talking from experience, not secondhand, as i own an E46 vert with a decent amount of high-end audio (including a Kenwood DNX8160DAB h/u) installed and a very good relationship with my installer. No Dennis is wrong - read the posts again. He's saying the Dynavin's should fit right in without the duct needing to be cut up. The Dynavin required him to cut his ducts up, they didn't advise him that it would need doing but it became obvious when trying to install it. The cheapo ching chong unit I had in my car fitted perfectly however despit being half the price. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dontpannic Posted November 29, 2016 Report Share Posted November 29, 2016 On 11/25/2016 at 17:42, Rich (BoxClever) said: Quite a number of the double DIN replacement units need modification of the ducts behind the unit so it isn't listed as LHD or RHD, so Dennis is right and your friend wasn't advised the cutting up might be necessary. And I'm talking from experience, not secondhand, as i own an E46 vert with a decent amount of high-end audio (including a Kenwood DNX8160DAB h/u) installed and a very good relationship with my installer. Almost 90% certain that LHD cars do not require cutting of the air ducts, whereas RHD cars do because of the angle of the dashboard. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DennisCooper Posted December 1, 2016 Report Share Posted December 1, 2016 Hi, Here's the Dynavin E46 N6 product page from what is the UK importer Status Vehicle Technology http://www.dynavinstore.com/store/shop/bmw-series/dynavin-n6-e46.html Here's the official Dynavin brand website http://www.dynavin.com/products/n6_e46.php Both do not mention about specific versions for a Left hand drive E46 nor a Right hand drive E46. Given that most of the worlds countries are Left Hand Drive, then Dynavin *must've* known that to sell their units into the UK and Australia and Japan (and any other RHD countries) that they'd have had to make a specific Right hand drive version. I'm not speaking from personal experience as I prefer long established and reputable brand car audio that's much better quality so haven't installed a Dynavin into an E46. Given the amount of posts on this and m3cutters and a number of other UK forums where E46 owners have installed a Dynavin and reported back onto the forum post, then as per above, this one is the first I've seen that mentions the Dynavin N6 has different versions for LHD and RHD. In recent history, a member on this forum took Status Vehicle Technology to court about the fact their Dynavin N6 wasn't fit for purpose and won. This suggests that if Dynavin in all their websites and online advertising haven't mentioned that their units NEED to have a LHD and RHD version for the E46, then it's just another example of how inept they are. Not sure if beemerGaz is still reading this or has updated in another post which head unit he went for! Kal187 - how did you find your N6? did you need to cut significant parts of your airbox/ducts to make it fit? Cheers, Dennis! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bennno2005 Posted December 2, 2016 Report Share Posted December 2, 2016 (edited) 10 hours ago, DennisCooper said: Hi, Here's the Dynavin E46 N6 product page from what is the UK importer Status Vehicle Technology http://www.dynavinstore.com/store/shop/bmw-series/dynavin-n6-e46.html Here's the official Dynavin brand website http://www.dynavin.com/products/n6_e46.php Both do not mention about specific versions for a Left hand drive E46 nor a Right hand drive E46. I didn't say they did do a LHD version or a RHD version. I was saying they are obviously designed for LHD E46's as they sure as s**t aren't plug and play in a RHD car! They don't say LHD or RHD because I'm guessing that don't offer a version that fits properly in a RHD car - a poor show IMO. My mate was a bit pissed off having paid 3 times what I did for a unit that did the same things mine did, even more so when it wouldn't even fit in the car it was designed for! Edited December 2, 2016 by bennno2005 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dontpannic Posted December 2, 2016 Report Share Posted December 2, 2016 Its a difficult one. It's just down to the layout of the dashboard. No full size double DIN unit will fit in a RHD car without modification of the air ducting behind. LHD cars have the clearance. Shallow units such as the Asteroid Smart will fit fine, and the Chinese units also fit fine as they are a single DIN case with a shallow screen and front panel. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DennisCooper Posted December 11, 2016 Report Share Posted December 11, 2016 Hi, Bennno2005 - I agree with you that 'IF' indeed the Dynavin has been designed for a LHD E46 and they didn't make a RHD version knowing there'd be physically fitment issues, then as we've both mentioned, it's a very poor show from them given that it's not mentioned on their website or any sales brochures etc. My point is, that on all the other UK forums where the unit is mentioned and purchased by others, your's is the first one where I've read there's this level of fitment issue. No one else seems to have mentioned they had to cut/modify the airbox/pipes to fit a Dynavin N6. On this thread, it's why I've asked Kal187 if he had to do what your mate did. dontpannic - That's just it! your last sentence is what Bennno is challenging with the Dynavin N6 specifically ! Wonder what BeamerGaz went for eventually ! Cheers, Dennis! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dontpannic Posted December 12, 2016 Report Share Posted December 12, 2016 So the N6 is a full depth double din unit? In which case yes, the air ducting will need modification in RHD cars. LHD cars I think are fine due to the dashboard angle. There aren't different variations for RHD or LHD. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DennisCooper Posted December 13, 2016 Report Share Posted December 13, 2016 Hi dontpannic, The Dynavin N6 is a single DIN traditional depth (as it has a disk mechanism internally) chassis with a faceplate that matches the dimensions of various car dash area apertures. I agree with you that they've not provided any indication that their units have LHD and RHD versions. Bennno's post above is the first I've read that a car needed it's airbox cutting and extensively at that, to fit one in. It's the same with all the other Chinese units, none mention anything to do with having handed versions to suit LHD & RHD. Cheers, Dennis! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BeemerGaz Posted January 3, 2017 Author Report Share Posted January 3, 2017 Hi folks, Firstly I apologise for the lack of communication. Anyway I've read all your replies and thought I'd eventually chip in and tell you that I've gone down the route of buying a normal din stereo...to be precise a Pioneer DEH-X6600DAB. I was contemplating getting one of the double din android units but I wouldn't really use it that much so couldn't warrant the extra cost and hassle of fitting it etc. I haven't fitted it as yet so when I do I'll be posting some before and after pics and hopefully the process. Thanks very much for your replies and all the ideas and solutions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
realboss7669 Posted January 24, 2017 Report Share Posted January 24, 2017 Looks like you are now sorted but for anyone reading this check out bungers thread which I tagged onto with my aweful experience resulting in a court case. Outcome is posted here: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
