Avant 4 vs Xtrons Head unit

[ZiMMie]

If you care about your music you'll be too busy listening.

maw

If you care about music fidelity, you will get a bluebus!

[Dat.E46M3]

I have an Avant 4 and it’s been nothing but problems.

They’ve sent me 3 canbus decoders and my steering wheel controls still don’t work. It’s super hit or miss in terms of connectivity via USB. Wireless Apple CarPlay is nice but it kills the battery quick. The head unit doesn’t provide enough power to keep the phone charged while running Google maps (iPhone 14 Pro) so the phone slowly drains the longer you’re driving even with the phone plugged in.

It recently began skipping during playback and sending static through my speakers. I have 4 open tickets with their tech support and they ghosted me for over a week until I submitted a PayPal claim against my order.

I’m currently trying to swap the unit out with a replacement or get a refund altogether. Tbh I am considering going the traditional 6.8” head unit route with a double din face plate and waving goodbye to these OEM style Chinese head units running Android OS’s. Pioneer, Kenwood, Alpine, etc…something quality and low frills that will connect to CarPlay and bring the Bavsound speakers to life.

If you have one of these and it works, I’m sure it’s the best thing ever. If you are part of the minority of people that buy one and it sucks, it’s really sucks….


Not to trigger anyone, but this head unit install in this CSL M3 looks super clean. It goes without saying this is a crime against this community to do this to a OEM CSL M3 but objectively speaking the install is super clean and a great finished product if you’re looking to 2023 your head unit setup.

Skip to 14.04 to see fit and finish.

Looks pretty good to me! I’m not
looking for the oem look only. It would be nice to some of the good brands to come out with the oem look. But they are not. I’m looking for something with good quality, a nice rich colorful screen, and obviously a good looking head unit, that doesn’t look horrible on the dash like An IPad installed lol. These head units, ( Avant, Xtrons, Dynavin) have so many bad reviews, the only thing I see that’s is good about them, and why people buy them, is to have the OEM look, low price, and CarPlay. Makes since. Not everyone wants to pay too much money to listen to music. I didn’t know anything about them, until I posted here. Searching a lot, to not make a mistake.
I already switched everything to bavsound speakers.
head unit is next!

[maw1124]

On this, the first Dynavin I had (D99 back in 2012) was objectively horrible.

They've significantly upgraded the guts since then (4v pre-outs, Burr Brown internals, etc). I've not seen many complaints about the N7 Pro (other than "buttons"), and compared to the Alpines in other cars with comparable amps and speakers, it's just fine and the easy install doesn't butcher the interior of the car (if you care). No noticeable difference in sound quality to me.

But yeah, the first one (which most here know about) was trash.

maw

[discoelk]

This feels as good a place as any to ask this.

Can you turn off the display on the xtrons units while music is streaming? I like the look of the wide display versions but generally find non-OE screens distracting at night.

[GreyM340i]

Purchased the car with a Dynavin 6 and then upgraded to the Xtrons and after 4 months sold it for the new Sony. Better pre-outs, wireless CarPlay and overall higher quality. Definitely not OEM look however very easy for someone to go back to the stock setup.

[AWE46M3]

Purchased the car with a Dynavin 6 and then upgraded to the Xtrons and after 4 months sold it for the new Sony. Better pre-outs, wireless CarPlay and overall higher quality. Definitely not OEM look however very easy for someone to go back to the stock setup.

Looks amazing man! Would you mind sharing your build? Want to check your head units specs + purchase the double din cover and double din carrier/bracket that bolts up to the dash. Seeing a lot of chinesium on Amazon and EBay and want to buy something tried and true. I like how your double din doesn’t have that hood on it across the top. Thanks in advance 🤝

[GreyM340i]

Looks amazing man! Would you mind sharing your build? Want to check your head units specs + purchase the double din cover and double din carrier/bracket that bolts up to the dash. Seeing a lot of chinesium on Amazon and EBay and want to buy something tried and true. I like how your double din doesn’t have that hood on it across the top. Thanks in advance 🤝

Sure, I purchased the new Sony XAV-AX6000 shallow double din from Crutchfield below. Then for the dash kit I purchased two and created my own. First was the kit and harnesses from Enfig for the mount behind the screen and then the faceplate from Scosche because I liked the non hooded faceplate and they make high quality items.

The rest of the system upgrades include the Bavsound speakers, Match UP7BMW Plug & Play amplifier upgrade, and finally a Audison 10” powered subwoofer.


