Head Unit upgrade for an e46

[almoststew1990]

I am moving house and will have a bit of a commute soon, so I am looking to replace the standard business head unit with something with bluetooth, USB and better sound quality.

Looking on eBay most head units seem to be the tablet like things but from brands that I've never heard of, and with quite outdated computer specs, and they don't even mention any audio specs!

Can anyone recommend a double DIN head unit that has physical buttons as well as a tablet like screen, and will offer better sound quality than the pretty awful Business tape / 6CD changer that is in the car already?

I think I need a bracket thing for the aircon unit that gets dropped to the space below too...

(also, are the standard speakers crap and/or do I need to upgrade those too)

P.S loving the picture resize feature built into the forum now!

 

[Yaayuh!]

Paging @mrk

 

[Delta3D]

I used an Eonon unit in my 330i project (which lasted all of 2 months before I sold it..), bought it from an older bloke who had put a horrible glass tablet thing in but much prefered the OEM+ look to it with buttons. Go for a 4GB unit as the 2GB has rumours of lagging etc.

It had a "bass boost" mode on it, which actually made the OEM speakers sound half good! (Without being completely bassy overridden)

BMW sell a relocate kit but it's close to £200, so you're best off getting an ebay relocate kit, does the same job

 

[almoststew1990]

Thanks for that, when you say relocate 'kit' is it just the bracket for the HVAC or is there more to it?

 

[Delta3D]

Thanks for that, when you say relocate 'kit' is it just the bracket for the HVAC or is there more to it?

Yep, precisely that Just a bracket!

Something like this generally works

E46 HVAC Relocation Bracket BMW

The BMW E46 HVAC Relocation Bracket - a cost-effective solution for relocating the HVAC controls when upgrading the radio system.

clickprints.co.uk

 

[jpaul]

earlier thread

Recommend Me an Android Head Unit for an E46! (Please)

Hey, guys. I've got the original double-din nav unit at the moment, and I'd like to replace it with something that can run Waze / Google Maps, and Spotify. Ideally, I'd also like to be able to root it and install ViPER4Android so that I can correct the sound system. Any recommendations? Thanks!

forums.overclockers.co.uk

but if it is the audio quality that matters, and you are prepared to use your phone as the digital source - can get some audison amps with dsp equalization that will take the output from existing head, or the phone, in the similar ~£500 price bracket as an android hu.

 

[mrk]

Paging @mrk

I have the Erisin OEM-styled unit from 2015 that has so far done the job well, but only in more recent times has shown its age in terms of RAM and storage space as apps have now grown much mor ethan what they used to be, so I will be upgrading toon to the latest AVIN Avant 4 unit.

The stock E46 speakers are really excellent, it's the amp/stereo that is total pants, even the HK audio upgrade is quite rubbish compared to what the speakers are capable of. I use currently the Viper4Android FX Audio engine (old version) to EQ the internal Android audio engine which transforms the sound from a software point alone. Bass, treble and detail is much more in-line with modern cars and in some cases makes it feel like there's even a small subwoofer.

Here's what mine looks like:

Your stock setup is the same as mine was, you need the BMW HVAC relocation trim which is around £60 from BMW. Don't opt for cheaper alternatives as they are pants quality. You don't need a cable extension (FAKRA cable) to go to the boot as you don't have stock nav. Everything else is plug and play and will come with the new unit really. You may just have to buy the steering buttons control module that sits in the middle of the harness connectors depending on what unit you buy, the AVANT comes with it all however:

AVANT 4 Multimedia Navigation System for BMW 3-Series E46 / M3

Wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto supported with AutoPlay dongle.*Sale! Only $359.99 for PX4 Android 11 !

avinusa.com

Here's what Viper4Android FX is like on/off:

It's an old vid with the old phone, so excuse the audio compression!

 

[Bradmax57]

I've got the xtrons 6gb 128gb snapdragon with dsp, sound is good, I find the wireless apple car play a pita tbh, still need to connect a live positive to it so it doesnt fully shut down on exit, one thing that is unbarable is the glare from sun through the rear screen, i'm actually debating on putting the original nav back in

 

[mrk]

Just get a matte antiglare screen protector for a tablet and cut to size. Simples.

