I had the Sirius installation done this morning at the local custom stereo shop. I opted for the Kenwood tuner, because of the promised integration with the BMW DSP sound system using the Soundgate interfaces.
Here are my initial impressions (based on 30 minutes of use).
Pros:
The Sirius "stream" (channel) numbers appear in the Nav display, no separate, aftermarket display is needed.
Channels are changed just like changing a CD track, either from the steering wheel or the console.
The interior is completely untouched, because the whole installation is in the trunk (except the antenna). No holes are cut anywhere in the interior.
Reception was terrific, at least until I pulled into the covered parking lot. I had the antenna trunk mounted, because they said mounting the antenna on the parcel shelf fails about 50% of the time due to poor signal reception. The rear window contains an embedded antenna for the earthbound radio.
No commercials and a lot of channel choices.
Cons:
It was far more expensive than I envisioned. The bill came to about USD $1200, and only $150 of that was installation. The two Soundgate interfaces together cost about $500. Plus, I ended up needing a new Kenwood CD changer to support the installation.
Launching the Sirius radio function from the screen display is a bit complex. You start in CD mode. Press the Select button to bring up the CD functions, including Random play. Scroll to Random, press the select dial and hold it. The CD will indicate Disk 0 (it normally only shows 1 to 6). That, along with hearing the Sirius stream, indicates you are in the Sirius radio function.
The display integration is sort of a jury-rigged. Reading the channel numbers requires some interpretation. For example, Disk 0 Track 11 would be interpreted as Sirius Stream 11. But if you increase above Disk 0 Track 99, the display converts to Disk 1. So Disk 1 Track 04 would be stream 104.
You don't get any other data about the stream, only the stream number. No song or artist information. No stream name.
Parts used for my installation (2001 E39 M5, DSP, M-Audio, Phone and Voice Response):
Kenwood Sirius tuner
Soundgate KBMWSIR interface to Kenwood tuner
Soundgate BMWDSP interface to DSP system
Device to step voltage down from 12 to 9 volts for the Soundgate units
Satellite antenna
Device to convert the antenna to the Sirius satellite frequency
I don't know why the Soundgate units cannot be installed directly to the 12 volt car system -- but the documentation says you void your warranty unless they are connected to 9 volts. Seems like Soundgate could deal with the step-down in the interface unit itself.
Even though the antenna was marked with the Sirius logo (it otherwise looks like the Terk roof mount antennas for XM), the installer told me that it is an XM antenna. He had to attach a frequency converter so the antenna would receive the Sirius signal.
Part you may require if you have a BMW Phone:
Kenwood CD Changer
This was a big surprise to me and the installer. The port into which the Soundgate DSP adapter would normally attach to the DSP system was occupied by my BMW CPT 8000 phone transponder. The installer called Kenwood and Soundgate. They said you cannot "Daisy Chain" (attach in series) the phone and Soundgate interfaces, nor can you use a "Y" adapter. Solution, the Kenwood CD changer has two ports -- allowing you to plug in both the phone and the Soundgate interface.
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Jim 2001 ///M5 Royal Red / Caramel
I can't tell you how happy your post makes me. I miss having Sirius in the M5, as I have been spoiled by it in my C5. I am going to follow your lead, except I might want to go with an external display for the track information.
Good question. I have not had a chance to play with the preset buttons to see if they will support a "stream memory" feature for the Sirius installation. As a matter of fact, I don't even know if the system will remember the last stream I was using when I turned off the car.
The installation generally mimics the CD function. In that function, the 6 preset buttons correspond to the CD disks 1-6. I don't know how they will work in this Sirius configuation. The buttons may let you skip to the next century of stations (100, 200) but nothing more.
You are right that changing stations one by one is a bit cumbersome when there are 100 stations.
I'll report back when I get more experience with the system.
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Jim 2001 ///M5 Royal Red / Caramel
If I shut off the car while in Sirius mode, the car recalls only that I was in normal CD mode. This happens immediately on shutting down the car, the car does not have to go into sleep mode.
The 1-6 buttons (preset stations in the radio mode) do not function as memory presets in the Sirius mode. In fact, pressing one takes you out of the "Random" function that is necessary for the Sirius mode and puts you back into normal CD mode.
Changing streams (channels) requires you to go through each channel one at a time.
You cannot toggle the stereo modes and return directly to Sirius mode. If I change to AM/FM or press the Mode button, and then try to resume listening to Sirius, the system instead goes to the normal CD mode.
Every time I want to listen to Sirius, I have to press the Select button, scroll to Random and and hold down the select dial for a few seconds to return to Sirius.
There seems to be a very, very high pitch continuous noise coming from the speakers. I will ask the installer to remedy that.
Pros
The car remembers the Sirius channel I was listening to when I finally resume the Sirius function.
You can quickly scroll through the streams by holding down the channel selection button on the steering wheel (arrow).
The satellite radio auto mutes for the phone and VR functions.
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Jim 2001 ///M5 Royal Red / Caramel
Not having presets for the 180+ stations would drive me nuts after a while. For example, CC is atorund 120ish, and planet jazz is 62. I have all 18 presets filled on my Kenwood equipped Corvette.
