swauto 4 Report post Posted November 1, 2014 (edited) Hi Guys Finally got some time to put some infomation here. Thanks to the USA distributor has done a really good job to wrte up this review. This is a very detailed review and hope you guys can see the big improvment on this product. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The new N6 unit is 2 years in the making, with a big emphasis on higher quality audio components, features, and improved ease of use. You audiophiles will appreciate features like 24bit burr brown D/A converters, 5 band EQ, time alignment, 4 volt preamp outputs (for those of you with aftermarket amps), basically higher end internals across the board... The result is cleaner sound, much more consistent performance, a much better user interface, and a better appearance.....and the best part? The price went DOWN.... WHATS NEW?The "hard buttons" on each side have the same configuration as dynavin has had from the beginning but I noticed right away that the previously "clicky" buttons are now "soft touch". Subtle but nice upgrade and similar to a lot of dynavins more recent models. The knobs are similar to those on the D99 and newer, and thats a good thing, solid with a muted click as they turn. Other than that the unit has a similar "feel" and is cosmetically similar to earlier units.Digital Music: IPOD/SD/USB/Internal HDAs part of the simplification and refinement of the new N6 user interface the ipod, SD, USB, and the internal 4GB storage functions all share the same basic interface. Simple and intuitive, with selections for artist/album/song/playlist, and in the case of SD and USB, additional selections for folders/video files/picture files. The list can be swiped up and down and there is a scroll bar on the side AND a quick jump alphabetical search allowing you to jump to any letter in the lists so large libraries are no longer a problem to navigate. Also in the name of simplicity the ipod now just plugs into the USB plug, no more proprietary cables, no more need for lighting adapters for the newer apple devices. Just use the cables you already have. The unit comes with a USB extension to get the rear mounted USB media plug to the glove compartment, console, etc... and we also have on our website flush mount USB plugs and ipod to USB cables if you want to do something a little more custom.Album art now displays alongside the track info. As you can see, clean and refined is what Dynavin was after here....Interestingly apps like pandora display similarly (from my iphone at least), displaying track info and album art. For those of you interested in higher end audio the unit will play lossless files, In my testing FLAC files played fine from USB and SD and Apple lossless (ALAC) played fine from an ipod.Source Selection ScreenLike previous Dynavin units the MODE button brings up a source selection screen, large easy to press on-screen buttons display your most used sources for easy selection. You actually don't see these screens much....only when switching sources or getting into the settings menus.Swiping the screen side to side reveals a selection various settings menus and ALL of the potential sources.While the Radio, Phone, and Navigation buttons are fixed on the home screen the other two are selectable so you can put your most used functions there for easy access.BLUTOOTH PHONEDynavin continues to work with Parrot on the bluetooth system, its now cleaner than ever, will display your phonebook, and has a quick alphabetical search function to jump to any letter in the alphabet. As before it works with the phone buttons on your steering wheel. There is a built in mic AND an external mic, as before I recommend using the external mic as it allows you to experiment with its location for best results.BLUETOOTH AUDIO STREAMING (A2DP)This is another big step forward, the Bluetooth audio streaming quality is now as good as plugging in, It connects pretty much immediately and works with apps like pandora, stitcher, etc... in addition to your standard media apps. In addition track info is now displayed on the screen:The steering wheel control buttons work as well, including in apps like pandora. I find that this is now my go-to choice as a music source.RADIO, CD, DVD etc...The radio is what you would expect, 15 presets, RDS, Pretty standard stuff here. Settings for different regions etc...The unit plays CDs, DVDs, etc.... same as before.NAVIGATIONAs with previous dynavin units we are able to offer our units with pre-installed, licensed iGo Primo on our Dynavin units. This program has long been a favorite of the "hacker community" and I know some of our competitors are pirating it but Im glad to say we can offer it to everybody in a legit legal way. The licenses are not cheap but we include Primo with all of our Dynavin units. This also greatly simplifies things like future map updates etc... as iGo is well established and has an easy upgrade path available via their website www.naviextras.comIts clean and intuitive, easy to quickly search and enter addresses, all the maps are already on board so no internet connection is needed.The new N6 unit has an option to overlay the current media info over the nav screen, displaying track info and album artA few more iGo Primo Screens...Main MenuMain Map screenREVERSE FUNCTIONSAs always the new Dynavin N6 will work with a reverse camera, but dynavin continues to refine this function to work with PDC (parking sensors, if