Sony Double Din https://www.crutchfield.com/S-OcYj1S...AV-AX6000.html

Dash Kit and Harnesses https://shop.enfigcarstereo.com/bmw-...acement-parts/

Clean Good Quality Faceplate https://www.scosche.com/bw2377ddb

[AWE46M3]

Sure, I purchased the new Sony XAV-AX6000 shallow double din from Crutchfield below. Then for the dash kit I purchased two and created my own. First was the kit and harnesses from Enfig for the mount behind the screen and then the faceplate from Scosche because I liked the non hooded faceplate and they make high quality items.

Sony Double Din https://www.crutchfield.com/S-OcYj1S...AV-AX6000.html

Dash Kit and Harnesses https://shop.enfigcarstereo.com/bmw-...acement-parts/

Clean Good Quality Faceplate https://www.scosche.com/bw2377ddb

YOU’RE THE MAN!! Thank you so much 🤝🙏🏽

[GreyM340i]

YOU’RE THE MAN!! Thank you so much 🤝🙏🏽

If you do end up buying that head unit make sure to update to the latest firmware from December 2022. It fixes the CarPlay connectivity issues it had when they first released it.

[Amos]

I have an older Xtron and it is what it is. A cheap Chinese Android headunit. It mostly works. I like that it accepts a high def back up camera, works with my steering wheel controls and the sound quality is actually better than my stock Nav/CD changer was.

For cons, it is a bit laggy nowadays, sometimes it reboots randomly, the GPS takes like 10 minutes to get signal on a cold start sometimes, it doesn't do split screen apps and doesn't have wireless Android Auto

I will probably get a newer Android head unit soon, I won't exclude Xtrons from the list but I am not in love with it either.

[Icecream]

I have an Avant 4 and it’s been nothing but problems.

...

Not to trigger anyone, but this head unit install in this CSL M3 looks super clean. It goes without saying this is a crime against this community to do this to a OEM CSL M3 but objectively speaking the install is super clean and a great finished product if you’re looking to 2023 your head unit setup.

Skip to 14.04 to see fit and finish.

This is the route I am thinking of. I really dislike non-eom looking stuff so I went with Avant 4. Was always buggy but eventually it worked well enough to forget about in spite of the poor sound quality. Car sat a year while I rebuilt the engine and now it just goes into infinite boot mode after crashing multiple times. So, if I can't get it to boot, I'm either doing something like you posted or just finding a really good condition, non-nav oem radio, rig up aux in with bluetooth and call it a day.

[GreyM340i]

This is the route I am thinking of. I really dislike non-eom looking stuff so I went with Avant 4. Was always buggy but eventually it worked well enough to forget about in spite of the poor sound quality. Car sat a year while I rebuilt the engine and now it just goes into infinite boot mode after crashing multiple times. So, if I can't get it to boot, I'm either doing something like you posted or just finding a really good condition, non-nav oem radio, rig up aux in with bluetooth and call it a day.

Go with a good quality head unit. These android units are not great. Nothing is permanent so if you sell it or change your mind you can return it to stock. However in the meantime enjoy the car.

[maw1124]

Go with a good quality head unit. These android units are not great. Nothing is permanent so if you sell it or change your mind you can return it to stock. However in the meantime enjoy the car.

+1… over the years (the last 15 or so) I’ve gone from “keep it OEM and add an amp and speakers” to “keep it OEM looking” to “just don’t ruin the interior” and that’s for one main reason — technology. Specifically phones and navigation. It no longer makes sense to have an indash Nav unit — phones are better. The secondary reason is sound quality — aftermarket head units have come a LONG way in this area.

When my last Dynavin died, I just instinctively put in a new one because (1) it’s better; (2) it was Covid; and (3) I didn’t want to bother with a rewire (simply pull one out, put the other one in + Jeff gave me a good deal because I was never happy with the first one). I’m pleased with the results.

I had the same thing with an Alpine in a collector car I had rewired (just put in a new one, no more wiring). Point is, once you do the wiring for aftermarket (the plumbing), it’s done. Permanently. The future is backwards compatible.

Next time with this car might be different — all I need is 4 high sound quality RCA outs + subwoofer line outs. And most importantly “don’t ruin the interior.” At this point I can probably get away with an old school Macintosh preamp in the dash and run all the equalization through the amps and a phone app.

maw

[0-60motorsports]

Anyone know which cable we need to get from XTRONS for cars with HK and Nav from factoy?

https://xtrons.com/bmw-e38-e39-e46-e53-extension-cable-exl005

https://xtrons.com/extension-cable-exl007

[karter16]

Anyone know which cable we need to get from XTRONS for cars with HK and Nav from factoy?

https://xtrons.com/bmw-e38-e39-e46-e53-extension-cable-exl005

https://xtrons.com/extension-cable-exl007

I believe you can use either exl005 or exl007, but for HK audio believe you need one of these as well https://connects2.com/Product/ProductItem/CT53-BM01

(Note I have not personally done this)


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