Hi all,

 

Just a few notes regarding my install, in case anybody wants to do a similar thing:

 

1 - The OEM nav system (PCM1 16bit) has the same antenna plug/socket as the Clarion, meaning this was a direct plug and play deal. Saved me a load of work;

 

2 - The OEM in-dash microphone may be used with the Clarion, but the factory gain setting must be lowered. To do that, pry the microphone cover out, and on the right side of the speaker housing you will find a little hole with a screw just visible inside. There's a label on top, with 3 positions. Factory setting is 3, reduce it to 2. This way it will work fine with bothe the phone and voice recognition features;

 

3- To bypass the parking brake feature, ground the light green Clarion wire;

 

4 – The VSS wire may be found in two places: black PCM1 plug: grey/pink cable and in the nav/CD drive unit, also grey/pink cable;

 

5 – The OEM microphone cables to tap to reuse it are found in the PCM1 headunit blue plug: brown/white (ground) and white (signal);

 

6 – Remote amplifier turn-on cable is the red/black cable in the PCM1 small yellow plug.

 

7 - This unit has the permanent power and switched power connected à la VW/Audi/Porsche, so no need to switch the yellow with the red power wires.

 

Hope this is useful to someone.

 

Luís

I think I'm in Love.

Very nice install! Are there any cons about the unit?

You said it cost more.How much did it cost and remenber convert it to US dollars.

A few, of course, but not dealbreakers, far from it.

 

- The screen could be a tad brighter, but it is adjustable up to a 30º slope, since the screen is motorised.

 

- There's a hiss you can hear when playing files from the hard drive at very low volumes, although with the car in motion or the volume at normal playing levels it's not noticeable

 

- The principle of having a hard drive instead of an USB interface has its disadvantages but also advantages. And it holds 500 albums!

 

- No line level outputs or digital out, which may prevent the use of some amplifiers/processors. Not in my case, the factory installed Bose actually takes speaker level.

 

- Not available in the US..................

 

The whole thing cost me about 1750 euros, including Bluetooth box and iPOD cable. I think that's about 2200 US$ or so.

 

In order to build a similar system in the US, you need MAX685BT + NAX980HD. Main difference is the lack of a hard drive but it does have USB support.

 

See: http://www.clarion.com/us/en/products/2 ... 77897.html

 

and

 

http://www.clarion.com/us/en/products/2 ... 78067.html

 

 

All in all, I'm very, very happy with it: it does everything it promises very well, and I've seen absolutely no bugs, no strange behaviour whatsoever. It just works!