your car has them) and is completely configurable within the settings menu. You can have just a backup camera, PDC, backup cam WITH PDC displayed, or nothing at all.In cars that have canbus connected steering angle sensors the unit can even display parking assist lines that move based on steering angle, this is model dependent and remains to be seen what all cars it will work in....but for those where it does its some cool eye candy:AUDIO FUNCTIONSHere is where some of the biggest changes are.....Dynavin is going after a higher end market and as such has added a lot of good audio features to the new N6. Time alignment, three band bass/mid/treble AND a 5 band EQ with separate sub control, 4 volt RCAs for clean signal transmission to aftermarket amps, and 24bit burr brown D/A converters....you old school audio guys will know what thats about.Most of you guys probably dont know what time alignment is or what to do with it but its probably the single biggest factor affecting sound quality in a car stereo environment, this adjustment allows for you to delay the speakers at the 4 corners of the car independently so that the sound from each reaches your ears as the same time....basically putting YOU in the "sweet spot". Ive been running time alignment of one kind or another for a couple decades now, in my opinion its a MUST HAVE for any higher end system. One thing to keep in mind though is setting this wrong can also make your system sound terrible so its important to at least understand the basic fundamentals of time delay before you jump into this setting. Also keep in mind this is optimizing ONE spot in the car at the detriment to the other seating positions. So if you regularly listen to music with passengers you may not want to use these settings.5 band EQ, self explanatory:LIGHTING AND SCREEN ILLUMINATIONDynavins have always had matching button lighting, not a big deal, but FYI, the buttons match the other buttons in the car and dim with the dash light dimmer. Nice and OEM.Now this next thing may not sound like a big deal at first, but for day to day, real world use....its HUGE. The LCD dimmer can be configured in multiple ways and the dimming amount is fully adjustable. There is now an onboard ambient light sensor as well. SO you can set the unit up to dim when your headlights come on OR when the sensor sees its getting dark, or you can dim it manually. There are pros and cons to each approach and the overall ambient lighting where you are at and your headlight use habits will dictate which setup will work best for you. The adjustable LCD dimmer looks great as it does not just darken the screen as most "dimmers" do, it dims the backlight, so there is no "LCD glow" at night. Between the nicely dimmed screen and the clean white/red on black interface this is the best looking aftermarket unit at night ive ever seenA night pic in my E92,E46 night pic.....ETC...You can set the boot screen to whatever you like. Put it on a SD or USB and select it as your boot screen, real simple. A word about start up.... The N6 has about a 20 second boot time BUT dynavin has done something clever, the unit starts booting when you unlock or open a door.... and it does not fully turn off until about 20 minutes after you shut the car off, it goes into a standby mode. So in regular use, running errands, that sort of thing, you rarely see the boot screen, or if you do its only for a few seconds. I like things clean and OEM so I went with this in my personal car....Dynavin went to an oem style Fakra antenna plug on the unit so that the cars antenna can plug directly into the unit without any adapters. One less thing to install, one less thing to go wrong. For those of you with the old style antenna they provide an adapter.There is still an OBC display but at least on the E46 it doesnt show much at this time....just a couple temps:On my E92 there is a lot more, Im assuming this is a canbus/ibus difference thing, I guess it just depends on the particular model:Finally, a word about updates. Dynavin is really pushing the "DynOS" thing on these units. They have built into the unit (and their new website) an easy update path so that as they develop and activate new features it will be easy to update the units. The current units are running DynOS 1.0.0. so its clear that they intend the current unit to be "generation one" for their software. Its fairly finished as is, but I guess they have things in the pipeline.I was skeptical of this approach as marketing this as a feature obligates you to use it but Dynavin assures me they have plans in this regard and they have given me a few details about things they are working on. Dont expect huge, earth shattering, changes. But just know that there are further refinements and a few interesting features in the works and as time goes on these will be easy to apply to existing units.Finished look: Edited November 1, 2014 by SWAUTOMOTIVE 1 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
francoisv 466 Report post Posted November 25, 2014 These are a great unit, I have their ZR model for my 5 Series project, mind you it didn't come with the iPod rear interface cable so im also using the front USB. Looks good in the '46... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Arma 134 Report post Posted November 25, 2014 Pretty keen to get this in my e39 :-o Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