I have ordered the AVIN Avant 4 PX6 now, got the 6-core 64GB model with 4GB RAM - The later model with 8-core Snapdragon 6GB was the original option but it seems the PX6 is more compatible with less crashes for some people and I opted for the higher end EQ too as well as a bunch of other options.

 

[Bradmax57]

May do that, can’t say I’ve had a single crash on mine

 

[jpaul]

software on the newer 8 core platform must be more widely debugged on OEM platforms now, since earlier discussion a few years back, plus I thought the dsp was on-board on the soc.

Viper on a standard arm processor may only operate at lower sampling rate than a dedicated dsp so should be better...... but, there are more dsp/amps in the market now, so adding one of those onto existing HU from audio quality perspective is still my strategy, replacing existing HU in new cars is uneconomic when the money could be spent on the AMP components versus a display, say.

 

[Atari]

I had a Eonon GA9150A in my E46 330i Clubby up until the start of the year when someone wrote it off.

I think from memory it was an 8 core unit with 4GB RAM and Android 9 or 10. The bluetooth connectivity was the best part of it over the stock system, but the rest of the unit absolutely sucked, constantly slow and laggy and the thing would crash often. A third party ROM helped things a bit, but not by much unfortunately.

 

[mrk]

Got the Avin PX6 with DSP/i-Bus today. Quality seems good and the rubbery knobs are like the OEM nav unit ones. The stylig is also 1:1 OEM pretty much. Will install one day this week.

 

[Bradmax57]

Got the Avin PX6 with DSP/i-Bus today. Quality seems good and the rubbery knobs are like the OEM nav unit ones. The stylig is also 1:1 OEM pretty much. Will install one day this week.

Will you be using it for handsfree if so have you bought a external mic? my xtrons unit is ok quality wise but even with a external mic the volume is very low and ive set it too max so would be interested to see what yours is like

 

[mrk]

I will yeah. The old Erisin I have has been fine for hands free calls and I was just using the built in mic for that. The external mic connector on the new Avin unit has a 3.5mm jack connnector though so I will use that if the built in mic is not good enough.

Will report back.

 

[almoststew1990]

Did any of you need the BM6M power cable extension for your head units?

 

[Bradmax57]

Did any of you need the BM6M power cable extension for your head units?

Yes I did as I had factory nav and also an antenna extension

 

[mrk]

Didn't have factory nav so didn't need anything for mine, everything came in the new unit's box both times.

 

[mrk]

Quick update on the AVIN unit I got (PX6) as have had the chance to use it in anger recently. Thoughts are that it is absolutely excellent. The DSP upgrade option on the AVIN site is well worth having. The sound quality is better resolved than even Viper4AndroidFX, and that app requires root to work properly... With the upgraded DSP, the sound wipes the floor with Harmon Kardon and the like. The stock E46 speakers are very capable, when given the chance.

The speed and buttons for everything are a great convenience, too.

The best bit of all is that recently I had not driven the car for a full week, and when I went to start up one morning, the stereo booted up instantly. Within 2 seconds of turning the key the last app I had open loaded up (Google Maps) ready to go and it connected to my phone's bluetooth and hotspot automatically as per my Bixby Routine configuration on the phone. I could then press the play button on the front panel which then resumed playback in Spotify, even though spotify was not active, so AVIN must be doing some memory caching internally or something. My unit is running Android 11 out of the box for reference.

On the old Erisin unit there was an option under the CAR settings menu where you specified how long the unit stayed in "sleep" mode before it properly shut down. The max time available was 2 hours. After this point the unit would do a cold boot. So overnight parking always meant waiting 20-30 seconds for it to start up. On the PX6 the same setting is there but with the option of an Auto setting too. So you seemingly can leave it on sleep mode for a week (probably more) and still get that instant bootup. I suspect they have put high capacity capacitors in these new units to allow for this, since the E46 cuts all power to the stereo, 12v outlet etc after several minutes once the car is locked. I don't know if non AVIN units have this feature.

I am very impressed with it.

 

[Bradmax57]

Did you have to run a constant live to cigarette lighter or similar for the instant boot up? my xtrons is supposed to do the same but it does a full boot everytime which is quick enough tbh