I wonder if an external control module could be used for tuning/display, while still retaining the muting functions and steering wheel controls?
This is a bit upsetting. Last week, I called the folks at Soundgate with some questions about this very setup. The guy I spoke with on the phone told me that the Sirius module would provide total integration, including the artist and title information. Upon hearing this, I placed an order for the components directly through them.
After reading your post, I think I'll be sending the package back the day it arrives. This seems like a hack job to me.
Originally posted by Bukes This is a bit upsetting. Last week, I called the folks at Soundgate with some questions about this very setup. The guy I spoke with on the phone told me that the Sirius module would provide total integration, including the artist and title information. Upon hearing this, I placed an order for the components directly through them.
After reading your post, I think I'll be sending the package back the day it arrives. This seems like a hack job to me.
When will the OEM kits be availiable?
Bukes
My understanding is that there will not be any OEM kits. BMW is simply not making Sirius backward compatible.
I sent a note to SoundGate about this limited integration. I will post their response.
I was also expecting better integration, based on my conversations with the SoundGate representative. I spoke to the Soundgate representative, who suggested that I order the Kenwood tuner because it provided the best integration.
If you get any information from SoundGate on this integration point, please post it.
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Jim 2001 ///M5 Royal Red / Caramel
Here is the reply I got from SoundGate's Sales Coordinator:
Quote:
Hello Jim, it sounds to me like you have the Surius up and working just like it is supposed so. All of the points you make are good ones and all make complete sense. I will see if I can take them one at a time.
The first thing that I believe you mentioned is that entering the Sirius mode is a bit complex because you have to set the radio into the CD mode and then hold the random button to access the Sirius. While this sequence of a couple of button presses seems like to much it is actually the easiest way to access the Sirius input given the limited number of buttons on the radio.
The channel number is the only display available right now and we are working on getting a little more text display out of the 5 series radio's in future versions of the part that may come out in years to come, but for right now we all have to deal with the limitation that the BMW radio was designed to show a single disc number and a dual track number, that makes three characters total that we need to use. So disc 1 and track 34 is channel 134 on the Sirius radio. Not to complicated again but I give you
that it takes some getting used to. The display from the factory changer was only designed to give you digit display so converting it to give you the "stream name" or song and artist information can't be done from the changer port like the changer because it doesn't know that type of information exists. Now like I said earlier we are working on funneling the tuner display for characters to the changer port to give us maybe artist information but it takes a lot of work and may or may not happen still.
Again limitations of the factory head unit in the BMW.
I think the next thing was that when you turn off your car that the radio will only see the cd mode and you have to press the random button again to access the Sirius. This is kind of like a train switching station, because our interface is a CD changer interface with Sirius capabilities the unit always defaults to the cd changer mode. You have to access the Sirius when you want to use it each and every time. The train has switching rails also that stay in a default run until you manually trip them to use them and then they go back to the default order. That is because the radio doesn't understand what Sirius is but it does understand CD.
Toggling between two favorite stations is not something I am aware of that the Sirius has the capability to do in any other manner than with the six preset button and only from the Sirius head unit that controls the tuner box. As far as I am aware even the FM modulated system doesn't have the ability to select your favorite stations, I may be wrong so don't hold me to that, but the test units that we have seen and used didn't have any way to set any favorite stations. Now while I agree that having the ability to set your favorite stations in memory would be awesome and even optimal, there is no memory available to do that with. The cd functions of the radio don't allow you to set your favorite tracks on the cd and this is basically the same operation so there is no way to hold in memory the favorite six stations. Again a limitation of the factory radio.
As for the station skipping on the radio if you press the disc up or down buttons they will move one station up at a time, but if you press the station up or down button and hold it for a second then the stations will skip up or down by 10's. This also is something that the factory Sirius head unit controllers will do. The Kenwood head and Tuner test we had it we pressed the track up button then the station would skip one at a time. When we held the button then it would begin to skip faster like 12-22-32-42 and
then you could press the button three times to get to channel 45. Seems a little convoluted but works just like it is supposed to.
When you press the preset buttons it will pull you out of random mode because you are telling the radio you are done listening to random play and want it to direct access the disc number you pressed. That is again a limitation of the factory radio that we are dealing the best we can when interfacing to the after market.
All in all I can understand that you want for all the functions of the BMW radio to work the Sirius radio like they were designed together but in the interfacing world that is not always an option. The fact is that these interfaces are a cd changer interface to add a cd changer to the system that didn't have a changer or to the car instead of the factory changer, usually because of a malfunction, and that has the added ability to control the Sirius radio as well.
I hope I have addressed all of your questions, there is a lot of material here so if confused you or missed something and you would like to talk about it feel free to give me a call on our toll free number at 888-760-4707 and I can try to clear things up a little better. Thanks.
Chester Weddle
Sales Coordinator
307-674-4707
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Jim 2001 ///M5 Royal Red / Caramel
Sirius Satellite Radio Installation
/ Caramel
Linear Mode