francoisv 466 Report post Posted November 25, 2014 Pretty keen to get this in my e39 :-o haha do it. You wont be disappointed. Im loving the full iPhone Bluetooth integration, especially through the iBus and steering wheel. 1 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Arma 134 Report post Posted November 25, 2014 haha do it. You wont be disappointed. Im loving the full iPhone Bluetooth integration, especially through the iBus and steering wheel. I'll be giving AG a visit Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
sugarfree 5 Report post Posted December 16, 2014 Looks very nice. I'm still confused with all this aftermarket headunits. What will happen with the OBC setting? Such as the fuel consumptions & travel distance? What about the aux ventilation that I found handy on a hot day? Whe you remove the stock HU, does it mean that you remove the device to control them? Shed me some light if you will. Thanks, W Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
francoisv 466 Report post Posted December 16, 2014 Looks very nice. I'm still confused with all this aftermarket headunits. What will happen with the OBC setting? Such as the fuel consumptions & travel distance? What about the aux ventilation that I found handy on a hot day? Whe you remove the stock HU, does it mean that you remove the device to control them? Shed me some light if you will. Thanks, W From what ive tested, allot of these settings and out put reading run through the iBus / kBus on these cars. My unit has a menu option to collect those readings, and its only connected through the Purple iBus wire. It may also depend on the model of the car I guess.. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
hotwire 352 Report post Posted December 17, 2014 Purple iBus wire - nup. iBus is white/grey/yellow. Purple/white is acc Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
francoisv 466 Report post Posted December 17, 2014 Purple iBus wire - nup. iBus is white/grey/yellow. Purple/white is acc Not in my E39. It's purple, it's intergrated into my steering wheel and head unit. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
hotwire 352 Report post Posted December 17, 2014 I am talking of E39 included. Wire colour I stated above is ibus. To be honest though - I haven't traced the ibus wire into the steering wheel. That said, hard to imagine it changing colour through the car. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
francoisv 466 Report post Posted December 17, 2014 I am talking of E39 included. Wire colour I stated above is ibus. To be honest though - I haven't traced the ibus wire into the steering wheel. That said, hard to imagine it changing colour through the car. Actually you are right. I've just checked again, there is a small black distribution box under the heater blower unit in the dash board. The White/grey/yellow wires connects into one side and come out the other, there is also 3 purple (velvet) wires coming out of the same unit. Now 2 of these run to the front of the dashboard (steering wheel and old head unit) then the other purple disappears to the left side of the car with the audio wires and the other white/grey/yellow goes down the right. Looks to be some piggy back system or something. Purple/white is add as you said Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
58rabbit 0 Report post Posted January 17, 2015 sorry guys if this seems a bit "duh" but this unit will fit my 2001 E39?? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
FRT 144 Report post Posted May 8, 2015 Do these units hook into the multi function steering wheel on an e46? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Neal 509 Report post Posted May 8, 2015 says in the burlb buttons will work including some apps when iPhones is connected. This unit does connect to Ibus so no reason why they wouldn't have mapped the codes. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
MattA 162 Report post Posted May 11, 2015 Works with steering wheel in E46. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Herbmiester 909 Report post Posted May 11, 2015 My e46 has the business radio where the Ac vent control is where the bottom half of the N6 would be. Will the N6 allow me to control these functions? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
hotwire 352 Report post Posted May 11, 2015 ^^^^ Think you will find you need to relocate the AC controls to the alternative lower position as when it has an OEM monitor Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Lemieux_66 1 Report post Posted June 15, 2015 Just installed mine into my E90 on the weekend ******* love it! The GPS and touch screen are quick to respond, the bluetooth music and phone works well and the OBD app is awesome (I had just replaced a faulty water pump/thermostat so this function helps monitor the different temps). Hardest part was running the microphone and the navigation antennas down the A pillar and behind the glovebox. That took me about 2 hrs of twisting my hand behind the glovebox while wiggling the cord up and down to see if I could grab it, but finally got it after I took a break to relax a bit The rest of it was done in maybe 15-20 mins. I purchased it from Autogravity, but will probably get them to install a reverse camera for me. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
tobester 9 Report post Posted July 18, 2015 I'm interested in an N6 E46. Will need a Climate Control relocation. PM me with pricing? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
